From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

The fires of our worship must be kindled by God, not the world.

In our last article I drew our attention to the fact that large numbers of today's nominally Evangelical pastors and church leaders choose to ignore the great principle of worship that God articulates in Leviticus: "By those who come near Me, I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified" (10:3). God's holiness is the great central fact of worship. Any approach to God that does not have this truth always at the forefront is unacceptable in His sight. At the very inception of the worship He instituted at the tabernacle in the wilderness, God demonstrated this most graphically by striking dead two men who dared introduce the unholy, the profane, into worship.

Most postmodern Evangelical pastors and church leaders would gladly ignore Leviticus chapter 10, or explain it away as no more than an artifact of a distant past - if they even believe it to be historical. Granted, in our time God does not normally act so demonstrably against sin in worship. But that is not because His standard has changed. It is because His people have His complete written Word in their hands. We have before us His infallible and unchanging standard in worship and and all things, in written form. If God struck down Nadab and Abihu for their failure to heed His verbal instruction given to them through Moses as a vivid demonstration of His displeasure before the entire camp of Israel, how much greater is our responsibility in the constant presence of His written Word? As Jesus Himself said, "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required" (Luke 12:48).

Why Aaron's Sons' Offense Was So Serious

Why was the act of Aaron's sons such a serious one in God's eyes? Why did it require such severe and immediate punishment? We find the answer earlier in the book of Leviticus. At the very inception of the tabernacle worship, at the very first use of the brazen altar on which sacrifice was to be made for sin, God said this to Moses: "A fire shall always be burning on the altar. It shall never go out" (Leviticus 6:13).

Note this carefully: "A fire shall always be burning on the altar. It shall never go out." What was the source of this fire that must never go out? Where did the fire come from? This is a very important question, with a cosmically significant answer. We find the answer to that question in Leviticus chapter nine.

The scene that we find there is the dedication of the tabernacle. Moses had set it up in the wilderness in the center of the great tent city of the Israelites. Moses had dedicated and consecrated Aaron and his sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, as priests of God. The time had now come to offer the first sacrifices on the Brazen Altar.

Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people.

Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. (Leviticus 9:22-24)

The Source of the Fire of True Worship

What was the source of the fire on the altar? More specifically, Who was the source of the fire on the altar? The answer is, God Himself. God sent the fire from His very throne, from the heavenly tabernacle of which the wilderness tabernacle was a type and symbol, and He commanded the priests to keep it burning once it was there. Keep My fire burning, God said. Let there not be a fire on the altar from any other source.

Furthermore, God said elsewhere, when you light the Lamp in the Holy of Holies, and when you burn the incense on the Altar of Incense, carry fire from the Brazen Altar to do it (Leviticus 16:12-13, cf. Exodus 30:8). Let not any other fire be used. The fire that consumes the sacrifice, the fire that lights the lamp, the fire that burns the incense, must be Heavenly fire, not earthly fire.

Dear friends, in our day we must not bring any other fire into the worship and service of our God. There was no light in the Holy Place except the light of the lamp of God. There was no fire on the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place except the fire of God. The worship fires that God ordained and kindled Himself were the fires of sanctified worship, sanctified fellowship, and sanctified service.

When He was about to ascend to Heaven, Jesus instructed His people to wait at Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit. On Pentecost the Spirit did come upon those in the upper room - in the form of tongues of fire, resting upon each of them (Acts 2:4). Thus empowered, the upper room saints sounded forth "the wonderful works of God" in the languages of those from many nations who were gathered at Jerusalem for the feast (2:5-12).

Leviticus chapter ten and Acts chapter two both hold forth the same vital truth: The fires of our worship must be kindled by God, not the world. What did the two disciples on the road to Emmaus say after our risen Lord came and set forth His person and work for them from the Scriptures? They said, "Did not our hearts burn within us, while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32).

God Himself kindled that fire in their hearts. How we need to seek to have that fire of the one true and holy God burning within our hearts, and energizing all of our worship of Him. That fire must keep the lamp of the light of our witness burning. That fire must keep the incense of our prayers ascending. We must not seek to be energized and motivated by the things of this world, but by the things of God in Christ and in His Word, by the power of the Spirit.

A Tragic But Instructive Scene

That is why God was so deadly serious about the source of the fire on the altars of the tabernacle. Immediately after this account in Leviticus chapter 9, we have recorded for us the great sin of Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu:

Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire [literally, foreign fire] before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.

And Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the Lord spoke, saying: 'By those who come near Me, I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified.' "

This is a tragic scene, but a most instructive one. To offer incense mingled with fire that was not God's fire was a most deep and serious offense to the holiness of God. The two altars of God - the Brazen Altar and the Altar of Incense - were linked together by the express command of God.

On the Cross, symbolized by the Brazen Altar, Christ paid the blood-price for our sins. He bore the fires of the wrath of our God who is a consuming fire. At the Altar of Incense in Heaven, the heavenly altar that the tabernacle altar symbolized, the same Christ ever lives to intercede for us. At Calvary, Jesus brought us up out of the mirey clay. He set our feet on solid ground. At the throne of God, He keeps us from falling. He maintains our fellowship and communion with the otherwise unapproachable God of the universe. God's people cannot worship Him acceptably unless their worship is firmly rooted in these great facts.

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