Leviticus: Holy Creator and Loving Papa

Today's reading is from Leviticus 10, 1 through 7.

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censor and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.

And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord has said.

Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.

And Aaron held his peace.

And Moses called Mishel and El Zaphan, the sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, Come near, carry your brothers away from the front of the sanctuary and out of the camp.

So they came near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said.

And Moses said to Aaron and to Eliezer, and Ithamar his sons, Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes lest you die, and wrath come upon all the congregation.

But let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the Lord has kindled, and do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting lest you die, for the anointing of the Lord is upon you.

And they did according to the word of Moses.

So we're studying this Old Testament book of Leviticus.

We're in Leviticus 10 this morning.

Like I said, the two young men are dead.

And then in verse 6, their dad is told, Yeah, you lost your sons, and by the way, um you're not even allowed to grieve.

Uh I uh, you know, open this passage on Monday morning, and it's you know, it's not like, oh, what a week of study.

Like let's uh let's dig into this one.

This is really the one I want to deliver to the church.

Uh so I have to kind of like press pause on like me reacting to the story because I can just react and be like, and this is why I just don't read these stories.

Or maybe for you, it's like, and this is why I don't read the Bible.

Like maybe that's the conclusion you've come to.

If we can just press pause on that reaction, just for 20 minutes, just press pause on it and just ask, why is this story here in the first place?

Like, why would you why would anybody put this in the Bible?

Like, why is it here?

Um where is our God of love and mercy in a story like this?

Because this just feels brutal and it feels like it's lacking compassion.

Well, let's start with King Charles of England.

King Charles, he waited his turn.

He feels like his mama held on there uh for about half of the like, you know, thousand years of monarchy that England has had.

Uh the king has always had power and wealth and influence.

And so I went and I researched for us, in case we ever meet him when that big day comes for you, uh, how you will greet him.

What you will do is you will walk into his presence.

So we walk in front of the king, men, we will walk and we will bow our head, just from the neck, okay?

Don't get, you know, don't try to impress him, just just from the head.

And ladies, you will curts just a small little curtsy, just a little, just a little curtsy, okay?

And we will always call him your majesty.

And we will always use sir.

And we defer to him.

The full conversation is deferred to him for him to steer the conversation, and we defer to him for him to end the conversation.

When he wants to end the conversation, it's over.

He gets to end it.

We don't get to end it.

And what is really, really clear in this is you are not in charge.

Right?

You're not.

You are not the power.

That's over.

They, he is the power.

So we would never walk up to King Charles, what's up, Charlie?

Like we would never, right?

Like never be like, no, like what never.

And the point is of the passage in this little illustration, point number one is this ultimate power and position demand our utmost respect and reverence.

Verse 1 says that these guys, these young guys, offered unauthorized fire and their censors.

A censer, here's a picture of a censer.

That's a censer.

They would put fire in it, some coals, some incense, and they would swing it as they come into the temple, and that would create smoke and fragrance.

We don't know exactly why the fire is unauthorized.

The passage doesn't say it, but they did something, some break of the rules, something that we we're not quite sure.

But what we do know is that these two guys, uh, they do not treat the holiness of God with reverence.

And they're burned up.

They die.

But that's not the full story.

That's the story, but it's not the full story.

We may wrestle with that story, but this story exists to take us somewhere else.

Point number two is this God is the source and sustainer of all that is good and right.

He is the source and sustainer of all that is good and right.

A few weeks ago on spring break, I was at the beach with my family, and we got there, and the first evening we went down to where the pool was, and we were eating like a little dinner over kind of back behind the pool, over to the side, and then there was a pool, and there's some adults in the pool, and then there was a bar over to the left, and there was like a big lawn area, and there's some families out on the lawn.

And so we're eating this lovely little dinner.

We just got there, and I noticed there's two kind of younger guys, hopefully they're 21, over at the bar.

They didn't, you know, it's like you're really stretching it here, guys.

Uh they're over there, and they're they've they're having and have had a good time, and that's apparent.

And I did notice one of them leaves that bar area, walks over to the lawn area where the families are.

And I'll go back to the little dinner.

All I know is all of a sudden, one of the old guys in the pool is screaming.

Get out of here, you're out of here, you'll never come back here.

You're and he is out of the pool, he is charging toward this young guy.

At the same time, there's a young dad over in that little family group.

He's moving, he's yelling at this young guy, 21, you know, he's yelling at this guy.

I'm not quite sure at this point what's happened, but I'm like, let's go, what's going on?

What is what's going on?

I'll come over, see what's going on.

And they yell this young guy out of the entire, they yell him back to his house.

Is what they do.

Get him out of there.

Because he had left the bar area, gone over to the lawn area, and he had just relieved himself.

I actually have a picture.

No, I don't.

I don't picture.

No picture.

Just relax.

So two dads are near, two dads are near, and all the good in them responds.

Because all the good in those two dads demanded to get rid of inappropriateness.

In the Old Testament, just hold on to that.

In the Old Testament, Isaiah has a vision of God and exclaims, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Triple repetition.

Very rare in the scriptures, it's kind of triple repetition.

It's God saying, I am really, really, really holy.

The triple repetition is a literary device to stretch our imaginations of how pure God is.

He is utterly otherly.

Holiness is from the Hebrew word kadosh, meaning cut off or separate from everything else.

Also meaning entirely morally pure all the time, in all ways.

Author Paul Tripp explains it this way.

This was very helpful to me this week.

God is holy in every attribute and every action.

He is holy in justice, he is holy in love, he is holy in mercy, he is holy in power, he is holy in sovereignty, he is holy in wisdom, he is holy in patience, he is holy in anger, he is holy in grace, he is holy in faithfulness, he is holy in compassion.

So holy compassion is not at odds with holy anger, not in God.

We don't do those things well together.

But in God, holy compassion and holy anger, He's holy.

Now, what we do understand is a good person, if they do something bad, they're not fully good.

I love how theologian Frederick Brunner brings this together for us.

I've read this before.

It helps me when I think about this wrath of God.

The wrath of God is not the irritability of God, it is the love of God in friction with injustice.

See, his holy justice is coming out.

But it's not it's the love of God in friction with injustice.

It is the warm, steady, but absolutely fair grace of God in collision with manifest selfishness.

All the good in him demands him.

Last week we looked at two images of fire, if you remember these two images.

The reality of fire as consuming and scary.

If you're on a hike, something like this, it all consuming and scary, this kind of fire.

But then the reality of fire can be experienced really differently, right?

Like it can be in a fireplace, and it can be it can be wooing, and that's not my house.

Wouldn't that be great?

Wouldn't that be lovely?

You're like, look at Russ's house.

That's amazing.

Where does he live?

It can be wooing and warm.

I mean, that's about the only thing I like on a night like that, like a cold winter night.

That's the only thing I like about winter, is like, can we nestle in and I'm gonna turn on the gas fireplace with the gas logs, gas log people, raise your hand.

Go ahead.

Now, I know wood, wood people, raise your hand, wood fire people, and all of you think you're better than us.

And you aren't, because we're lazy.

But we enjoy our fire like five times a day.

This is a little bit like holiness.

Uh fire is, because fire can be consuming and scary or wooing and warm, and holiness can be consuming and scary, or it can be wooing and warm.

So, but what does the holiness of God mean for us?

How could it possibly benefit us?

Well, first off, by faith in Jesus there's no condemnation, and then in Jesus, holiness begins to benefit us.

Here's what I mean: point number three.

Our holiness is not our own record.

Our holiness is Christ's record for us.

1 Corinthians 1 30.

This is the new living translation.

God has united you with Christ Jesus.

For our benefit, God made him to be wisdom itself.

Christ made us right with God.

He made us pure and holy.

Jesus made you pure and holy.

And he freed us from sin.

The world's way and the religion's way for holiness is your record.

These two boys doing everything perfectly every time.

How well you perform.

But God's source of holiness for you and the new covenant of grace is Jesus.

Christ in you for you.

That's where the Leviticus story takes us.

Christ is our holiness, and the holiness of Christ in us empowers a life of holiness coming out of us.

Leviticus 10, 8 through 11.

And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die.

It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.

You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean.

Then you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.

Last point, point number four, is this the demand of God's holiness always drives us to our need of his grace.

Aaron is left without his sons, and yet God speaks to him.

God doesn't dismiss Aaron also.

God stays with him.

God restores Aaron back to his calling.

Total dedication as a priest.

Total dedication.

Which there's one really big problem with that.

And that is that Aaron cannot do that perfectly.

Just like his boys.

They were not perfect.

Sooner or later, the word of holiness breaks all of us.

The word of holiness always drives us to the word of grace.

And we need both.

We need both.

Our need takes us to Jesus.

Remember, Hebrews is like the New Testament commentary on the book of Leviticus.

Hebrews 10, 4, and 5, and also verses 9 and 10 say this for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world.

Now what does Jesus do?

Verse 9.

He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Now in the Old Testament, the general address of God was Yahweh.

In the Old Testament, Jewish people had such reverence for God in this name of Yahweh, they wouldn't even speak it.

That's the amount of reverence.

I mean, you can imagine if you knew Leviticus 10, the application coming out of that is just like do anything, right?

To be as reverent as possible.

Don't risk your face being burned off, right?

Like we're going to be reverent people.

So they didn't even like to speak his name.

And then you can imagine Jesus comes along, and like in the Garden of Gethsemane, Mark 14, 36, Jesus prays Abba Father.

Like tinder, Papa, Heavenly Father.

He prays, all things are possible for you.

Remove this cup from me, because he's headed toward the cross.

But that term Abba Father, you can see how the Jews who do the Leviticus type stories, they would say, Jesus, you're a heretic.

Like you're gonna get your face burned off, Jesus.

Like that's what's this is your future.

Like, how dare you speak of God like this?

God is a loving Papa.

So we need this Old Testament.

And we need it to drive us and take us to the New Testament.

It is one story.

One story.

The first covenant of law, which we learn in the Old Testament, which takes us to the new covenant of grace, which we learned mainly in the New Testament.

So let's read back Hebrews 10, 9, and 10 again.

Hear it.

He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The Leviticus story is strange, but it's a really strange story.

But it's leading us somewhere else.

We need a holy creator who would love us like a tender papa.

The term Abba Father, the Greek worder is the word father.

Father is used for God 15 times in the Old Testament.

That term for father, that term father is used for God 245 times in the New Testament.

I mean, did you see how the Bible is leading us somewhere?

One story.

And then this term Abba is the most intimate way to relate to God like a child, like a child to their papa.

We have a holy creator who relates to us like a tender papa.

Last week after service, after worship service, I was talking to Richard and Lindsay.

They have this little girl, Hillier, and Hillier is this cute, the cutest little thing.

She's got these little brown curls that are curled up.

And so I'm talking to Richard and Lindsay, and Hillier's kind of running around down there, and she's kind of like circling her parrot's legs, and she's smiling and giggling.

And a couple times I kind of, you know, I smile at her and give her a little way.

Like I'm kind of like warming up, right?

Like I'm warming up, talking to them, warming up.

And I think at one point I think, like, okay, she'll I'm I can't resist anymore.

Like I'm gonna I'm gonna hold her.

Like I'm gonna hold her.

And we know each other enough, it's not too weird here.

And so it'd be weird for some of y'all.

He's like, why is he taking my child?

This is strange.

So Lindsay's holding her, and I I'm like, hey, hill, you're and and like she's giggling, oh she's so oh she's so cute.

And so I I go to take her, and I can see it about halfway across, is like, oh, this is not gonna go well.

Like this is, and all the smiles and giggles, it goes to absolute terror.

But I'm like, I'm a dad.

Like I'm a dad of three girls.

Like I can I can do this.

And so I'm like, I'm gonna toss her a few times.

That's really gonna win her, you know.

When a strange man takes you from your mother, the next thing you want is for him to throw you in the air.

So I throw her a few times, you know, and it's just terror, just terror, and then it's like tears are about to come, and it's like, I've I've lost, this is not a winnable situation.

And so she's about to flip out into all out crying.

As I hand her back to Richard and like that, she's completely fine.

Right?

Because he's her papa.

She has just like this little trust in her dad.

Full trust.

And then she's also gonna learn over time that there's so much more to her dad.

Like she's gonna come into like an intelligent understanding of her father.

And that's the fullness of this address, Abba Father.

Abba is like childlike trust, like little Hillier trusting her papa.

And then father is the name that means intelligent comprehension.

And it's why we study Leviticus.

That we can understand the holy character of God, that he is holy in all things.

And he's a tender father.

So that our faith, our faith is childlike trust with intelligent comprehension.

And what we learn is we learn that the Abba is holy, the tender Papa is holy.

An ultimate power and position demands our utmost respect and reverence.

And this strange Leviticus story takes us to Jesus, the holy one, who he becomes the sacrifice for us.

Our sin is put upon him, our imperfection is upon him, all our inability to hold all the rules perfectly is put upon him.

And his record and his performance and his righteousness is put upon us.

So the holiness of God is fully met.

And what we have in our relationship with God is a walk of grace.

That we are already holy and we're still becoming holy.

So we live not by law but by grace.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you do not leave us alone in Leviticus under the law.

But that your law is holy, you are holy, your demands are right and pure, and while we are imperfect to even live up to our own standards, that your grace is enough for us.

And that your new covenant of grace is sufficient more than enough.

And that Jesus on the cross is our sacrifice and his righteousness is ours.

But we trust all the more in Jesus and what our lives honor him in Christ's name.

Amen.