MOTIVES MATTER TO GOD
At the very first worship service in the newly ordained Tabernacle. The Lord was so pleased that He caused His glory to appear to all the people, and sent fire that consumed the offering that Aaron had placed on the altar. The people let out a great shout at this display and fell on their faces before the Lord. It was at this time of appropriate and authentic worship, that Nadab and Abihu drew attention to themselves, by offering their own fiery display. Not only was their activity ill-timed and distracting from God’s glory, it was against the training and instruction they had been given as priests. Their fire was “profane,” not taken from the altar as was prescribed, but lit from their own fire, and placed in their own censer. Their motive for this wrong worship was not revealed, but the Lord’s response is revealing. The same fire that went out from the Lord to consume the offering on the altar, now went out and “devoured” Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron.
Moses had the bodies of Aaron’s two sons removed from the Tabernacle after the Lord had struck them down. But Aaron and his other two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, were told not to leave the sanctuary. For they had been anointed and clothed for the worship of the Lord and had to remain to finish. If they left, they too would die. So Aaron held his peace and he and his two other sons continued their priestly duties.
After a time, Moses inquired of the sin offering that Aaron and his sons were to have eaten in the holy place. When he saw that it was burned up and had not been eaten, he was angry and rebuked Aaron’s sons. But Aaron stepped in and defended their actions. He told Moses that they had done everything just as the Lord instructed concerning the offering, except eat it. For he questioned whether the Lord would really have wanted them to eat on the day that the deaths of his two sons had “befallen” him. He said, “If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord?”
Moses was “content” with this answer. Clearly, the Lord was too, for He had not acted against Aaron and his remaining two sons. The Scripture does not explain why the Lord disciplined Aaron’s two older sons so severely for ad-libbing their own worship, while not responding at all to his two younger sons for failing to do that which was prescribed. Perhaps it was because the Lord saw something in their motives, something in their hearts. The older sons may have been trying to steal some of God’s glory, while the younger sons may have been made absent minded by their grief.
Motives matter to God. Actions matter too, but the heart’s motives precede the hand’s actions. For the “Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).
PRAYER: Dear Father, we want to worship You wholeheartedly. Yet, our hearts must be purified by Your Spirit. Help us to offer our worship for Your approval alone, and not to be seen or appreciated by others. You know our motives even better than we do. For You look on the heart. Cleanse our hearts, so that we may worship You fully. In Jesus’ names, amen.