LEVITICUS
Week 4 Ch. 10 God’s Holiness and Mercy
Discuss Study Questions Week 3
1.Read 6:1-7 Make restitution. Discuss the relevance in relation to Matt. 5:23-24 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.
2. In Lev. 7:11-14 These are sacrifices thanking God for the peace we have. Peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Gal. 5:22. When you feel His peace, do you thank Him? How do you show you are thankful? Does your thanksgiving extend to giving to the church over and above your tithe?
3. To whom are our pastors accountable? What happens when either they don’t hold him accountable or he rejects their counsel?
4. Read Lev. 9:3-24. What did the people do? Think of the song, “I Can Only Imagine.” What do you think you will do when you see the glory of the Lord?
Chapter 10 is divided into 3 segments The first and last segments are about Aaron’s sons sinning, but the sins of the first two were very different from the other two because of the difference in heart attitude. God’s reaction to each was different too. In the middle, God gives further instruction on being holy.
Segment 1
GOD’S HOLINESS
Read Lev. 10:1-2
If God’s reaction seems harsh, it is because we don’t know why, without studying.
Read Exodus 30: 1-9.
Summary incense is to be
-burned on an altar of acacia wood, overlaid with pure gold, etc.
-gold rings for carrying it on poles of acacia wood overlaid with pure gold
-placed in front of the veil within the holy of holies
Leviticus Ch. 10: 1-2
This is what Aaron’s oldest two sons did and what was wrong:
-Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, after putting fire in them
-fire was to be in the altar of acacia wood overlaid with gold, the one in front of the veil.
Read. Exodus 30:34-35 incense was to made of spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, spices with pure frankincense in equal parts.
What Aaron’s sons did what they should have known was wrong!
-placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.
-we do not know how they made the incense or of what. It was to be as described in Ex. 30:34-35
-Further disobedience by the brothers, Read. 10:4. They had burned their incense in front of the sanctuary. It was only supposed to be burned in front of the veil, inside the tent.
Burning the incense, the way they did and where they did shows what about them?
God’s reaction:
-2And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord
The reason for their deaths: Read Lev. 10:3
God is holy. He requires us to treat Him as holy in everything we say and do.
GOD’S MERCY
Read Lev. 10:5-7
Two principles here.
1.vs. 6-7 The priests, the leaders, our leaders’ behavior affect the whole nation. What a huge responsibility.
2. In spite of God’s wrath, He is merciful. He is both at once. His mercy is that while Aaron and his sons may not go through the rituals of mourning, they knew the whole of the nation, “the whole house of Israel” would mourn. If they were not to even go out of the tent, they wouldn’t have known others were mourning for them. It is also a lesson for us. Like the whole of Israel, mourning for Aaron and his family, we are to mourn with those who mourn, pray for those in need, and rejoice with those rejoicing. (Rom 12:15, James 5:16)
Segment 2
GOD’S HOLINESS
Read Lev. 10: 8-11
Here God commands them to take no strong drink before they come into the tent of meeting. God feels very strongly about this. It is to be a perpetual statute and the punishment if it is not followed is death. The reason is to separate the profane (drinking strong drink) from the holy. Again, it is a call to holiness. They were, and we are, called to be holy because God called us and He is holy. (Lev. 11:44, 19:2, 20:7) As Christians, we are to live holy lives too. (1Pet. 1: 15-16)
Segment 3 The sin of the other 2 sons
GOD’S OR MOSES’ MERCY
The Sin
Read Lev. 10:12-18
What they did that was wrong was to burn the whole goat rather than just the fat and eat the goat. In these verses, Moses tells them again that, God has commanded a certain portion eaten by the altar and other portions to be eaten “in a clean place”, presumably their homes. The were to eat the goat in the tent of meeting and didn’t.
The Mercy
Read Lev. 10:19-20
If you are confused by these laws, do not feel bad. So were Aaron and his sons. They tried to do it right, thinking that the whole of the sin offering was to be burned up for God. God, through Moses, knowing their hearts, lets them go.
LEVITICUS
Week 4 Study Questions Chapter 10
1. Over and over, God commands us to be holy because He is holy. To be holy means to be separate, distinct and different from the general population. To be clear, we are not to APPEAR holy, but to BE holy. Jesus came and lived a sinless life, a holy life. He is our role model in how to live. What about Jesus marked Him as different, what did he say, do, think, for example? What are things He said or did that we can emulate?
2.In the Talmud, the interpretation of Hebrew scripture by generations of rabbis, they discuss at length how long before going into the tent of meeting could they drink strong drink. An hour? A half day? etc. What is wrong with quantifying such measures? Why doesn’t God ever give us a specific level of observance that is acceptable to Him?
3. Have you ever said or done what you thought was right and it turned up wrong? What was the outcome? How does knowing that God looks at your heart, rather than what comes out of your mouth or what you do affect the way you live?