Offering Profane Fire

Leviticus 10:1-2 (NKJV)

1) 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 before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. 2) So fire went out from
the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.

Scripture makes it very clear what Nadab and Abihu did. They offered profane fire before the Lord
which God specifically told them not to. Now, being the sons of Aaron, the high priest of Israel
who was anointed by the Lord, Nadab and Abihu had no excuse whatsoever to not know the laws and
commandments which the Lord Himself had laid down very clear in black and white. They knew exactly
the correct, holy and acceptable way of offering a sacrifice unto the Lord. They knew exactly every
law concerning the offerings and sacrifices better than any other Israelite outside the tribe of Levi.

Now, let us walk through this in a very logical easy way.. first question, why did Nadab and Abihu
offer profane fire to the Lord?

The answer is very simple :) The Lord God of Israel is a holy God and He is so holy, He cannot look sin
in the eye. All sin will be destroyed in His presence. No man can look at God and live. The tabernacle
of the Lord was so holy, that none of the Israelites could enter in.. not to mention enter.. they couldn�t
even offer sacrifices to God personally and had to have the priests do it for them.

Now, it says later on in verse 2, that fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before
the Lord. So let's us ourselves, what was the reason that God had to destroy these 2 priests? Very simple
answer yet again.. it's the same as what is written above. GOD IS A HOLY GOD :)

So, now it becomes very clear, that Nadab and Abihu must have done something that certainly angered
the Lord so much that His anger resulted in fire from above going out and consuming them. Because if
Nadab and Abihu did things the right way, nothing would have happened to them.

And this is the wrong which they did: They offered profane fire. The dictionary defines the word
'profane' as such - "Marked by contempt or irreverence for what is sacred. To treat with irreverence:
profane the name of God."

Words with synonymous meanings include blasphemous and sacrilegious. Now these are words that are very
very heavy and strong in their connotations. They are the pinnacle of what is used to describe the actions
of Nadab and Abihu. They blasphemed the nature of the Lord by disrespecting His holiness. So they
thought, that since they were the priests given the right to offer sacrifice, that they stepped over
the boundary and insulted the holiness of the Lord by profaning His Holy name.

Another example of the strong usage of this word profane is found in the following verse and referred
to satan. Ezekiel 28:16 "By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within,
And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; And I
destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones."

See, the word profane here refers to the exact same thing Nadab and Abihu did. They disrespected the
holiness of the Lord. Lucifer the most beautiful angel created was cast out of heaven because of
his pride. His pride led him to disobey the Almighty God by blaspheming the Lord and rebelling against
Him. Likewise, Nadab and Abihu showed a rebelling towards God's specific commands because they
treated the offering of fire with such brazen irreverence and contempt.

So the result of their actions was death. That was how serious God viewed their actions! Because
they didn�t respect His holiness, He destroyed them. Can you see the magnitude of the seriousness of
their actions? It cost them their lives! And think about it, right now we can enter into the holy
sanctuary of the Lord to worship Him and yet some of us boldly disrespect His presence and
blatantly disregard Him?


Thank God that we're all living in the age of His mercy and grace otherwise I'd fear to think what might happen to all of us. But does that mean we can take His grace for granted? Paul tells us in Romans 6:1-2 "1) What shall we say then? Shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? 2) Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"

This verse can be said as such: What shall we say then? Shall continue to treat the presence of God
with irreverence and contempt by doing our own things during a service so that grace may abound? Certainly not!

So let us treat His presence with reverence and fear :) He is our God!