I had a look back in some of
the sermons that have already been preached to the younger
people and We have been almost exactly one year going through
some of the key passages of the book of Exodus. I think it's
something like 50 or 51 weeks. And today, I want to begin in
the book of Leviticus. But, but here's the thing. Today I'm going to start Leviticus
and I'm also going to finish Leviticus because we're only
going to have one sermon on the book of Leviticus. Now Leviticus
is the third book in the Bible. And I think you probably know
that the first five books of the Bible are called the Books
of Moses because he was the writer, or sometimes called the Pentateuch. Penta means five. And these five books are all
together as the Book of Moses. And Genesis, the first book,
is the book of beginnings, where the creation and the beginning
of the world is spoken of, and the beginning of nations is spoken
of, and the beginning of God's work of grace is explained to
us. Exodus, on the other hand, as
we have just seen over recent months, tells us the story of
Israel's freedom from captivity in Egypt and God's dealings with
the children of Israel, Moses and the children of Israel, as
they went through the wilderness and we've thought about their
escape out of Egypt, the plagues that were in Egypt, their crossing
the Red Sea, the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, the lessons
that were given to Moses there concerning the worship of God
and the construction of the tabernacle and we've thought about some
of the items of the furniture of the tabernacle in most recent
weeks. And that's brought us to this
third book of Moses, the book of Leviticus and it takes its
name from Levi or the tribe of Levi who were the priests who
were set apart as the priestly in a priestly office to look
after the sacrifices and the tabernacle. We spoke about that
last week. It was the Levites who would
work with the tabernacle. They would put it up and take
it down when the cloud of the presence of God lifted from it
or descended upon it. So that the book of Levi speaks
about the laws and the religious principles and practices that
were established amongst the children of Israel. So Leviticus
deals with many more laws. I mentioned this when we spoke
about the Ten Commandments that we think about the law of God
as being the Ten Commandments but there are hundreds of laws
that God gave to his people and The book of Leviticus contains
a large number of them. In Leviticus, for example, we
read about the sacrificial offerings and the different kinds of offerings
that there would be made at different times and for different reasons.
We speak about feasts that are there for the children of Israel
as well and the different celebrations that will take place again at
different times of the year. We speak about things that are
clean and things that are unclean, both for sacrifice and for eating. There's a lot to say about purification. There's a lot about diseases. There's a lot about religious
ceremonies. and even marriages and civil
regulations as well. So that we see in the book of
Leviticus a framework being built for the children of Israel that
would stand them in good stead when they entered into the promised
land and they had to set in place their civil government and their
standards and practices about how people would live and how
people would interact socially and how people would worship
God. And you might think that this
is all ancient stuff and really not so very important for today. But again, let me remind you
that although we're not going to be spending very much time
in the book of Leviticus on this occasion at least, let me remind
you that as well as helping the people then, all these things
also pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. and particularly the
book of Hebrews in the New Testament helps to explain the book of
Leviticus by pointing out to us the gospel of Jesus Christ
within all of these feasts and regulations and laws and different
religious practices and sacrificial offerings that were made. They
all in some way or another pointed towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And Hebrews is a good book to
read in parallel with Leviticus because they complement and they
interpret one another. The writer to the Hebrews opens
up many of these points to show us the Lord Jesus Christ in them. So the two are closely connected. But today, all I want to do is
mention two interesting facts about the book of Leviticus. And these are things which perhaps
you will just like to remember as kind of intriguing. They intrigued
me as well when I first thought about them and they were pointed
out to me. So here's the first one, and
it's this. That there is no other book in the whole of scripture
contains more of the very words of God than the book of Leviticus. He is almost throughout the whole
of this book the direct speaker. It begins with the Lord speaking
to Moses out of the tabernacle, which had just been completed,
just been built, and it continues with God giving instructions
as to how the people are to live, how they are to engage with one
another, how they are to engage with the priesthood, the offerings,
the feasts, and the purification rules and regulations that they
are to follow. God is speaking throughout the
book of Leviticus from beginning to end and it is really very
small parts that are anyone other than the Lord who is speaking
occasionally, it's Moses, and occasionally it's Aaron. But
the vast majority is the Lord himself. So there is more of
the Lord's direct speaking in the book of Leviticus than in
any other book of the Bible. That's got to be an interesting
fact. And here's another interesting
fact. There are only two historical incidents or events in the whole
book. There's only two events that
are described to us in the whole of this book. So that of all
the other things that we've just mentioned that the Lord speaks
to Moses about with respect to the children of Israel, there
are only two events or two historical actions that we see taking place. And both of these events are
very serious. In fact, you could go as far
as to say both of them are very scary. And it's these two events
that I want to spend the rest of our time thinking about today. The first one is the consecration
of the priests to serve in the tabernacle. and that's found
in Leviticus chapter 8 to 10 and particularly in chapter 10
we find the death of two men called Nadab and Abihu. These were Aaron's sons. Now
if you remember we said last week that Aaron was the high
priest. So here are the two sons of Aaron
who were commissioned to help him serve in the tabernacle,
and right at the very beginning of this tabernacle worship, they
are slain by God. And we're going to just read
a few verses concerning that. The second historical event that
takes place in the book of Leviticus is the death by stoning of a
man who blasphemed God's name. And you read about that in Leviticus
chapter 24. So these two events were serious
and they were severe and they ended in the death of the wrongdoer. And I think it's interesting
that only two events are recorded in the whole book and both are
examples of deadly punishment for despising God. The Lord,
it seems to me, was showing the children of Israel that his holiness
demanded respect and his commandments were to be obeyed. They were given to be obeyed. And Nadab and Abihu, these two
sons of Aaron, these were men from the highest position of
honour in the children of Israel. There was Moses, there was Aaron,
there was Nadab and Abihu. And these two men, the sons of
the high priest, who conducted themselves improperly in the
presence of the Lord, right down to the very lowest, the man who
blasphemed God, he was an Egyptian, we'll come to him in a moment,
or he was the son of an Egyptian father, he blasphemed the name
of God. But it shows us that God demanded obedience, honour,
respect, and purity. from his people. It's as if the
Lord is saying, my laws are given to be obeyed and laws without
penalties are meaningless. So the first one we want to look
at is found in Leviticus chapter 10. Maybe you've got your finger
in there already and there's just a couple of verses that
I want to draw your attention to. Leviticus chapter 10, verse
1 and 2. Well, we'll read verse 3 as well.
This is what it says. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons
of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein,
and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the
Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire
from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This
is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them
that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. Aaron held his peace. Aaron saw
his two sons slain. Their bodies weren't consumed
by the fire. It was almost like lightning
struck them or something like that. Fire went out from the
presence of God and struck them dead. And Aaron held his peace. Much as he must have grieved
in his own soul. Much as he must have mourned
at the death of these two eldest sons. that had been given these
places of special prominence by God. This was not the only
prominence they had been given. I don't know whether you can
remember, but we learned a few weeks ago that they had been
allowed to go up into Mount Sinai with the 70 elders of Israel
and to have an audience with God. and here they were being
honoured to serve in the tabernacle and in many ways they must have
been regarded as heirs apparent of Aaron that when he was old
and when he died they would take over as the high priest. But
now we find that God having told them how he was to be worshipped
and what he required, Nadab and Abihu failed to approach God
properly. We're told that they brought
strange fire in their censers. They were supposed to go and
they were supposed to put fire and incense at the table of incense
and they put strange fire. They took the fire from a different
place, not as God had specified. They worshipped God, but not
in the way that he had ordained. And I don't know whether that
was negligence, or whether it was pride on their part, or whether
it was just a mistake that they made. Whatever. God would not
tolerate it. And these men did two things.
They disobeyed God's word, and they dishonoured God's tabernacle. Now, let us remember what we've
said about the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the place
where the presence of God dwelt amongst the people, a place where
they could approach God. And as such, the tabernacle itself
and the furniture of the tabernacle all pointed to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the way of salvation, the way of approach to God. So in disobeying God's word and
dishonouring the tabernacle, these men were dishonouring the
Lord Jesus Christ before the people. The words and the actions
of these priests, and indeed we would have to say the words
and the actions of preachers today, are particularly noticed
by God. And all who come to God, all
who come before God in worship, should know that God only accepts
worship given exactly as He has specified. Let's think briefly
about the second event. We read about that in chapter
24 of Leviticus. So if you want to turn to chapter
24 and verse 10, I've got a few verses that I want to read to
you from there as well. So it's Leviticus chapter 24
and verse 10. This is what it says. And the
son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian,
went out among the children of Israel, and this son of the Israelitish
woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp. And the
Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses,
and his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the
tribe of Dan. And they put him in ward, or
in prison, that the mind of the Lord might be shewed them. And
the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that hath cursed
without the camp, and let all that hurt him lay their hands
upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. And thou shalt speak unto the
children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his
sin. And he that blasphemeth the name
of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death. and all the
congregation shall certainly stone him as well the stranger
as he that is born in the land when he blasphemeth the name
of the Lord shall be put to death. This man who blasphemed was half
Israelite and half Egyptian. and he got into a fight with
another man in the camp of Israel, and he took God's name in vain. He blasphemed God and he cursed. He broke the commandment which
said, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name
in vain. Now this... engagement, this
striving together, this fight that took place. It may have
been more than just an argument. I don't know. We don't know.
But it's possible because of all the other details that are
given here that it might have actually been a court case and
a judgment that was sought over land rights and property and
whether this man had a right to be in the camp of Israel,
giving his paternal origins. But whether this man cursed in
anger or whether it was an intentional profanity and blasphemy against
God because he wasn't happy about the outcome of something that
had happened, The outcome was the same. He despised the Lord
and God commanded that he be killed for his crime. so that
there is a lesson from these two examples. These only two
incidents that are recorded in the whole of the book of Leviticus
tell us that God's worship and God's commands are to be carefully
observed and rigorously performed. We dare not be careless in our
dealings with holiness. Nadab and Abihu right from the
very top of the structure of the children of Israel and this
son of Sheolamith died because they despised the Lord God. And God's sentence may seem severe
but it is the judgment of sin under God's holy law. It tells
us all It tells all men and women of all ages that we cannot live
up to God's standard of holiness. And we need help. We need a deliverer. We need a mediator. We need a
substitute. We need a saviour. And this son
of the Sholomith, these sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, they
needed a deliverer when they broke God's law. They needed
a mediator who would stand before God on their behalf. They needed
a substitute and a saviour and they did not have one and the
Lord slew them. Nadab and Abihu stood before
the mercy seat of God which spoke of Christ and they despised its
meaning. for sinners salvation. The unnamed man despised the
God of glory and they and everyone who despises God and his way
of salvation in Jesus Christ shall be severely punished and
cut off. They will endure eternal separation
from God. The book of Hebrews tells us,
not directly or specifically in relationship to this incident,
although I think it is a very good commentary upon it. In Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 28, it says this. He that despised Moses'
law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. How much sorer punishment! Suppose ye shall be thought worthy,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son
of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith
he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the
Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said,
Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the
Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge
his people. And then the writer to the Hebrews
finishes this little section by saying, It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. And the writer to
the Hebrews is absolutely right. Nadab, Abihu, and this unnamed
man all fell into the hands of the living God and they felt
his anger because they sinned against his holiness. They despised the Lord and they
despised the way of salvation. We need to be cleansed of our
sin. We need a purity and a righteousness
that we can never ourselves achieve. We need this urgently and we
need it now. The fire of the Lord came out
instantly against these two men and they were slain for their
wickedness. God's way of forgiveness is by
Jesus' blood. His way of purity is by faith
in Christ. His way of deliverance and salvation
is through our dear Lord's sacrifice and death. So may the Lord teach
us by these examples and others, the seriousness of despising
God's way of salvation. and the blessedness of mercy
and grace that is found in Jesus Christ. Amen.