Apparently being a priest of the Lord is not all it’s cracked up to be. Aaron and his sons are ordained, which it turns out requires them to live in the tabernacle without leaving for 7 days. They still don’t have any special relationship with God beyond what the average Israelite has so they basically just oversee the sacrificial system, maintain the Tabernacle and do whatever Moses tells them to. They are janitors.
Moses walks them through a big long set of sacrifices and rituals, including waving some meat at the alter as a wave sacrifice and then burning it on top of the burnt offering as an ordination offering. I’m not sure if this implies that there was more covenant regarding offerings that just wasn’t covered in the first chapters of Leviticus or if these are special one-time-only offerings just for this occasion. Honestly, the whole process sounds like Moses is just making stuff up as he goes along, but the book says that Moses was only doing what God told him to so I think this may be another obedience thing.
Speaking of obedience, I talked a little yesterday about how good the ancient Israelites are at following directions, but I guess they kind of have to be. All of the Israelites who don’t follow directions well are being culled from the tribes at a rapid pace. The plague of the first born sons from Exodus probably took out a few Israelites who didn’t go through quite the right ritual or who accidently had some leftover lamb sitting around overnight, and anyone who wandered too close to Mt Mariah while God was there was to be instantly killed. The days of God calling Abraham to Canaan and then patiently staying with him as he wanders through Egypt are long past. When God tells you to do something now he is not screwing around.
Two of Aaron’s sons, Nahab and Abhu, get caught up in the awesome party after the ordination week is over. All the Israelites are super excited, God is there glowing and blessing people and stuff and Nahab and Abihu go to suppliment the stuff on the alter with an offering of incense. Now back in Exodus 30:9, God said that Aaron and co were supposed to burn incense a couple times a day on the alter, but no one should put any unauthorized offerings of incense on the alter beyond that. When Aaron’s sons go to burn their incense, God kills them with fire.
Now the other shoe has dropped. Moses tells Aaron and the other priests that their families may mourn for people God kills with fire, so that’s nice I guess, but they need to keep their hair tidy and they can’t tear their cloths or God will kill them. Messing with your cloths and hair was part of the way you mourned back then, so the implication is that no mourning is allowed for priests. Also, the same thing will happen to them if any of them screw up and break the Law and not only will they be punished (with fire) but God will be angry at the whole camp because of their misdeeds, so there’s some pressure there. In addition to the regular law, Aaron’s sons are also forbidden from leaving the tabernacle while anointed with the holy oil and they may never drink any fermented beverage.
After all this exposition Moses gets bent out of shape because the priests burnt some meat and grain that they were supposed to keep for themselves and eat in the tabernacle. Aaron explained that his sons were making their own sacrifices with what was given to them, which I guess is acceptable under the Law. So, no reason to kill anyone with fire today right Moses? *nervous chuckle*
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