Strange Fire, Ordinary Mourning

February 19, 2009

Today's Reading: Leviticus 10-11 and Proverbs 15

Yesterday, I had pretty much nothing to talk about. Today, I have a lot. I would love to promise you a gem, but I don’t want to promise that unless I’m sure I have something legitimately praise-worthy.

I’ll start by talking about Nadab and Abihu. These were some interesting fellows who decided to “unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command”. I’m sure you know what happened next.

I suppose I could make a lot of jokes here about how they were consumed by flame. Of course, that would be ignoring that two people died here. Oddly enough, there is a verse here that talks about not mourning for Nadab and Abihu also. For the simplicity of Copy and Paste, here is the verse:

Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the house of Israel, may mourn for those the LORD has destroyed by fire.

Now, Moses does not say to Aaron and his sons they shouldn’t mourn for them, but they can’t be too extreme about it. For me, if I found out that my children or siblings have died, you would see me tear my clothes, and I would probably be so distraught that someone would have to remind me to take care of myself.

Now this would be very different if a friend or family member died essentially by their own hand. This is apparently how Nadab and Abihu died. They offered odd incense that was forbidden by the Lord. I am not certain why it was forbidden, or why these two would try this in the first place. Maybe they wanted a repeat of what happened at the end of chapter nine in Leviticus, when fire came out and consumed the burnt offerings.

Still, Nadab and Abihu died rather stupidly, not to put to fine a head on it. In a way, it is like when someone commits suicide. You feel sad, but most of all, you feel like telling the person who took their own life off. I know this sounds cruel, and I have not experienced a suicide by a friend or family member in my life.

Proverbs 24:11 says: “The path of life leads upward for the wise to keep him from going down to the grave”. This keeps us out from doing things that will lead us to death. When others don’t do this, it is hard.

I once had a dream one day that I believe was prophetic. In the dream, I was walking up something that I can only describe as a water slide. The sections that I was walking on were dry enough for me to walk on, but many of the places had water flowing on them. I watched people slide down the slide, and it looked like they were having a good time.

In my dream, I could hear my thoughts. Apparently, I realized that I was looking at friends of mine who were on the path to hell, and they were enjoying the way down.

Sadly, there are a lot of people who don’t know what awaits them. They lead a life full of superficial happiness and die a death that is by their own doing. I understand they made that choice, and they have that right. However, I’m going to shed a tear, more than one, actually.