.......‘By those who
come near Me I will be treated as holy,
And before all the
people I will be honored.’”
So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. (Leviticus 10: 3b NASB)
Aaron had just been dealt a terrible
blow. His two sons, Nahab and Abihu had
just been consumed by fire from heaven (Leviticus
10: 1-2).
The
two sons in their ambition and zeal had burned incense without having special
direction from Moses. Strange fire or incense is expressly forbidden (Exodus
30:9). Incense was to be burnt by
only one priest at a time. And
furthermore, as Matthew Henry has suggested, they may have been drunk, as they
were feasting on the peace and drink offerings. Servants of the Lord must
minister with a clear head.
Think of how Aaron must have felt as
his two beloved sons were taken from him.
Yet at this poignant moment, when you would expect some show of emotion,
Aaron “kept silent.” Loren Cunningham,
founder of Youth With A Mission, frequently said, “The most necessary trait of
a leader is self control.” God had been
right and just in His actions to preserve His glory. The greater the level of authority God gives to
a person, the greater the level of His scrutiny. Irreverence in God’s minsters
will always multiply itself in those they lead.
Therefore, God had to act decisively and publicly.
There comes a time in the life of God’s
servants when we have to chose between the things we humanly love and the glory
of God. As leaders, we can overly mourn
or even start to doubt the character of God because of God’s consequences in
the lives of those we serve. Spiritual leaders are often criticized and
unfairly portrayed. We want to set the
record straight, when God is saying to us to remain silent and allow Him to
fight our battles.
It should be noted that after Aaron
submitted to God’s judgments quietly, the Lord spoke directly to Aaron instead
of through Moses as He normally did, an obvious indication of His approval (Leviticus
10: 8-9. A leader without
self-control is like a fortress without walls.
Ken
Barnes, the author of “The
Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places” YWAM Publishing
Email:
kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/
