Ⅲ
We must serve God not with strange fire but with the fire from the altar (Lev. 10:1-2; 9:24; 6:13):
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According to typology, strange fire is any fire other than that which burns on the altar (10:1).
Ｂ
The failure of Nadab and Abihu lay in their failure to use the fire from the altar; what they used was common fire, not holy fire.
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Strange fire signifies man's natural enthusiasm, natural affection, natural strength, and natural ability offered to God.
Ｄ
Strange fire is fire of the self; it is fire that issues from the soulish life, the fleshly life, and the natural life (Matt. 16:24-26; 1 Cor. 2:14):
１
Strange fire means that the self-life interferes with the works of God.
２
Although the works are God's, the self-life wants to dictate the way that the works are carried out.
３
Offering up strange fire is employing the self's methods and wisdom and insisting on the self's proposals in the service of God.
Ｅ
Nadab and Abihu were judged not because they did something that was not for God but because they acted according to the natural life and did something for God in a natural way (Lev. 10:1-2).
Ｆ
The offering of strange fire was a sin of presumption; Nadab and Abihu presumed to do something for God (Psa. 19:13).
Ｇ
This is a strong warning showing us that, in touching the divine things, we need to apply the cross to our natural life; otherwise, we will suffer spiritual death.
Ｈ
God pays attention not only to whether there is fire but also to the source and nature of the fire; our zeal must come from the altar (Lev. 6:13).
Morning Nourishment
Lev. 10:1-2 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in them and laid incense on it, and they presented strange fire before Jehovah, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from before Jehovah and consumed them, and they died before Jehovah.The strange fire offered by Nadab and Abihu was common fire, not holy fire. It was not fire from the altar (Lev. 16:12), which came forth from God, from heaven (9:24), but fire from man, from the earth, with no base of expiation. Strange fire signifies man's natural enthusiasm, natural affection, natural strength, and natural ability offered to God. Nadab and Abihu did something for God, but they did it in a natural way. Hence, God judged this offering by consuming the two priests (10:2). This is a strong warning showing us that in touching the divine things we need to apply the cross to our natural life. Otherwise, our careless touching of the holy things of God will bring in spiritual deadness, and may even result in physical death (Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 11:27-32; 1 John 5:16), as a judgment from the holy God. (Lev. 10:1, footnote 2)
Today's Reading
The strange fire signifies the natural enthusiasm (Lev. 10:1) not dealt with by the cross and not in resurrection. Here we have to stress and develop what it means for us to be dealt with by the cross in our enthusiasm so that we can serve the Lord. In order to be in resurrection, we have to pass through the dealing of the cross. We should not bring in our natural hotness. Whether it is good or bad, pure or impure, it is still natural.Strange fire in the priestly service causes death before God [Lev. 10:1-2]....Maybe the two sons of Aaron did this with a good heart, with a good intention, but still they were burned to death. The offering of strange fire caused death to these two priests before God.
We are today's priests...[so] we must be careful about what we offer to God. We may have a good heart and a good intention in offering something to God, but if we offer the wrong thing, this can cause death to us. This does not seem like something serious, but it is serious in the eyes of God. This death is mostly in the spiritual sense. Whenever we serve the Lord with a kind of natural enthusiasm, this brings in death to our spirit.
We all need to serve, to function, and to use our one talent, our gift. But we must be careful not to serve in a natural way, with our natural hotness. Of course, the Lord wants us to be hot in the spirit, not cold or lukewarm. But we have to be hot in our spirit, not in our natural life. In Romans 12:11 Paul tells us to be "burning in spirit, serving the Lord." Any hotness in our natural life is strange fire to God, and this brings in death.
The offering of the strange fire might have been related to the drinking of wine. Right after Nadab and Abihu's death, God charged the priests not to drink wine [Lev. 10:8-9]....Drinking wine, in the Bible, signifies the overenjoyment of the worldly, natural, or physical, material things. In other words, if we overly enjoy anything of this world, this always makes us drunk. When we are drunk, we are excited and out of control, doing things without regulation. It might have been that the two sons of Aaron were drunk, so they were excited and went beyond themselves to do something without being regulated. This means that they offered strange fire in a presumptuous way. The offering of strange fire was a sin of presumption. They presumed to do something for God. Actually, that was not a real offering to God but something of their presumption against God's regulation.
People do presumptuous things because they have overenjoyed something. They are drunk. When the priests are drunk, they lose the discernment of holiness (Lev. 10:10), and they are unable to teach God's people (v. 11). When we lose our discernment because we are drunk, we are not being regulated; so we surely cannot teach others so that they can be regulated. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, "Basic Lessons on Service," pp. 106-109)
Further Reading: Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 33-34