STRANGE FIRE

The problem that most Christians have is whether we are truly Christians. Paul, perhaps, even had that insecurity at times. He said, “The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41). The difference, it seems, between play-acting or sincerity is willingness.

In the time of Moses many were unwilling to submit either to Moses or God, or at best, they would submit to Moses but not God. Moses had just issued a series of commands about the building of the Tent of Meeting, and by that it is meant the tabernacle of God. After Moses revealed the plan for them, they all got serious: 

²¹ They came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments. ²² And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted… (Exod 35:21-22)

 Moses revealed the Words of God. They left the presence of Moses and got serious. The Hebrews, before obstinate, became willing-hearted. They had a change of heart. No longer would they make gods for themselves with their treasures but a “House” for God.  Their sacrifices were their treasures and their offerings metrics for their willingness.

To put in bluntly, God got into them and stirred their hearts. Their Spirit became stronger than the desires of their hearts. The “heart” represents either the flesh or the spirit, and willing-heartedness is the outcome of that internal struggle.

There are two faculties within the nature of Christians that battle continually. When God commands, how one answers the call, determines the “wrestling match” between the flesh and the spirit. Our innermost being of those who know God has two characteristics: (1) the desire to please ourselves, and (2) the desire to please God. If the desire to please God is more of an obligation than a privilege, then the flesh wins out. Jesus spoke of that internal struggle: 

²² Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? ²³ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Mat 7:22-23)

 Now back to the work of building the tabernacle; it was finished, “And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them” (Exod 39:43).

Moses blessed them. By doing that, he took a knee to them, so to speak; he was adoring their dedication to the work of God on behalf of God. If he had been Jesus, that blessing would have been Jesus taking a knee to them.

When all the work was finished, the Hebrews could say to God, “Lord, lord, look at what we have done for your Name,” just as Jesus accused men of doing.

But Jesus did not bless those who did his work as an obligation. He said, “I never knew you.” Jesus would not see them at the crucifixion, begging for the mob to release Him. That would have been hazardous work at that time. They all denied Jesus like Peter because they all had remained silent. What should they have done at the crucifixion? Later, Jesus would reveal the work that was expected of them: 

If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Mat 16:24)

 “Will come,” Jesus said. Not obligated to come, but to come willingly and follow Him.

What did Jesus do at the crucifixion? He took up the Cross and came undone as His flesh and Spirit were separated. The Spirit of Jesus revealed itself stronger than His flesh as His flesh had urges as Satan revealed with his temptations of Christ. Jesus overcame His flesh so that we know its is possible for Him to overcome ours. Matthew 16:24 was a blessing that Jesus omitted in chapter seven. The work that we are expected to do is something that does not glorify us but glorifies God.

What should they have done at the crucifixion? “Me too, Pontius. Me too!” What would have happened if all the Christians had followed Jesus to the Cross? Pilate would have seen that it was an offense to Christians, as Romans had endeavored never to offend the religion of the Jews. In numbers there is power! Pilate and the chief priests would have argued, and Jesus would have been released. But nobody took up their cross and followed Jesus!

The crucifixion is history, so what is it that believers can do now? They can vicariously do what Jesus did do; they can give up their flesh and release the Power of the Spirit of Jesus within their souls. How to give up the flesh? Cease doing things that satisfy lustful desires and seek to desire the things of God.

When the tabernacle was finished, the Hebrews took up their tabernacle and followed God, who manifested Himself as a cloud by day and a fire by night (Gen 40:38). After the Hebrews had worked sincerely hard for God, they picked up the only “Cross” they had; that was the tabernacle. So, in a sense, the Cross was the tabernacle of God whereon was the Presence of Father God in Spirit.

There were three Substances of God on the Cross — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and as one Being, God in all respects suffered death.

Now back to the Hebrews. After all the work they had done, God expected an “oblation.”

There were different sacrifices for different sins. For the priests, for instance, they were to kill a bullock, and place its blood on the horns of the altar before the Lord. That was a foreshadowing of the crucifixion. The Cross represents the horns of the altar. As such, we are to submit our flesh before the Lord. By that it is meant to submit our all — our blood; our innermost being — to Jesus. “The priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him” (Lev 4:35).

For general sins, there was the “law of the meat offering.”

“All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it.” (Lev 6:18). That meat offering substituted for eating of the body of Christ, as Christians are to do with communion (Mat 26:26). That we are to do in remembrance of Jesus. Of Him doing what? Offering His Body rather than ours.

The “Law of the Trespass Offering” came next. “In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering: and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar” (Lev 7:2). Jesus was the “Trespass Offering” not that He trespassed, but we all have. He was the offering, and His blood was sprinkled on the altar, indubitably on the face of Adam buried beneath Calvary, remembering that the “ground” is “Adam.”

Jesus fulfilled that Law as He said He would!

“So, Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses” (Lev 8:36). They performed their obligations, but they were to be oblations — things done voluntarily to please God.

After all the oblations were made and the obligations were finished, “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” (Lev 10:1-2).

Now that is what Jesus was talking about. After all the work they had done, Nadab and Abihu — would be priests — offered strange fire before the Lord. They made an inappropriate burnt offering, and apparently God snuffed it out the eternal flame for them.

God did for them as Jesus indicated he would do for Christian workers, “I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.”

“Work iniquity” sounds like difficult work, but it is ergonomic, or easy work. Those that prophesized and such were doing easy things; they were not giving up their fleshly desires, but basically paying for them with easy things to do. Working iniquity is “ergazomai anomia,”  easily breaking commands rather than the hard work of relinquishing the flesh.

Jesus was speaking to those that should have understood the Law. Those who were doing works to make their names known were offering “strange fire” rather than the appropriate oblations.

God had told Nadab and Abihu to depart from Him, and then they departed them from His Presence by burning with fire. That is the consequence of those who fail to offer their own flesh to God… “strange fire” — fire in Hell that never quits burning.

(picture credit; "Strange Fire;" Logos Bible Software)