On the eighth day, following the seven days of their inauguration, Aaron and his sons begin to officiate as kohanim (priests); a fire issues forth from G‑d to consume the offerings on the altar, and the divine presence comes to dwell in the Sanctuary.
Aaron’s two elder sons, Nadav and Avihu, offer a “strange fire before G‑d, which He commanded them not” and die before G‑d. Aaron is silent in face of his tragedy. Moses and Aaron subsequently disagree as to a point of law regarding the offerings, but Moses concedes to Aaron that Aaron is in the right.
G‑d commands the kosher laws, identifying the animal species permissible and forbidden for consumption. Land animals may be eaten only if they have split hooves and also chew their cud; fish must have fins and scales; a list of non-kosher birds is given, and a list of kosher insects (four types of locusts).
Also in Shemini are some of the laws of ritual purity, including the purifying power of the mikvah (a pool of water meeting specified qualifications) and the wellspring. Thus the people of Israel are enjoined to “differentiate between the impure and the pure.”
WHAT THE BLOOD CANNOT DO
What the Blood cannot do is a statement/question that should bring our attention to God’s Salvation is to be more than Redemption by The Blood.
Leviticus 9:7-21
The significance of the order of the Offerings is very important to our understanding of The Atonement of Christ. Always the Sin offering came first, with its central thought being the making amends, compensation for or covering of our sin by the shedding of Blood.
Next was the Whole Burnt Offering with its central meaning of the full consecration or surrender to God of the person symbolized by the victim.
Next the Meal Offering which symbolizes in like manner, the consecration of the works or fruits of the Offerer.
Then the Peace Offering shows forth the sustenance of Life coming forth from God’s Table in fellowship of Peace and Joy with Him and with one another.
The great lesson of this order is seen in the making of a priest (1Pet 2:9), the law of our spiritual life.
In this order we can see that the central theme of the Sin Offering being the Blood, types the Basis by which all other relations must build.
Would should understand the Sin Offering having its specific purpose does not fulfill that purpose of the Whole Burnt Offering which follows.
In that in it represents the Work of The Holy Spirit in our presenting of our entire being unto God for Service. That Work being symbolized as possible only after and built upon the basis of the Sin Offering with its Blood, as the life for life Blood is redemptive but does not reflect the necessary Work of Consecration.
Sadly the spiritual progression of most in Christendom is only having experienced the redemptive power of the Sin Offering but have not understood the necessity for the Whole Burnt Offering.
They have relied upon the Blood of The Sin Offering. There are many by the evangelism of Christendom all over the World who have gladly received His Blood Sacrifice for Sin and who have not realized peace and fellowship in intimacy with Him yet eagerly seek after Him.
And why is this spiritual progression unknown and hindered? It is the False teaching ignorance of the exclusive reliance upon The Blood of the Sin Offering.
This leaven obscures the Truth and therefore escapes their understanding although He is “not far from any one of us;” Acts 17:27
Is Easter strange fire before The Lord?
The sons of Aaron offered the strange fire, in the wrong place at the wrong time…. likely under the influence of drink.
Is there other precedence for such severity of God as it relates to worship? We need look no further than nature itself under the Curse of mans disobedience ….one careless step in nature and the law of gravity may cause a man death or suffering for all his life.
Scripturally, First Corinthians speaks of death as a result of not rightly discerning The Communion Table of The Lord…chapter 11 the inference also of the possibility of drink having a part in this sin.
But can we as NC priests as typical of Aaron’s sons see the conveyance of the Truth to us in the enjoining the OC words in that sin of lev 10 with I cor 5 in the holy call to separation and “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” , and 1Cor 11 “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”, Hebs 12 as it speaks of God’s discipline “And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way;
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