Stealing God’s Glory – Shmini – April 2

This week’s Torah Portion is called “שמיני” – “Shmini” which means “eighth” and refers to the eighth day (Lev. 9:1).  In Leviticus 8, the LORD had instructed Moses regarding the consecration of the Tabernacle as well as the ordination of Aaron and his sons as priests.  Aaron and his sons were to wait seven days in the Tent of Meeting to fulfill their priestly ordination (Lev. 8:33).  In this week’s study the seven days of ordination are completed and it is now the eighth day (Lev. 9:1).

On the eighth day, Aaron was to offer sacrifices for his sins and for the sins of the people of Israel in order to make atonement:

Moses said, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded you to do, that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.” Moses then said to Aaron, “Come near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, that you may make atonement for yourself and for the people; then make the offering for the people, that you may make atonement for them, just as the LORD has commanded.” – Lev. 9:6-7

The “glory of the LORD” was going to appear to the people but first they needed to be made ready.  Aaron made the necessary sacrifices which were commanded by God and everything was done according to the command of the LORD.

The phrase “just at the LORD commanded” is the Hebrew phrase “כאשר צוה יהוה” – “kasher tzivah Adonai” and it is used eight times throughout Leviticus chapters 8 & 9.  The LORD was instituting a means of sanctification for the children of Israel and it was literally a matter of life and death.  The commands of the LORD needed to be carried out exactly as He prescribed them.  God is holy and must be treated as holy.

Watch a brief video introduction to this week’s Torah Portion commentary:

God’s Glory Revealed

After Aaron had completed all that the LORD had commanded him regarding the sacrifices and the ordination, the glory of the LORD appeared to the people:

Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. Then fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. – Lev. 9:23-24

It was a picture of perfect interaction between God and His people.  Moses and Aaron had fulfilled God’s commands exactly as He had specified and the result was the appearance of the glory of the LORD and the fire which came out from before the LORD and consumed the offerings.  The reaction of the people was that they “shouted” – “וירונו” – “vayaronu,” literally “and they rejoiced with a shout” and then “fell on their faces.”

A Holy People

This amazing example of holy fellowship with God should cause us all to want to draw near to His presence.  God longs to reveal Himself to us and to make His glory known through our lives, but there is a cost.  In order for God’s glory to be revealed in our lives we must die to ourselves and to the lusts of this world (1 Peter 2:1-3).  We also need to know our new identity in God and be the people whom He has called us to be:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; – 1 Peter 2:9

Our identity in God needs to be so absolutely certain so that the words of our mouths proclaim His excellencies and the fruit of our lives displays His radiant light.

God is also glorified through our lives as we choose to follow Him and produce actions that are in keeping with His calling on our lives:

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. – 1 Peter 2:11-12

God calls us today to live a life that is so marked by holiness and purity that others have absolutely nothing bad that they are able to say about us.  We are to live a holy life because God is holy and beyond this, the fruit of our life should be a testimony to others of who God is so that they too may glorify Him (Matt. 5:16. John 15:8).

Our lives are to testify to His holiness.  We live to bring glory to His Name and not the other way around.  As we continue to study this week’s Torah Portion, we will read about two people who forgot who they were as priests unto Almighty God and their deeds failed to bring glory to God.

The Sin of Nadab and Abihu

As so often occurs in the Bible, heights of excitement and joy which are connected to obedience to God are followed by sin and judgement.  This time it was Aaron’s two sons who sinned before the LORD:

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. – Lev. 10:1-2

Nadab and Abihu were instantly killed by fire which came out from before the LORD because they offered “strange fire.”

This account of the sin of Nadab and Abihu, which is recorded in the first two verses of Lev. 10, follows immediately after the glory of God being revealed to the people of Israel, which is recorded in the last two verses of Lev. 9.  These two events occurred on the very same day, the eighth day.  Fire came out from before the LORD to consume the sacrifices on the altar as a result of the obedience of Moses and Aaron to all of the commandments of the LORD, then fire came out from before the LORD to bring death to Nadab and Abihu as a result of their disobedience for offering “strange fire,” which was never commanded by the LORD.  What was the sin of Nadab and Abihu? What does it mean to offer strange fire?

“Strange Fire”

The Bible does not tell us exactly what this “strange fire” was.  There are many theories regarding this “strange fire” but it is all guess work because we just don’t know.  The only thing that we do know about this “strange fire” is that God had not commanded them to offer it.  It was an unauthorized offering.  They offered an offering of incense with fire which they were never commanded to offer (Lev. 10:1).

The death of Nadab and Abihu was not an accident but rather an instantaneous judgement by the hand of God.  Moses immediately gave an explanation for why this occurred and why they were killed:

Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the LORD spoke, saying, ‘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. – Lev. 10:3

In brief, Moses declared that God is holy and that He alone will be glorified before the people.

In quoting the words of the LORD, Moses literally said in the Hebrew: “בקרובי אקדש ועל פני כל העם אכבד” – “bikrovai ehkadesh ve’al penei kolha’am ehkaved” – “I will be sanctified by those who draw near to Me, and before all of the people I will be glorified.”   The word for “glorified” (honored) which is used in this verse, “אכבד” – “ehkaved,” is the same Hebrew root word that is used to express the “glory of the LORD” which appeared to the people in Leviticus 9:23, “כבוד” – “kavod.”

Perspective on the “Strange Fire”

Even though we don’t fully know what the sin of Nadab and Abihu was, we do know that they did not treat God as holy when they drew near to Him and they did not seek to glorify God before the people.  Their actions of offering strange fire before the LORD were a direct violation of the holiness of God and the fruit of their actions did not glorify God but drew attention to themselves.  As a result, God had to sanctify Himself before the people by striking down Aaron’s two sons.

This principle of honoring the sanctification (holiness) of God and of giving Him the glory is something that each one of us needs to pursue with a whole heart.  There are many forces in this world that will try to tempt us to violate the holiness of God and to seek glory for ourselves but this is a lie from the evil one:

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. – 1 John 2:15-16

The love of the Father in heaven needs to be the passion that drives us to live a life of holiness, free from the trappings of this world, seeking to give Him the glory with all that we do.

Sanctification and Glory

We see a perfect example of the temptation of sin to lead us away from God’s holiness while at the same time seeking to steal the glory due His Name in the Garden of Eden.  God had clearly given Adam (and also to Eve) one commandment to obey which was punishable by death:

The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” – Gen. 2:16-17

The line was clearly drawn in the sand, “Don’t eat from the tree in the middle of the garden.”

We all know this story well, but I believe it is worth pointing out that when the serpent tempted Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, he had lied to her by stating, “You surely shall not die” (Gen. 3:4).  Beyond this initial lie, the serpent was inviting Eve and her husband to be like God and to share His glory: “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5).  Both the violation of God’s sanctification and an attempt to rob God of His glory were committed by one act, by violating the one command that God had given to Adam and Eve.

Whenever any one of us breaks a known commandment of God we are violating His holiness and in essence we are saying that we know better than God.  We are challenging His holiness and seeking to put ourselves in the place of God, just as Adam and Eve did.  When we confess our sin, we admit that we are wrong, that God is holy, and that He alone deserves the glory.

Sin always produces death and there is greater judgment for those who draw near to God (Lev. 10:3).  The sin of Nadab and Abihu is a reminder to us that God is holy and He demands all the glory.  For those who minister in God’s Name and draw near to Him by leading others in teaching and worship, there will be a stricter judgment (James 3:1).  We all need to live holy lives and we also need to make sure that God is the one who receives the glory and not us.  For those who are responsible for leading others in spiritual matters, extra care must be given to the words and deeds of one’s life.

Who is Receiving the Glory?

One of the truths that stood out to me as I studied this week’s Torah Portion is this principle that God alone is to be glorified in our midst (Lev. 10:3).  It is natural (in a worldly manner) for us as human beings to want to receive the attention and praise of man but this is deceptive and dangerous.  The Bible clearly teaches that the glory of God is for Him alone:

I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images. – Isaiah 42:8

For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another. – Isaiah 48:11

There are obviously natural realms of honor that man is privileged to receive in this world; whether as a parent, grandparent, teacher, athlete, professional, etc…  This being true, the ultimate glory is always reserved for God Himself.

Are we living for our own glory or for the glory of God? 

We are created in God’s image to bring glory to Him through our lives.  God gives each of us the joy of sharing in the work of His creation by managing it well and creating an environment that thrives, however, it must all be done for His glory, not our own.  This is especially true in regard to how we receive praise from other people.  There is a good example of this in the New Testament.

Don’t Steal God’s Glory

Shortly after the death and resurrection of Yeshua, the Messianic Jews of that time created a new division of “religious zealots” in the kingdom of Judea and the Roman governors struggled to know how to handle them.  King Herod (Agrippa) at one point had James put to death and when he saw how it pleased some of those in the religious Jewish establishment, he also arrested Peter.  Thankfully God sent an angel and released Peter from prison, reminding Herod that there is a power above his own, however, Herod failed to understand this (Acts 12:1-19).

After the miraculous incident with Peter, King Herod left Judea and went to Caesarea.  While he was there, a number of people from Tyre and Sidon came to plead with the king about a certain issue and having won an audience with the king the people waited for his appearance:

On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died. – Acts 12:21-23

King Herod did not give the glory to God and was immediately killed.  God is a jealous God and He demands all of the glory.

Let us learn well from the lives of Nadab and Avihu as well as King Herod that God alone is to be glorified with all that we do in this life.  When we break God’s holy commandments we are challenging God’s holiness and seeking to steal His glory by putting ourselves in His place.  God alone is to receive all the glory!

Shabbat Shalom!

If you enjoyed reading this article, share it today with friends!  We also invite you to sign up for our weekly Torah Portion commentary on the sidebar to the right.  

Help keep our weekly commentaries free and available to all. Click here to donate today: 

Torah Portion: Lev. 9:1 – Lev. 11:47

Hafatara: 1 Samuel 6:1 – 1 Samuel 7:17

Return to Torah Portion Homepage

Copyright Jewels of Judaism.  All rights reserved 2016