Leviticus 10: 12-20, “And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons that were left, Take the meat offering that remaineth of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar: for it is most holy: And ye shall eat it in the holy place, because it is thy due, and thy sons’ due, of the sacrifices of the LORD made by fire: for so I am commanded. And the wave breast and heave shoulder shall ye eat in a clean place; thou, and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee: for they be thy due, and thy sons’ due, which are given out of the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children of Israel. The heave shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the LORD; and it shall be thine, and thy sons’ with thee, by a statute for ever; as the LORD hath commanded. And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was burnt: and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron which were left alive, saying, Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the LORD? Behold, the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place: ye should indeed have eaten it in the holy place, as I commanded. And Aaron said unto Moses, Behold, this day have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD; and such things have befallen me: and if I had eaten the sin offering to day, should it have been accepted in the sight of the LORD? And when Moses heard that, he was content.”
Aaron had lost his two older son because they tried to do things in their own way rather than following the Lord’s prescribed order. However, the ceremonial system had to be continued. This is one of the hardest things that we have to face during a time of bereavement. We would just like the world to stop and give us time to recover but no one outside our circle of bereavement even seems to notice. The world just keeps on operating as though nothing had happened at all. This is one of the very say fruits of sin in the world. Never the less, at that time, the priests were told that they must continue their regular rituals as the Lord had commanded them. The rest of the nation needed someone to act as their representative to the Lord and the Lord expected them to continue their role on His behalf. After all, no man can look on God and live (Ex 33: 20, “And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”) We find out that Aaron’s two remaining did something wrong as they tried to continue their regular rituals. It is quite possible that the two younger sons were not used to performing these rituals because they had previously been performed by their older brothers so they were unfamiliar with the correct procedure. In the case of the first two sons, the Lord saw that they were proud and sought to take a higher place than they deserved. In the case of the second two sons their hearts were not proud and the Lord dealt with them according to the attitude they had, He acted with grace.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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