LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:8–9 Drink no wine or strong drink. Taken in its
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:1 Nadab and Abihu. These were the two oldest sons of Aaron. censer. The vessels in which the incense was burned in the Holy Place (its features are unknown) was to be used only for holy purposes. unauthorized fire. Though the exact infraction is not detailed, in some way they violated the prescription for offering incense (cf. Ex. 30:9, 34–38), probably because they were drunk (see Lev. 10:8–9). Instead of taking the incense fire from the brazen altar, they had some other source for the fire and thus perpetrated an act, which, considering the descent of the miraculous fire they had just seen and their solemn duty to do as God told them, betrayed carelessness, irreverence, and lack of consideration for God. Such a tendency had to be punished for all priests to see as a warning.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:2 fire came out. The same divine fire that accepted the sacrifices (9:24) consumed the errant priests. That was not unlike the later deaths of Uzzah (2 Sam. 6:6–7) or Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5, 10).
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:3 be sanctified . . . be glorified. Nadab and Abihu were guilty of violating both requirements of God's absolute standard. The priests had received repeated and solemn warnings as to the necessity of reverence before God (see Ex. 19:22; 29:44). Aaron held his peace. In spite of losing his two sons, he did not complain, but submitted to the righteous judgment of God.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:4 Mishael . . . Elzaphan. See Ex. 6:22 for their lineage. This procedure prevented the priests from defiling themselves by handling the dead bodies (Lev. 21:1), and allowed the whole congregation to see the result of such disregard for the holiness of God. out of the camp. As this was done with the ashes of sacrificed animals (6:11), so it was done with the remains of these two priests who received God's wrath.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:6 Eleazar and Ithamar. Aaron's youngest sons who yet lived. Later, the line of Eleazar would be designated as the unique line of the high priest (cf. Num. 25:10–13).
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:6–7 This prohibition against the customary signs of mourning was usually reserved for the high priest only as prescribed in 21:10– 12. Here, Moses applies it to Eleazar and Ithamar also.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:8–9 Drink no wine or strong drink. Taken in its context, this prohibition suggests that intoxication led Nadab and Abihu to
perform their blasphemous act. Cf. Prov. 23:20–35; 1 Tim. 3:3; Titus 1:7.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:11 teach the people of Israel. It was essential that alcohol not hinder the clarity of their minds, since the priests were to teach God's law to all of Israel. They were the expositors of the Scripture, alongside the prophets who generally received the word directly from the Lord. Ezra would become the supreme example of a commendable priest (Ezra 7:10).
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:12–15 See notes on the peace offering in 3:1–17 and 7:11–36.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 10:16–20 The sin offering had not been eaten as prescribed in 6:26, but rather it was wholly burned. It was the duty of the priests to have eaten the meat after the blood was sprinkled on the altar, but instead of eating it in a sacred feast, they had burned it outside the camp. Moses discovered this disobedience, probably from a dread of some further judgment, and challenged, not Aaron, whose heart was too torn in the death of his sons, but the two surviving sons in the priesthood to explain their breach of ritual duty. Aaron, who heard the charge, however, and by whose direction the violation had occurred, gave the explanation. His reason was that they had done all the ritual sacrifice correctly up to the point of eating the meat, but omitted eating because he was too dejected for a feast in the face of the appalling judgments that had fallen. He was wrong, because God had specifically commanded the sin offering to be eaten in the Holy Place. God's law was clear and it was sin to deviate from it at all. Moses sympathized with Aaron's grief, however, and having made his point, dropped the issue.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:1–16:34 Prescriptions for uncleanness are covered in this section. God used the tangible issues of life, which he labeled clean/unclean, to repeatedly impress upon Israel the difference between what was holy and unholy. "Clean" means acceptable to God; "unclean" means unacceptable to God. Leviticus 11–15 details the code of cleanness; Lev. 16 returns to sacrifices on the Day of Atonement.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:1–47 This section contains further legislation on the consumption of animals. Abel's offering hints at a "post-fall/pre-flood" diet of animals (Gen. 4:4). After the Noahic flood, God specifically had granted man permission to eat meat (Gen. 9:1–4), but here spelled out the specifics as covenant legislation. All of the reasons for the prohibitions are not specified. The
major points were: 1) that Israel was to obey God's absolute standard, regardless of the reason for it, or the lack of understanding of it; and 2) such a unique diet was specified that Israel would find it difficult to eat with the idolatrous people around and among them. Their dietary laws served as a barrier to easy socialization with idolatrous peoples. Dietary and hygienic benefits were real, but only secondary to the divine purposes of obedience and separation.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:3–23 This section is repeated in Deut. 14:3–20 in almost exact wording. The subject matter includes animals (Lev. 11:3–8), water life (vv. 9–12), birds (vv. 13–19), and insects (vv. 20–23).
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:4 camel. The camel has a divided foot of two large parts, but the division is not complete and the two toes rest on an elastic pad.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:5–6 rock badger . . . hare. While not true ruminating animals, the manner in which these animals processed their food gave the distinct appearance of "chewing the cud."
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:9 fins and scales. Much like the cud and hoof characteristics, the "no fin and scales" guidelines ruled out a segment of water life commonly consumed by ancient people.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:13 among the birds. Rather than unifying characteristics as in the hoof-cud and no fin-scales descriptions, the forbidden birds were simply named.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:21 This describes the locust (v. 22), which was allowed for food.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:24–43 This section deals with separation from other defiling things.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:26–27 These prohibited animals would include horses and donkeys, which have a single hoof, and lion and tigers, which have paws.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:30 gecko. A type of lizard.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:36 a spring or a cistern. The movement and quantity of water determined the probability of actual contamination. Water was scarce also, and it would have been a threat to the water supply if all water touched by these
prohibited carcasses were forbidden for drinking.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 11:44–45 Consecrate yourselves . . . be holy, for I am holy. In all of this, God is teaching his people to live antithetically. That is, he is using these clean and unclean distinctions to separate Israel from other idolatrous nations who have no such restrictions, and he is illustrating by these prescriptions that his people must learn to live his way. Through dietary laws and rituals, God is teaching them the reality of living his way in everything. They are being taught to obey God in every seemingly mundane area of life, so as to learn how crucial obedience is. Sacrifices, rituals, diet, and even clothing and cooking are all carefully ordered by God to teach them that they are to live differently from everyone else. This is to be an external illustration for the separation from sin in their hearts. Because the Lord is their God, they are to be utterly distinct. In v. 44, for the first time the statement "I am the Lord your God" is made, as a reason for the required separation and holiness. After this verse, that phrase is mentioned about 50 more times in this book, along with the equally instructive claim, "I am holy." Because God is holy and is their God, the people are to be holy in outward ceremonial behavior as an external expression of the greater necessity of heart holiness. The connection between ceremonial holiness carries over into personal holiness. The only motivation given for all these laws is to learn to be holy because God is holy. The holiness theme is central to Leviticus (see 10:3; 19:2; 20:7, 26; 21:6–8).
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 12:1–8 Uncleanness is related to the mother's afterbirth, not the child.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 12:2 menstruation. See note on 15:19–24.
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 12:3 eighth day. Joseph and Mary followed these instructions at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:21). circumcised. The sign of the Abrahamic (Gen. 17:9–14) Covenant was incorporated into the laws of Mosaic cleanness. Cf. Rom. 4:11–13. (For a discussion on circumcision, see note on Jer. 4:4.)
LEVITICUS—NOTE ON 12:5 two weeks . . . sixty-six days. Apparently mothers were unclean twice as long (80 days) after the birth of a daughter as a son (40 days), which reflected the stigma on women for Eve's part in the fall. This stigma is removed in Christ (see notes on 1 Tim. 2:13–15).