Sunday message: Rules and mercy.

So I was reading yet again the story in Leviticus 10 where Aaron's sons apparently (from the context) got drunk before offering the wrong incense to God, and were struck down.  A succession of things confusing to us then followed.  First, Moses told Aaron and his remaining sons that they were not allowed to publicly grieve, lest it be seen by the congregation that they were grieved against God's judgment and they, too, be struck down.  Then, Moses, being hyper-paranoid lest the Aaron family commit some other violation of the spanking-new and fairly complicated laws of sacrifice, noticed that the goat from the people's sin offering wasn't in evidence.  According to the law of the Sin Offering, this particular sacrifice was to be offered with rejoicing and eaten by the priestly family.

Eventually, Moses found the goat burned at the altar.  And he came unglued at Aaron in a bit of panic:

Lev 10:16  Now Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it was burned up! And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the surviving sons of Aaron, saying, 
Lev 10:17  "Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary, since it is a thing most holy and has been given to you that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the LORD? 
Lev 10:18  Behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. You certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded." 

The questioning comes with Aaron's response- and Moses' reaction TO it.

Lev 10:19  And Aaron said to Moses, "Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, and yet such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the LORD have approved?" 

Lev 10:20  And when Moses heard that, he approved. 

The questioning among the commentators is thus: Why would the Lord not have approved?  In our modern eyes, we look at it and say, "Because they were grieving, it wouldn't have been a joyous occasion, thus how could they eat with rejoicing?"  The other argument goes, "Under the judgment they had already faced, there remained a possibility that they were not HOLY enough, and God might have struck them down for eating the holy food."  I'd like to set aside the case itself, and look at the arguments here, and how they apply to us.

First argument:  God would not approve me rejoicing half-heartedly because I am in mourning.  BZZZT.  Read again Paul in 1 Thessalonians:

1Th 5:16  Rejoice always, 

1Th 5:17  pray without ceasing, 

1Th 5:18  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

God gets that we will mourn in this life.  Else, why would He promise to one day "dry every tear"? (Rev. 21:4)  But He also has two great ways to get out of it:  To rejoice, because of the future promise; and to give thanks for all He has given.  Lesson here: grief is not an excuse for lack of service; indeed, service through thanksgiving is the cure for grief.

Second argument: Looking at my life, I wasn't good enough to do the job.  BZZT again.  Just two chapters back, they had been taken through all the sacrifices that MADE them holy.  Was something they hadn't done, or might have done, going to change that?  I suppose you could make the argument that the other sons had been drinking WITH Nadab and Abihu, but got off because they hadn't offered the sacrifice.  But if that was the case, Moses would have done more than ban them from drinking, he would have told them to offer another Sin Offering for themselves before being re-dedicated.

Thing is, there are a lot of us that use this same excuse for not serving- we're not holy enough.  But in Aaron's time the sacrifice, and in our times Christ, has taken care of that.  The sin offering back then covered unintentional sins, as well as those of conscious mind.  So too has the Cross of Christ.

So why then did Aaron make the excuse, and why did Moses accept it?  In trying to figure this out, I did some background on how the Jews saw Aaron, and I found a curious story about the Golden Calf incident in the Jews' Sanhedrin texts.  The debate was on compromise, and one rabbi had addressed the 'why' of Aaron agreeing to make the calf.  According to their story, they start with the fact that Exodus says that when Moses went to the mountain, Aaron AND HUR were put in charge.  That was the last mention of Hur, and they believed that this is because the people killed Hur for resisting their demands.  Aaron then reasoned:

Aaron said to himself: If I do not listen to them now, they will do to me as they did to Hur, and the verse: “Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?” (Lamentations 2:20), will be fulfilled through me, and they will never have a remedy for such a sin. It is better for them to worship the calf, as it is possible they will have a remedy through repentance. Nevertheless, according to Rabbi Tanḥum bar Ḥanilai, whoever praises Aaron for this compromise is provoking God.

Circular reasoning at best, since Aaron would be referencing a "prophecy" that wouldn't be written for several HUNDRED years.  But the point of Aaron's character is important:  Where Moses was the strict, by the book guy, Aaron was the one that tempered the judgments with MERCY.  And they point out (yet again from a prophecy that wouldn't be made until several centuries after the incidents) that God values mercy over sacrifice.

And I believe that this was Moses' point in accepting the reasoning of Aaron.  That at this level of mourning, this close to the time in question, God would show more mercy to them in accepting a sacrifice they COULD be 100% behind (the burning) rather than the by-the-books eating of a "joyous meal" that they had to choke down.  They did it from a perspective of HONORING God, rather than shaming Him, and thus Moses approved in this one instance.  This fits the progression of humility-fear of the Lord- wisdom and understanding we have developed the last few Wednesdays.

I watch as 'religious' facebook friends debate what kind of music should be played at church, which way the priest should be facing, if you should raise your hands in worship or fold them in prayer.  If they would just REALLY look at this one passage, they would see perhaps that all of that MEANS NOTHING compared to the heart being right with God.