You Had One Job

TITLE: YOU HAD ONE JOB

SCRIPTURE: LEVITICUS 10:1-3

You had one job is a phrase used to express one’s frustration that someone or something has failed at the main or sole task they were responsible for, especially when that task seems very easy or fundamental. You had one job is a popular catchphrase, uttered when people want to highlight a poorly executed task of someone else.

Recently, I was scrolling through some social media site and stumbled across an image with the caption below it that read “you had one job!” It was a shirt that was supposed to be a picture of the continent of Asia; but it was not Asia, it was a picture of the continent of Africa.

• The designers of the shirt had one job

• One job, and they messed it up

That slogan sums up the narrative of Nadab and Abihu.

• These were the two sons of Aaron

• Their one job was to get the fire to burn on the altar of incense

Aaron, of course, was the older brother of Moses and the first high priest of Israel. God had consecrated Aaron and his sons to the holy vocation of the Priesthood. It was in the context of their priestly service that two of Aaron’s four sons, Nadab and Abihu, each got a censer — a kind of vessel that was used in antiquity to contain the incense that was burned as an offering before God

• Put fire in them

• Put incense on them

• However, they offered what the book of LEVITICUS calls “UNAUTHORIZED FIRE”

What is “Unauthorized Fire,” or, as it is rendered in other translations, “Profane Fire” or “Strange Fire?” We use the word profane to refer to that which is less than holy, but the word profane comes from the Latin profanus, which literally means “outside the temple.” So, in a literal sense, Moses, as the author of Leviticus, is saying the fire Nadab and Abihu introduced to the altar had not been purified or consecrated. For that, God took their lives.

To understand this incident more fully, we have to go back to the book of Exodus. Just before God gave His Ten Commandments, He told Moses He soon would come to him in a thick cloud so the people might hear Him speaking and believe. To prepare for that stupendous vision, God commanded the people to consecrate themselves.

• He also set strict borders around Mount Sinai, saying whoever touched the mountain would die

• When God came, “THERE WERE THUNDERS AND LIGHTNINGS AND A THICK CLOUD ON THE MOUNTAIN AND A VERY LOUD TRUMPET BLAST, SO THAT ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE CAMP TREMBLED”

• God called Moses to ascend the mountain, but before revealing His law - God sent Moses back down the mountain to repeat and expand the warning

• He said -- “GO DOWN AND WARN THE PEOPLE, LEST THEY BREAK THROUGH TO THE LORD TO LOOK AND MANY OF THEM PERISH. ALSO LET THE PRIESTS WHO COME NEAR TO THE LORD CONSECRATE THEMSELVES, LEST THE LORD BREAK OUT AGAINST THEM”

Nadab and Abihu were called into the unique ministry of priesthood which involved working in the Tabernacle, a massive tent constructed to host the very presence of God to dwell amid His covenant people. When a priest served in the Tabernacle, they were, in a sense, serving in the presence of the Lord.

• Different and unlike anything else, God’s holiness was uniquely represented in the Tabernacle

• Sin and disobedience had no place there because sin cannot exist in the presence of God

• All Priests were given clear warning of the danger of coming into the presence of God

If we that dawn the Pulpits every week would just understand the MAGNITUDE of what we do. It is no for our Glory, we are serving God’s people in the presence of the Lord.

• Too much tomfoolery in the pulpits today

• Too much clowning and joking in the pulpits today

• Too much show boating in the pulpits today

• We think the Pulpit belongs to us instead of God

God gave clear instructions to the Priests about what they were expected to do. This included not offering incense which did not meet God’s specifications.

• Nadab and Abihu blatantly disregarded God’s commands

• They carelessly acted on their own authority and did not bother to even consult Moses who oversaw the Tabernacle service that day

• God alone is holy and worthy of our total submission and worship

So, at the very formation of the nation of Israel, God laid down the fundamental laws of consecration for the priests. He warned them that if they were not consecrated or if they violated their consecration, He would “break out” against them.