If you grew up going to a beach with waves, you may be familiar with the lifeguard sign: “Warning: Strong Rip Current.” When those signs are up, you’re supposed to steer clear of the water (especially when accompanied by small children). A rip current is a strong current that can pull you away from the shore, further into the ocean. Those who get caught in these currents can exhaust themselves trying to swim against the current back to shore, and subsequently drown. The ocean is beautiful, but being immersed in the waves can be dangerous if you aren’t careful.
Worship should be an immersion into God’s presence through the elements he has handed down to us. This is a glorious experience, but there are rip currents. If we’re not prepared for worship, the presence of God becomes a consuming fire rather than a sanctifying Spirit. No one knew this better than the priests, Nadab and Abihu.
Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized 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. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” (Lev. 10:1-3)
God didn’t just judge irreverent worship in the Old Testament. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, Paul rebuked the Corinthians for eating the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner (1 Cor. 11:27). This resulted in the discipline of New Testament worshippers who failed to turn from their sins and came to the table of the Lord flippantly, a judgment which could even result in death (1 Cor. 11:30).
Tragically, Nadab and Abihu drew near to God irreverently. We must not follow their example. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are called to approach God recognizing his holiness. “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:28) The same God who judged Nadab and Abihu is the God we come to in worship through Jesus Christ. Were it not for the perfect life of Jesus and our union with him by faith, the presence of God for us would be deadly. Washed in the blood of Jesus, and filled with a sense of reverence and awe, we come to God as humble and joyous servants.
Does the danger associated with God’s presence mean we should stay out of the ocean if we have sin in our lives, so to speak? The answer is: not necessarily. God invites sinners to come and worship, and promises to wash them in the waves of his grace. It’s only when we cling to our sin in the presence of God, unwilling to be cleansed by his love, that those waves of grace become crushing. In worship, the holy God calls broken people into his presence so that they might be cleansed. He commands us to lay aside our sins through confession and repentance. When we do, the consuming fire of God removes our stains and renews us to worship.
