Due to his weakness concerning God’s death-judgment upon Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and his sons were not fit to eat the sin offering (Lev. 10:16-17a, 19-20). This signifies that if we are weak in accepting God’s judgment upon the serving ones who are intimate and close to us, we will not be able to partake of Christ as our sin offering in the sense of taking His sin-dealing life as our life supply to minister Him to the believers as the sin-dealing life.
“Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and found that it had been burned up! And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons who remained, and said, Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the holy place?” (vv. 16-17a). Since the blood of this sin offering had not been brought inside, into the holy place, they should have eaten it as Moses had commanded (v. 18). Moses therefore rebuked them for not doing so. Then Aaron said to Moses, “See, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before Jehovah, and such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it be pleasing in the sight of Jehovah?” (v. 19). On the one hand, Aaron and his sons were weak concerning God’s death-judgment; on the other hand, Aaron had a proper consideration, for he and his sons were sorrowful and unhappy, and eating the sin offering under such circumstances would not have been pleasing to the Lord. Aaron told Moses that because of their sorrow, it would not have been fitting for them to eat the sin offering. “When Moses heard that, it was pleasing in his sight” (v. 20). Aaron’s response pleased Moses, who represented God, and thus God also must have been pleased.
This incident indicates that with respect to keeping the regulations made by God, in God’s mercy there is a margin that is out of consideration for our circumstances. Aaron and his sons had not kept God’s regulation in a legal way. They had not followed the divine regulation, not because of disobedience but because of a positive consideration of their circumstances.
These verses also show us that we should not keep God’s regulations in a rushed way. Instead of following the divine regulation in a hurried way, Aaron and his sons considered their situation and circumstances, and thus did not keep the regulation legally. What Aaron and his sons did was seemingly against God’s regulation, but actually it was something done in wisdom.
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