Innovation vs. Imitation. Numbers 3
Now these are the records of the generations of Aaron and Moses at the time when the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. These then are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he ordained to serve as priests. But Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered strange fire before the LORD in the wilderness of Sinai; and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the lifetime of their father Aaron. Numbers 3:1-4
I wasn't sure what to make of this “strange” story, when I was asked to read it in services. Half of the first-generation priests died in God’s presence because of offering a “strange fire”. Now, I think I know what happened. It's the difference between faking it and making it, even in the highest of callings.
Tonight begins Shavuot, the anniversary of the giving of the law, one of the lasting innovations and the foundational code of conduct of Western civilization. It also marks the beginning Pentecost, the democratization of the Holy Spirit to all humankind, not just in select instances.
When the Jewish people left Egypt, God began to re-invent them as a nation. Moses on Sinai sets out a new societal structure for a new society of two million people that kept the peace and provided for their needs, even of the neediest: orphans, widows, the sick, and the poor. They were not organized by political parties, nor by trades as they may have been in Egypt. They were grouped by families. Moses lays out a city master plan that has as its center, its town square, “the tent of meeting” and the sacrifices priests.
In the middle of setting out this master plan is a literally “strange” portion where half of the four first-generation priests are wiped out in a “strange fire”. What exactly was THAT?
Every US patent application must start with the words “A means by which…”, in which the applicant describes the innovation's goal, and the MEANS by which the inventor proposes to accomplish it.
State the Goal, tell the means by which you will achieve it.
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, as Messiah also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma," Ephesians 5:1
Imitation of God is the "means by which" a proper life is designed, a proper sacrifice is offered.
Many of the great patents result from imitating nature. Alex Graham Bell was not a scientist or engineer, he was a teacher of the deaf. He was trying to find a way to amplify the vibrations of the vocal cords so deaf people could feel what it was like to speak and IMMITATE it.
( Everyone’s heard of Bell, but you probably never heard of Elisha Gray, also an inventor. He filed a similar patent literally hours after Bell. Bell’s telephone is thought of as the most valuable patent ever. Poor Mr. Gray… as Maxwell Smart used to say: “missed it by THAT much.“ )
One of the most impactful patents ever had its anniversary this week. On May 22, 1906, they U.S. patent 821,393, for a "Flying Machine" was filed by the Wright Brothers. Governments and inventors all over the US and Europe were working to invent “flying machines”, in an international tech race. Many of them could make a passable attempt at building a machine that could fly. NO ONE seemed interested in HOW to fly without getting killed. They did not know the “means by which” to fly the machines. In his book "The Wright Brothers", McCullough describes how, at Kitty Hawk, the Wright Bros stood for hours with their arms outstretched, imitating birds stalled in flight in the sea breezes. Before they even flew, they knew HOW to fly… the MEANS BY WHICH to fly.
God’s goal in this chapter is to form a people for Himself:
“The people whom I formed for Myself
will declare My praise.
Isaiah 43:21
But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 1 Peter 2:9
What on earth is going on in this passage about the "strange fire"? Why did the first born priest and his brother have to die? I believe the two older brothers NADAV AND AVIHU found MAGNESIUM, which is still mined around in the area of south west Jordan. You may know it burns with a spectacular white flash at up to 5600 degrees F. Wood burns at about 5-600 degrees. I think these two Cohain brothers (unlike the Wright Brothers) decided to INVENT something that contradicted God and nature, and create their own Ringling Brothers spectacular, STRANGE FIRE and become ringleaders of a spectacle, instead of waiting on the presence of the Lord reflecting His excellence... HIS "marvelous light" not a magnesium firelight. Maybe the fire itself burned them as they faked the presence of the Lord. It was an impulse that God anticipated and they should have known, thei edict being only a couple months old:
Exo 30:9 You shall not offer any strange incense on this altar, or burnt offering or meal offering;
So maybe you, like me, are trying to re-imagine your life closer to God and His purposes.. Imitate! Here is a description of the correct sacrifice:
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, as Messiah also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma," Ephesians 5:1
Comments
Post a Comment