Life or death in God's presence!

Leviticus 16:1-2 NLT

1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died after they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him. 2 The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.

________________________

See why I worry about my children?
Emily Bode, Amy Westlake,
 Gwendolyn Bode, and Bethany Bode

I can't imagine How Aaron must have felt at the death of his two sons. We read in chapter 10 of Leviticus that Aaron remained silent when Moses explained God's reason for his two sons being consumed with fire from God's presence. I'm not sure you caught it but although the rest of the Israelites were allowed to mourn officially for the death of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and the rest of his family and the Levites were not allowed to mourn.

The death of a child must be devastating. I worry nearly every day for the last 24 years about my children! And I've seen the grief parents have at the loss of their child up close and personal. Grief is important. Aaron was denied the normal outward signs involved in this process.

Now his brother, Moses is asked by God to speak to Aaron and warn him about his own vulnerability in the presence of God.

Leviticus is all about being able to have God's presence in the midst of his people! The presence of God is special. It is not ordinary. And for sinful people to be allowed to be in God's presence they have to be reminded they are sinful! They have to know all the ways in which they offend God. The people have to see that being close to God is a matter of life and death.

Ever since the garden of Eden, all men have been under a death sentence. And every sin confirms that they can not live in the presence of God. Something has to be done to turn around the reign of death over each and every person.

In the next chapter, God says that the only way that anyone can be made clean enough to be with him is to have someone or something give it's life in their place.

Leviticus 17:11 NLT ...for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible. 

Blood given in exchange for a life, All the dead animals in the sacrificial system, and  all the barbecues for God alone, were meant to demonstrate the serious life or death situation between God and man!

Your sin offends God. It stinks to him. It amounts to treason. Your rebellion is an affront to him. Your willful cocky disobedience deserves death! But God wants to be close to you. He wants you in his family. He made you to know him. He is worthy of being known. There is nothing other than you being in his presence and worshiping him that matters. And for God sake, get over yourself. He is holy. He is pure. He is righteous in everything he does. He is the all knowing one. He is the all seeing one. He is the all powerful one. He created you. How for a millisecond can you even think you know better? What makes you imagine for a moment that you are more righteous? How can you judge God? What makes you think you have all the information? Really you know very little. You are weak. You are not very clever. You are easily deceived and you need help.

So God has a plan to bring you into his presence eternally. And his plan involved Jesus blood, given in exchange for your life. 

So he warns you as Moses warned Aaron; Don't come into God's presence without an invitation, don't come at the wrong time and don't come without being made pure by the sacrifice of someone's blood or you will loose your life.

But you can come, safely and boldly because of Jesus.

Look at what Jude says more than a thousand years later:

Jude 1:24-25

New Living Translation (NLT)

A Prayer of Praise

24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

And we can further see that although Aaron, the high priest had to be very careful and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu lost their lives for their carelessness, We can come into god's presence boldly because of Jesus.

Hebrews 4:14-16 NLT Christ Is Our High Priest

14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

God's promise of forgiveness.

Matthew 26:26-28 NASB

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."  And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you;  for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

_______________________________________

Many times Jesus told his followers that he would suffer and die. 

Jesus was with his followers eating a special holiday meal. The holiday celebrated the time God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt. Long before Jesus was born, God sent Moses to rescue his people from Egypt's evil ruler Pharaoh. God told Moses a terrible judgement would come to every home that did not put lamb's blood on the door posts of their house. If God's angel saw the people obeyed God and that they put lamb's blood on the door posts then they would be saved from the terrible judgement. When the God's people survived the judgement God said they needed to hurry and leave Egypt the next day. So God said make bread without yeast. God said you will not have time for the bread dough to rise. God told his people to remember that day by celebrating every year with a holiday called Passover. It is called passover because God's judgement passed over the house with lamb's blood on the door posts.

Jesus was eating the Passover holiday meal with his followers. During the meal it was traditional to eat special flat bread that was made with no yeast. The people did this to remember God's promise to rescue them and because they had to  leave in a hurry. At the Passover celebration the people would drink wine to remember the blood of the lamb that was put on the door posts.

Jesus said the bread and the wine had a new meaning. Now when his people celebrated together they would remember that Jesus died to rescue his people like the lamb in Egypt. On the cross Jesus body was broken and his blood was shed for his people.

Jesus said these were new promises from God. God promised to forgive many people's sin because Jesus died and faced God's terrible judgement.

When we remember God's promise together, we can be sure that because of Jesus' death we are forgiven.

Jesus died to forgive your sin!

Will you remind someone today?