The last verses of Leviticus 9, starting from Verse 21 is a little confusing. In Verse 21, Aaron takes the breasts and right thigh of the bull or ram and then did a wave offering. I'm not sure if he used both the bull and ram, but they were used for peace offerings. Also, from Verse 21, it says the right thigh like it's being used in singular form, so I wonder if it came from either.
Verses 22-23 state that Aaron lifted his hand toward the people to bless them. I don't understand how this is done yet, so I'm not guessing at the moment and taking it for what it is. Verse 22 also states that Aaron came down from doing the sin offering, burnt offering, and peace offerings. It's like the people were able to see what Aaron was doing. Verse 23 states that Moses and Aaron first went into the tabernacle of meeting and then came out to bless the people. It must have been a moment that felt very good for the people of Israel who were there.
Verse 24 reminds me of like the ultimate finishing move for a fighting video game. It states that fire came out and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. The funny animation is something I thought would be a knock off version, but I sort of get the idea from it. This is supposed to feel like the most exciting part to me because God said that He would show himself before the people. It's something that the people had never seen before, and this chapter concludes with them shouting and falling on their faces. It's like they were afraid of what they saw. I didn't really expect that to happen.
Overall, I sort of wish that maybe God could have done a more miraculous thing before His people. It actually makes sense for fire to consume and burn livestock. Maybe the way it burned was just one of those days where you felt that it's out of the ordinary and that might have been enough for these people to be convicted that God does exist.
My best friend is a firm believer of God, but his ideas of who God is overrun how God actually portrays Himself in the Bible; I believe that it's a pretty common thing for people to think like this. What I'm saying is that even though these children of Israel were convinced of God leading them through Moses, some of them were still not fully happy about committing to the Lord's ways and wanted to do personal things to get some pleasure out of it that were not aligned with the Lord's commands. Those people just probably had the wrong ideas going for them and couldn't overcome their carnal desires that filled them with lusting for it more.
-------------------
Leviticus 10 starts out with Aaron's sons fooling around with the Lord's commands by creating their own incensed fire to offer to the Lord. I remember doing this at a Buddhist temple once; I seriously ticked off my buddies, and I thought I was going to get a heart attack, but fortunately nothing happened. Verse 2 states that Aaron's sons weren't so lucky like I was; they ended up getting burned up by the Lord's fire.
Verse 3 talks about the Lord's explanation for causing this. The Lord commanded Moses to tell Aaron, "By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified." It seems like Aaron's sons treated these sin offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings like it was some sort of game. Maybe they were too immature even though they might have meant good intentions when God called them to be priests. Most definitely though, it serves as a warning for other faithful generations to come. I think this could probably be what fearing the Lord is related to.
What I sort of notice is that Aaron and Moses has some history dealing with God. Moses has this great and intimate relationship with God. However, Aaron sort of knew not to mess with God because he was there all the way with Moses during their time in Egypt with the well-known tale of the seven plagues that terrorized the Pharaoh. It looks like Aaron's sons on the other hand were oblivious about the Lord's ways and were just starting up. How Aaron didn't complain to the Lord about this incident is such a marvel to me. I guess Aaron took it like a man, literally and was still able to be a good man; I believe there are some people who would go crazy from this stressful incident and not function properly.
I guess there's the saying of when the going gets tough, you got to ___ (fill-in). I'm really encouraged by how Aaron who was a lesser man than Moses was able to be a good sport. Being the older brother, it would probably be easy to let the age factor bother him especially in those times. Job is an even greater example of going through hard times and then being rewarded like three-times fold at the end of the book by God. If I was in a bad situation, I would want to ride it out too with the Lord's help and stay right with the Lord's ways; whether the Lord's intentions is to keep me in a tight spot or not.
I sort of feel like in these verses how some people reading this could be like, "Come on, people dying by fire created by God? It's got to be only a myth." Well, I can only hope that maybe someday they'll come to a conviction that the God that exists in the Bible is a true God. If God was truly living and alive and amazing like this, then I'm sure this scene wouldn't be too much of a surprise dealing with God's abilities. That's where I'm at right now, I don't know about you.
