The Fear of the Lord — Serving God Is Not Casual

Strange Fire — A Warning for Today

The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, were trained in the priesthood, born into the priesthood. Can you imagine those young priests saying to themselves, "Why go so far to bring fire for the altar from the other side of the holy precinct? We have a much closer source of fire. Fire is fire is fire… We are late and Aaron our father is waiting for us, let us just get this fire that is much closer to the altar…" Boom! They did, and fire from Heaven devoured Nadav and Avihu.

This is consistent with all that the Lord demanded from His children. There is the command that a sick or damaged bull, goat, sheep or anything else cannot be offered to God as a sacrifice. The worshipper must offer his very best to the Lord. No second-best would work. God deserves the very best that we have. Even a simple thing like the oil for the candelabra has to be the best.

Worship Without a True Heart Is No Guarantee

Having a wonderful, beautiful, and sanctified place of worship — even directly commanded by the Creator Himself — does not guarantee that what is happening there is either pleasing to God or that serious sins are being prevented from happening right inside and under the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The grandiose and fancy and professional worship that looks like a Broadway show might not necessarily be an expression of sincere worship that expresses the true hearts of the worshippers. God looks into our hearts and into our inner parts and judges all flesh from what they have in their hearts.

The Lord pays attention to details and when He wants something done, He gives clear instructions and expects His servants to obey them and to do exactly what He has commanded. Worship is a privilege and a blessing, but only if it is done from the heart and with sincere and pure motives.

We see this clearly in the example of Bezalel:

The words that I would like to emphasize are:

It is true that our forefathers didn't always do all that the Lord commanded Moses! What we do see is that it is not impossible to be obedient and do the will of the Lord. Saints throughout all the generations have done it and built the platform for us to stand on.

Redefining the Fear of the Lord

I say to myself first, to my family second, and to our congregation in Jerusalem third, that we are good people, and we are "faithful" disciples of Yeshua. However, we have to sharpen the fear of the Lord in our lives — not fear in the pathological meaning of the word, but I would translate the word "fear" with the following: honor, respect, appreciation, desire to please, and deep love for someone who is giving us life and breath, the promise of eternity and acquittal in judgment, and fellowship with the saints forever and ever in a place where there is no death and no illness.

Here is what the Bible says about the fear of the Lord from beginning to end:

Two Things We Must Do Right — Because of the Fear of the Lord

Grace is not a license for disobedience and disrespect for the word and instruction of the Master of this Universe. Here are two short examples of things that the Lord commanded us to do, and we ought to do them just right because of our fear of the Lord. How we deal and resolve issues between brothers:

And how to give charity and contribute money to the Lord's community:

These are just two short examples of things that the Lord commanded us to do, and we ought to do them just right because of our fear of the Lord. I confess that this lesson is first and foremost for myself and not in condemnation of any one person or group or denomination. We all need to be reminded and admonished to take the word of God seriously and understand that the words and the instruction of our Lord Yeshua are expected and prescribed so that we can and must keep them and obey.