the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Abihu
Morrish Bible Dictionary
or Abihu and Nadab, sons of Aaron, with seventy of the elders of Israel, were invited to ascend with Moses, where they saw God and did eat and drink, Exodus 24:1,9-11 . They were consecrated to minister to the Lord as priests, yet on the first occasion of their exercising the priesthood for Israel they offered strange fire, which the Lord had not commanded, and were smitten by fire from God. Leviticus 10:1,2 . Immediately before this we read that "there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat." Thatfire was never to go out, and doubtless the fire Abihu should have used was the fire that was upon the brazen altar, as is ordained in Leviticus 16:12 . We read elsewhere that everything was to be done 'as the Lord commanded Moses;' but of this which Nadab and Abihu did, it expressly says it was not commanded; therefore it was sin, and God was dishonoured. Their death followed, and Aaron and his other sons were not to leave the tabernacle nor mourn for the dead. Numbers 26:60,61; 1 Chronicles 24:1,2 . The case of Nadab and Abihu should teach us that not every kind of worship is acceptable to God: "they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth," John 4:24 : mere outward worship will not do and it must be according to what God has revealed. If separated from the sacrifice of Christ it is but the energy of nature, and is offensive to God.
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Morrish, George. Entry for 'Abihu'. Morrish Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/mbd/a/abihu.html. 1897.
