Then Moses said unto Aaron, &c.— Aaron, no doubt, must have been pierced with severe anguish upon receiving this dreadful stroke. To alleviate which, Moses desires him to recollect, that this event was agreeable to the divine declaration, (Exodus 19:22; Exodus 29:43-44.Leviticus 8:35.) as well as to the peculiar sanctity of God; tending to shew, in the most awful manner, that God would be sanctified or had in reverence by all those who came nigh him, but more especially by his priests, who, in a peculiar manner, draw nigh to God, and who, as Dr. Shuckford observes, then only sanctified and glorified God when they dispensed to his people, as parts of his religion, what he had commanded: but when they varied from it, and performed what he commanded not, then they assumed to themselves a power which belonged not to them, then they acted of themselves; and so, instead of glorifying God, sought their own glory. See 1 Samuel 6:20. Ezekiel 28:22. Bishop Hall supposes Aaron to have been addressed by Moses in the following pathetic words: "My brother, this event is fearful, but just: these were thy sons, but they sinned; it was not for GOD, it is not for thee, to look so much who they were as what they did. It was their honour and thine that they were chosen to minister before the Lord; he who called them justly required their sanctification and obedience: if they have profaned God and themselves, can thy natural affection so bias thee that thou couldst wish their impunity with the blemish of thy master? Our sons are not ours, if they disobey our Father: if thou repinest at their judgment, take heed lest the same fire of God come forth upon this strange fire of nature. Shew now, whether thou more lovest God or thy sons; shew whether thou be a better father or a son."
I will be sanctified— i.e. says an eminent writer, "I expect to be worshipped most reverently, with a decorum and rite bearing some resemblance of my separate and eminent Nature. It is not suitable to the majesty and peculiar eminence of God, that his worship should be performed by common culinary fire."
And Aaron held his peace— Nothing can be more emphatic and beautiful than these words. The venerable father, without murmuring or complaint, bows his head, and adores the Divine Providence in this awful dispensation. A passage like this in profane writers, would have been quoted with the highest applause. Something similar to it, is recorded of the famous Xenophon. While he was employed in offering a public sacrifice, a messenger brought him the melancholy news, that his eldest son Gryllus was killed in the battle of Mantinea; upon which he put off his mitre, till he should learn in what manner his son fell; but as soon as he was told, that the brave youth died victorious, he put it on again; and continuing the sacrifice, with hands lifted up to heaven, called the gods to witness, that the grief he felt for the loss of so dear a son, was far from equalling the joy he received from the heroic manner of his death.
REFLECTIONS.—God, who prescribes his own worship, will see it observed, or execute exemplary judgment on the disobedient; of which we have an awful instance in this punishment of Nadab and Abihu.
1. They seem to have been proud of their new office, and in haste to run before God called them; not without suspicion that they had drank too freely in their feasts, and thus rushed, in their iniquity, into the presence of the Lord. A drunken priest is a monster indeed!
2. Their punishment was immediate death in the very act of rebellion. So God sometimes stops the mouth of the profane with the lie and the oath half uttered, and lets the drunkard fall into eternal death. Fire from the Lord destroyed them; not burnt up their bodies, but slew them, like lightning, without singeing even their garments. Thus damned sinners, tormented with fire from the presence of the Lord, continue tormented, yet unconsumed, in everlasting burnings.