Follow the pattern!

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. Leviticus 10.1

We remember that God’s Covenant is all of grace. God designed it, and He knows what must be done, for the sake of His grace, in order to satisfy the demands of His holiness and the needs of His people. It is presumptuous – and dangerous – to offer to the Lord as a means of grace anything but what He has commanded. Nadab and Abihu learned this the hard way.

The ceremonial laws prescribe a wide variety of means by which the people of God might engage Him in His presence and glory and experience deeper levels of His grace. Prayers and incense, sacrifices and offerings, tithes and gifts, oaths and vows, things specially devoted to the Lord, Sabbaths and feasts – these ceremonies and practices all had their place in the life of an Israelite to remind him of his need for grace and to enable him to be restored in it. God expressly warned His people against taking His name in vain or incorporating any pagan practices or innovations in the worship they offered to Him.

The means of grace today have changed: Corporate worship, the Word of God, prayer, the sacraments, fasting, and so forth. But they remain the means God has prescribed, to be employed within a framework of life and worship directed by His Spirit, according to His Word, in the grace of His Son, for the praise of His glory.

This principle has been largely set aside in many churches today. Worship in many churches – not to mention disciple-making, the practice of discipline, the work of shepherding, and preaching – is determined more by the needs, interests, tastes, and experiences of the people, and the familiar practices of the surrounding culture, than by the holiness of God and the pattern of life and worship revealed in His Word.

While God does not strike us down as suddenly as He did Nadab and Abihu, do we assume that He has changed His mind about how we might gain access to His grace? We’re willing to substitute cheap spiritual thrills for entering the presence and glory of God, there to know His transforming and world-upending power. Consequently, we are content and growing as a community, but ineffectual in representing Christ or His power to our age. We are dying as a community as surely as Nadab and Abihu died. The only difference is that, living in the age of grace, God is bearing with us much longer, hoping that we will come to our senses, forsake the pig pens of this world, and make our way back to Him before it is too late.

Whether or not we will do so remains to be seen.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.