Thurs.’s Devo - Strange Fire

Read: Lev. 9:7-10:20, Mark 4;26-5:20, Ps. 37:30-40, Pr. 10:6-7 Moses had given all the instruction on how to do the offerings and today was the day the priest was to make his first sacrifice for the sins of the people - an atonement. When he did, the glory of the Lord appeared and fire came from the presence of God and consumed the offering. The people shouted for joy and fell down on their faces in awe of God. I don’t know if Aaron’s sons got caught up in the moment or what, but they did the unthinkable. They took fire, not from the altar, into the Holy of Holies. This was wrong for so many reasons. It was suppose to be fire from the brazen altar and only one man was to go into the Holy of Holies and that was the High Priest. They were neither. They were both burned with God’s fire and had to be taken out of the camp. Aaron and the priests were not even able to mourn their deaths. Only the people could mourn. So what does this mean to us today? We are priests to God and we have to obey God no matter how foolish it sounds to us. We can never please God our way. Obedience is the way to God’s heart. We don’t mourn death because we know the truth. There is resurrection for God’s children. In Mark, Jesus is telling a parable about scattering seed, then he does a miracle to illustrate his point. He takes his disciples to cross the sea. There is a terrible storm and Jesus is asleep in the boat. The disciples are terrified and wake him up. Jeuss calms the sea and they reach the other side. They are met by a demoniac. Jesus sets him free to go spread the seed of the gospel to the people living in the Decapolis. He does and when Jesus returns there is much fruit. The storm was the devil’s attempt to keep Jesus from his man who he was occupying. Jesus swept him clean and used him for His glory. Lord, may we make a name for You today. We take refuge in you.