God is Not a Chemistry Experiment

May 28, 2025May 24, 2025Todd R 3 Comments

There are some Old Testament stories that seem frightening, or even repulsive. We might read these and ask, is that the same God that we worship today? One of these is a brief story of Aaron’s sons, found in Leviticus 10:1-2.

“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. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.”

These sons of Aaron were priests, with detailed instructions for worshipping God, like those found in Leviticus 16:12 (“And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil”) and Exodus 30:9 (“You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it.”). There are many theories on what they did wrong, including that they took the coals from somewhere other than from the altar, but I think all the theories imply that they were treating worship like a chemistry experiment.

What do I mean by that? Nadab and Abihu knew what God wanted but probably were curious to see what would happen if they offered something different. As someone with a chemistry set knows what happens when they mix chemical A and chemical B, they might try to learn something new by mixing chemicals A, B, and C. Like Adam and Eve in the beginning, and everyone else since then, they thought “what’s the worst that could happen if we try to do this our own way?” Nadab and Abihu might have been trying to learn something, and they tragically did, because God is not a laboratory where we explore our curiosity.

Living Sacrifices
In the New Testament book of Romans, Paul wrote:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”[1]

Paul is teaching a similar lesson to that of Aaron’s sons, that God alone gets to determine what worship is acceptable to Him, and we should offer it. According to Paul, the proper offering to God in worship is our own lives. This is not just a New Testament idea. The Old Testament prophet Micah said:

“With what shall I come before the LORD,
         and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
         with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
         with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
         the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good;
         and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
         and to walk humbly with your God?”[2]

God did provide laws for making sacrifices to Him, but the real purpose of those sacrifices was to point toward a future where Christ would be sacrificed so we could “do justice,” “love kindness,” and be humble before God. Religious people in all places and times have tried to offer the right mix of ritual, the right recipe of doctrine, or the right form of rigid behaviors, but none of it can replace what God has offered for us – His own Son. None of those other attempts at worship give us a future of being reconciled to our God and to each other.

Nadab and Abihu’s lesson is not just about the wrath of an Old Testament God, but a lesson for all times that there is only one God, and that He determines what is acceptable, in sacrifices and in actions. He gives us rules and guidance because not every path is good for us, and He knows we only put ourselves in danger by not following Him. The fate of Aaron’s sons proves it.

Because we cannot live a perfect life as an acceptable living offering, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[3] Jesus lived the perfect life to be the only acceptable sacrifice. To benefit from that sacrifice, we must accept his righteousness as our own by calling him Lord, then He will be our Savior. We must accept that His righteousness is the righteousness we want. No other sacrifice will do. God is not a chemistry experiment.

[1] Romans 12:1-2
[2] Micah 6:6-8
[3] Romans 5:8

Holiness is Like a Bowl of M&Ms?

April 28, 2025April 27, 2025Todd R 2 Comments

Rock stars get a bad reputation for big egos and decadent lifestyles, and often for good reason. But sometimes it’s just a misunderstanding. Over the years, rock band Van Halen has been criticized over the infamous “brown M&M” clause in their contract with concert promoters. Listed among many requirements, including how they want the stage set up and safety concerns, was buried a requirement that there should be a bowl of M&Ms backstage. But not just any bowl: it had to have absolutely no brown-colored M&Ms. This clause gained the band a bad reputation, because what kind of egomaniac would make someone go through the work of picking out every brown M&M? Don’t all the colors taste the same anyway?

However, the clause had nothing to do with the band’s taste in M&M flavors or colors. In addition to all the contract terms needed to cover many “important things,” they also needed a quick and easy way to know that the workers at the arena had thoroughly read the contract. The M&Ms were that way. Because of the “brown M&M” clause, as soon as the band walked backstage, seeing the bowl of M&Ms would immediately let them know the “important things” would be covered as well.

What’s this story doing on a Christian blog? In the Bible, God describes His relationship with His people as a covenant, a form of contract, in this case between a King and His subjects. Some parts of this agreement – consider the long descriptions of the tabernacle and temple in the Old Testament – may seem dull and insignificant. Much of Exodus 25-27, and most of Exodus 35-40, detail the design of the tabernacle as given by God to Moses. The collection of the materials, the work of the craftsmen in building the various parts, and finally Moses setting up the completed tabernacle are listed in seemingly repetitive and pointless detail.

However, in addition to God wanting His tabernacle set up correctly, the mere accumulation of detail also makes a point – that God cares about every single detail of His covenant with His people. Nothing is to be ignored, just like the bowl of M&Ms. But this concern for detail does not mean that He holds every violation we commit over our head to make us feel guilty. Instead, it makes two points:

First, anything less than holiness is not good enough for God. If He accepted less, He would not be just. As one brown M&M was too much for Van Halen, or one drop of cyanide would be too much to put in our glass of water, one instance of sin is too much for God. Therefore, only Jesus, by living the perfect life, could be acceptable to God the Father. Fortunately for all of us, Jesus’ righteousness is offered to us freely. He met the standard of perfection for us.

Second, the level of detail lets us know that He cares about every detail of our lives. We can talk to Him about anything because there is nothing He is not concerned about or is not interested in hearing from us, or able to lovingly walk alongside us through. David wrote in Psalm 23:4 that:

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
            I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
            your rod and your staff,
            they comfort me.”

The rod and staff of our Good Shepherd are not there to punish us, but to guide and lead us through every experience we have in this world, good or bad, and into the next world, where all is holy and good. His covenant with us – His contractual promise – is to be our God, and we are to be His people.

Our Father in heaven cares about every little thing. Even brown M&Ms.

Faithful Affliction

April 15, 2025April 14, 2025Todd R 1 Comment

Sometimes the Bible surprises us by explaining things differently than how our natural instincts would like. In the case of Psalm 119:75, there are two words that we might not think of together:

“I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous,
and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.”

How often do we associate God’s faithfulness with affliction? Don’t we usually associate it with our blessings? Yet there it is: “in faithfulness you have afflicted me.”

Earlier, in verse 71, David wrote:

“It is good for me that I was afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes.”

Then he says the benefit he gets from learning this is more than “thousands of gold and silver pieces”. Since we benefit from discipline, would God be unfaithful if He did not discipline us? Or do we only consider Him faithful when things seem to go well?

“My son, do not despise the LORD’S discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
for the LORD reproves him whom he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.” – Proverbs 3:11-12

He is faithful, always. Even in affliction. Perhaps especially.

God, Our Eternal River

January 18, 2025January 18, 2025Todd R 2 Comments

When comparing Genesis and Revelation, we find similarities between the Paradise man lost and the Paradise to come. Consider these verses about each:

Genesis 2:8-9: “And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.”
Revelation 22:1-2: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

In each description is the tree of life, and also a river. Rivers are greatly beneficial to the growth of cities and civilizations, providing benefits for agriculture, trade, travel, etc. Even today, most large cities that don’t border a large body of water have a navigable river nearby or flowing through it. A big city without one is rare: in the United States, Dallas, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina, may be the only major cities not located near a significant river.

Rivers are mentioned a lot in the Bible, including in this Psalm about God being our refuge and fortress. An unnamed river in the “city of God” is mentioned:

“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.” (Psalm 46:4)

However, Jerusalem, the place Jews in the Old Testament period would have considered the “city of God” does not have a river. The Psalmist certainly knew this, so their point is about something else, that the “city of God” has, well, it has God, as described in the next verses:

“God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
            God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
            he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
            the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah” (Psalm 46:5-7)

Jerusalem may not have a river, but it has God who provides all it needs and more. No river required. Even though the literal, ancient Jerusalem was eventually destroyed by the Babylonians, and later by the Romans, the eternal City of God will never be moved. All other nations “rage” and “totter,” but God’s kingdom is forever secured by the One whose voice melts the earth. Hebrews 1:10-12 (quoting from Psalm 102:25-27):

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
            and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
            they will all wear out like a garment,
like a robe you will roll them up,
            like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
            and your years will have no end.”

Do you worry that you lack things others have? Things that would provide benefits for your business, spare time, or other pursuits? With God as our fortress and refuge, we don’t need a river, but in Paradise He will provide one anyway.

Fret not, for you have God, our eternal river.

“Let Not the Flood Sweep Over Me”

September 19, 2024September 18, 2024Todd R 1 Comment

A recent post was about Jeremiah’s comparison of false religion to a broken cistern, with God alternatively being “the fountain of living waters.”[1] Jeremiah lived when most of God’s people – including most of the priests and prophets – had turned from Him to follow other gods. As Jeremiah remained faithful, correctly predicting that Jerusalem would fall to Babylon, he was persecuted, including this instance in Jeremiah 38:6, where King Zedekiah’s officials “took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.”

Since God is “the fountain of living waters,” the only path to eternal blessing, it’s incredibly ironic that Jeremiah, one of the few remaining faithful prophets and therefore a rare source of God’s “living waters,” should be cast into a cistern with no water. Perhaps it was broken. King Zedekiah thought he could silence the “living waters” Jeremiah represented by casting them into a cistern, trading truth for falsehood.

Later, Jeremiah seems to recall the cistern experience in Lamentations 3:52-57, where he said:

“I have been hunted like a bird
            by those who were my enemies without cause;
they flung me alive into the pit
            and cast stones on me;
water closed over my head;
            I said, ‘I am lost.’
‘I called on your name, O LORD,
            from the depths of the pit;
you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
            your ear to my cry for help!’
You came near when I called on you;
            you said, ‘Do not fear!’”

Returning to the book of Jeremiah, we read that Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian eunuch, heard of Jeremiah’s situation and pleaded his case: “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.”[2] This unlikely source – a foreigner – was Jeremiah’s deliverance from God to rescue Jeremiah from the well. Ebed-melech gathered 30 men, “Then they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.”

Jeremiah was not the only Old Testament figure to suffer for his faithfulness. Many years earlier, King David also referred to “sinking in the mire” in the Messianic Psalm 69, verses 14-15:

“Deliver me
            from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
            and from the deep waters.
Let not the flood sweep over me,
            or the deep swallow me up,
            or the pit close its mouth over me.”

David knew this feeling of sinking came not because of his sin, but when he was faithfully serving his Lord. David’s “sinking in the mire” happened under these circumstances from verse 9 of the same Psalm:

“For zeal for your house has consumed me,
and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.”

In Jeremiah’s case, as well as David’s and that of Jesus, whom Psalm 69 foreshadowed[3], we know that cannot judge our faithfulness based on whether it improves our circumstances. When we do, we might stop being faithful because it seems we are “sinking in the mire.” Being reproached by the world and feeling down aren’t the circumstances we prefer, but “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”[4] Through these and all other circumstances, God develops in us deeper trust in Him.

Therefore, with David may we pray:

“But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD.
At an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.” – Psalm 69:13

And in His time, He will deliver us, perhaps in ways we don’t expect.

Coda

In 1995, Christian rock group Jars of Clay released their self-titled album, and the track “Flood” has similar themes to this post. The song was also a mainstream hit, charting as high as No. 12 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart,[5] amazing for a song that is essentially a prayer like David’s in Psalm 69.

You can check out the song’s lyrics here: https://genius.com/Jars-of-clay-flood-lyrics

Or, if you have 3 ½ minutes, watch the music video here: