Introduction: Approaching a Holy God

If you’ve ever been on a Bible reading plan, we’re going to actually spend some time in the part of that Bible reading plan where maybe you guys have fallen off. We’re starting at the end of Exodus and going through Leviticus this morning. You’re going to have to buckle up because we’re doing about 10 chapters. I promise we’ll go fast. We’re skipping some. But what we are going to be talking about is that we can only approach a holy God as he commands and provides. What does that mean? We’ll get it figured out as we go.

One of the things we get really dangerously comfortable with is that for most of you, as long as you can remember, you come to church one, maybe two times on a Sunday, you talk about God, you sing worship songs. God doesn’t seem that scary, right? He seems far away. He seems super approachable. Like you can just pray whenever you want to, and God listens. You can sing a song to him whenever you want and he doesn’t destroy you. But did you guys hear what we just sang? This holy God—who else has a glory that consumes like fire? Why on earth would Isaiah say, “Woe is me”?

Does God’s holiness really mean that much to us? I want you guys to get ready. I would encourage you right now to pray in your own heart. What I’m going to say today doesn’t take much to understand. It’s really simple and the story is actually pretty exciting. But for you to believe, obey, and trust—for you to hear what God’s word says about who God is and then respond rightly—that takes God’s Holy Spirit softening your heart. You need to respond rightly to what we’re going to hear this morning. So, we’re going to start with this: it’s super important to approach a holy God as he commands and provides. Let’s pray.

God, I pray now as I speak that you would help me be clear. I pray as I speak that you would help the hearers here to pay attention, that they would listen diligently. It’s been a long day. God, help them to focus. And I pray that I would speak clearly and they would understand. Most of all, God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would be present first in me, working, that I wouldn’t be a hypocrite, that I would acknowledge you as holy, and that everyone here would, that you would move them to saving faith or secure their faith, to strengthen their faith—that we would be able to worship you better as the holy God you are after today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

The Tabernacle: God’s Presence with His People

We’re going to read a story to help us understand what I mean—that we have to approach a holy God as he commands and provides. So, we’re going back in time to a situation that we’re not in. The situation is Israel. They’ve been out of Egypt. If you’ve never heard this story, you should read Genesis and Exodus. Israel was rescued from Egypt where they were slaves. God had these miraculous plagues on Egypt. God took them out, led them with a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud, took them across the Red Sea, parted it, conquered the Egyptian army that was chasing them, took them into the wilderness, provided food, water, and most of all, he provided his own word for them.

God’s glory came down onto the mountain. Moses went up the mountain and it shook. He said, “If anyone comes close, even touches this mountain, they’ll die.” But a few people were allowed to go up—Moses, Aaron’s sons, Aaron was the high priest and his sons were priests. They were allowed to go halfway up that mountain. Then there’s the whole thing with the golden calf—not a great story. But they’re in the land and God said, “You need to build a tabernacle. I’m going to tell you exactly how to build it.”

The tabernacle was a place in the middle of the camp. All of Israel surrounded it by tribes. If you look in Numbers, which is sort of a cool book when you see how many people are here, you can read about each of these tribes and how many people were there. The tribe of the Levites—that’s Aaron’s tribe—was set apart to help the people sacrifice, know who God was, and worship. The Levites surrounded the tabernacle. It was set up very specifically with curtains, an area to wash ceremonial uncleanness away, and an area to kill animals—all before you got to where the glory of God would dwell among his people in a very special way.

There was a tent. Inside the tent, a holy place, and then a very holy place—the Holy of Holies—where they could only go once a year, one man set apart and only with blood. Out in the middle of the camp, a million people, all these tribes, and at the center was where God would be—but he wasn’t there yet. God said, “Do this, build this exactly the way I tell you.” Over and over again through the book of Exodus, there’s this refrain: as Yahweh commanded, it was done as Yahweh commanded.

If you look at Exodus 40—first day, first month, second year since they got out of Egypt—they’ve been building. There’s a long list of instructions. Look at verse 34: “The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent because the cloud dwelt on it, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle.” For all their journeys, the cloud of Yahweh was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night. God had promised he would be among his people—and now he was there.

Imagine being out in the desert: a cloud over this thing in the middle of the people, and at night, fire. This is God’s presence. That same fire that led them across the Red Sea is over the tabernacle, and they know it’s time to go when God heads out. But while they’re camped, God is in the middle. How should they have felt about that? It should be pretty terrifying. If the people had any sense of God’s holiness, they should be terrified, a little bit scared.

Leviticus: Approaching God Through Sacrifice

So, you go from the end of Exodus 40, and what’s the next page in your Bible? Leviticus. What is going on in Leviticus? Leviticus answers that question: how can a holy God be in the middle of the people and we not die? Chapters 1-7—have any of you guys read these chapters? This is usually where my Bible reading plan starts to have a hard time. It’s hard to understand. It’s very specific: you’re going to do this sacrifice in this very specific way, with long lists of livers and fat and entrails and grain offerings, and there’s just blood everywhere.

What’s going on? It’s answering that question: we can only approach a holy God the way he commands and provides. God was making a very clear picture for Israel, and the New Testament repeats this and says it was a very clear picture for us. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Under the law, almost everything is purified by blood.” Why do we need to be purified? Because there’s a holy God. Who remembers what holy means? Set apart, separate, morally distinct, pure. We need to be purified, made clean to be there. The point was: almost everything is purified by blood. And remember: without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Remember Isaiah when he saw the holiness of God? “Woe is me. I’m a man of unclean lips.” He says, “I’m a sinner. I just saw God. I’m going to be destroyed.” And then God provided a means to forgive his sins. Here, people are supposed to approach God. Aaron and his sons, on behalf of the people, are going to be approaching God who’s in their midst. How could they possibly do that? There had to be blood to take away sins.

Leviticus 1–7 says exactly how these sacrifices would be administered. There are other descriptions in Exodus and Deuteronomy, but what would be constant is blood on the altar. The death of animals in sinners’ places would be constant reminders of their sinfulness and God’s holiness. People would have to bring animals to the priests to kill. The priests would have to kill animals on their own behalf. There would be a transfer of guilt from a person to a bull or a ram—they would put their hand on the animal, then slit its throat. That wasn’t just a little blood. That was a lot. And it wasn’t just every once in a while; it was constant and intentional.

The blood of those bulls and goats could never actually take away sin. But for the ones who trusted, this was the means God gave. If they followed God’s means, God would indeed forgive them because one day he would provide blood better than that of bulls and goats. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves—you know whose blood that is. But back here, God made very specific rules for how people could approach him.

Consecration of the Priests

So, flip to Leviticus 8. This is a setup. Moses took oil and blood and put it on Aaron the high priest and Aaron’s sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Moses took oil and blood and put it on them—a constant reminder they needed to be cleansed by blood.

As I read this, it makes sense: Moses put oil on them, then blood, and they couldn’t do anything. They had to stay outside for seven days. Blood on them—it looked dirty, but there was a reminder that something dirtier was on them than the stinky blood and oil. There was actual sin that needed to be set apart and cleansed from. They had their special clothes described, set apart, covered in blood and oil. Why? Keep the charge of Yahweh because they’re going to go close to Yahweh soon. After these seven days, they have some tasks to do—they’re going to go up to the tent. If they don’t do it exactly as Yahweh said, what’s going to happen?

For seven days, day and night, stay there. Keep the charge of Yahweh. Keep Yahweh’s commands. So that you do not die. For so I have commanded. We can’t get anywhere near God apart from the means he has given us without dying. What other glory consumes like fire? This is why Isaiah saw the holy, holy, holy God and cried out, “Woe is me. I’m undone. I’m dead.” Peter saw a glimpse of who Jesus was when he did a miracle and said, “Depart from me, a sinner.”

Thus, Aaron and his sons did all the things Yahweh had commanded through Moses. That same repetition—Yahweh commanded it and it was done—repeats here. The first seven chapters said what needed to be done, and they were done.

God Accepts the Sacrifice

So, what happens after their seven days of preparation? On the eighth day, Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, and said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering, a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and offer them before the Lord. Say to the people of Israel, take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb, both a year old without blemish, for a burnt offering.”

There’s going to be a lot of animals dying. Everybody needs to watch. All the congregation drew near and stood before Yahweh. Moses said, “This is the thing that Yahweh commanded you to do, that the glory of Yahweh may appear.” So remember, this is after Exodus 40—Yahweh comes down, and now they’re saying, “The glory of Yahweh is going to appear.” What’s going to happen? All the people are gathered. Aaron and his sons have been set apart for a whole week with the blood and oil and dead animals. Then God says, “Bring more. Bring more animals. We’re going to kill them.”

Aaron drew near to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering for himself. Blood everywhere, just as God commanded. The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him. He dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar. This isn’t just a little blood—there’s blood pouring into basins, poured out, put on Aaron, put on the horns of the altar.

They killed the burnt offering; Aaron’s sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the altar. They killed the goat of the sin offering for all the people, then killed the ox and the ram for the peace offering. Aaron’s sons handed him the blood and threw it against the sides of the altar, before Yahweh, as Moses had commanded.

After seven days of consecration, before Aaron and his sons could approach the tabernacle where Yahweh’s special presence was, there needed to be a ton of blood offered exactly as Yahweh provided—a constant, vivid reminder now, and a reminder that would continue as long as the tabernacle and then the temple were there. Atonement had to be made by blood.

What happened? Leviticus 9:23: Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, then came out, blessed the people, and the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people. The offerings were there on the altar, and fire came out from before Yahweh—suddenly, they didn’t light a fire—fire came out and consumed the burnt offerings and the portions of fat on the altar. All the people saw it and shouted and fell on their faces.

God accepted the offering. Nobody died. God consumed the offering, and the people were able to approach a holy God as he commands and as he provides. We don’t have to approach God through the offering of bulls and goats. Praise God, we have a better offering. But God hasn’t changed—he didn’t make himself more approachable by lowering his standard. God is dangerous. He is kind, loving, merciful, gracious. He does not let sins go unpunished. When Moses said, “Show me your glory,” that’s what God declared. We can only approach a holy God as he commands and he provides. He did not need to provide a way for us to approach him. He could have said, “I will be glorified by destroying sinners.”

He’s done that to the fallen angels—no chance to repent, no mercy, just what they deserve. And God is glorified by that. But he’s also glorified when he says, “I will dwell with my people. I will be your God, and you will be my people.” But to do that, he had to make a way. There’s no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood—a lot of blood, lots of specifics the way God commanded. The people recognized his holiness; they fell on their faces and worshiped.

Nadab and Abihu: The Danger of Approaching God Carelessly

Something else was going to happen to make them recognize his holiness even more. Nadab and Abihu—they might be thinking, “We’re really good at this. Look what we did. We did what God said. We dressed up in the outfit. We sacrificed. We went in the tent, came out, and boom—magic. Fire. That’s pretty cool. Let’s do another fire trick.” I don’t know what they were thinking, but they grew comfortable with God. They forgot who God was, forgot who they were, and stopped treating God as holy. We’re also in danger of that when we grow comfortable with who God is. They missed the object lesson of what they had just done.

Leviticus 10:1: Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, each took his censer, put fire in it, placed incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh. What is that strange fire? I don’t know—it doesn’t say, but it clarifies the point: they did something before God, offered something to God, which he had not commanded. Everything before, they did it the way Yahweh commanded. Now, they did something a way he didn’t command, a way he didn’t provide. They grew comfortable with God—”Well, God accepted me before, he must be okay with me.”

What happened? Fire came out from the presence of Yahweh—the same way it had before when they offered the gifts as Yahweh prescribed—and consumed them. They died before Yahweh.

Moses said to Aaron, “It is what Yahweh spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near me, I will be treated as holy, and before all the people, I will be glorified.'” Moses knew what happened. Aaron knew what happened. These were his kids. All the people saw what happened, and Moses says here’s the problem: Nadab and Abihu didn’t treat God as holy. And God did the right thing.

Have you ever treated God as not holy? I have. I did for years. God would have been right to do this to any one of us. God doesn’t always execute justice immediately, but we’re warned in 2 Peter: don’t count his patience to mean he won’t do it. Here, God did it instantly. There are other times in Scripture where God executes justice instantly—the ark of the covenant falling, someone reaches up and touches it and is struck dead. Ananias and Sapphira in the early church: lying to the Holy Spirit, dead. Every one of us will stand before a holy God. God will be glorified. If you’re going to come near him, you have to treat him as holy, recognize his holiness, and come only the way God provides.

God defines worship and the means of access, not us. After the fire consumed them, Aaron held his peace. Moses called other family members to carry Nadab and Abihu away from the tent, out of the camp. Moses kept the priests at their post to finish the worship that day—God’s way. No shortcuts, no self-made ideas, and now an even clearer picture of God’s holiness.

He said, “Don’t let the hair on your heads hang loose. Don’t tear your clothes. Don’t weep, lest you die and wrath come upon all of us. We have to finish this the way God told us to.” So they carried them out of the camp still in their coats.

Application: How Should We Respond?

What should our response be to this story? Are you answering that in your head? Should we cower in fear? Should we say that God’s too dangerous, I don’t want to be anywhere near him? No. This God is holy. He’s good. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore. When it says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him won’t perish but have everlasting life,” and “This is eternal life: that they know me”—God has made a way.

As we saw in Revelation, all of those who put their faith in him are going to have only eternal joys, be in the new heaven and new earth, and finally dwell with God. God’s going to be among the people and it will be so good. Every tear wiped away, no more pain, no more suffering, and joys like you can never imagine.

The answer isn’t, “No, I don’t want any more of this God,” or, “I need to cower in fear.” The Bible tells us to boldly approach with confidence. That seems weird, right? Boldly approach a God who just destroyed two guys, cooked them, and said, “Get them out of the camp and let’s finish this.” That God? Yeah. We boldly approach that God with confidence—not in ourselves, but by the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is what God has commanded and provided. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Trust in Jesus, and you can approach boldly with confidence.

Christ, Our Perfect Sacrifice and Priest

Hebrews 10 says, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near.” Every year when they offered these sacrifices, they’d have to do it the next day and the next year. They needed to make sure they did it right—like when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, they tied a rope around his ankles in case he dropped dead so they could pull him out. That’s not confidence. That’s, “I hope we did everything right. Didn’t screw this up.” Those sacrifices had to be offered every year; they could never actually take away sins or cleanse the conscience, didn’t free them from sin’s power, because it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

But God says that for those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. Romans 8: “There’s now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” He’s taken our sins and separated them so far from us. He’s clothed those who have approached him by faith in Christ’s righteousness—the clothes cleansed in the blood of Christ that we read about in Revelation. But if you try to come to God and say, “I think I’m going to be good enough, he’ll let me in,”—don’t approach with boldness like that. Turn to Christ first. Say, “I need a savior. I need you to give me your righteousness. I need you to give me what God demands, what God commands.”

Hebrews 10:11: “Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for the day his enemies will be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, Jesus has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified, set apart, saved, made holy, and one day glorified.”

So after that’s said in Hebrews, look what it says: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places…” We shouldn’t have confidence to enter the holy places—that’s where people go to die if they don’t do things just right. He says, “No, we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.” And since we have a great priest over the house of God—different blood, different priest, this priest doesn’t screw up, this priest is perfect and he offered himself—that’s Jesus. What do we do? “Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. For he who promised is faithful.”

A Solemn Warning and Final Appeal

I need to warn you though—every person here has now heard the way to God. You’ve all received knowledge of the truth. If you haven’t been checked out, and I’m really grateful it looks like eyes are up here listening, you’ve now listened and you’ve understood: God is holy, and you cannot approach him on your own terms. He will not accept your holiness, your righteousness. You can only approach him by blood—and not the blood of bulls and goats, but the blood of Jesus. You’ve now heard that.

If you have your Bibles open to Hebrews 10, look at verse 26. “If you go on sinning deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth”—meaning you think you don’t actually need to repent and put your faith in Jesus, you know the truth but you go on sinning because Jesus calls you not to go on sinning, he calls you to turn from your sins, repent, and believe in him—and you say, “Nope, I’m going to go my own way, I know what’s true and I’m going to do it my way,” is there any other sacrifice? If you say, “Maybe bulls and goats will be good enough, maybe if I do enough good works I’ll be okay,”—there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

God didn’t change. If you say, “I’m going to be okay with some sacrifice that’s not Jesus’s,”—no other sacrifice exists. You need one. There is no other. Believe this. Turn from your sins and obey. That won’t earn you Jesus’s forgiveness; forgiveness only comes by faith in him. Trust him, obey him, believe in him.

Hebrews 10 goes on: “If you ignored the law of Moses, like Nadab and Abihu, that led to death—how much worse punishment for the one who ignores Jesus and his blood?” At the end of that paragraph: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.” God is scary, but he is so good. Remember what we talked about last time: God’s attributes, his love and his holiness, seen clearly in the cross.

God put your sins on Jesus, punished him so that he could cleanse you, declare you righteous, forgive you, change your heart by the blood of Jesus. God made a way through Jesus and his blood, offered as our high priest once for all. We can rest. We can approach a holy God—not because he’s made himself less holy or more approachable, but because he’s provided the way through Jesus. So approach a holy God as he commands, as he provides, recognizing his holiness, no longer through the blood of bulls and goats, but with confidence by the blood of Jesus.

Let’s go to discussion groups and talk about this. This must affect us.