Verses 19-20: “And Aaron said to Moses, “Look, this day they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and such things have befallen me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord?” So when Moses heard that, he was content.”
In my occupational past, I have had the…experience, shall we say…of working for a vice-president who was difficult at times (others might call him a terror!) He was a man who could sometimes fly into a rage about something and browbeat an individual over a problem’s progress, rather than let that individual work on fixing the problem. He was especially hard on project managers, always wanting periodic updates on their projects (progress, time schedules, budgets, roadblocks) and would seemingly try to “trip up” their presentations as if he was searching for a way to make them look bad.
I had a fellow worker who had become a project manager. He was not only ambitious, energetic, intelligent, and poised, he also knew how to approach the VP and get out of the “Spanish inquisition” of a project briefing with the VP being agreeable. I asked him how he did that and he replied that, “as long as you know your stuff, as long as you can justifiably explain any shortcomings, and as long as you back up your decisions in a calm, logical manner, he (the VP) was content with you.”
A little background on Leviticus 10 here: Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, had lit their ceremonial censers with fire that had not come from the altar of the sanctuary, breaking God’s strict rules on the priests. Their punishment was their death by God’s fire. Later, Moses, speaking the Word of the Lord to Aaron, and God Himself, gave more instructions to Aaron on what to do in their duties. Moses was upset that the goat of the sin offering, which was considered holy for the priest and priest’s family to eat, had been burned up. At first, Moses was upset with Aaron, demanding why he did such. A footnote in my Holman NKJV Bible (pg. 180) offers the explanation on Aaron’s defense in verse 19: “Aaron had to determine whether the desecration by Nadab and Abihu made the sin offering portions inappropriate for priestly consumption. Rather than run the risk of defiling the sanctuary further, Aaron chose to burn up the entire goat.” In other words, Aaron considered it worst to offend the Lord than to follow the Lord’s rules if there was doubt as to the holiness of the food. In short, when it doubt, don’t!
Hearing this, Moses was content with his answer. He was satisfied that, although Aaron didn’t follow to the letter the rule on eating of the sin offering, Aaron wouldn’t permit any more defiling of the Lord’s sanctuary. Which sort of reminds me of my project manager friend’s reasoning above.
How about you, Christian? Are you following the rules blindly, or asking God for guidance where matters seem gray? As long as you follow God’s leading, you’ll be content in what you do.
Have a blessed day in the Lord!
Combing The Word 