Offering Strange Fire

When Moses led the children of Israel in the wilderness they were blessed many times by the Lord. One such time was after they had offered a sin offering, a burnt offering, and peace offerings. “And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” Leviticus 9:23 – 10:2. This was the day when the Lord rejected half of the priesthood that came from Aaron. Instead of four priests, there would now be only two. I believe this rejection of half of the priesthood in Israel is going to happen again.

Almost all of the descendants of Israel are contained within the company of the ten lost tribes (which actually have all twelve tribes within them). These ten lost tribes are the Anglo-Saxon and kindred peoples. The priesthood of the ten tribes is the Church within that company of people. The apostle Peter addressed the Christians within the Israel community. At that time the only Christian Israelites were Jews. The gospel had not yet gone world-wide to reach the ten lost tribes. Peter said to those Christians, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:” I Peter 2:9. There is a royal priesthood within the lost ten tribes which is the Israel Church. I believe half of the Church within our Israel people is going to be rejected by Jesus Christ when He returns in Glory. The reason they will be rejected is because they have been offering strange fire to the Lord, just as Nadab and Abihu did when Israel was in the wilderness.

There is only one fire that is acceptable to the Lord. That is the fire of the Holy Spirit. “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2: 3-4. I am not saying everyone in the Church has to speak in tongues, even though it is a valuable gift for the Church, but we all need to have the Holy Spirit within us to worship God. Jesus told us how the Holy Spirit would affect us in our worship. “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” John 16: 13-14. When the Holy Spirit is in our worship, we will glorify Jesus Christ.

The sinful alternative to Spirit controlled worship is offering strange fire to the Lord. Churches do this when they depart from the Bible. This is strange fire: Denying the deity of Jesus Christ – saying that He is not God. Another form of strange fire is accepting other religions as alternate ways to God. Only through Jesus Christ can we be accepted by God the Father. Another form of strange fire is ignoring the Cross, saying that we can be accepted by God by keeping laws and doing good works and loving people. Only by trusting in the shed blood of Jesus Christ can we be accepted by God the Father. We have to confess to Him that we are wretched sinners, ask Him to forgive us our sins, believe that Jesus Christ took our sins upon Himself when He died on the cross, and ask Him to come into us by the Holy Spirit. Then when the Holy Spirit comes to us we have to open up to Him and worship God the Father and Jesus Christ. This is the acceptable fire of the Lord.