Understanding God's Holiness: Justice and Mercy Explored

Several years ago, I was working on the staff of a church, and we received a new curriculum for junior high school Sunday school that the denomination had sent down to us, and I was asked by the session of the church to read through the curriculum and see whether we wanted to use it. And as I was reading the curriculum, it began to talk about some of the things we read in the Old Testament where God seems so fierce in the manifestation of His wrath, where He kills people instantly and things of that sort. [00:00:04]

The first one is found in the book of Leviticus in the tenth chapter, where I'll be reading verses 1 through 7, and this is the story of what happened to the sons of Aaron, the high priest. We read in verse 1 of chapter 10 of Leviticus, "Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And so fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. [00:02:07]

Here are the two sons of Aaron who have followed in their father's footsteps. They have become consecrated to the priesthood, and they are attending the altar, and they bring this strange fire, fire that was not part of the regular ritual of the altar, and they sort of playing around and experimenting with profane or secular, unconsecrated, unholy stuff. And they bring this stuff, and they put it on the altar, and as soon as they do, the fire from the altar gushes up and consumes them and burns them to death on the spot. [00:03:02]

Moses said to Aaron, 'This is what the Lord spoke, saying: By those who come near Me I will be regarded as holy; And before all of the people I will be glorified.'" And then we read after that, "And Aaron held his peace." It's like when he came in all upset and said, "What's God doing here?" Moses said, "Aaron, don't you remember? Don't you remember your own ordination? Don't you remember the elaborate process that we had to go through to be set aside for this sacred task of priesthood? [00:04:57]

The ark of the covenant was being brought towards Jerusalem for celebration. David wanted to bring it there. And so, Uzzah and his friends are responsible for transporting the ark of the covenant. And you remember, the ark of the covenant was the most sacred vessel in Israel. It was the throne of God, and normally the ark was kept inside the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies. And it was there on the top of the ark of the covenant, on the mercy seat, that the blood was sprinkled by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. [00:06:32]

The ark is starting to fall into the mud, he reaches out to steady the ark. And as soon as he touches it, what does the Bible say? "A voice comes from heaven saying, 'Thank you, Uzzah for saving my ark!'" No. That's not what happened. The second he touches it, God kills him on the spot. Now again, critics go back and read that story and they say, "Well, see that's the way primitive people interpreted events. What really happened was Uzzah, when he touched that sacred object, was so frightened he scared himself to death. [00:09:03]

Jonathan Edwards preached on this text many years ago, and he talked about the presumptuousness, the pride of Uzzah where Uzzah assumed that what would desecrate the ark of the covenant would be the dirt on the ground, forgetting that the dirt is in obedience to God. There's nothing profane or unholy or evil about dirt. Dirt does what dirt is supposed to do. When you put water on dirt, it makes mud because it obeys the natural laws that God has decreed for dirt and water when they mix. [00:10:02]

Hans Küng reminds us that in creation, in creation, every sin is a capital offence. God said at the beginning, "The soul that sins shall die." And if God were to treat the human race strictly according to His justice, every one of us would've been executed a long time ago. But Küng says that what happens is that God does not institute the death penalty for every sin that deserves it. We don't really believe we deserve to be killed for our sins, do we? [00:14:16]

And the Bible said that that patience that God gives to us is designed to give us time to repent, to turn from our rebellion to Him. But instead, what happens is the nicer God is to people, the harder our hearts become, the more calloused we become in our sinfulness. In fact, Jeremiah said this, He said to the people of Israel, "You have received the forehead of a harlot." What's he mean? He said, "You've lost your ability to blush!" [00:16:15]

What happens is we get accustomed to God's grace. At first, we're amazed by it. The second time, not quite so much surprised. By the third or the fourth time, we begin to expect it. Then we assume it, and then we demand it and we're angry if we don't get it. Because the greatest distortion in our thinking, dear friends, is that God owes us mercy, that God is somehow obligated to be gracious to us. [00:23:23]

Justice may be required, but never, ever mercy. And it's because God is holy that any time He withholds justice, He is giving grace. If He were not holy, then perhaps His grace would not really be grace. But that's the point of the Scriptures. It is what Moses was saying to Aaron is, "On this occasion, Aaron, God was not gracious to Nadab and Abihu. He was just." On this occasion, God was not merciful to Uzzah. He was just. [00:24:54]

And the one thing I warn you, please don't ever ask God for justice. You might get it, and it would be the worst thing that could possibly befall you. [00:26:01]