Leviticus 10:3 concludes, “So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.” Aaron wanted to speak about something. He wanted to open his mouth. He wanted to be heard. Yet he held his tongue. His sons had died, yet he did not speak. What could turn a father into a silent witness to his sons’ deaths? A correct understanding of God's holiness is the answer.
In Leviticus 9, preparations, including animal sacrifices, were made so that the glory of the LORD could appear to the nation of Israel without their immediate destruction (see Exodus 19:18-25). In Leviticus 9:23, Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, then came out again and blessed the people. At that moment, “the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. Then fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering…and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”
The Israelites’ response shows reverence, awe, and perhaps some terror, before the true God. In that intense moment, with the glory of the LORD still present, two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, sinned. Leviticus 10:1 relates that they “took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.”
Moses then reminded Aaron that God said, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored” (Leviticus 10:3). Aaron’s sons had violated God’s silence by making an unauthorized offering. They sinned by treating God unholily, and so they died. Do not make the same mistake. Treat God holily by honoring His silence and offering only what He has authorized.