Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / April 27, 2026 - Leviticus 10 & Psalm 89:46-52

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April 27, 2026 - Leviticus 10 & Psalm 89:46-52 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word letting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Monday, April 27th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 10.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord has said.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And Aaron held his peace.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses called Mishael and Elzephan, and the sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, Come near, carry your brothers away from the front of the sanctuary and out of the camp.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they came near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes lest you die, and wrath come upon all the congregation, but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the Lord has kindled, and do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they did according to the word of Moses.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eliezer and Ithamar, his son, his surviving sons, take the grain offering that is left of the Lord's food offerings, and eat it, unleavened besides the altar, for it is most holy.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons due from the Lord's food offerings, for so I am commanded.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: But the breast that is waved, and the thigh that is contributed you shall eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you, for they are given as your due and your sons due from the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the people of Israel.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The thigh that is contributed and the breast that is waved, they shall bring with the food offerings of the fat pieces to wave for a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be yours and your sons with you as a due forever, as the Lord has commanded.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it was burned up.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he was angry with Elazar and Ithamar, the surviving sons of Aaron, saying, Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Since it is a thing most holy and has been given to you, that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: You certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary as I commanded.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Aaron said to Moses, Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have happened to me.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when Moses heard that, he approved.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: How long will your wrath burn like fire?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: What man can live and never see death?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations, with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the Lord forever.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Amen and Amen.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Leviticus ten is a sobering chapter.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: It begins right off the bat in verse one by detailing Nadab and Abihus, the sons of Aaron, their death.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it says each took his censer, that was kind of a gold bowl that was used for fragrance and for incense.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can read about that here, his censure and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to notice the contrast.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: In Leviticus 8 and 9, there is this detailing of the ordination of the priest, the instructions for the priest, the ordination of the priest, and there is in a sense there is this affirmation of their role, even of their line and lineage being from Aaron and his sons.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: But here in chapter 10, there is a sudden sort of deviation and rejection.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we go from ordination and affirmation of Aaron and his sons and their priestly roles and their duties to suddenly there's a there's a deviation from their roles and ultimately a rejection by God.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: They offer unauthorized fire before the Lord.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: That word unauthorized can also be translated strange, strange fire.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's this sense in which the Lord does not recognize this, the Lord does not approve of this.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: They are operating, operating outside of the explicit commands that God gave to them.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result of that, because it seems like there's some sense, whether it was intentional or unintentional, because it seems like there was some sense of not doing what God commanded, of approaching the Lord and even in their priestly roles, of not fulfilling their responsibilities in the way that God intended, they ultimately lost their life.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it says in verse 2, a fire came out before the Lord, from before the Lord, and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think this highlights a couple of things.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: First, it highlights again the holiness of God.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: God cannot be approached in these sort of flippant or careless or undiscerning ways, even perhaps unintentionally by Nadab and Abihu.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't tell us their intention in what they did.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So perhaps they did it unintentionally, but nevertheless, this unauthorized fire, this strange fire was something that was not pleasing to the Lord.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that that sort of accents the reality of the division between man and God, between the creature and the creator.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that gap is far wider than I think we often realize, or the world certainly is willing to admit.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: The uh even I think of the prophet Isaiah that says, your transgressions have created a separation, your iniquity rather has created a sec separation between you and your God.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Leviticus 10 serves as a sort of uh a way of detailing that reality in a specific circumstance, that the separation, uh, the iniquity, the sin created this chasm between mankind and God.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And even those who were in this priestly order after the order of Aaron, uh they they're not exempt from this reality.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: They are not exempt from the reality that their sin uh separates them from their God, that they in and of themselves are unholy.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: God is holy, holy, holy.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: But even the priests, uh, this is a reminder of their sin and of the seriousness of sin, and ultimately what the punishment of sin is, which is death.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so a very jarring story here of Nadab and Abihu, uh, but one that reminds us of the holiness of God.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I also think that's the first thing that this sort of tells us.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the second thing that this kind of reminds us of as we read Leviticus 10 is the reality uh that the priests and the whole sacrificial system was never intended to bring actual forgiveness and actual final atonement.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: That was something that only Christ could do.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the priests here they are a type of mediator between God and men, uh, but they are imperfect and they are not exempt from, again, the reality of their own sin.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so this points us forward uh to what Paul would eventually say that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he is the perfect mediator.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: He never approaches the Father in sort of unworthy ways.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: There is never unauthorized fire, there is never strange fire from Jesus, the great high priest.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, his sacrifice, his offering is wholly acceptable to the Lord.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so Leviticus 10 points us to that reality that their uh whatever mediator that uh Aaron and his sons are on behalf of Israel between God and men, it is imperfect.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is flawed.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And this is sort of, again, the jarring nature of theirs, their ordination, their installation, their affirmation.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And here we see uh their deviation ultimately from what God has commanded and God's rejection of their offering, of their incense that is being offered to them by Nadab and Abihu.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And there's even a sense of fear.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can read there at the end of the chapter, where Moses is like, Hey, Aaron, why have you not eaten the sacrifice?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Aaron, uh he says, and we can understand this.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Aaron said in verse 19, Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And yet such things as these, certainly referring to his sons losing their life, such things as these have happened to me.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a sense of fear, maybe even a sense of uncertainty as to uh how to proceed and wanting to do it in a way that is honoring to the Lord, in a way that is authorized, and not in a way that is strange.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and verse 20 says, and when Moses heard that, he uh approved.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so Leviticus 10 again points us just to that reality.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: It makes me think of uh even in our current condition, of course, we have a perfect, great high priest, Jesus, who has passed through the heavens.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Hebrews tells us he he offers a once-for-all sacrifice.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, his sacrifice is able to save those uh to the uttermost.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: He lives to make intercession.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: All of that is so true.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but we still live in a broken and fallen and sin-soaked world.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think of what we even talked about uh on Sunday uh from Romans 8, the reality that creation groans with eager longing for this restoration.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I see that sort of groaning here in Leviticus 10 of a better mediator, a better sacrifice, a better way uh to approach the Lord.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and Hebrews tells us, and this is such uh such good news, that the throne of grace is open because of Jesus being the great high priest.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we are welcomed, we are invited to come, we can have unhindered access because Jesus is the sacrifice.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: He makes purification for sin.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So remember, there's so much overlap between the book of Leviticus and the book of Hebrews, and I hope you're seeing those connections to the sacrifices, even here, to the holiness of God and the seriousness of approaching the Lord.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: We can kind of even see hints of Isaiah 6, where Isaiah is in the throne room, this vision of the throne room of the Lord, and he says, Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips, I am undone because of this reality, because of the absolute holiness of the Lord.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So let that just be a reminder for us of the seriousness of our sin in the face of a holy Lord, but also just see Leviticus 10 as a shadow, as a groaning ultimately for a better mediator, the mediator that would ultimately be the man Christ Jesus, as Paul tells us in the New Testament.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we wrap up Psalm 89, uh again, there is this continuing sense of desperation, uh, where Ethan, uh, the uh Azrahite, who is the author of this psalm, he's continuing to reflect on the reality of his present circumstances of being in Babylonian captivity, uh, his city and his temple uh ultimately being destroyed and ransacked and them being taken captive.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so in verse 46, here's that question how long, O Lord, will you hide yourself forever?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: How long will your wrath burn like fire?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Remember how short my time is.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this sense of crying out in desperation.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a sense, even we see of Ethan sort of uh reminding the Lord as if he needed a reminder, but maybe a better word is rehearsing to the Lord um his character.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your uh anointed.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so we just have kind of a raw prayer, these raw questions from Ethan, uh, just going, How long, O Lord?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: How how long will this uh discipline last?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: How long will their present circumstances uh endure?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: We got to remember that this was something that God uh gave them warning of.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: He warns them again and again if you break my covenant, if you violate my law, uh there will be consequences.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: We'll read about that more perhaps in detail in Deuteronomy.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but they this was not something that uh perhaps I I think in their experience, maybe they felt surprised, uh, but they shouldn't have, because God told them, Don't break my covenant, stay true to what you have agreed to, what you have covenanted with, unless uh if if you don't, that there's gonna be consequences, there's going to be curses, as uh God puts it in the book of Deuteronomy.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we see here the Babylonian captivity being those curses, those uh just reality of discipline coming to fulfillment and the nation of Israel uh just being absolutely uh ransacked here.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and even through that, even through their being taken captive, even through uh their um temple being destroyed, even through their city and their walls being in ruin, uh God is still faithful.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we saw that earlier uh where the the uh Ethan is recounting uh you know of the vision of old that was spoken uh long ago, and he says, I will establish his offspring forever.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's recounting both the Mosaic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with the stripes, with stripes.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: That is what we are seeing uh here in this psalm with the Babylonian captivity.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: But then he goes on and says, But I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So even in the midst of consequences, even in the midst of harsh discipline, or from our perspective, harsh discipline, it was exactly what was needed, and it was fair and just and true.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh God is faithful.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: God does not violate his covenant to his people, he does not alter the word that went forth from his lips.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness I will not lie to David, his offspring shall endure forever.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: So in in the midst of this reality that uh Ethan and the nation of Israel is facing, he continues to recount the faithfulness of the Lord to his promises, but he's nevertheless wrestling with his present circumstances.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so he asks as he closes this psalm, how long, O Lord, will you hide yourself forever?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: How long will this endure?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: How long will this present suffering seem to overtake uh our lives?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and in the midst of that, he he's asking these genuine questions.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: But here's how he ends in verse 30 uh 52 Blessed be the Lord forever.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so again, we we have this reality in the Psalms where questions are not something that are out of bounds.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, questions are helpful, uh, questions are even in a sense necessary when we're spiritually struggling, when we're asking, where are you, Lord?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Will you hide yourself forever?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: How long?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, questions are such a grace to us where we can wrestle and prayerfully and thoughtfully uh just bear our souls to the Lord.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we can do that in a way that honors him.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: We can do that in a way that even uh is uh seeking to trust him, and we can end up uh where Ethan ends up here in verse 52.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the Lord forever, amen and amen.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: That reminds me of even the book of Job.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord gives, the Lord takes away.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I think Ethan's getting there to that place.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's wrestling, his soul is clearly in turmoil.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's asking these really raw uh questions, pointed questions, but he says, Blessed be the Lord forever, amen and amen.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: So in the midst of your heartache, in the midst of your wrestling, don't be afraid to bring your questions to the Lord.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid to have questions be pointed.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think questions in the midst of heartbreak equals unbelief.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: It certainly could, it certainly could be an indication of that.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I think believers throughout history, here, even in the scriptures, we see can wrestle very profoundly and yet trust very deeply.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so I pray that that is an encouragement to you.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you're in a season, or perhaps you know it's been said and said well, you're either in a season of suffering, coming out of a season of suffering, or heading into a season of suffering.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we can always take with us what we're seeing here at the end of Psalm 89 to have these pointed questions.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we sort of bring them to the Lord, we cast our anxieties on him because he cares for us, but we nevertheless can all along the way said bl say, blessed be the Lord forever.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.