Day 29

What a hectic few days it's been. It's Sunday night now and I feel like this is the first time all week i've had a second to myself. With all the holidays, it's so easy to get distracted and side tracked with everything that's going on. I just pray that I can continue to stay focused on God, continue to prepare my mind for Costa Rica and keep up with my readings.

Nov 29: Leviticus 8-10
Do you ever try to justify the sins in your life? Not the obvious ones that we know are sins, but maybe the more subtle ones that we try to work around. I know it has to happen a lot, either due to lack of knowledge of God's laws or just that we are too easy on ourselves with sin.
In chapter 10, Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu who were priests and leaders of the Israelites "offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command." They gave God this offering that God didn't command them to do and the result follows: "So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord." That's some heavy stuff to me. These two holy men that were anointed by God to be priests were killed for this subtle, yet inexcusable sin in God's eyes. They should have known better than to offer a sacrifice to God that was not holy or consecrated in his eyes. The line that pops out to me even more is when Moses speaks to Aaron. His reaction to everything was summed up in 3 words;
"Aaron remained silent." He had nothing to say. His two sons were just killed by the hand of God, and he had nothing. Instead of look for excuses or even argue with God, he just remained silent. To me, that's the reaction we should have instead of finding excuses for our sins. Aaron knew his sons had no excuse for not bringing holy offerings to the Lord. He didn't look to justify what they did, he realized their sins and couldn't come up with any type of rebuttal. Instead of trying to find the cheap way out, or justifying the subtle sins in my life, I need to learn God's laws well and bring a genuine heart of forgiveness to him. God will take care of the rest with his amazing grace.