God repeats himself. A lot.
He keeps talking to Moses about the ritual sacrifices and what everyone's supposed to do. Particularly the priests.
Chapter 8:
Moses dresses up his brother Aaron and Aaron's sons to be fabulous priests.
Chapter 9:
They have a sacrificial BBQ. God shows up and brings the fire.
"Moses and Aaron then entered the meeting tent. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the LORD's glorious presence appeared to all the people. Fire flew out from before the LORD and devoured the entirely burned offering and the fat pieces on the altar. All the people saw it. They shouted for joy and fell facedown."
Chapter 10:
Aaron's sons have a hard time following the rules. Nadab and Abihu "each took an incense pan. They put fire and incense on them and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD." From what I gather they smear incense and fire on themselves? Which is...weird? Lord God does not appreciate the sons unauthorized fire: "Then fire flew out from before the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD."
Moses is kind of a dick to his brother and is all "See? That's what happens when we don't listen to instructions."
The lesson I took away from this is this is what happens when you invite God to your BBQ.
Aaron remains silent. Moses doesn't bat an eye before bringing in some cousins to dispose of the bodies, then tells Aaron's remaining sons that they cannot mourn their dead loved ones, his own nephews, or they will die too. Anyone else feeling that Moses is kind of a dick? Anyone?
God lays on some more good news. Aaron and his remaining sons and their descendants must remain the DD's of Israel forever:
"Both you and your sons must not drink wine or beer when you enter the meeting tent to that you don't die--that is a permanent rule throughout your future generations."
Then Moses throws a hissy fit about Aaron's remaining sons not eating goat meat at the exactly precise time and place.
"Then Moses asked about the male goat for the purification offering, and discovered that it had already been burned. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's remaining sons, and asked, 'Why didn't you eat the purification offering in the holy area? It's most holy, and it was assigned to you for bearing the community's punishment by making the reconciliation for them before the LORD. Since its blood wasn't brought into the sanctuary's interior, you were to have eaten it in the sanctuary, just as I was commanded."
Aaron then breaks his silence and calls Moses out for being an idiot who also can't listen to instructions.
"'Look,' Aaron said to Moses, 'today they offered their purification offerings and their entirely burned offerings before the LORD, but these things still happened to me! Would the LORD have approved if I had eaten a purification offering today?'"
Yeah, I didn't get it either. I looked it up for you. You're welcome. Basically, Aaron is saying that God wouldn't want them to eat the goat meat now because the ritual needs to be pure and now the bloodied corpses of his loved ones have made everything all icky.
What we have learned today is that Moses also has difficulty listening to instructions but isn't getting punished for it. Moses is a teacher's pet for a teacher that has the worst kind of zero tolerance policy.
Next time on the bible blog, we learn about dietary rules and presumably Moses is still a dick.
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