Leviticus 10:1-11 “Nadab and Abihu…offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.”
When addressing feminism there is no passage more appropriate than Jeremiah 17:9. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Nadab and Abihu evidently held to the same maxim as today’s emasculated church: “Listen to your heart.” I believe they meant well. They wanted to express their devotion to God in a dramatic way, but it is not man’s place to decide when, where, or how to worship God. Nor does a father allow his children to decide the ways in which he will be served. God allows us a wide margin of freedom in showing our love for him, as fathers do their children. However, just as there are some tasks in a house which are only appropriate for more mature children and only appropriate at certain times and when done in certain manners, there are tasks in his kingdom which God has set apart with more specific guidelines.
He appointed men to be the heads of their wives and the spiritual coverings of their houses. When women attempt to take on those roles, they are more likely to be harmed than blessed. There are dangerous spiritual forces at work in the world. When our hearts lead us to actions contrary to Torah, they deceive us and leave us vulnerable to consequences which we might not foresee or attacks against which we are not prepared to defend. It is better to accept God’s design without understanding than to rely on your own understanding and be burned like Nadab and Abihu.
Since a prohibition of the use of alcohol by priests while on duty immediately follows this story, alcohol was probably a factor. The mind and the heart work like antagonistic muscles, one balancing and controlling the other. Normally one’s reason should moderate his heart, but alcohol, drugs, and mind-altering substances of all kinds can affect the judgment, allowing the heart to hold too much sway over actions. Be wary of medications, especially those used for psychiatric purposes. It has long been known to the friends and families of antidepressant users that they can cause undesirable personality changes. Recently doctors have confirmed that they are wildly over-prescribed and used, probably causing far more harm than good.1
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this account is Moses’ instruction to Aaron and his remaining sons to not show grief or sympathy for the two dead men. Nadab and Abihu walked their own path. No one forced them to act outside the covering of their priestly calling. They were not deceived by anything outside themselves, and no one else–not even alcohol–can accept any blame. When a wife consciously rejects her husband’s covering based solely on the feelings in her heart, whether under the influence of chemicals or not, she must accept the consequences of her own actions. Courts and other sympathizers who would blame her husband for her actions insult the woman by treating her as completely incapable of controlling herself, and they treat her husband unjustly. God will not hold them blameless who hold their hearts higher than his Law.
1 “Drug placebo differences in antidepressant efficacy increase as a function of baseline severity, but are relatively small even for severely depressed patients. The relationship between initial severity and antidepressant efficacy is attributable to decreased responsiveness to placebo among very severely depressed patients, rather than to increased responsiveness to medication.” Kirsch I, Deacon BJ, Huedo-Medina TB, Scoboria A, Moore TJ, et al., “Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration.” PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 2, e45 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045