Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Leviticus 10-11
Key Verse
Leviticus 11:14 — “And the vulture, and the kite after his kind;”
Devotional Thought
Some mornings we come to God casually, as if He were a kindly neighbor rather than the holy flame before whom even angels veil their faces. That is where Leviticus 10-11 meets us today. Nadab and Abihu were priests, sons of Aaron, men who had just witnessed the glory of the LORD fall upon the tabernacle. Yet they took their censers, put fire and incense in them, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded. Fire came out from the LORD and devoured them. It is one of the most sobering scenes in Scripture. God is not a tame deity whose worship we may improvise to suit our tastes. He says, “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified.” And Aaron, standing over his dead sons, held his peace.
Notice what follows: God speaks directly to Aaron about wine and strong drink, and about the sacred duty of putting “difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean.” Then chapter 11 gives Israel detailed laws about clean and unclean animals—cloven hooves, chewing the cud, fins and scales. These laws were not arbitrary fussiness. They trained a people freshly brought out of Egypt to think in categories of holy and common, clean and defiled. Every meal became a small lesson in belonging to a holy God. “Ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy.”
We live on this side of the cross, where Christ has fulfilled the law and declared all foods clean, and where our access to God is through His finished work, not our careful ritual. Yet the underlying call has not changed. We still serve a God who is holy, and we still live in a season—late June, ordinary days of work and heat and routine—where it is easy to treat worship as a casual thing, our own fire offered on our own terms. The warning of Nadab and Abihu is not that God is eager to strike us down, but that He is worthy of reverence. The mercy of chapter 11 is that God teaches His children how to live set apart, not to burden them but to make them His own. Today, let us come near with reverence, and let us live, eat, speak, and worship as those who belong to a holy God.
Reflection
- Where in your life have you been offering “strange fire”—worship or service on your own terms rather than in obedience to what God has commanded?
- What practical “difference between holy and unholy” is God asking you to make in your daily habits, speech, and appetites this week?
Prayer
Holy Father, You are the LORD who brought Your people up out of Egypt to be their God, and You have brought us out of darkness into Your marvelous light. Teach us to come near with reverence, not with the strange fire of our own invention. Forgive us for the casual ways we have treated Your worship and Your Word. Sanctify us, body and spirit, and give us discernment to put difference between the holy and the unholy in all our ways. Like Aaron, help us to hold our peace before You, trusting Your wisdom even when we do not understand. Make us holy, for You are holy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.