Hebrew Word Study – Strange Fire –  Beqarevatam –  בְּקָרְבָתָ֥ם  Beth Qop Resh Beth Taw Mem  

Leviticus 16:1: “And the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died;”

Different translations say different things about the death of Aaron’s sons.  One translation says they died when they approached the Lord.  The New Living Bible says they died when “they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire.”  The ESV says they died when they drew near to the Lord.  The amplified Bible says they died when they (irreverently) approached the presence of the lord. The Douay (Catholic) Bible says they were slain upon their offering of strange fire.  Good News Bible says they were killed when they offered unholy fire to the Lord. All these translations make it sound like the sons of Aaron committed some great sin such that they were slain, killed or put to death by God. 

Chaim Ibn Attar aka Or Ha Hayyim a seventeenth-century orthodox rabbi and popular and highly regarded commentator had this say about the deaths of Aaron’s sons.

“They approached the supernal light out of their great love of the Holy and thereby died. Thus they died by a “Divine kiss” such as experienced by the perfectly righteous; it is only that the righteous die when the Divine kiss approaches them, while they died by their approaching it. Although they sensed their own demise, this did not prevent them from drawing near to G-d in attachment, delight, delectability, fellowship, love, kissing, and sweetness, to the point that their souls ceased from them.”

There was an old belief that if you saw God you would die. The implication makes it sound like seeing God is something so horrible that you will die of fright like viewing the Mask of Medusa. Stop and think about it, why would someone die if they saw God? Is He that horrible, that frightening that you would suffer a heart attack?

Why would God strike the sons of Aaron dead for just offering the wrong kind of fire? I am sorry but I have a real problem with God being that persnickety.  I have read commentaries saying the sons were drunk, or that they were mocking God by not following God’s precise instructions or they were just plain careless, didn’t feel God’s instructions were that important, and used any old fire coming down the pike. I have heard many sermons on how God will strike you dead if you treat him so lightly. It is the old “you had better be afraid of God.”  Or “God is going to get you for doing that.”  Here’s the proof, two priests, sons of the high priest made a slight error and paid for it with their lives.  So now little children you have to straighten up or God is going to do some bad things to you. 

Why did the sons die?  The Bible says they brought strange fire but if you look at this closely in the original language, it was not the strange fire but they died when the beqarevatam.  Begarvatam comes from the root word qarav to come near.  The NIV and the ESV are really the closest to the Hebrew by saying they died when they approached the Lord or drew near to the Lord.  It does not say as some translation “when they offered or irreverently approached. That is just a paraphrase and the translator’s own interpretation of the translation. 

These men died when they drew close to the Lord.  Moses sat upon the mountain and talked with God face to face as a friend would talk to a friend. Who could have known and been closer to God than Moses? Yet when God asked Moses what he wanted Moses said to see the “glory of God.”  Had he not seen that on the mountaintop?  This glory that Moses wanted to see is something we will never see in the flesh.  God told Moses in Exodus 33:18-20 that He would show him all He could, but he could not see His pani His presence for anyone who sees His presence cannot live.  

I have heard stories of people saying Jesus appeared to them and spoke with them. Jesus walked into their room and had a chat with them. I will not question what they say they saw.  But one thing they did not see was His pani, His presence, for if they did see His presence what they would have seen or experienced in seeing God’s presence was what Rabbi Chaim Ibn Attar described as an attachment, delight, delectability, fellowship, love, kissing and sweetness, to the point that their souls no longer want to exist in their body but would want to be permanently attached this awesome racham love of God. Their souls would leave their bodies and their bodies would cease. 

We call that death which means something horrible and tragic. Horrible and tragic? – Baloney! If Moses had seen the presence of God or the manifest glory, whatever it was that he hoped to see, God knew his soul would just leave his body and he would not be able to fulfill his mission. That is the tragedy of a Christian’s death, not dying but not fulfilling your mission on earth. As Paul said; “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21. 

You can believe what you want, but I hang my hat with Rabbi Chaim Ibn Attar, These men were righteous men who qarav, drew near to God and got such a taste of his racham love that they kept moving closer, knowing full well that their physical body would cease but that didn’t matter in light of the glory of God that they were beginning to witness. Thus, they received the Divine Kiss from God and were welcomed into the presence of God that Moses and his brother Aaron so longed to experience. 

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