The iconography of warning labels is meant to shock.  Leering skulls with crossbones.  Explosions, flash fires, toxic clouds, burning corrosives.  Even if you can’t read the words, the pictures tell the grim tale of failing to exercise extreme caution.   To stay back.  To handle with care.  To tread lightly.  To read and reread the warnings.   And heed them with fear and trepidation.  At least the first time you encounter something harmful or deadly.

But as in all human experience, familiarity creates complacency.   It is easy to become careless.  To forget our initial horror at the iconography of the warning label.  And feel too at ease ignoring warnings and doing things our own way.  After all, we have never had a problem.  Right?   Yet a loss of vigilance primes us for disaster.

And all too often, only a tragic consequence reminds us why the warning label was so dire in the first place.   A distracted driver kills someone.   We forget that every gun is loaded.  Or think that somehow the warning does not apply to us.   Tragedy is a hard schoolmaster when it is the consequence of ignoring a warning.   But it teaches a potent lesson. 

Worship is the expression of a believer’s relationship with a Holy God.   It is a gracious and grateful conversation between God and his beloved people.   In it we are called to draw near.  To delight in the wonders of all God’s attributes.  His sovereignty, majesty, grace, mercy, and power.   The Psalmist declares that we are to worship him in the beauty of holiness.  But worship comes with a warning.   We may not approach our God in any manner we choose.   The Westminster Confession of Faith gives us an apt and clear warning label regarding how we are to worship.

The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is good, and doeth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture. 

Westminster Confession of Faith, XXI.1

Some describe this as ‘the regulative principle.’  But the Reformers called it “Worship, reformed according to scripture.”  God has instructed us in worship.  As we saw in Leviticus 9, the Lord has commands not only the particulars of worship, but its trajectory as well.  A trajectory of calling, confession, consecration, communion, and commission which has structured Christian worship throughout history.   We are never at liberty to inject worship with novelty or preference.  This is both idolatrous and deadly.

Paul’s writes to the Corinthian Church to warn them that carelessness with the Lord’s Supper proves toxic.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 

1 Corinthians 11:27-30

And in Leviticus 10, on the very first day of the priest’s regular service, Aaron’s own sons, Nadab and Abihu become the first innovators in worship, failing to lead worship just as God had commanded.  And the fire of God’s grace that accepted the offering in Leviticus 9:24 now becomes the fire of judgement that destroys Aaron’s sons. 

Worship is beautiful and glorious, but it can be deadly as well.  Drawing near to God in our own way or on our own merit brings judgement. So, worship comes with a warning label. We read seven times in Leviticus 8-10 that Moses did exactly as the Lord commanded.  This is a warning for us. Love for and fear of God are not mutually exclusive.  We fear God and keep his commandments precisely because we love him.  We must worship him in thought, word, and deed just as he has “prescribed in Holy Scripture.”

Join us as we examine Leviticus 10 and consider the warning label God provides for Christian worship.  We meet on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.