In the Old Testament God was very jealous about praise and we know with certainty that to this day He still is, that He wants holiness in praise, that we do not add more than we should add. The book of Leviticus chapter 10 tells us a somewhat obscure story, but at the same time shows us how zealous our God is with praise, let’s see what happened to the sons of Aaron:
1 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.
2 And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.
Leviticus 10:1-2
We will take these verses as an illustration, but not without first highlighting the impressive death of the sons of Aaron, what was the problem with Nadab and Abihu? Their big mistake was exactly the same as many evangelical praise leaders are committing to this day. Nadab and Abihu had done something that the Lord God never commanded them: they had offered strange fire before God.
Something very important that can help us all about this story is: “and they offered strange fire before the Lord, which He never commanded them: Two points: 1) they offered strange fire 2) God had not commanded them to do that. Many of the praises that we sing today are completely unbiblical songs, others are only piano and drums, but when we go to the content of them we do not find the God of the Scriptures.
Many artists are producing “strange fire” in today’s praise, it’s amazing, but when we look at their content and music we do not see anything spiritual about it, we see strange fire and things that God has commanded them to do. Brothers, we must have something very important, and that is that everyone who has been called to the ministry, must be subject to the word of God, be artist, pastor, teacher, etc.
All of our ministries revolve around the word of God, and if we try to include something extra than the Scriptures, then we are doing the same as Nadab and Abihu, we are bringing strange fire and doing things that God has not told us to do.
Worship is something very delicate, and we pray to God to allow us to do only His will. We conclude with this statement by Pastor David Wilkerson: “I am tired of music that makes young people jump instead of bending their knees.”