Sacrifices

This starts out with specific details about how to gut an ox and what to give off its body to burn in the temple area, and what to burn outside the temple area. Then it goes on to a ram, then it had Aaron and his son’s repeat the step that Moses made for him.
God intercedes for Moses and make him holy so he can intercede on behalf of Aaron and his sons, so that Aaron and his sons can intercede on the behalf of the people of Israel. They did this so that the Glory of God might come down and all the people would see the Glory of God.
Moses ordains Aaron and his sons to be priests, God sends his glory down, and fire comes out of his glory and consumes the sacrifices on the altar.
Soon after that as Aaron and his family start to prepare for the next step in offering incense, his boys do what is wrong by offering “strange fire” or “forbidden fire”. The NIV just states fire, but in the Hebrew, it’s acutely translated strange fire, the only reason I remembered it was because I had read in the KJV before that it noted a strange fire. For some reason, ever since I read that as a child it has stuck with me. Why did they offer with a strange fire, or a forbidden fire, why not just plain Jane fire? The words strange and/or forbidden have their root words based in the word sin.
So they had offered the incense in a sinful way, a way in which God had asked them not to offer it. It would be one thing to try to offer something in which to honor God, but the way the words are put together in the Hebrew, they speak of a disrespectful way in which they offered up the incense to God. Not in a way of respect or honor, but in a sinful way. These men were not struck down because they were trying something new in which they could honor God and be creative, they offered the gift in a bad way which brought God’s anger down on them. I tried to relay that line of thought to you in a bunch of different ways so that maybe you would understand it a little more.
See the blood being shed in the temple inside the city. Then see the rest of the body taken outside the city to be completely burned. Jesus was a symbol to the Jews all the way. He was tortured, beaten beyond recognition, His blood was let in the city, and his body was staked to the cross on the outside of the city. God’s standard is perfection. Thankfully, Jesus’ blood was enough to atone for our sins, it redeemed us, it saved us. I hope you see that in the symbols of the old testament today.