MAN'S INABILITY TO APPROACH GOD

Man's Inability to Approach God
In the life of Israel we have illustrations of man's attempting to force himself into the presence of God before Eternal Life came through Jesus Christ and justification on the grounds of His Finished Work. There are many acts of Divine Justice in the Old Testament which are hard to understand except in the light of man's need of a Mediator. Leviticus 10:1-3 is a recorded incident of one of the lessons that was necessary to cause Israel to know its spiritual condition before Deity.
What a calamitous closing of the dedication of the priesthood. Aaron and his family that morning had been aspiring to the highest point of Divine favor: the tabernacle had been reared; the Shekinah presence had filled it with glory; the majesty of Jehovah was resting upon Israel. Behind them lay a series of Divine Miracles that had marked them as God's chosen people, and now Aaron's firstborn heir to the priesthood with his brother is suddenly smitten with death before the whole congregation. What had occasioned it?
These two sons, lingering near the tent of meeting at noon, in a spirit of bravado or curiosity, took up censers with live coals, poured incense upon them, and entered the Holy of Holies, contrary to God's appointed way. No one but the High Priest could go there, and he could go only once a year. Suddenly, the young men stagger, stumble, and fall dead. As Aaron stands horrified, shocked and stunned in the presence of the dead, Moses cries to him, "Aaron, this is it that Jehovah spake, saying, I shall be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified." And Aaron held his peace. Israel had learned that man could not approach God uninvited and in his own way.
We have another sample of man's attempt to approach Jehovah unauthorized in Numbers 16. It is the story of Korah and his rebellion. Korah and a company of the leaders of Israel are jealous of Moses and Aaron, and insist that they have as much right to approach Jehovah as have God's appointed High Priests. Moses puts the issue to the test in the presence of the whole congregation. He invited Korah and his followers to appear before Jehovah with their censers, ready for worship.
As soon as they came, Moses warned the people to get up from the tents of these wicked men who dared to approach God uninvited and in their own way. No sooner had Moses ceased speaking than the earth opened its mouth, and the men with their families dropped down alive into Sheol. Israel ran away from the scene, frightened, filled with awe and reverence for such a holy God. Another illustration is given to us in I Samuel 6:19. The Ark of the Covenant had been captured because of Eli's great sin. It had been taken down into Gath by the Philistines; and after a series of judgments that had fallen upon the heathen cities because of their desecration of the Ark, they put it on a cart and sent it back to Bethshamesh.
The cattle that were drawing the cart turned off the road into the fields. When some of the people laboring in the field saw the Ark, the news spread rapidly over the hillsides until thousands of people gathered from the country round about, reverent and curious. Then a bolder spirit than the others drew near and threw off the heavy covering from the Ark of the Covenant, and the people for the first time saw that Holy Receptacle of the Ten Commandments.
Suddenly, a plague struck them, and fifty thousand men fell dead upon the ground. Awful fear and consternation fell upon the people; beating their breasts, they turned back to their homes. It has been shown again that no one can approach God but through a High Priest or over a bleeding sacrifice. Man, because of his Satanic nature, cannot come into God's presence uninvited. He needs a Mediator.
The Bible in the Light of Our Redemption, BY E.W KENYON