A Case For Fiery Judgment

Series Title:  Life Lessons from Leviticus? (For More In This Series )

A Sermon By Jim Hammond from Leviticus 10

Modern examples of the Failure of Priests

In the media for the last month or more, we have been hearing about the failure of priests.  There is taking place a monumental exposure of previously hidden cases of misconduct. 

A.W. Richard Sipe is a psychotherapist and former Benedictine monk and priest married to a former nun. For more than 30 years, he has been engaged in research on the institution and practice of priestly celibacy. He is the author of Sex, Priests, and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis.

USA Today conducted a question and answer forum called Talk Today about this matter, giving Mr. Sipe a chance to answer questions. 

One person asked:  Why would Bishops send these alleged offenders to another parish in a small town and not consider that people in small communities have to also try to explain and live this down? Where is the compassion!!!!!!

Mr. Sipe responded, The primary rule that the bishops have operated under is to avoid scandal. They will do almost anything to keep things secret. The mode of operations of the Church has been one of secrecy in order to maintain control.

Another person asked: Knowing that it is morally wrong, doesn't the church feel that they are in direct conflict with the teaching of God's word when they engage in a cover-up?

Mr Sipe answered: The Church feels that it is responding to a higher moral justification in avoiding scandal and in preserving the system of the Church AND in covering up other things that they know about, but do not want to be revealed. They don't want their bishops or cardinals exposed for their sexual behavior.

What do you think?  Should these sins be covered up or exposed?  Does covering it up protect the church or harm it?

Cover-up or Exposure

COVER-UP in the sense of hiding a matter of sin, or pretending it was not so, is definitely not the methodology God uses to protect his church.  Today we will study a passage of scripture where God chose exposure, a very swift and harsh judgment that was not covered up but made public, in order to bring about long term corrective measures at the outset of the Old Covenant.  We will discover also today that at the outset of each of the great movements of redemptive history God chose swift measures of exposure and judgment to keep the spiritual movement on course..

Focus:  It is through mediated EXPOSURE to God’s justice that grace COVERS sin without a cover-up.  Judgment is unmediated exposure to God’s Holiness.

Today we will look at the failure of a couple of Old Testament priests and what happened as a result.  It was a case for Fiery Judgment.

Before we read the passage a couple of questions might help prepare your mind for this passage?

Do you believe God will eventually judge the world?

How does your view of a God of Grace fit with your view of a God of justice?

How does your view of God’s Love fit with your view of God’s justice?

How does your view of God’s Love fit with your view of God’s Wrath?

How does your view of Heaven fit with your view of Hell?

As you can imagine, these are not easy subjects to consider.  For that matter, they have become quite controversial today.  We will be looking at a passage about a fiery judgment in a moment.  What I want us to see is that this isn’t just a passage about fiery judgment.  It makes a strong case for a fiery judgment.

Leviticus 10:1-20

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. 2So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3Moses then said to Aaron, "This is what the Lord spoke of when he said:

" 'Among those who approach me I will show myself holy;
in the sight of all the people I will be honored.' "

Aaron remained silent.

4Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, "Come here; carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary." 5So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses ordered.

6Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the Lord will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the house of Israel, may mourn for those the Lord has destroyed by fire. 7Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting or you will die, because the Lord's anointing oil is on you." So they did as Moses said.

8Then the Lord said to Aaron, 9"You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 10You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, 11and you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the Lord has given them through Moses."

12Moses said to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, "Take the grain offering left over from the offerings made to the Lord by fire and eat it prepared without yeast beside the altar, for it is most holy. 13Eat it in a holy place, because it is your share and your sons' share of the offerings made to the Lord by fire; for so I have been commanded. 14But you and your sons and your daughters may eat the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. Eat them in a ceremonially clean place; they have been given to you and your children as your share of the Israelites' fellowship offerings. 15The thigh that was presented and the breast that was waved must be brought with the fat portions of the offerings made by fire, to be waved before the Lord as a wave offering. This will be the regular share for you and your children, as the Lord has commanded."

16When Moses inquired about the goat of the sin offering and found that it had been burned up, he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's remaining sons, and asked, 17"Why didn't you eat the sin offering in the sanctuary area? It is most holy; it was given to you to take away the guilt of the community by making atonement for them before the Lord. 18Since its blood was not taken into the Holy Place, you should have eaten the goat in the sanctuary area, as I commanded."

19Aaron replied to Moses, "Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, but such things as this have happened to me. Would the Lord have been pleased if I had eaten the sin offering today?" 20When Moses heard this, he was satisfied.

I.  When You Play Games With Fire You Get Burned

Focus:  It is through mediated EXPOSURE to God’s justice that grace COVERS sin without a cover-up.  Judgment is unmediated exposure to God’s Holiness.

The “Focus” today is a bit cryptic in its wording, but I hope it will make sense to you more as we go. 

Only the right kind of exposure to holiness is helpful.  Though most people don’t know it, the wrong kind of exposure is actually deadly.

Missing Equipment

When Gina and I got married a little over 19 years ago, we went on a honeymoon to Lake Tahoe. Though it was the month of May, the ground was covered in glistening snow under a beautiful blue sky.  We made one critical mistake the day we decided to go cross country skiing.  We were lucky it didn’t turn out worse than it did.  We were each one critical piece of equipment short and we didn’t know how critical our error was until hours later.  That night after what we thought was a lovely day together, we both were awakened by pain in the middle of the night.  Something was desperately wrong with our eyes.  The critical pieces of equipment we each had forgotten were sunglasses!  We were each experiencing a mild case of snow blindness.  It wasn’t merely a matter of difficulty seeing.  It hurt.  It felt like somebody had rubbed sand all over our eyeballs.  It hurt to open our eyelids. It hurt to shut them. Tears were streaming out our reddened eyes.  If you think sunburn is bad, try burning your eyes.  In the light of day it was very difficult to open our eyes enough to see. This is a good picture of what happens when one is exposed to light without any mediation. As unmediated exposure to light causes snow blindness, so does unmediated exposure to holiness threaten our very existence.

 It is only through mediated exposure to holiness that we receive grace.  Unmediated exposure results in judgment.   If you don’t believe me, consider Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10.

When grace covers sin, you don’t need a cover-up.  But only through the properly mediated exposure does grace cover sin.  That’s why confession is important, and honesty, and humbling ourselves before God.  If we wish to receive grace and forgiveness from God, we must expose our sin to God’s holiness and provision for grace.  This is a tricky theological truth, however, because according to the Bible, it has to be right kind of exposure for grace to be operable instead of judgment.  The only kind of exposure to God’s Holiness that provides grace is MEDIATED exposure.  Be warned, unmediated exposure to God’s Holiness is deadly.    Nadab and Abihu bypassed all of the correct mediation and were judged instantly. Without the proper mediation, God’s Holiness is not a blessing, but a judgment against us because we are sinners.  When I come face to face with the Holy and Almighty God, there will be no question in my mind that God is perfect and I am not.  The only thing that will keep me from wanting to run and hide is the fact that I can look over to my savior, my mediator, nod my head in his direction as I say to the Father, “I’m with Him.”  That’s mediated exposure; he’s our only hope when we come face to face with God.

Now read the focus again.  It should begin to make a little more sense. 

Focus:  It is through mediated EXPOSURE to God’s justice that grace COVERS sin without a cover-up.  Judgment is unmediated exposure to God’s Holiness.

Nadab and Abihu went into the presence of God’s Holiness in an unauthorized way, and thereby bypassed the mediating protection that God had established. Without the proper mediation, God’s Holiness is not a blessing, but a judgment against us because we are sinners.

A.  Understanding Divine Judgment will Protect You

In many parts of the church the biblical view of divine judgment is conveniently forgotten.  Too many people are beginning to believe God’s judgment as something that has passed away with the Old Testament.  People think, "God will forgive me.  That's his job.  Is it?" This biblical narrative confronts many modern thinkers.  It also challenges many Bible believing Christians whose viewpoints have been overly influenced by today’s theological trends. 

Let me ask you more questions.

Does God have to forgive?  If you believe so, why?  In this case, why did judgment fall?  And why did it fall so quickly?  Doesn’t God’s behavior here seem harsh and unreasonable?  Where’s the second chance?  Why couldn’t God have just reasoned with them?  Couldn’t he have sent them to a psychologist so that they could understand their childhood hang ups and make some corrections?

B.  Misunderstanding Grace will Harm You

Couldn’t God have extended more grace to Nadab and Abihu?  Didn’t he respond too quickly?  Couldn’t he have provided some sort of group therapy to solve the childhood complexes that led to this little problem here? 

Moses gave an explanation for what happened here. 

" 'Among those who approach me I will show myself holy;
in the sight of all the people I will be honored.' "

Focus:  It is through mediated EXPOSURE to God’s justice that grace COVERS sin without a cover-up.  Judgment is unmediated exposure to God’s Holiness.

A correct understanding of Grace does not alter the Altar.  The altar of justice cannot be altered to accommodate your misunderstanding of grace.  God does not simply forgive because he has to.  He is just.  In order for him to forgive, there is a price of forgiveness that has to be paid.  You cannot alter the altar.  This is what the priests were doing, they were messing around with the altar, and with God’s holiness.  They were approaching God in an undesignated way.  God can only be approached through the altar system he set up, through the mediation he set up.  This mediation system was very carefully established because it very carefully portrays the shadow picture of the altar of the cross.  You can’t change all of that and say you can come to God any which a way.

If you come before the holiness of God presumptuously without the correct mediation, judgment results. 

Focus:  It is through mediated EXPOSURE to God’s justice that grace COVERS sin without a cover-up.  Judgment is unmediated exposure to God’s Holiness.

You can’t alter the altar.  Here’s another way to say something very similar, if you make a case for heaven, you better make a case for hell.  If you make a case for grace, you must also make a case for judgment.  Grace presupposes judgment.  Here we have a case of judgment.

Nadab and Abihu were the two eldest of Aaron's four sons.  These two had accompanied their father and Moses when they went up to Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:1).  What made the fire that they offered “strange” (NIV “unauthorized”)?  According to Leviticus 16:12 these coals were supposed to be taken from the altar.  Was it because the coals were not taken from the altar that there was a strange fire introduced to the temple?  Did the coals this time come from some other place?  Did they not get the coals from the Altar of God’s fire?  Was it because the fire was introduced at the wrong time of day?  Daily incense offerings were prescribed in Exodus 30:7-8.  This could be induced from Exodus 30:9, which prohibits "strange incense."  In other places the word "strange" refers to people who are not priests.  Perhaps "unauthorized" might be a good alternative translation to the word "strange".  What really seems to have mattered is stated in the text.  It was fire which God had not commanded.  The point is that the whole narrative from 8:1 has led us to expect God’s ministers to obey the law promptly and exactly.  But here, suddenly, we meet Aaron's sons doing something that had not been commanded.  As a result, "fire came from before the Lord" (10:2).  Why?  They were altering the altar.

The altar is the way in which someone who is NOT holy can have a relationship with God who IS HOLY.  If you alter that, you are in trouble.  The Old Testament Altar is a visible picture of the New Testament Gospel, good news, about how we can approach God through Christ.  Paul says verbally the same thing about the gospel was visibly demonstrated here.

Galatians 1:8

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

You can expect judgment if you alter the Altar.

" 'Among those who approach me I will show myself holy;
in the sight of all the people I will be honored.' "

II.  Don’t Contrast Judgment & Grace as OT vs. NT

Biblical Examples of Exposure & Judgment (Both OT & NT)

Grace presupposes justice or it wouldn’t be grace.  Perhaps it would help us to see other examples where harsh judgment fell.  Two examples in particular have a parallel that is notable.  Both of these examples come at a later point in history.  Here in Leviticus 10 we see judgment falling at the outset of the temple system.  Compare this with two other examples.  The next time judgment falls swiftly is the judgment that falls on Achan.  The story of Achan is found in Joshua.  Joshua is about the beginning of the conquest of the promised land.  Disobedience at the outset of this period of history was severely judged.  In this case the nation of Israel was a fledgling nation.  For this nation to become strong they needed to be pure.  Another example much like this is an example of judgment that falls upon Ananias and Saphira.  This is found in the New Testament in the book of Acts, chapter 5.  Harsh judgment fell swiftly on Ananias and Saphira for merely lying and misrepresenting the amount of money that they gave.  The result of this judgment was an example to everyone else at the outset of an important new movement. 

How do you deal with cases like this?  Does it make you feel insecure?  After all, we fail too.  Perhaps one way to soften the blow is this.  The scripture doesn’t necessarily say that with the swift judgment in the here and now, that this judgment implied eternal judgment as well.  Some would make a case for the fact that God cut short their earthly lives for their failure, but didn’t necessarily condemn them eternally.  If this is the case you would have to argue it from your presuppositions, not from the descriptive text itself. 

A.  Grace And Judgment are functions of the Same…

1.     Altar

2.     Fire

3.     God

Focus:  It is through mediated EXPOSURE to God’s justice that grace COVERS sin without a cover-up.  Judgment is unmediated exposure to God’s Holiness.

Grace And Judgment are functions of the Same Fire

The best way to get at this is to contrast the phrase "fire came from before the Lord", in 9:24 which was a demonstration of Grace.  With 10:2.  On this first occasion the fire came out and consumed the altar sacrifices.  On this occasion "fire came from before the Lord" and consumed not the sacrifices, but the errant priests.  On the first occasion when the "fire came from before the Lord", everyone shouted for joy.  On the second occasion when the "fire came from before the Lord", there was fearful silence.  The contrasts are remarkable.

Let’s talk about Aaron’s silence for a moment.   Aaron’s silence is in stark contrast to several things.  1) It is in contrast to the shouts of joy heard before from the revealed fire of God.  2) It is also in contrast to the loud wailing here that accompanied mourning of the people.

Rather than a stunned silence, Aaron’s silence represents a determination to follow the procedure that officiating priests should not be in mourning. 

The third contrast I want us to see is a modern one.  Today, more than ever before in my opinion, teachers and authorities are running into parents who defend the wrong behavior of their children rather than support the authority who is trying to help bring corrective measures.  Aaron serves as a good example here.  He does not try to defend his sons before God by accusing God of being wrong, or too harsh.  He doesn’t shout that it was God’s fault.  By his painful silence he agrees with God’s judgment.

As parents, be very careful not to foster continued rebellion by empowering your children’s disobedience.  Don’t help your children get away with something, or attempt to make lighter the discipline the authorities believe is appropriate for their behaviour.  Remember that sometimes your love will tempt you to do the wrong thing.  The most loving thing to do is pray that your children will get caught early and suffer disciplines early so that they will grow and painful disciplines will help them in the long run.  Participating in a cover-up for pride’s sake is one of the worst things a parent can do for a child who is in trouble.

Grace And Judgment are functions of the Same God

One of the main lessons to be learned from this narrative is how serious obedience is to those who are priests unto the Lord.  Those who come near to the Lord must be careful to obey his commands.  The nearer you get the more careful you must be to have grace covering you.  The responsibility rests on the priests to know their duty and to perform it carefully.  The closer a man is to God, the more attention he must pay to holiness and the glory of God.  The unspoken implication is that the sons of the high priest ought to have known better than to act so presumptuously.  A clear warning had already been given that if they were not careful they would die.  They were warned on two separate occasions, not to mention that the law warns all the Old covenant people that they face covenant curses of the Old Covenant if they are not careful to be obedient.

Why Did Judgment Fall?

How do we make sense of the severity of God's judgment?  Warren Wiersbe in his book on Leviticus called “Be Holy” put it this way,

Everything that these two men did was wrong. To begin with, they were the wrong people to be handling the incense and presenting it to the Lord. This was the task of their father, the high priest (Ex. 30:7-10). They also used the wrong instruments, their own censers instead of the censer of the high priest, sanctified by the special anointing oil (40:9). They acted at the wrong time, for it was only on the annual Day of Atonement that the high priest was permitted to take incense into the holy of holies, and even then he had to submit to a special ritual (Lev. 16:1ff).
     They acted under the wrong authority. They didn’t consult with Moses or their father, nor did they seek to follow the Word of God, which Moses had received. In burning the incense, they used the wrong fire, what Scripture calls “strange fire” (10:1; niv says “unauthorized fire”). The high priest was commanded to burn the incense on coals taken from the brazen altar (16:12), but Nadab and Abihu supplied their own fire, and God rejected it. They acted from the wrong motive and didn’t seek to glorify God alone (10:3). We don’t know the secrets of their hearts, but you get the impression that what they did was a willful act of pride. Their desire wasn’t to sanctify and glorify the Lord but to promote themselves and be important.
     Finally, they depended on the wrong energy; for verses 9-10 imply that they were under the influence of alcohol. This reminds us of Ephesians 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine . . . but be filled with the Spirit.” If every child of God were killed who substituted fleshly energy for the power of the Spirit, not many would be left! A.W. Tozer once said, “If God were to take His Holy Spirit out of this world, much of what the church is doing would go right on; and nobody would know the difference.”
     Nadab and Abihu were not outsiders; they were anointed priests who had seen God on the mountain (Ex. 24:1-11). Their father was the high priest, and they were trained in the service of the Lord. Yet they were killed for their disobedience! “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Cor. 10:12, niv) It’s a serious thing to be a servant of God, and our service must be empowered by His Spirit and controlled by His Word. We must serve God “acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28-29).[1]

It is also possible that Nadab and Abihu, who were ecstatic about seeing God’s glory, wanted to see it again.  It is possible they ventured into the holy of holies with the idea that the incense would protect them.  This of course was forbidden.  Nobody but those God authorizes can venture into his presence.  The Tabernacle was set up in such a way to make this very clear.  The closer you get to God’s presence the more careful, and more precisely one had to follow the instructions that protected men from the Holy presence of the Lord.

It is also interesting where the judged brothers are taken.  They’re taken away from the sanctuary out of the camp.  Their dead bodies are unclean and must be removed from the Holy area into the realm of the unclean outside the camp.  They're treated like the useless parts of the sacrificial animals.  Perhaps another way look at this is that they were treated in the way in which animals that were judged were treated.  Judgment had fallen this time not on the sacrifice, but upon the guilty parties themselves.  Even though the priests were not to mourn, the people were allowed to mourn the deaths of these two.  The public chance to mourn is perhaps for their own benefit.  They must not soon forget what has happened.

Reiterated Endorsement of the OT Priestly System

Something else that is unusual takes place in this paragraph.  The Lord spoke directly to Aaron himself.  Only here in Leviticus does God speak to Aaron directly and by himself; elsewhere it is always before through Moses.  This shows the importance of what follows, and that Aaron, despite his sons’ misdeeds, was still high priest, able to mediate between God and man.  So what we have here is God's endorsement of the Altar system (through a mediating priest) even immediately after the priestly failure.

The Privileged have a Stricter Standard

The New Testament also teaches that the privileged have a stricter standard.  Jesus said: "everyone to whom much is given, of him will much be required" (Luke 12:48).  Peter wrote, "judgment begins with the household of God" (1 Peter 4:17).  James wrote, "we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness"  (James 3:1).  Because of this passage in Leviticus 10, these New Testament truths are even more believable.  These truths are not designed to scare us away from trying to get close to God; they are designed to teach us to have a Holy respect for God.

B.  Be Cautious with the Phrase “God’s Unconditional Love”

Here’s a study challenge for you.  It might sound like heresy at first, but I want you to question and define the phrase “God’s Unconditional Love”.  There is a lot of talk today in the church about God’s unconditional love.  I submit to you that this phrase is not a Biblical phrase, and dangerous because it can be so easily misunderstood. 

Let me explain.  It is true that God loves everyone, and that he wishes that no man should perish.  And that everyone can be forgiven, and saved through Christ.  These are usually the kinds of verses that make us use the phrase “God’s Unconditional love”.  He loves us, not because we are lovable.  It is true that God reached toward us with a love that is not based on us, or whether we deserve it.  The fact that while we were sinners Christ died for us is certainly not based on something we did to deserve his love (Romans 5:8).  We neither deserve it nor earn it, and therefore we cannot take credit for it (“so that no one can boast”).  It is true that God’s love and grace is amazing.  It might even be hard to understand or believe that he could love us that much.  But I want to still caution you with the phrase “God’s Unconditional Love”.  Here’s why.

The Bible tells us that there is no salvation without one being “in Christ”.  So Salvation has at least one condition—you must be in Christ to be saved (John 14:6; John 6:6).  One is not automatically “in Christ” by birth.  One must be “born again” (John 3:3-6).  The Bible tells us that answered prayer has conditions.  The bible tells us there are conditions for being forgiven, for example you must believe in Jesus who died on the cross for you, and you must confess your sins to God.  Going to heaven has conditions.  

Nora Newport wrote,  “As we returned from Vacation Bible School one summer day, my young daughter Melissa asked if we could stop at the library. When I asked her why, she explained, "This morning my teacher told me that the only way we get to heaven is if our name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I just want to make sure that my name is in there!"[2] 

You can’t tell me that for those whose names are not there that after the judgment they will be receiving God’s unconditional love.  If they are not receiving unconditional love, then God’s love has a condition.  If God’s love has a condition, then we better be careful using the phrase “unconditional love”.

The only reason people talk about God’s “Unconditional Love” is that God loves us and wants to forgive us based on Christ’s merits not our own.  So his love goes out to all of us sinners.  But even that is a condition, Christ’s merits.  Reject Christ, and love will not be what you receive in the judgment.

If you reject God’s covenant offer, there remains no “unconditional love” to protect you from being exposed to God’s unfiltered, uncovered, exposing Holiness. Personally, I don’t know how helpful using the terminology “unconditional” is.  It is always better to use biblical terminology and categories.  Every picture of judgment presupposes the fact that something cut off God’s blessing, and opened itself up to God’s judgment instead of grace.

III.             God’s Holiness Will Either “Cover” you or “Expose” you

When you come before God.  Come before his Altar.  Don’t alter the altar.  Don’t try to change God.  He is holy.  The only way for us to have a relationship with a holy God is through the system of Grace he established for us to enter into Covenant with him.  Now we are in the age of grace through the covenant established through Christ.  Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant.  It’s altar system is no more.  It was fulfilled in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection on the cross.  Now, to come before God and have a relationship with the Almighty Holy God, we come humbly through the altar of the cross.  We receive what Christ did for us and come humbly before God on the basis of Christ’s merits and not our own.  If you do that, however, there is no reason to fear judgment.

There is Security in the Storm

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast.  He constantly advertised for hired hands but most people were reluctant to work on farms so close to the ocean.  They dreaded the awful storms that raged wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.
     Finally, a short thin man well past middle age approached the farmer wanting the job.  The farmer asked "Are you a good farm hand?"
     The man answered "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows."  Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer was desperate for help and so he hired him   on the  spot.  The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk.  The farmer was well satisfied with his work.
     Then one night, the wind howled loudly and the rain began to pour. The farmer jumped out of bed, grabbed a lantern, and rushed to the hired hand's sleeping quarters.  He shook the man and yelled "Get up!  There's a storm coming!  We have to tie things down before they blow away!"  The little man opened his eyes and said "No, sir.  I told you before you hired me.  I can sleep when the wind blows."  He promptly fell back to sleep.
     Enraged by this response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.  To his amazement, he discovered that the haystacks had all been covered with tarps.  The   cows and horses were secure in the barns.  The chickens were safe in their coops.  The doors were barred.  The shutters were tightly secured. Everything   was  fine.  Nothing could blow away or be damaged.  The farmer then realized what  his hired hand had meant.  He returned to his bed and slept soundly while  the wind blew. [3]

When you are prepared, you have nothing to fear.  Can you sleep when the wind blows against your life?  We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves firmly in the Word of God.  We secure ourselves for eternity when we have a relationship with Christ mediating God’s Holiness for us. 

The deciding factor when you come before God will be whether you have entered into the presence of God through Christ or not.  If you go in without a filter, a mediator, a covering of protection, it will be judgment to you. 

The Bible teaches us that everyone will eventually face God.  The question remains…does Christ have you covered?