“Elders, a beautiful thing …”

All of the works of God are marvelous and beautiful.  “Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth” (Psa. 105:5).  And all his works are for our good and eternal benefit.  There is no denying the beauty of God’s plan for saving us through the redemption that is in the Christ.

A part of that Divine plan is the design of the church.  “To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God,  according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:10-11).  What God intended in the church is a part of his eternal purpose, the purpose that he made in Jesus before the world was.  “Who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of times for your sake” (1 Peter 1:20).

This Eternal Purpose, purposed in Christ before the world was, included instructions as to how to live, how to be saved, and how to behave in the church.  It is not only the blueprint of our reconciliation, it is the blueprint of the kingdom.

In teaching and practice, we must follow the blueprint, or pattern.  “Who serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses is warned of God when he is about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mount” (Heb. 8:5).  “Hold the pattern of sound words which thou hast heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.  That good thing which was committed unto thee guard through the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us” (2 Tim. 1:13-14).  The church, and all things pertaining to it, must fit the pattern that God gave through his Son in the New Testament.

The illustration is given in Hebrews of this very point.  All things were to be according to the pattern.  When Israel deviated in the building of the tabernacle or its service, they paid dearly for it. 

Nadab and Abihu serve well to impress this truth upon us.  “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censer, and put fire therein, and laid incense thereon, and offered strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them.  And there came forth fire from before Jehovah, and devoured them, and they died before Jehovah.  Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that Jehovah spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace” (Lev. 10:1-3).

Let’s begin with the consequences of their sin.  They were consumed with fire from God.  What they did was serious enough to be killed for it.  Their deaths serve as a warning for us.  “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, …” (Rom. 15:4).  “Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come” (1 Cor. 10:11).

Next, let’s consider what they did.  They “offered strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them.”  They altered the pattern slightly, and that brought down upon their heads the wrath and punishment of their deeds.  Someone might murmur against God, “But it was such a small thing …”  Was it a small thing?  God did not think so.  The problem was not so much the fire and its source.  Verse 3 of the text tells us why God punished them so severely.  “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified.”  We show love and reverence for God by obeying him.  Disobedience is a sign of the opposite, even when that disobedient thing is small in our eyes.  It is never small in his eyes.  It is the same kind of disobedience that kept Moses and Aaron out of Canaan after Moses disobeyed God at Meribah.  He was told to speak to a rock and bring forth water.  Instead, he smote the rock with his staff as he had done before.  What was God’s reaction?  “And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them” (Num. 20:12).   Moses dishonored God when he forsook the detail of his pattern.

When we forsake the pattern, we also dishonor God.  It is the same as saying that God’s pattern is not good enough.  God said through Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9).  To reject the wisdom of God’s pattern is to reject God, and to bring upon oneself the rejection of God.  “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee …” (Hosea 4:6).

What is learned from the story of Nadab and Abihu is that it is vital that we not only obey God, but that we follow his pattern, his design, completely.  We might think we are obeying him by doing what he wants, but if we do not follow the pattern in those things, we are missing the mark.

A part of that beautiful pattern gave us for salvation includes his blueprint for the church.  “And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, …” (Acts 14:23).  However, it might be noted that those churches existed for a while, some for quite a while, without elders.  I don’t know exactly why, but we might safely speculate that no teaching had been received on appointed elders yet, or that there was no one who was qualified to take that office until the time such were appointed by Paul and Barnabas.  That is the pattern in the New Testament.  Elders in every church is the design of God, but waiting until such men are qualified and identified is also a part of the pattern in Acts 14.

Another vital part of the pattern is found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.  Those passages have to do with the qualification of elders.  When there is an attempt to appoint men who are not qualified, or without regard to the qualifications named, there is the same forsaking of the pattern that we see in the story of Nadab and Abihu.  Many congregations have failed before God because “ye believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel.”  Shall the result be any different?  Yes, those folk are not going to be consumed with fire from God immediately like Nadab and Abihu.  But the fire that God has reserved for those who forsake his pattern awaits those who take lightly those qualifications. 

“Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9).  We delight in using this passage to discourage instrumental music and institutionalism.  Right well we should use it, because it condemns forsaking the pattern.  But when we forsake the pattern God has given regarding elder qualifications, we a not one whit better or different from those who would impose instrumental music, human institutions, or infant baptism.  What goes for them goes for us when we forsake the pattern.  And yet we have had such among us throughout our history.

It has been said of us that we do not want elders.  Those who say that lie, or they are led by liars.  What we do not want is unqualified elders.  We can find Scripture for existing without elders until such men who are qualified and desire the office are found, but the only Scripture we can find that deals with appointing men who are not qualified is Gal. 1:6-7:  “I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel; which is not another gospel only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”

A Scripturally qualified eldership is a beautiful thing, but those who appoint men who are not qualified elders are following a perverted and ineffectual gospel.  Gal. 1:8-9.