“our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests” (Heb. 7:14).

God’s Voice

There was nothing before God “created all things” (Eph. 3:9). Then God broke the silence. “For he spoke, and it came to be” (Ps. 33:9). The thundering “voice of the Lord … flashes forth flames” and “shakes the wilderness” (Ps. 29:3-8). God’s voice can make or destroy worlds and give directives defining what will be and must be. No one has the right to refuse him.

He speaks with authority, whether creating a universe or inspiring a prophet (Heb. 1:1; 2:3-4; 3:7; 4:12). God’s household is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:20), so it’s no wonder Jesus told Peter — one of his apostles — that whatever he bound on earth would be bound in heaven and whatever he loosed on earth would be loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:19). We’re bound by what God spoke through apostles and prophets (2 Pet. 3:21), but what about when he’s silent?

Secret Things

God chooses not to address lots of subjects, and we must accept it. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). You probably have unanswered questions and so do I, but God’s silence puts the matter to rest and we accept the limits of His revelation. God wants to direct us into his will, and we don’t have to know everything to “do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29).

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29).

Thundering Silence

But is there anything we should learn when God says nothing? To “rightly handle the word of truth” (1 Tim. 2:15), we need to interpret Scripture’s silence correctly. Does God’s silence bind or loose? Some take God’s silence about anything to mean it must be wrong, while others take it as a license to improvise their own ideas.

Thankfully, the book of Hebrews provides some guidance. “For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests” (Heb. 7:14). Did God ever say people from Judah couldn’t be priests? No, not directly. In all the laws about the priesthood, what did God say about the tribe of Judah? “Nothing” (Heb. 7:14)! God never forbade any tribe from being priests, yet a Reubenite or Benjamite who tried to be a priest would sin against God.

When God specifies what he wants, he eliminates everything else.

It wasn’t just because Scripture was silent about it, but because God specified the tribe of Levi (Num. 3:5-10), setting apart Aaron and his sons as priests and the rest of Levi to assist (Num. 3:5-10). When God specified Levi, he eliminated all other tribes. So Hebrews shows us that God’s silence bound them, implicitly forbidding anything different than God commanded. When God specifies something, he eliminates everything else.

That’s not some bizarre Bible rule. We follow the same principle anytime an authority specifies what they want. If I tell my son to buy some candy, he has lots of options. But if I told him to buy a Reese’s and he chose Airheads instead, he wouldn’t follow what I said. When I specified, it eliminated the other options.

Strange Fire

On the day God confirmed Aaron as high priest (Lev. 9), fire from God’s presence consumed his oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10:1-2). Such a severe penalty makes me want to know more about their sin. Scripture explains that they offered fire “which he had not commanded them” (Lev. 10:1). It doesn’t say God expressly forbade this fire. But he commanded what they SHOULD use (cf. Exod. 30:9, 34-38), and that made any other fire “unauthorized” (Lev. 10:1). Moses used the same word (“unauthorized,” Hebrew: zar) to describe someone from the wrong family trying to serve as a priest (Num. 17:5; Heb. 7:14).

We honor God’s glory by giving care to approach him in the ways he has chosen.

But why did they have to die? The answer lies in the concept of sanctification. God told Aaron,” “‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ And Aaron held his peace” (Lev. 10:3). The gravity of coming before God to worship is immense. Yet, when they drew near, Nadab and Abihu failed to honor him as holy. The opposite of “holy” (or set apart) isn’t evil; it’s “common” (Lev. 10:10). You could use something common for other purposes, but what God specified for his service became holy. So when God specified a gold plate (Exod. 25:29) or a particular incense recipe (Exod. 30:34-38) for his service, he distinguished it from all others.

If we draw near as his priests today (1 Pet. 2:5-9), we must learn from the first Levitical priests’ fatal disregard for God’s exact will. We honor God’s glory by giving care to approach him in the ways he has chosen. It’s no trivial matter. God is worthy of our full attention, obedience, and worship.

When It Binds, When It Looses

So, when God specified a recipe for incense, it eliminated everything else. To illustrate an application of this principle, consider the kind of music God has chosen for our worship. When God specifies singing, we eliminate every other way and approach him with our voices. If God said, “Make music,” we could sing, play instruments, or create music with a mix of both. But because God said how to make music, repeatedly specifying singing in the New Testament (1 Cor. 14:15, Heb. 13:15, James 5:13, Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16-17, Acts 16:25, Matt. 26:30), we hold that specific form of music when we come near to worship him.

Whatever God leaves loose, we must not bind!

On the other hand, when God doesn’t specify, then his silence means we have freedom. Whatever God leaves loose, we must not bind! We need knowledge of God’s will to determine where God has bound us and where he has given liberty (1 Cor. 8-10). For example, Jesus told disciples to “go” and “*teach” (Matt. 28:19-20). He didn’t tell them how to go, so they could take any means they wanted — boat, donkey, or foot. He didn’t say how to teach so they could teach in Synagogues, stadiums, or one-on-one conversations. They could use their voices or the technology of the time, like papyrus and pen. Where God hasn’t specified *his* way, we must not bind our way.

A Different Kind of Priest

We’re under a new law, with “a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God” — a priest who can “sympathize with our weaknesses … yet without sin” (Heb. 4:14-15). 

Praise God, when we sin, we have Jesus as our High Priest. His Judahite descent disqualifies him from the priesthood according to the law of Moses. So if “there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well” (Heb. 7:12). We’re under a new law, with “a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God” — a priest who can “sympathize with our weaknesses … yet without sin*” (Heb. 4:14-15).

In this new covenant, we take God’s will even more seriously than under Moses (Heb. 2:1-4; 12:18-29). Yet Christ lets us confidently draw near to “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). Since “he holds his priesthood permanently” he can “save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:24-25).