Leviticus 10:1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the LORD by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded. 2 So fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD.
Laurence J. Peter is known for his Peter Principle. As described online, the Peter Principle is a theory in hierarchies where employees get promoted based on success in their current job until they reach a position where they lack the skills to succeed, thus becoming “competent” at their level of incompetence, where they then stagnate. (In short, people are promoted to the point of their incompetence.)
It seems that the Peter principle is what happened to Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu when they were promoted to the point of their incompetence. They were working their priestly duties and forgot the rule of God. Is it possible that Abihu said to Nadad, “Isn’t there a particular way of doing this incense thing?” Nadad might have said, “Oh, you know how dad gets with doing all these things the right way, this is good enough.” Of course, it was not good enough, and their incompetence cost them their lives. Lev. 10:2 So fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD. God’s way of doing things does not always seem to register with our hearts, and can be overlooked as holy fickleness. The laws that God had set out for the Levites were laws that kept the communication between God and man vibrant in a relationship of God’s leading.
The world at this time is chugging along in full incompetence mode. The breakdown of infrastructure is reaching points beyond repair. Bridges falling into the rivers, Buildings collapsing, and information centers losing all their data because someone forgot to turn on a safety switch that was a normal procedure, but no one explained it to the newly promoted. I have a friend who was promoted to a management position in a banking company. She hated it and wanted to go back to being a teller, where she thrived as a person and was liked by the customers. There was no mechanism for her to get out of the system because all promotions went forward and not backward. She had to resign from her management position and reapply at the company for a teller position. Yes, she got her teller job and was happy that she was at peace in her heart. It looks like Peter is working overtime because even the promotional systems have become incompetent.
We see the Peter principle taking place amongst the leaders of Jerusalem when Jesus shows up on the scene. For four hundred years, the voice of God had been silent until God’s voice said, Matt. 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” There were the Herodians, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots, all vying for religious and political power over the people. The members of these sects had all added to the laws of God and had promoted the business of religion to the point of spiritual incompetence. The ordinary man could not get close to God because there were so many laws that could not be followed, even if someone wanted to. Matt. 23:23 What sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
The Peter principle had allowed the next man up to add different amendments to the law of God to suit whatever graft and power grab they were after. Jesus said on different occasions, “Do not be like the Scribes and Pharisees.” Matt. 6:5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. We need to pay attention to the Lord’s warning, as it has become clear that the same Peter principle issues are showing up in the church today. We have seen this taking place on every media platform. False prophecies are shared regularly, and proclamations of “God told me to say,” when in fact, God did not tell them anything. Self-promoted and self-centred ministries pushing their agendas that are not that different than the Herodians, Pharisees, and Sadducees. The sad thing is that a lot of these prognosticators have promoted themselves to the point of their own incompetence. Rom. 10:2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal.
The Lord has His way of promoting us in His timing, and the promotion will not be to the point of our incompetence, because God will supply the wisdom we need for the task He has set in our hearts. The steps to get there are through honest humility. 1Pet. 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you. The due time is on God’s timetable. Let us not become careless with the grace that God has given us, and become a statistic like Aaron’s sons, who took the Almighty God for granted. God, the Holy Spirit is not one of the boys to be treated with disregard. He is the one who lives in us and teaches us what the will of the Father is for our lives. Yes, Peter is working overtime in the world, but we are not of this world. We are God’s sons and daughters who are led by His love. Let us live within God’s promotion.
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