Aaron and his four sons had just been ordained as priests. His sons were named Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar, and Nadab. The ordination ceremony had taken place seven days earlier, but before their ordination could become official, they had to stay at the entrance to the Tabernacle day and night for seven days. Moses had explained to them that this is what God had commanded and that if they didn't do it, they would all die.

On the day of the ceremony, Moses had slaughtered one bull as a sin offering, one ram as a burnt offering, and one more ram as the "ram of ordination" just as God had commanded. After slaughtering the lamb of ordination, Moses had taken the blood and smeared it on Aaron's right ear lobe, the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Then he did the same to all of Aaron's sons. And finally, he splattered blood on the sides of the alter.

Once the ceremony had concluded and all the animals that needed to be killed had been killed, Aaron and his sons took up their position at the entrance of the Tabernacle. They stayed there for the seven days and seven nights as God had commanded. At the end of the seven days, they were officially ordained as God's special priests. Aaron had never been more proud of his sons.

Unfortunately, though, he could not have known what was about to happen to two of them...

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