… Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount …
22 And the children of Israel, even
the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, and came unto mount Hor. 23 And the LORD spake unto Moses
and Aaron in mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying, 24 Aaron shall be gathered unto his
people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the
children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of
Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son,
and bring them up unto mount Hor: 26 And strip Aaron of his garments,
and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people,
and shall die there. 27 And Moses did as the LORD
commanded: and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the
congregation. 28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his
garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of
the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount. (Num
20:22-28)
The text today offers a lesson of sorrow, and also of hope, in the passing of
the first High Priest of Israel whose place was later fulfilled in that great
High Priest – the Lord Jesus Christ who stands ever before the Father to
intercede for us. Aaron, though the brother of Moses and later a High Priest,
was very far from perfect in his ways. It was Aaron who had cast the golden
earrings and other trinkets of the women of Israel into the fire and “out
came this Golden Calf!” Because of Aaron’s (and Moses’) rebellion against
God’s Word at Mount Horeb before the Waters of Meribah, Aaron will be denied
the privilege of crossing Jordan Banks into the Land of Promise. So God has
determined to end the earthly (but not the heavenly) life of Aaron on Mount
Hor.
It is always a sad occasion when a man or woman, chosen by God, must lay down
their “swords and shields”, their Godly “war books”, and their mantles, down by
the riverside of the will of God; but we are yet in mortal bodies that must
all, alike, come short of Jordan Banks ere crossing over. God allots a time for
each of us to learn of Him, to share His Word with others, and finally, too, -
a time of dying to this world. It will, by no means, be the end of joy or
living for Aaron. In fact, death for God’s saints is always only the beginning
of that joy and happiness which we can only hazily imagine in this mortal coil.
I
am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. Believest thou this? (John
11:25-26) It is
most imperative that each of us who calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ believes the fullness of this counsel given by our Lord. Jesus tells us
that all who “Liveth and Believeth”
shall never die (even if he is dead in this life). The belief, however, must
exist while springtime and harvest remain for, after death, there is no
repentance.
We see in Aaron a man who is subject to all of the tugs and pulls of temptation
as all men and women are heir to, and he sometimes fell far below the
righteousness expected of a servant of the Lord. If Aaron and Peter failed, and
were yet restored, see what hope exists for lesser servants such as myself! But
God will not abide sin and weakness of testimony. Even though He forgives and
restores, there will always remain the scars of our sins and indiscretions.
Aaron died on Mount Hor just southeast of the Dead Sea in the Wilderness. Poor
Aaron was not permitted, as was Moses, to see the Land of Promise beyond Jordan
Waters. The scriptures tell us that Aaron was gathered to his people there on
desolate Mount Hor. There should be cause for rejoicing in this fact because it
tells us that we, too, shall be gathered to our loved ones at the moment of
death in the paradise of God. We are not simply gathered to multitudes of the
dead, but loved ones of the living who have known and believed the promise made
unto Abraham of the Redeemer who would come in the fullness of time. It is
interesting to observe that Moses, too, would be gathered to His people on
Mount Pisgah at a later point in time. That means that Moses was gathered to
Aaron and Miriam, among others, at that moment of is decease. Of course, Moses
did not cease to exist as a living, vital man at the moment of God taking his
life on Pisgah. The next time we see Moses in Holy Scripture, he was on yet
another mountain, and a more blessed one: 1 And after six days Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain
apart, 2 And was transfigured before
them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the
light. 3 And, behold, there appeared unto
them Moses and Elias talking with him. 4 Then answered Peter, and said
unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here
three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 5 While he yet spake, behold, a
bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which
said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. (Matt
17:1-5)
Herein lies another subtly-clad truth for us: We are not to make our ministers
into idols to worship them, but to hear their words and govern ourselves
accordingly – but only insofar as they are the pure words of God without
admixture of error. God buried Moses on a lonely mountain in Moab so that no
man knows the place of his grave. Why do you suppose God did this? It was to
prevent the people of Israel from making a shrine of his grave and an idol of
his form to worship him.
Another beautiful fact is this: Aaron did not die on the mountain slope, but at
the very peak of Mount Hor. It was the place closest to God in that wilderness
area. So, is Aaron a man of past tense, or of the eternal present tense of the
great I AM? He was a High Priest who served the Lord until the last though, as
are all such servants, a mortal subject to the weakness and faults common to
the entire race of men – even believers. He seems to have grown in
sanctification from the moment of leaving Egypt and crafting the Golden Calf;
but nevertheless capable of falling short of the standard God sets for His
people. If you are honest with yourself, you will admit that you, too, fall far
short of the righteousness of God. For all have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God; (Romans 3:23) Paul did not say that SOME of
us fall short, but ALL of us. So what is the remedy? Is it not the forgiveness,
mercy, and redemption made available to us through the sacrificial death of God’s
only Begotten Son? Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness:
that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:24-26)
It is a comfort to know we, being sons and daughters of
Abraham, will be gathered to our people at the end. This INCLUDES our brother,
Aaron! AMEN!
