“And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.” I take the text from Numbers 16:48, a very interesting portion of scripture and well worth your reading the entire chapter. We find that the anger of the Lord had been heated against the people due to their complaining. The day before God had destroyed a great number of Israelites for their participation in the rebellion of Korah. That alone in the story teaches a vital lesson about the natural man and shows us how sure and swift the mighty judgments of God may come upon the unconverted. There is another lesson in type that we see here, namely Aaron as a type of Christ, standing between the judgment of God and His elect people. When the plague began to fall Moses instructed Aaron to take a censer with fire from the Brazen Altar [a type of the cross] and stand between the living and the dead that the plague might be stayed. Aaron, as high priest over Israel, is typical of our Lord Jesus Christ who ever stands between the elect and the wrath of a Holy God. Though Aaron was the innocent party, yet he would save them; even so Christ our Redeemer, “when we were enemies” reconciled us to God by His cross. We also see in the picture that the people would have taken Aaron from his office and striped him of his power. Do we not find it even so with our Lord at the time of the crucifixion as the people rejected His Messiah-ship and called for His horrible death? He stood between the people and the plague of God’s holy wrath and petitioned the Father saying, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” Also in the type Aaron knew that the people hated him and would kill him if God permitted; my dear ones Christ was not without this knowledge, He knew that the people “hated Him without a cause.” Our Lord came into this world to save the very ones that hated Him; “It was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us.” Ah…blessed be our heavenly Aaron, the eternal intercessor, who even now “stands between the living and the dead” to ever intercede for His people. Aaron was a type of Christ who came into the world to make atonement for sin and to turn away the wrath of God from us. Who, by His mediation and intercession, stands between the living and the dead, to secure His chosen ones to Himself, and save them out of the midst of a world infected with sin and the curse. ~~WTW
Once in the circuit of a year, / With blood, but not his own, Aaron within the veil appears / Before the golden throne:
But Christ, by his own powerful blood, / Ascends above the skies, And in the presence of our God / Shows his own sacrifice. --Isaac Watts
Older
Top
