Number 16. I titled this lesson, Standing
Between the Dead and the Living. This is about Aaron, a high priest. standing between those whom the
Lord killed and those who were yet alive. And Aaron, as a high
priest, is a very, very good picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I want to read some verses
here, starting in verse 41, and then I'll go back and give some
background. But let me read from verse 41 to the end of the chapter. But on the morrow All the congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron,
saying, ye have killed the people of the Lord. And it came to pass
when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron,
that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation and behold,
the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. And
Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among
this congregation. Separate yourselves from this
congregation that I may consume them as in a moment. I'm going
to kill this whole congregation. They deserve it. They deserve
the whole congregation deserves to die. They're murmuring against
God, turning on his high priest. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take
a censer. and put fire therein from off
the altar, and put on incense, or put incense on it, and go
quickly into the congregation and make an atonement for them.
For there is wrath gone out from the Lord. The plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded
and ran into the midst of the congregation. And behold, the
plague was begun among the people, and he put on incense and made
an atonement for the people. And he, and this is where I got
my title, and he, Aaron, the high priest, Aaron, the type
of Christ, the high priest, stood between the dead and the living. What's the difference between
us who believe and those who do not believe? Us who have been
made alive in Christ and those who are dead. The difference
is Jesus Christ. The difference is the high priest.
The difference is the atonement. Atonement was made for us. That's why we are alive. Now, they that died in the plague
were 14,700 people, that congregation. Beside them that died about the
matter of Korah and Aaron returned it to Moses under the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation and the plague was stayed. Now here's the background. Moses
and Aaron, Moses the leader, Aaron the high priest appointed
of God. But these men, Korah, Dathan,
Abiram, and 250, it says over in the first beginning of this
chapter, it was 250. In verse two, and they rose up,
these men here rose up before Moses with certain of the children
of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous. Famous in the
congregation, men of renown. These were leaders. These men
had convinced 250 of the most renowned leaders in Israel to
follow them in rebellion. And they rejected Aaron as the
high priest. And what they wanted, they wanted
the priesthood. They wanted a priesthood. Listen
to this. Let me read some of this. It says in verse three, and they
gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And they said unto them, you
take too much upon yourselves. You take too much upon yourselves.
Seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and
the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord. They didn't do that, did
they? God appointed Moses the leader,
and he appointed Aaron as the high priest. And they are saying
here, we're holy. We're holy. We're as holy as
you are. What makes you better than us?
We can offer incense. We can offer the atonement. We can do that for ourselves.
We don't need Aaron. What's going on here is their
rejection of Christ. It's the same as Cain. God made
it very clear to Cain, as well as Abel, about the offering,
the blood offering, the blood sacrifice. But Cain was like,
no. He said, this is what I've done. This is pretty good stuff
here. And he took the fruit of the
cursed ground and offered it to God, and God rejected it.
What they're doing here is they are rejecting God's high priest.
His appointed high priest. That's what's going on here.
And they're saying to Moses and Aaron, you take too much upon
yourself. They didn't take that upon themselves. God put it upon
them. But what they're doing here is they're rejecting them.
But Moses says in verse nine, here's something. It's, it's,
uh, he turns this on them. Moses, seemeth it but a small
thing unto you that the God of Israel has separated you from
the congregation of Israel. See, these are the Levites. These
are from the tribe of Levi. And they were separated for the
service of the tabernacle. When they moved, they would take
down the tabernacle and all that was in it. And then they would
move and they set it back up and they would do service among
the people. And Moses said, you count that
a small thing? You count that a small thing? You want Aaron's position? You're after Aaron's position.
You're not happy and content where the Lord's put you? Seems it but a small thing to
you that God has separated you from the congregation of Israel
to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle
of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister
unto them? Is that not enough? Is that not
enough? That would be like, let's say,
Brenda cleans here every week. Johnny Tommy mow grass, Rhonda
does the finances, and Craig, you lead the singing. That'd
be like you standing up saying, we want the pulpit, we want to
preach. Is it not enough to where God's put you? Are you not content
with that? Are you not happy that God Almighty
is using you? And that's what Moses is saying.
Is it not enough that God Almighty is using you and has placed you
to take care of the tabernacle, and you want Aaron's position?
You want the appointed high priest's position? Jealous. Envy is what it was. They wanted
preeminence. That's what they wanted. They
didn't want it. They're rejecting the preeminence of the Lord Jesus
Christ, of which Aaron was a type. That's what's going on here.
And then Moses says to him there in verse 16 and 18, well, we'll
let God decide this matter. God will be the judge between
us, who he has accepted and who's rejected. And then after that, God said
to Moses there in verse 19 and 22, God said, I'm going to destroy
this whole congregation. He said, you separate yourself
from them. And they interceded for them. They interceded for
that congregation. And so what happens is that Cora,
Dathan, Abiram, and his 250 men, they are before their tabernacle. They come out of their tent,
and they stand there with their wives, their children, and it
says, and their little ones. And now God's going to show who
he has appointed, who he has accepted, and who he's rejected. And God opened the earth. Now brethren, it's dangerous
to stand against God's appointed man, God's appointed servant.
I'd be careful with that. God appointed Aaron as the high
priest. And this is a position, listen,
this position of high priest, God held it in high regard, high
esteem, because it's the picture of his son. It's a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, they're not just turning
on Aaron, they're turning on the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
appointed high priest. And so God splits the earth.
He opens the earth up. And it swallowed those men. They
and their family went into the pit. Can you imagine seeing that? And the congregation that was
standing there, they all fled. in case they fell into it. They
fled. And then it says the earth closed
back up on them. Henry said that, Rothbard said,
this is what you call going to hell with your shoes on. They went to hell with their
shoes on. Right there, fully dressed, fully clothed. I guarantee
they're standing there excited. They think they're what's going
on. You know, they're going to be it. And that earth opens up
and it swallows them and it closed back up. And then fire. Fire came out from the Lord and
burnt up 250 men. These are examples for us. These are examples. These are
warnings for us. God consumed those 250 men who
followed and offered incense, strange incense. Be careful who
you follow. Be careful. You see, their rebellion was
not only against Moses as their leader, but it was against God's
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ is what it's against. They were
not content with where God put them and where God's using them.
They wanted the preeminence. That's us by nature. Us by nature,
we want recognition. They're saying to Aaron, we're
just as holy as you are. We don't need you. Well, that's not what
God said. There's some things that are
very clear in the Old Testament. You could not come before God
without a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice. And you could not
come before God without a high priest. Can't do it. God made that very
clear. Now, the people saw this. They saw this and they fled.
It says they ran in case they were engulfed in that pit. The very next day, the very next
day, this is human nature. This is human nature. I want
you to look in verse, let's go back to verse 41. But on the morrow, the next day,
all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and against Aaron, saying, you killed the people of the Lord.
Moses didn't do that. God did that. You know, they said one time
Moses gave us bread from heaven, and the Lord said, Moses didn't
give you bread from heaven, he don't have that kind of power.
Now Moses, God used Moses, God is a God of means. He uses me
standing here preaching to you. I'm just a means, I'm not the
power, the powers of God. But they, the very next day after
seeing this, they turned on Moses and Aaron. I tell you what, most
people, now this is so, most people are religious but lost. They have a zeal of God, Paul
said in Romans 10, they have a zeal of God but not according
to knowledge. not according to knowledge. And
because of that, they go about to establish a righteousness
of their own, and they have rejected the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Being religious does not equal
being saved. We are religious by nature. You
really, you really, it's really hard to find somebody who just
raised out, out atheist. They either believe there is
a God, there's a superior being, there's something, there's just
something out there, you know. We're religious by nature. And
these people show this, and religious people by nature, whose religion
is just by their nature, are mean. They're just that mean. I'd rather be around a drunk
than a self-righteous person. I would. Self-righteousness,
it just makes me sick. It makes me sick when I see it
in myself, and it makes me sick when I see it in others. No number of signs, no amount
of miracles, no witnessing of miracles will change a man's
nature. It will not change a man's heart.
That's the power of God. That happens in the new birth.
And when God gives us a new birth, when he gives us a right heart,
and he puts a new spirit within us, then we bow to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus, you know, Christ
is our Lord and Savior in that order. If he's not our Lord,
he's not our Savior. It's in that order. You know, our Lord said this.
He said, John bore witness of me. He said, the works that I
do bear witness of me. The Father bears witness of me.
The scriptures bear witness of me. But you will not come to
me that you might have life. You won't do it. Unless God does
something in you, you're not coming. You see, God not only
has to do something for me, he has to do something in me. or
I won't come. You know, Arminianism has God
doing something for you, but now you got to do something.
No, if he doesn't do it all, I'm not coming at all. I'm not
going to have anything to do with you. Well, then verse 45,
listen, the wrath of God rose up against these rebellious people. And he told Moses, he said, get
you up from among this congregation. I'm going to destroy him. I'm
going to kill this whole congregation. They deserve to be killed. I realize I deserve to go to
hell. I deserve it. There was a time in my life I
wouldn't have said that. I wouldn't have really felt and believed
that I deserved to perish. But I do. I know it. I know it. And God's gonna kill
him. And Moses, he instructed Aaron
to take a censer and put fire from the altar. Listen, get the
fire from the right place, the altar. Get it from the right
place, the altar. And you hurry, hurry, go quickly
because the plague has begun. People are dying. I think it was Baxter said, I
preach as a dying man to dying men. I preach as a man who may
never preach again. He said, oh, Aaron, Aaron, go
quickly. Go quickly to the congregation
and make an atonement for them before the Lord, because the
plague has already started. And Aaron did what he said. Aaron
ran. He says, Aaron ran. He didn't,
you know, today's the day of salvation. Now's the accepted
time. And Aaron ran. He did as Moses
said, he ran, he took the incense and he stood, and Aaron, it says,
stood between the dead and the living. He stood between the
dead and the living. The plague had already begun
and 14,700 people died. died. And as Aaron stood between God
and the people with that atonement, it says there in verse 47 through
49, it says the plague stopped. The plague stopped. What a beautiful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest, offering
himself up as our sacrifice, standing between us and God,
our mediator, our high priest. Our atonement standing between
us and God. Let me give you a few examples
here and then I'll close. Now go home first of all, go
home and read this. It's an interest. You'll really
get the story if you read the whole thing, but just there's
no way I can do this in 30, 40 minutes. But first of all, Aaron was made
a high priest by the appointment of God. Aaron didn't take that
upon himself. They said to Moses and Aaron,
you take too much upon yourself. No, we don't. God gave us this
appointment. God put us in our office. God
did that. God made me a pastor here. He
made me a pastor. That's an appointment of God. And over in Hebrews 5, in verse
4, it says, And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but
he that is called of God, as was Aaron. No man takes this
honor of a high priest before God, representing the people.
There's only one high priest. Throughout the Scriptures, there's
only one high priest at a time. There was not 10 high priests
at a time, or umpteen. It was one. You see these men,
each one wanted to be a high priest. They were saying, you
know, everybody's holy, they can just be their own high priest.
No, you can't. No, you can't. Only Christ is a high priest.
And Aaron shows his love for the people because he hurried
up and did what Moses said and he went and, listen, he stood
regardless of his life, not regarding his life. He stood between God,
that plague, and the people who sinned against God, who murmured
against God. He's not representing the people
here that are in love with God. He's representing a rebellious
people. That's what he's doing. But Aaron loved them, and he
didn't regard his life, and he went right there in the midst
of those people, right among them, as our Lord came among
us. Our Lord, the Son of God, appointed
the high priest in that covenant of grace, took upon him flesh. He came into this world and became
a man. And as a man, as the high priest,
he stood between us and God. That's why I'm not dead. That's
why I'm not going to perish. That's why you who believe are
not going to perish. Jesus Christ is standing between us and God.
The atonement is standing between us and God. Righteousness is
standing between us and God. That's the only reason. And Aaron stood there between
the people and God as the only mediator. There was not several
of them standing there, just him. People were dying. They were dying. And Aaron stepped
between God and them. And listen, this is so beautiful.
If you get this in your mind, 14,700 people are laying dead
all over the place. Aaron gets that censer. He gets
the atonement. He makes atonement and he runs.
He runs into the midst of the congregation. And when he gets
there and he stands there, death stops right there with him. Death
doesn't pass him. Death stops at Christ crucified. Death can come no further beyond
him. He's my life. He's my hope. He's my righteousness. He's my
atonement. Death would have to run over him to get to me. Those people that are living
are just as guilty of the ones that die. Just as guilty. It's the same congregation. Except
this, there's a high priest standing there with the atonement, waving
it before the Lord, and death stops right there at his feet.
It doesn't go no further. It's not because the people repented. That's not why. Because there's the blood, there's
the atonement, there's the death. There's the death God requires
of those who are still living. It's right there in the high
priest, in the atonement that he has. Christ, our high priest,
offered up himself as an atonement for a multitude of guilty sinners. They're just as guilty as the
ones who die. They're just as guilty. I've been to funerals of people
who did not believe the gospel. They died. They perished. I've been to funerals of those
who believe the gospel, and they're with the Lord. What's the difference? The Lord Jesus Christ. standing
between me and God. That's the difference. So Aaron
stood there as a mediator alone and death, death could not pass
him. It couldn't be stopped right
there. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Death had no more claims on the
rest of those people because a mediator intervened for them,
an atonement was made for them, and they lived. Those rotten
rascals lived. And you and I, rotten rascals,
we're a mess. We are a mess. I told someone
that here not too long ago, and he said, what do you mean by
that? I said, what does a mess mean? It's darn hard to understand. I'm a mess. I'm a mess. I still am a mess.
I sin every day. I don't love Christ as I ought
to love Christ, don't love you as I ought to love you, and you
don't love me as you ought to love me, and you don't love Christ
as you ought to love Christ. We're a mess. Christ put that
mess away. He stands between us and God.
Isn't that beautiful? Aaron stood there alone, waving
the censer. Christ, it says, by himself purged
us from our sins. He did it by himself. Our only
hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. It says there in Numbers 16,
47, 48. And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran to the midst
of the congregation. Behold, the plague was begun
among the people and he put on incense. He put incense on his
censer and he made an atonement for the people. And he stood. I love this. I love this. I've
never really seen this like I see it now. And Aaron stood, the
high priest appointed of God, the one they were rejecting.
stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed. Death came to his feet and stopped. What was the difference between
the 14,700 dead people and those who perished with Cora, there
were 250 men, and the ones who lived? The difference? the high priest who has the atonement. The dead, listen, the dead did
not live and the living did not die. Those who died, you know,
as a tree falls, Solomon said, as a tree falls, so shall it
lie. A man dies righteous, and that's the way he ends up righteous.
And before he dies guilty, he ends up guilty. He will by no
means clear the guilty. You die guilty, you're guilty.
There ain't gonna be no change. No do-overs. No do-overs. Oh, Lord, stand between me and
God. Stand between me and God. Be
my mediator. Be my high priest. Be my atonement. Be my everything. Oh, God, help
us to never murmur against God's appointed way. All right.