Lessons Learned From Aaron

Thank you, Mrs. Call. That was very pretty.

I'll give myself a little bit of room there. I'd like you, if you would, to imagine a scene with me. In your minds, we want to go back several thousand years to a rather unusual event that happened in the Middle East. It begins with three, admittedly old men, climbing up a hill. Now, they don't stand out. They look like working-class fellows. They're wearing normal robes or tunics.

And, of course, they have to hike them between their legs and tuck them in their belts in what was called girding up your loins just to be able to climb freely. They're amazingly spry for such white-haired gentlemen. They get up high enough, and they can look below to a plain where they see hundreds, perhaps thousands, of younger men moving forward in ranks somewhat disorganized.

It's obvious this is not a trained army. They're also wearing ordinary clothes, and they're armed with this odd assortment of sticks, clubs, a few spears, every now and then someone even with a sword. But coming towards them from across the plain is another group. Obviously more organized. It looks like they're wearing uniforms. They're marching in ranks, most of them carrying spears. And when the front leading edge of each of these groups meet, vicious fighting breaks out. There's bloodshed, people killed. Meanwhile, looking up on the hill, we see the man in the center. As I said, an old man begins praying out loud to the God who made all things to bless his side.

As he does so, he raises up a shepherd's staff and prays that God will give his people victory. When he does this, that ill-organized, ill-armed group starts gaining the upper hand. But after some time, as you know, if you've ever held your arms above your head for very long, they grow weary. He lowers it, and the other side seems to get the upper hand, and they start pushing them back.

And so it goes throughout the entire day. And the commanders are in the back, and they're sending messengers with the orders. Send this group around over there. Feed this group in. Withdraw them, and the battle goes back and forth. And of course, while that's happening, the men fighting and dying on the plane are not paying much attention to the small figures they see of those three men up there. But if they did, they might have noticed that the one in that middle who was holding that staff over his head while praying, when he kept it up, that side would win. But when he'd grow weary and let it down, the other side would start pushing them back.

So to ensure victory, of course, the two other men that were there decided they needed to take a hand. They found a large stone they could move up behind him, they could lean against, and each took an arm and held it up so that his arms would stay up the rest of the day while he prayed. And I know many of you have heard this story, so it was by the end of the day, the army of the Israelites defeated the attacking Amalekites.

It's a pretty well-known story in the journey of the Israelites after they'd left Egypt on their way to the Promised Land. Of course, that was Moses in the center, holding up that famous staff that had turned into a snake when he threw it on the ground. The same staff that he held out over the Red Sea to cause it to divide. But there's no power in the staff, it's just a piece of wood.

It was God who intervened. In a way, he normally doesn't do. I think it's very rare, this might be the only case in history where God would determine the success of an army based on whether or not a man had his arms up in the air. I think he wanted Israel then, and us now, to learn a lesson from that, perhaps a number of lessons. One important lesson we could see is that of cooperation. Of each person doing the job that falls to them. The man in the middle had the job of praying and holding that staff. The other two had the job of helping him do it.

One of those two men was a fellow named Herr, spelled H-U-R. We don't know a lot about him. As a matter of fact, the Bible says very little about him after this point, and it didn't say much about him beforehand.

I will add, if you study the historian Josephus, he says that Herr was actually married to Miriam, and so was Moses' brother-in-law. That can't be confirmed from Scripture, but to me it rings true. The man on the other side, we do know a fair bit about. That was Moses' brother, Aaron. And I want to focus in on him. I thought this was an interesting way to show that relationship. Aaron had one of the most unusual life experiences of anyone in the Bible. I think there are a number of lessons that Christians can learn from the life of Aaron. Now, it might strike you that it's not a normal subject as we're getting close to Passover. And I'll admit that actually I focused in on this subject and thought, yeah, this would be an interesting sermon. But I wasn't intending it for a couple weeks before Passover until I got into it and said, boy, there's some of these lessons I think are appropriate. I'm going to save this one for that time. I think I might have referred to Aaron as the High Priest. Or if I didn't say it, we usually think of him that way. He wasn't always the High Priest. In fact, for most of his life, he was not the High Priest. The incident I just described where he and her are holding up Moses' arms, that time Aaron wasn't a priest of any kind, high or otherwise. That didn't sound right when I said it that way, but... For a long time, approximately 84 years before taking on that role, Aaron was known as Aaron the Levite. As a matter of fact, let's go to the first place he appears in Scripture in Exodus 4. Exodus 4, beginning in verse 14. Now, I'm breaking into the middle of a very important story to get to this point, and we'll fill in some details. Here, as a matter of fact, I'll give you enough to say, this is during a conversation between the Almighty God and Moses. And that's the time when God was speaking from a burning bush and explaining who he was to Moses and that he had a job for Moses. And Moses was making up about every excuse he could think of to not go do that job. And we could see that in this case in verse 14. So the anger of the Eternal was kindled against Moses. And he says, isn't Aaron the Levite your brother? This is the first we ever hear of Aaron. Isn't Aaron the Levite your brother? Well, I know he can speak well. Look, he's coming out to meet you. And when he sees you, he'll be glad of heart. Hey, your brother's coming, and he's going to be glad to see you. Now you'll speak to him, and I'll put words in his mouth. I'll be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I'll teach you what you shall do. He'll be for you. He'll be your spokesman to the people. And he himself will be as a mouth for you, and you'll be to him as God.

As I said, this was the conclusion of this conversation, you know, where Moses didn't particularly want to be God's representative, De Theoreo, but God determined he would be. And one of those excuses, which was made just before we started reading, is Moses said, I can't do this. I'm slow of speech. Some people even speculate that perhaps Moses had a stutter. And, you know, the gods said, look, who made man's mouth? I can fix this. And then Moses said, well, can you send anybody else? You know, that's when God got pretty fed up. But interestingly, he probably wasn't surprised. God had been watching Moses. I think he knew a little bit about him. Because here he says, Aaron's on his way to meet you. That tells us that before God appeared to Moses, he had already appeared to Aaron. And we'll catch that in hindsight if you look across the page to verse 27. This appears later, but apparently it had happened earlier. It says, the eternal said to Aaron, go to the wilderness and meet Moses. So he went and met him in the mountain of God and kissed him. Interesting. No burning bush. No rod turning into a snake. No excuses. Just go meet Moses. Aaron apparently didn't make excuses and didn't need any. He says that he just went to meet him. And as we read, he was glad to see him. The story goes on to say they did gather the elders of Israel together, and Aaron served as the spokesman. Even though Moses was the one that had contact with God. Moses would hold the staff and work miracles. Aaron did the talking. And I couldn't help but think of, I don't know how many of you are familiar with veggie tales. The type of cartoon that brings out spiritual lessons. I saw a veggie tales western version of Moses. And I like it. He calls himself Mo. But he's talking to the person in the role of Aaron and says, Okay, you do the talking. I do the thing with the stick. And God does all the rest. You know, that does kind of fit how it went. There's no record of Aaron ever hesitating or resisting the role he was assigned. He worked with his brother Moses. To a large degree, he worked for his brother Moses. I looked at my concordance and I didn't write the exact numbers down. But I saw that the phrase, Moses and Aaron, together, appears in the King James and New King James versions of the Bible more than a hundred times. So Moses and Aaron, that occurs more often than Batman and Robin. They're together a lot. Now, they're each named separately quite a bit. It's interesting, when you look at them separately, Moses is named at least twice as much on his own as Aaron is on his own. So, you know, each of them have their own independent roles, but the Bible focuses on Moses quite a bit. It made me think, you know, it's not too unusual for a younger brother to look up to his older brother and say, Boy, I'd like to be like him when I get older. But, of course, Aaron wasn't the younger brother. Moses was younger. Actually, we can see that documented over in chapter 7 of Exodus. Chapter 7 and verse 7, it tells us, Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh. So Aaron was the older brother, but who was in charge? Moses.

Now, I'm not going to say it's the most difficult thing ever to play second fiddle to a younger brother. Now, I don't have a younger brother, so I didn't have to experience that. But I would say I've seen enough to know it's not that easy. It's not like, you know, climbing Mount Everest barefoot, but it's not a real easy thing to do. I think Aaron deserves some credit, because it doesn't seem that he ever let ego get in the way of doing the job that God gave him, even if it's holding up his younger brother's arms. And just think about what a difference three years made. I'm not going to go back and read the first chapter of Exodus, but most of us remember the story. You know, of course, the Pharaoh that knew Joseph, who had saved all of Egypt, died in his generation. And meanwhile, the Israelites are multiplying. They're having babies coming out of their ears. And, you know, they...well, not literally out of their ears.

But there's a lot of Israelites and Egyptians that, boy, there's going to be more of them than us. We've got to do something about this. So, of course, Pharaoh makes the order. All the male children have to be thrown in the river. You can save the girls alive. And that sets up the story of Moses being born. And his parents, exercising a bit of daring and faith, hiding him for three months, then building this little basket and daubing with pitch and floating it out in the river.

Evidently, that decree, floating in the river where Pharaoh's daughter would find him, take him in as her own. But I was saying that decree must have been made sometime between when Aaron was born and when Moses was born. There's no record that Aaron had to be hid. Apparently, it was okay to have boys at that time. And what a difference that made. Moses was the one that was hidden, was floated in the river and discovered by Pharaoh's daughter, and raised as the grandson of Pharaoh. I'll make a reference when Stephen was speaking of this in his sermon, Stephen the Martyr, in Acts 7, verse 22, he says, Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in word and deed. Just think, Moses lived in the royal palace. He lived a dream life of glamour and wealth. Do you suppose Aaron ever looked at that and said, boy, I wish I'd almost been killed as a baby and floated out in the river. Look at him! He's getting all this. Maybe he never did. I mean, but it's possible. At least that he might have thought it once or twice. And that's where I think, to Aaron's credit, that even if he might have felt pangs of jealousy at time, there's no record that he ever let that define him. He kept it in check.

Matter of fact, I appreciate that all the more. I was reading a different edition of Bible at home, and every now and then it has little one-page bios of characters. And the way they described it, they described Aaron as eaten up by... Did I say Darren? Aaron.

Aaron is being eaten up by jealousy until he finally overcame it. But I said, you know, in my reading, I don't see that. I don't see him being governed by his jealousy. Now, the fact that Aaron and Moses knew each other when God did call them to that mission tells me perhaps they did have some kind of relationship. During those years, you know, I wonder, did Aaron and his older sister Miriam get to visit Moses in the palace? Maybe they had some special privileges. You know, maybe they got an education.

I'm just guessing about this, but I thought, you know, if God was planning well in advance, and he knew that one day he was going to put Aaron in the priesthood, wouldn't he like for his priest to know how to read and write? You know, add sums, multiply and divide?

So maybe Aaron and Miriam did get some special perks. But how long would those perks last after their brother Moses had to go on the land because he killed an Egyptian and hid it? When Moses fled to the desert and became working as a shepherd, what did Aaron do? If he wasn't already there, he went back to just being Aaron the Levite out there with the rest of the crowd. The only place I could find where Aaron...

There seems to be some hint of sibling rivalry we see in Numbers 12. I do want to turn and look at that. As I said, I think this is the exception, not representative of what happened all the time. Because I said the only place in Scripture that seems that there might have been some rivalry. Numbers 12 in the first verse...

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman that he'd married. For, by the way, he'd married an Ethiopian woman. This seems to have been a change. Remember Moses, when he went out after he'd killed the Egyptians, bumped into Zipporah, who it describes as a Midianite woman. He married her and had children. This is more than 40 years later. Although we don't know, I'm guessing perhaps Zipporah had reached the end of her life and Moses took another wife.

I just don't see him at that age taking on a second wife to have two at once. An 80-year-old man? I think he was smarter than that. He was raised in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. They're critical. They didn't like this. In verse 2, they said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? So, you know, they were a little put out. And, you know, apparently, they took some umbrage. And in verse 3, it says, Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the face of the earth.

Interesting thing about Moses, even though God had done all these great works through him, Moses wasn't going to stand up to his older brother and sister. He wasn't going to tell them off. So God did it. Okay, and what we read next will give us an idea that perhaps Miriam was the one that started this.

As I said, we see, if you look back to that story when Moses was in the river, remember Aaron would have only been three. So Miriam was old enough to run along the river and talk to Pharaoh's daughter. So she was the oldest out of the three. Getting back to Numbers 12 and verse 4, Suddenly the Eternal said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, Come out here to the tabernacle.

Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting. So the three came out. Then the Eternal came down in a pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both went forward. And he said, Hear my words, if there's a prophet among you, I, the Eternal, will make myself known to him in a vision.

I speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He's faithful in all my house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, not in dark sayings. I could pause here, and I noticed earlier, actually, we could turn, if you want to keep a finger here, it's worth noting that right after the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea in Exodus 15, they sang the song, but Exodus 15, verse 20, it says, Then Miriam, the prophetess, sister of Aaron, took the chimber-roll in her hand, and all the women went after her.

So Miriam was a prophetess. Aaron, at that time, was a priest. So he got us saying, okay, prophet, you know, I speak to prophets in dark sayings, and the priests do this, but Moses is different. Moses was unique in all of history to some degree. He says, coming back to Numbers 12, he sees the form of the Eternal. Why then weren't you afraid to speak against my servant Moses? So the anger of the Eternal was aroused against them, and he departed. When the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow.

And Aaron turned towards Miriam, and he probably jumped back a yard, because now she's a leper. He wasn't expecting that. And Aaron spoke to Moses. Oh, my Lord! That's not the capital L-O-R-D. It's the lower case, but he's calling Moses boss, or sir. Sir, please don't let her. Don't lay this sin upon us, in which we've done foolishly. Aaron doesn't hesitate to say, I'm sorry. I did wrong. Please don't let her be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed when she comes out of her mother's womb.

And Moses cried out to the Eternal, asking him to heal her. And, of course, it goes on from there. God says, look, if her dad had spit in her face, she'd have to be in isolation for seven days, and he caused that to happen. But God also didn't let the camp move until Miriam came back.

Now, we've probably read this story a number of times. I find it interesting that Miriam got the leprosy, and Aaron did not. That's always made me wonder, was she the one that started the whole thing, and Aaron sort of went along? Well, if so, there's a lesson for us.

Just going along is still going along with something wrong. You can get in big trouble. Matter of fact, I'd say that might have been part of what got Aaron into trouble and the biggest problem of his life, but we're going to come to that a little bit later. I just want to stop and remind ourselves, before he ever became high priest, Aaron was Moses' brother. That was his role. And he seems to have mostly been happy about that. As I said, this is the only place in all these chapters of there being some dissension, and Aaron got back in line very quickly.

And Aaron also spoke for Moses. And I think he recognized that when he spoke for Moses, he was speaking for God, and he didn't see that as a small thing.

Now, there's some bigger lessons for us, I think, in this than just, that we should get along with our brothers and sisters, even if we end up being subordinate to younger brothers or sisters in some ways. We're like Aaron in that God has called us to be priests. Matter of fact, I've got it noted.

It's in Revelation 20. I'm going to come back to the Old Testament a lot, but if you want to turn to Revelation 20 in verse 6, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection, and I sure want to be in that first resurrection, and I know all of you do, too. Over such the second death has no power, but there'll be priests of God and of Christ, and reign with Him a thousand years. Our destiny is to become priests in God's kingdom. But long before that, we need to develop a relationship with our brother.

Before we ever become priests, we need to be comfortable with being the brethren of Jesus Christ. I should have kept my fingers there. In Romans chapter 8, it makes it very clear, and I don't think we doubt this, but especially this time of year when we realize Jesus Christ's role in paying for our sins, that He isn't just our Creator and Almighty God who could throw thunderbolts, which He doesn't typically do, but He was our brother. He is our brother. In Romans 8, verse 14, As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Now, if you're all sons to the same Father, what does that make you?

Brothers of each other. And that's all of us. And of course, down in verse 17, If we're children, then heirs, heirs of God, enjoint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Jesus is our older brother. In this case, we don't have to worry about getting along with a younger brother. But just like Aaron, long before we take on the role of being a priest, we need to fill that role of being brothers and sisters, not only to each other, but to Jesus Christ.

That includes recognizing who and what we are, and who and what we are not. Just like Aaron and Miriam made a mistake of losing track of their relationship and God had to set things right, we need to learn where we fall in that relationship. Another thing is, as Aaron was Moses' spokesman, and I said long before he became a priest, we need to be willing to speak for our brother, Jesus Christ. Now, as a church, we do that publicly. We print magazines and booklets. We're on the Internet with all these videos and sermons, which things ought to say that.

I just realized this sermon will someday be on the Internet. So somebody might be listening to me saying we have sermons on the Internet. Anyways, we also, of course, individually need to be ready to give an answer. Study, and if someone asks, you know, think of yourself being like Aaron.

I've got to be ready to speak for my brother, Jesus Christ, who's not here speaking on his own. That's an important thing that we do. Before we leave this thought, though, I want to move on to Aaron becoming high priest, and well, even some important things before that, but I want to think again of Aaron's earlier career. Wait, what was Aaron's earlier career? Well, he was not raised by Pharaoh's daughter. He didn't have all that special privilege. What was he doing?

Seems that he was out there with all the rest of the Israelites, making mud bricks, you know, with straw before they withheld it. He was serving under taskmasters, doing hard labor. At least I see nothing to contradict that. So what made him so fit to be high priest?

Well, God chose him to be high priest. God didn't say, I've got to look for the guy that's best qualified to be high priest, and then I'll bring him in. God said, I'm going to choose him, and then I'll make him ready. I'm going to turn again. Again, if you want to turn here, keep a finger back in Numbers.

But in Psalm 105, I found it interesting the way it's said. Psalm 105, verse 26. Because I wanted to make the point that Moses didn't choose Aaron to be high priest. God chose Aaron. Psalm 105, verse 26. He, that is, God sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen. And that he is capitalized because it's referring to God. And the grammar in Hebrew will point back to which is the antecedent for the pronoun.

Boy, I'm giving a grammar lesson. I'm not good at that. But it was God that chose Aaron. And actually, we'll see a scripture later where God's the one telling Moses about it. As I said, why did God choose Aaron? Maybe some of the genetic traits? Perhaps some character traits? You know, perhaps it's just somebody's got to do the job. Sorry, Aaron. You're here. You're close at hand. I need someone to do the job.

The point is, God could make anyone that he chose to become qualified. That's important because what is our destiny? We're to be priests in God's kingdom. How much experience do you have being a priest? Me neither. I don't have any. But we can look back in history and say, okay, that's not going to be the deciding factor. Aaron didn't have any experience being high priest. God taught him what he needed to know. God will teach us what we need to know and make us qualified. As I said, God didn't call any of us because of how good we are and how much he needed us for the job. He said, I want you to do the job and then I'll put you into it. So we need to focus on living his way of life, building that character, doing what he tells us to do.

Now, that doesn't mean it's going to be free of bumps. And Aaron's got one of the classic cases of that. I mentioned earlier that Aaron seemed to get in trouble partly by going along with what Miriam wanted to do. I think that might have been at least partly the case in, I think, what was his single worst moment in his life. And we're going to go there. Actually, it's in Exodus 24.

To see the incident, I'm speaking... well, I'll get there. But Aaron was not yet a high priest when this happened. But we'll see that God had already planned for him to become a high priest. Now, God had been working through Moses. As the children of Israel came out, it was obvious who was God's person to be in charge. It was Moses.

But Moses trusted Aaron. Moses was willing to put responsibility on Aaron because he knew he would take things seriously. So, shortly after, God spoke the Ten Commandments. And we know in Exodus 20, God descended on Mount Sinai and thundered out those words with fire and lightning and thunder.

And the Israelites were shaking in their shoes and said, God, please don't do this anymore. You talk to Moses and let him bring us word. So... but before that happened, they did agree. Matter of fact, we'll see in Exodus 24 and verse 3. Moses came and told the people all the words of the Eternal and all the judgments. And the people answered and said with one voice, all the words which the Eternal has said, we will do. And they, in essence, entered into a covenant. The next few verses, it describes Moses.

He'd written this out in a book. And he slaughtered animals as a sacrifice and saved the blood. And he actually sprinkled some of the blood on the book and sprinkled some of the blood on the people. Which always say, to me, that seems very significant and very kind of gross at the same time. But they entered a covenant. Not unlike a marriage covenant. Matter of fact, later God refers to being married to Israel. Keep that in mind because it's going to be important as we look at what's going to happen. But then God has more instruction to give, so he calls Moses, come up to the mountain, as we'll see if we go down to verse 12.

God has given Moses a lot of statutes and things to go by, but there's a lot of detail to set up the system of worship now that they've entered the covenant. So in verse 12, then the Eternal said to Moses, Come up to me up on the mountain and be there. I'll give you tablets of stone and the law and commandments, which I've written, that you may teach them. So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. You see, on his way back, he turns around, he says to the elders, Wait here for us till we come back. And indeed, Aaron and her are with you.

If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them. You know, Aaron and her were obviously leaders who stood out, and Moses trusted them. And then what will follow is several chapters of God-giving detailed instruction. Okay, I need you to build this tabernacle and make it out of this type of animal skin and weave this.

And here, make this Ark of the Covenant. A lot of detail. Matter of fact, as we turn forward, if you... We stop in chapter 28. The first verse says, Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him among the people, that he may minister to me as priest. Once again, God chose Aaron. I wonder if Moses went, Huh! Well, you know, you're going to make Aaron a priest. I wouldn't have saw that.

Or maybe he wasn't surprised at all. Maybe he thought, Yeah, I always knew he'd make a good priest. You know, he's always... I don't know what, slaughtering the animals.

As I said, you know, there's more to being a priest, but it was heavy on animal sacrifice at that time. So for 40 days, this goes on. And after Moses being gone for nearly 40 days, as we go to chapter 32, the Israelites' patience runs out. Or at least they demonstrate the patience that they never really had much of. Chapter 32 and verse 1, When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, and the people gathered together to Aaron, and they said, Come make us gods!

That'll go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. So Aaron said, and there's different ways to look at this. I like to be sympathetic to Aaron. You know, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives and sons and daughters and bring them to me. You know, and by the way, no mention of her here?

What's going on with her? Actually, I brought this up because the Bible says nothing more about him. Someone pointed out to me, there are some ancient Jewish traditions which can't be proved, but there's one version that says, Aaron hesitated, so they brought her up and killed him in front of him, and Aaron said, well, okay, I don't want that to happen to me. I'll listen to what you say. There's no documentation for that, but it doesn't...

It seems like a possibility. We don't know for sure. But we do know, as I said, Aaron might have been saying, bring me all your gold, thinking, they're not going to bring me their gold. And if he was thinking that, he might have been surprised when they show up right away. So all the people broke off the golden earrings, which were in their ears, brought them to Aaron.

So he received the gold from their hand, he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Boy, wrong thing to do. Interesting, though, as he did this, then they said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Now, as I said, I like to cast Aaron in the best light I can. So there's where I say, you notice, Aaron didn't say, this is your God.

It says, they said. We're not sure who they was. But still, Aaron should have told the people, look, be patient. You know, look, God's up there. I can't make a God to go before you. You've seen what God is like, what he did. Look at that smoke and fire up there on the mountain. That's where he is. That's what Aaron should have done. He didn't do it. Was he just giving into peer pressure? We don't know.

But as I said, it says, Aaron didn't say, it's not Aaron that said that was a God, but he didn't stop them either. Now, if we look ahead in verse 21, we'll see, Aaron would have a different perspective in what happened. And verse 21, after Moses came down, he said to Aaron, What did these people do to you that you've brought so great a sin on them? And Aaron said, Oh, do not let the anger of my Lord become hot. You know these people that they're set to do evil. They said to me, Make us a God that will go before us, or make us gods. As for this man Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. So I said, Well, whoever has any gold, let him break it off. So they gave it to me, and I threw it in the fire, and this calf came out.

Now, that seems a little bit disingenuous. I mean, if it weren't for the fact that the earlier version, though, said he used an engraving tool, we might stop and wonder.

As I said, you know, did he try to get around this? You know, maybe instead of taking a strong stand, he's being led by peer pressure and trying to delay. But if so, still, a calf comes out.

There's some lesson for us. How often do we let ourselves get one thing leads to another? You get in a bad situation, and it just seems that out comes this calf. And you're looking and going, How did I get to this place? You know, one thing led to another. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well, that's a lesson from Aaron's life. Don't let circumstances control you. Otherwise, no matter what, sooner or later, the equivalent of this calf just came out. What happened?

And I've wondered, is there some chance that to some degree, Aaron was telling the truth? Maybe he was delaying, but perhaps God didn't restrain Satan from being involved. And I've heard speculation on this. Maybe Aaron did just toss gold in, and what came out really surprised him.

Maybe. But even if so, he could have done things differently.

Matter of fact, I did. I bypassed, if we go back earlier, when the calf did come out.

In verse 32, back in verse 5, When Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Eternal. I want to give him credit, at least. He didn't say, Tomorrow, let's have a feast to this golden calf. He said, Let's have a feast to the Eternal. Perhaps he was, you know, he and the Israelites would say, Well, we'll let this be a symbol of the Eternal. But if so, still wrong. There's one thing, no matter how positive a spin I try to put on it, God had just spoken from the mountain and said, Don't make any images and compare them to me. Don't do that. Don't ever. And don't ever let circumstances or even fear of what people could do lead you into that. Because it's bad news.

Matter of fact, you could say, I'm getting out from my notes. I need to look here. Aaron should have stopped this. When Moses showed up, he did put a stop to it. He showed the strength of character. He broke the tablets. He tore down the altar, put it in the fire and ground it to powder, spread it on the water and made him drink of it. And I've always been impressed. It's like, you want an idol, you're going to eat that idol. And as I said, I still wonder what effect it might have had. If it's like a heavy dose of salt, they might have been feeling the impact for a while. And then he organizes a group of volunteers to execute interesting about 3,000 people, but not all the people. And we don't know, was it those who done especially grievous sins? You know, some people say when it says, you know, they sat down to eat and drink and then rose up to play. I've heard some people speculate maybe they started some type of orgy in front of the altar. And those were the people that were executed. Some people just say, no, it's just those that didn't repent and turn back. The Bible doesn't tell us. But we could ask, why was not Aaron one of those who were killed? Why not? Well, one possibility, or at least one part of it perhaps, he seems to have been repentant. As we read there, you know, when he said, oh, my Lord, please, don't let your anger be hot.

And if you want to keep your finger here, we're going to come right back. But I want to look at Deuteronomy chapter 9, because he also had an advocate. Deuteronomy 9 and verse 19, Moses here near the end of his life is telling basically the next generation the story of what happened. And he says, you know, verse 19, I was afraid of the anger and the hot displeasure, which the eternal was angry with you, really most of them with their parents, to destroy you.

But the eternal listened to me at that time, and the eternal was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him. So I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. Okay, let's keep this in mind as we go forward. God, Aaron had sinned so badly that God was singling him out, saying he deserves the death penalty.

Now, Moses prayed for him. Let's go back to Deuteronomy and see what Moses said. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 30. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 30. Now, it came to pass on the next day, after they'd had to drink the powder of the idol, after there'd been death to some who had committed the sin, Moses said to the people, you have committed a great sin.

So now I will go to the eternal. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. Now, remember what atonement means. It basically means paying the price. And when we read forward, we'll see Moses meant that very literally. So God goes and prays, as Moses said to the eternal, oh, these people have committed a great sin. They've made for themselves a God of gold. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin. But if not, I pray, blot me out of your book which you've written.

Moses is talking about the book of life. He's saying, if you're not willing to forgive because of the repentance, take me instead. I'm willing to pay the price. In essence, it seems that Moses was saying, I'm willing to die and stay dead forever in their place. That's quite an offer, but he was offering to do something that he couldn't do. What is it? I just thought of a line from a movie. It says, you're writing checks, your body can't cash.

One of those movies from back in the 80s. But the eternal said to Moses, whoever ascended against me, him, I'll blot that out of my book. God said, basically, Moses, you can't do this. You can't pay for anyone else's sins.

And I'm not sure... I'm confident by the end of his life, Moses did understand, maybe he didn't yet, but we know, only one man could pay for someone else's sins. And we're going to commemorate that coming up in about two and a half weeks. Only Jesus Christ could pay for other sins.

He was the Creator God, responsible for us, who could take that on. He lived a sinless life, never earned the death penalty. These are vitally important principles of God's plan. Ones, of course, we review, and they're very important to the Passover season. I don't want to let that slip, but we'll see it, tie it back into Aaron's story. So let's get back to there. We've seen here, Aaron did sin. Even as I tried to put as positive a spin as possible, tried to put him in the best light, he still, boy, he messed up.

He sinned, he earned the death penalty, and everybody knew it. This wasn't something in secret. He was out front of the whole nation. And God did pardon him. He forgave him, rather than kill him. Just like he pardons us. There's not a person in this room that hasn't sinned, that hasn't earned the death penalty. Only, most of the time, for us, it's not so well known. It's secret. It's between me and God, or you and God.

But God wanted to show something, I think, about the degree of his forgiveness, because he not only spared Aaron's life, he went on to still make him a priest. He did that in spite of that grievous sin. Which is important. What will he do with us? As I said, we've committed grievous sins, and James says, he who's violated one point of the law is guilty of all. Whatever it is, we've earned the death penalty, but God will forgive. I wonder, if you look over in Leviticus, chapter 8, I don't want to read all of this, because Leviticus can get a little tedious describing things.

But as this event happened, I wonder if it ever crossed Aaron's mind. Leviticus 8, verse 1, Now bring everybody here and watch us. We're going to make Aaron a high priest. Down in verse 6, I wasn't going to read that original, but I thought, that's really something. As I said, Aaron sinned out there in front of everyone, and then God made him a high priest out there in front of everyone, everyone knowing what Aaron did.

Well, what a demonstration not of that sin doesn't matter. Sin matters. It's bad. God was angry enough with Aaron to kill him, but this demonstrates God's forgiveness. God said, when I forgive someone, I really do. Moses couldn't pay for those sins, but the Son of God could. And from our perspective, the Son of God did. He paid that penalty. So, you know, just think, Aaron was going to live about another 40 years. For the next 40 years, Aaron had the job of going in to offer incense before God every day, knowing what he had done and knowing that God knew what he had done. Do you think Aaron came to understand forgiveness? I'm thinking he did.

It hadn't been written yet, but I'll bet he understood Isaiah 43, verse 25, better than Isaiah himself did. Isaiah 43, verse 25, this is God speaking in the first person, but God says, I, even I, am he who blots out your transgression. Because you deserve it? No. He says, for my name's sake. That is, the great God, the Father, and Jesus Christ does it for his name's sake, and I will not remember your sins.

This doesn't mean that God has amnesia, and he just forgets. What does that guy did? But not remember means I choose not to remember. I'm not going to bring it to mind. When Aaron came in bringing the sacrifice every day, God wasn't sitting there saying, oh, it's that guy again, Mr. Golden Calf. No, God chose to not remember. He blotted out his sin, and he imputed the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now, that matters for Aaron, but it should matter for us. Because all of us have sinned, and we know what we did, and we know God knows, but we need to believe that when he says he'll blot him out and not remember, that's what he means.

And I'm bringing this up now because it's the time we examine ourselves. Paul said, let a man examine himself, and so let him take of the bread and wine. Not examine yourself and decide, boy, my sin was too bad, I can't go to Passover this year.

No, examine yourself and then appreciate how great God's mercy is because he does want you to come. Now, he doesn't say, let's sin all the more so God will forgive us all the more. Other places Paul addresses that. And God didn't say, Aaron, if you want to make another calf along the way, I'll forgive that too. No, stop sinning and never do that again. But it's important for us to realize, you know, we all deserve to have our name blotted out, but because of God's mercy, we don't.

God doesn't look at us grudgingly. He will forgive us as thoroughly as he did Aaron. He will make us priests in his kingdom. But he won't do it against our will, of course. He wants us to adopt his way of life. And I remember this, and I thought I'd point out, of course, remember, once a year Aaron came to the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement. That doesn't relate to Passover, except for some reason, if you're like me, on Passover, it's that one time a year that it seems like we're coming before God's throne, maybe because of the ritual and the symbolism more than ever.

In Hebrews 4, verse 16, I'm not going to turn there, but Paul said, Let us come boldly to the throne of grace. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, in the same way Aaron went into the Holy of Holies. Not thinking about that golden calf, but all that thinking about forgiveness. That he, you know, God did forgive.

So, as I said, when we examine ourselves, I've got notes here to say things that I already said. Don't let the past sin hold you back, but let it propel you forward. And I think maybe knowing some of God's mercy is one of the things that helped Aaron, I want to look at a couple other events in his life. Helped him to be selfless and concerned with others. In one particular incident, I think it might have been one of the bravest things he did in his life.

I'm going to move ahead to the book of Numbers in chapter 16. This is what we commonly call, Cora's Rebellion. Basically, and I'm going to summarize the story because I want to get to what happened afterward. But some leading men, you know, some of the leading Levites said, Who does Aaron and Moses think they are, lifting themselves up?

They were living like kings, which they weren't doing. But, you know, we're all holy. Well, God showed very dramatically that it was He who had chosen Moses and Aaron. And matter of fact, Moses made the point that, hey, you challenge us, it's not us you're talking about. In Deuteronomy 16 verse 11, that's not... hmm... Number 16. Yeah, He said, Therefore, you, Moses, speaking of the company, you and all your company are gathered together against the eternal.

And I say, not us. What is Aaron that you complain against him? You say, Aaron never put himself in this position. And God would show his power. Dathan and Abiram were two of the leaders. And of course, God told Moses, tell everybody to get away from them. They scattered and the earth opened up. When they fall, earth closes back up. They're gone without a trace. Then there were 250 others from different tribes who said, we can offer incense as good as Levites.

God said, okay, bring some incense out here and let's see. And then, boom! Fire went out, knocked them dead. And then, the rest of the people got angry about that. If we look at verse 45, number 16 verse 45... Wait a minute. Is that what I wanted? Oh, okay.

Yeah, because... No, yeah, there. Sorry. I was looking at the wrong place. Let me put these on and I'll actually do what I'm supposed to do. Starting in verse 44, the eternal spoke to Moses and said, Get away from this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. And the people started mumbling after God killing the guilty.

So he said, I'm sick of this. God didn't say literally, I'm sick of this. He said, Get out of the way. I'm going to kill them all. So Moses said to Aaron, Quick, take a censor, put fire on it from the altar, put some incense and go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. The wrath has gone out from the eternal. The plague has begun. The killing has started.

And Aaron took it as Moses commanded. He ran into the midst of the assembly and already the plague had begun. So he put on incense, made atonement for the people. So people are falling dead right around him and Aaron goes in and offers his incense.

And in verse 48 it says, And he stood between the dead and the living, so the plague was stopped. That's something. He stood between the dead and the living. And those who died, I believe it says, were 14,000. It's worth stopping to think. Did Aaron know in advance that this would work?

Moses said, Go try this. It might have been, let's see if, you know, try this. Aaron didn't know for sure that he wouldn't run in there and he'd fall dead of the plague. Now I thought, if it's hard to think of, I thought, remember last summer and fall when we were hearing all this news about the Ebola plague in Africa? How many of you thought, I'm sure glad I'm not in Africa? I did. I didn't want to be over there where people were dying. But Aaron, you know, now this, it's not quite the same thing, but I could see Aaron, he's over at the Tabernacle.

He could have been thinking, I'm sure glad I'm not out there, but he went there. I think him running in there reminds me somewhat of the firefighters when the World Trade Center had been hit by the airplanes and was on fire. And people were running to get out, but some of the firefighters were running to go in to save others' lives. Aaron took a risk and he stood between the dead and the living.

It reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures. I'm going to turn to Ezekiel 22. You can just let me read it if you want, because Ezekiel 22 and verse 30, where God says, I sought a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it. But I found no one. At the time of Ezekiel, he found no one. At the time in Numbers, Aaron stood in the gap, and that made a difference. That's one of my favorite scriptures, because when I was in Ambassador College, Dr. Ward challenged us students. Always be ready to stand in that gap. The gap won't always be people falling dead from plague, but there will be times in your life when there's a gap. Will you stand in it? He challenged us, and that's something I'll tell you. I've already mentioned it a number of times to the current class of students, and I plan to continue to challenge them. We don't stand in the gap offering incense, but Scripture likens our prayers to incense that go up before God. That's a way we can stand in the gap for those who are in trouble. We can practice for being a priest in that sense. And how perfect do you have to be to do that? Well, Aaron wasn't perfect. He still knew the sin he'd committed, but he bravely went forward trusting and believing God. And that's something when we want to make an intercessory prayer for someone else, it's easy to think, well, God's not going to listen to me, because he remembers three weeks ago when I did that thing. No, if we've repented, God covers it up. And we can go in there and stand in the gap. Now, of course, real repentance means turning. It doesn't mean, I'm sorry, until next time I feel like, you know, no, repentance is repentance. Turning. Changing. Aaron did it, and we can do it. We should do it. I would like... There's part of me... I wanted to be able to stop right there, and I think it was one of the bright moments of Aaron's life. But there is a lesson in a later incident in his life for us, too. It's over in Numbers, chapter 20.

And I know I'm not bringing out any incidents that are new, and I'm not telling all of Aaron's life, hitting some of the highlights. But this is the case, almost a repeat of something that happened earlier. You know, the children of Israel have been moving on. They're getting close to the Promised Land. They've been wandering about 40 years. And we get to verse 2 of Numbers 20. And there is no water for the congregation. So they gathered together against Moses and Aaron.

I told you, those two appear together a lot, Moses and Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, Oh, if only we died with our brethren, died before the Eternal. They're back to that. Wish we died before Aaron stood in the gap. I think they're a little short-sighted there. But why have you brought up the assembly of the Eternal into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die there?

Well, Moses and Aaron at first do the right thing. Down in verse 6, Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and fell on their faces. Now, when I was younger, I used to think it meant they were kind of clumsy. They're trying to get there and they slip and fall. It means they prostated themselves in humble prayer. And the glory of the Eternal appeared to them. So the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Take the rod, that same rod they've been using those other times.

You and your brother Aaron, gather the congregation together. God's saying, I've got this. Here's the way we're going to take care of bringing water. Speak to the rock before their eyes and it will yield its water to you. And thus you'll bring water for them out of the rock and give drink to the congregation and their animals. Moses and Aaron had been through this type of thing before. And that's why I'm confident they had no doubt about God in this.

But they were pretty well fed up with these people. I think, you know, we're going to deal with this again. And that led to a lapse in judgment, a bad one, as we see in verse 10. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, I'll stop there, he, it doesn't say they, one of them spoke the words. It makes me wonder, because remember back there, Aaron was the spokesman. Was he still out front speaking the words? In a way, it makes sense, because we know Aaron had the staff. So maybe Aaron said, here now, you rebels, must we bring water for you out of the rock?

Moses lifted his hand and he struck the rock twice, and water came out abundantly. I've always liked, remember the old Bible story by Basil Wolderton? I think the way he described it, he struck the rock, and they look at each other, and it's a little uncomfortable, and Aaron, maybe you'd better hit it again. Strikes it, and then water comes out. I mean, what a show of support by God, that, okay, you know, I'm not going to embarrass you in front of the people, I'm going to send the water out, this is following my plan, but then he's going to remind him, you didn't do it the way I said.

As we see down in verse 12, the eternal spoke to Moses and Aaron, as I said, they both had a part in this, because you did not believe me, now they believed he could send water, I think, but because they didn't hollow, God says, me, they didn't hollow God in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore, punishment.

You shall not bring this assembly into the land which I've given you. Now, we usually focus on Moses in this, because he gets told about more. He'd been leading these people for 40 years, he'd had his ups and downs, he really, really wanted to go in the Promised Land, and God said, No, Moses, you're not going to go in.

Now, I'll take you up on top of Mount Pisgah and let you, by miracle, see what it looks like. Do you think those same emotions applied to Aaron? You don't think Aaron was saying, I'd like to go see it, we've been walking in the waters for 40 years, please, God, let me go over. I imagine so. But regardless of the things he'd learned, the growth and overcoming he'd done through God's grace, you know, Aaron, along with Moses, did temporarily falter, lost sight of the source of his blessings, and he paid a price. Now, there's a lesson for us, I think, that's very obvious. Endure to the end. This says in Matthew 24, is it 13 or 14?

I did the same thing last week, speaking of Preston's Bird. I couldn't remember which scripture. I think it's 13. He that shall endure to the end shall be saved. Don't repent and live a good life up until you're 123 years old, and then say, I've had enough, and stop following God. And actually, for most of us, if you say, I can hang out until I'm 123, we're probably safe, because most of us aren't going to reach that in this life.

But no, you hold through all the way, and God will forgive us. There's what I say, I believe Aaron did learn his lesson. He and Moses both. I have no doubt Aaron did repent, and that it was real repentance. And that he'll come up in that resurrection. And God's, just like he's not going to remind him of the golden calf, he's probably not going to remind him of the waters of Meribah.

God will put it out of his mind. As I said, maybe I'm making an assumption. It doesn't say Aaron repented. But when we look back at his life, that would be more fitting. And as a matter of fact, this is an appropriate chapter to look back at his life, because we rapidly approach the end.

In verse 22, the children of Israel, the whole congregation journeyed from Kadesh and came to Mount Hor. As I said, they've been journeying, and they're getting close to where they're going to camp before crossing the River Jordan. And the Eternal spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron shall be gathered to his people. For he shall not enter the land which I've given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring him up to Mount Hor.

That makes me wonder. Eleazar is going to take over. Now, if Aaron was 123, it's likely Eleazar was close to 100 years old. And so, any of you, when you start thinking, I'm too old for God to call me and start working through me, no, no, no. That's not the example we see in Scripture. But bring them all up and strip Aaron of his garments, put them on Eleazar his son. For Aaron shall be gathered to his people, and die there. And Moses did, just as the Eternal commanded. Now, how many of us, if God says, okay, tonight you're going to reach your end, that would be very scary unless you developed a relationship with God and you knew his plan and purpose. That's where I think Aaron and Moses both had that. Okay, I'm going to go up there. I'm going to be asleep. Next thing I know, Christ will be here and will be in the resurrection. I don't think it was a matter of fear, but okay, this is the next step. They went up Mount Hor and the sight of all the congregation. So all the people see them go up and they probably go around to bend or something and they're out of sight. And then in private, Moses stripped Aaron of his garments. I don't think down to his birthday suit, but the priestly vestments. And put them on Eleazar his son, and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. And Moses and Eleazar came down. So three men went up. That reminds me of where we started. Three men climbing up that mountain to pray over that battle. Actually, two of the three were the same. Two came down. And all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead. And all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron 30 days. It certainly is appropriate for people to mourn. I had this discussion. This is sort of an aside, but I was just talking with some people at the home office about how in our culture today, we tend to want to push aside mourning and grief and not talk about death. But in ancient times, they said, this is real, and it's appropriate to set this time aside and devote to thinking about that person. It's not something evil or bad or something to rush through. It's worth being appreciative. And we said this noted the end of one of God's most notable and visible servants. And he ended his service and his life.

But as we draw the conclusion, I think maybe some of those Israelites watching them climb up that hill, some of the younger ones might have been still alive when they saw Moses and Aaron walking down the street to go to the palace to confront Pharaoh. And they might have been thinking, same guys. They've been serving us all that time. They might have remembered, oh yeah, and Aaron, he's the one who was out in front of us when we had that golden calf thing.

If so, then they would certainly appreciate and remember that Aaron continued to be in front of them because of God's mercy. Not because of Aaron being so good, but because of God being so good. It's so forgiving. And they would have seen that example of what he did and what they should do.

But let's put us there. What he did and what we should do, not only repent, but trust God's forgiveness as we examine our lives. And we wonder, can I take the Passover? Yes, you better.

But that's knowing that it's not because we don't sin, but because God does forgive.

He'll put that sin totally away. And these people watching would say, yeah, for 40 years, Aaron served God and God's people.

Sometimes, probably, thanklessly. Probably wasn't easy getting up every day and rekindling that fire and killing the animals.

At least at one point in his life, if not others, he risked his own life to stand in the gap, to stand between the dead and the living.

And with that, as I said, if people were watching and all these things come into mind as they watch them go up the hill, thinking back, that incident with the stone at Maribah, would have said, okay, he had a lapse. And now a lapse that had to be repented of. But, you know, even with a brief stumble, Aaron's life is a powerful example, an example that we all should honor.

And we should remember that we need to obey God in every instance, all the way through to the end.

We should never turn from this way of life even for a moment.

And we should understand and have unwavering faith and trust in God's mercy. And if any of us live as long a life and do as much service as Aaron the priest, then we can hope we can accomplish nearly as much.