The Priest: Aaron

by Francine Rivers

  Oh, Lord, You’ve written the Law on stone tablets, and Moses has written Your Word on scrolls. Will it ever be written into our hearts so that we might not sin against You? Transform me, Lord. Change me because I’m hot and tired and irritated by everyone around me, by my circumstances. I hate the dust and the thirst and the hollow ache inside me because You seem so far away.

  It was not the war ahead that threatened to defeat Aaron, but the daily step-by-step journey in the wilderness. Every day had its challenges. Every day had its tedium.

  We’ve been this way before, Lord. Will we ever get it right?

  Aaron sat in Moses’ tent, resting in the congenial company of his brother. There would be no work today. No reading scrolls and going over instructions. No traveling. No gathering of manna. Aaron had been waiting for six days to have this one day of peace.

  And now there was a commotion in the camp. He heard his name shouted. “What now?” He groaned as he rose. It was the Sabbath. Everyone was to rest. Surely, the people could leave him and Moses alone for one day out of the week!

  Moses rose with him, tight-lipped and tense.

  A gathering of men stood outside. One man was held between two others. “I didn’t do anything wrong!” He tried to jerk free, but was held firmly.

  “This man was found gathering wood.”

  “How do you expect me to make a cook fire and feed my family without wood?”

  “You should have gathered wood yesterday!”

  “We were walking yesterday! Remember?”

  “Today is the Sabbath! The Lord said not to work on the Sabbath!”

  “I wasn’t working. I was gathering.”

  Aaron knew the Law was clear, but he didn’t want to be the one to pronounce judgment on the man. He looked to Moses, hoping he would have a ready and just answer that would also be merciful. Moses’ eyes were shut, his face tight. His shoulders slumped and he looked at the man in custody.

  “The Lord says the man must die. The whole community must stone him outside the camp.”

  The man tried to fight free. “How do you know what the Lord says? Does God speak to you when none of us can hear Him?” He looked at the three men pulling and pushing him. “I didn’t do anything wrong! Are you going to listen to that old man? He’ll kill all of you before he’s through!”

  Aaron walked beside Moses. He didn’t question what the Lord had said. He knew the Ten Commandments. Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days a week are set apart for your daily duties and regular work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.

  The people gathered around the man. “Help me, brothers! Mama, don’t let them do this to me! I didn’t do anything wrong, I tell you!”

  Moses took up a stone. Aaron bent to take up another. He felt sick. He knew he had committed greater sins than this man. “Now!” Moses commanded. The man tried to block the stones, but they came hard and fast from all directions. One hit him in the side of the head, another squarely between the eyes. He fell to his knees, blood streaming down his face as he screamed for mercy. Another stone silenced him. He fell face first into the dust and lay still.

  The people surrounded him, crying out and weeping as they threw harder. It was his defiance that had brought them to this, his sin, his insistence that he do as he wanted when he wanted. If anyone turned away, they would be siding with him, siding with doing whatever they pleased in the face of God. Everyone must participate in the judgment. Everyone must know the cost of sin.

  The man was dead, and still the stones came, one from each member of the assembly—men, women, children—until the body was covered over with stones.

  Moses sighed heavily. “We must stand on higher ground.”

  Aaron knew the Lord had given his brother words to say. He walked with him and stood beside him. Raising his hands, Aaron called out. “Come, everyone. Listen and hear the Word of the Lord.” He stepped aside as the people came and stood before Moses, their faces bleak. Children wept and clung to their mothers. Men looked less sure of themselves. God would not compromise with sin. Living had become a hazard.

  Moses spread his hands. “The Lord says, ‘Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach the tassels at each corner with a blue cord. The tassels will remind you of the commands of the Lord, and that you are to obey His commands instead of following your own desires and going your own ways, as you are prone to do. The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all My commands and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the Lord your God!’”

  The people moved off slowly, heads down.

  Aaron saw the strain in Moses’ face, the anger and the tears brimming as the people walked away in silence. Aaron wanted to comfort him. “The people hear the Word, Moses. They just don’t yet understand it.”

  Moses shook his head. “No, Aaron. They understand and defy God anyway.” He lifted his head and closed his eyes. “Are we not called Israel? We are people who contend with God!”

  “And still, He chose us.”

  “Don’t become proud on that account, my brother. God could have made these rocks into men and probably had better luck with them. Our hearts are hard as stone, and we’re more stubborn than any mule. No, Aaron. God chose people beneath the heel of man’s power to show the nations that God is all-powerful. It is by and through Him we live. He is taking a multitude of slaves and making them into a nation of freemen under God so that the nations around will know He is God. And when they know, they can choose.”

  Choose what? “Are you saying He is not just our God?”

  “The Lord is the only God. Didn’t He prove that to you in Egypt?”

  “Yes, but . . . ” Did that mean anyone could come to Him and become part of Israel?

  “All who crossed the Red Sea with us are part of our community, Aaron. And the Lord has said that we are to have the same rules for Israelite and foreigner. One God. One covenant. One law that applies to all.”

  “But I thought He meant only to deliver us and give us a land that would belong to us. That’s all we want—a place where we can work and live in peace.”

  “Yes, Aaron, and the land God has promised us is at the crossroads of every major trade route, surrounded by powerful nations, filled with people stronger than we are. Why do you suppose God would put us there?”

  It was not a question that lightened Aaron’s burdened heart. “To watch us.”

  “To see God at work in us.”

  And then to say God was not God would be to deny and defy the power that had created the heavens and the earth.

  Every day seemed to get worse, until Aaron found himself with Moses standing before an angry delegation formed by Korah, one of their own relatives! Korah wasn’t content to stand against them by himself, but had brought Dathan and Abiram, leaders of the Reubenite tribe as his allies, together with two hundred and fifty leaders well-known to Aaron, men who had been appointed to the council to help Moses shoulder the load of leadership. And now, they wanted more power!

  “You have gone too far!” Korah stood in front of his allies, speaking for all of them. “Everyone in Israel has been set apart by the Lord, and He is with all of us. What right do you have to act as though you are greater than anyone else among all these people of the Lord?”

  Moses fell face to the ground before them, and Aaron threw himself flat on the ground beside him. He knew what these people wanted, and he was powerless against them. Even more terrifying was what the Lord might do in the face of their rebellion. Aaron did not intend to defend his position when he knew his faith was weak and his mistakes so many!

  Korah shouted to the others, “Moses sets himself up to be king over us and makes his brother his high priest! Is that what we want?”

  “No!” Moses rose from the dust, his eyes blazing. “Tomorrow morning the Lord will show us who belongs to Him and w
ho is holy. The Lord will allow those who are chosen to enter His holy presence. You, Korah, and all your followers must do this: Take incense burners, and burn incense in them tomorrow before the Lord. Then we will see whom the Lord chooses as His holy one. You Levites are the ones who have gone too far!”

  Korah lifted his chin. “Why should we do what you say?”

  “Now listen, you Levites! Does it seem a small thing to you that the God of Israel has chosen you from among all the people of Israel to be near Him as you serve in the Lord’s Tabernacle and to stand before the people to minister to them? He has given this special ministry only to you and your fellow Levites, but now you are demanding the priesthood as well! The one you are really revolting against is the Lord! And who is Aaron that you are complaining about him?”

  Who am I that I should be high priest? Aaron wondered. Any time he had tried to lead, he had brought disaster. No wonder they did not trust him. Why should they?

  Lord, Lord, whatever You will, let it be done.

  “Let Dathan and Abiram come forward so that I can speak to them.”

  “We refuse to come! Isn’t it enough that you brought us out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us here in this wilderness, and that you now treat us like your subjects? What’s more, you haven’t brought us into the land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Are you trying to fool us? We will not come.”

  Moses raised his arms and cried out to the Lord, “Do not accept their offerings! I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, and I have never hurt a single one of them.”

  “Nor have you given us what you promised!”

  “It is not mine to give!”

  Korah spit in the dust at Aaron’s feet.

  Moses shook with rage. “Come here tomorrow and present yourself before the Lord with all your followers. Aaron will also be here. Be sure that each of your two hundred and fifty followers brings an incense burner with incense on it, so you can present them before the Lord. Aaron will also bring his incense burner. Let the Lord decide!”

  Crushed in spirit, Aaron made his preparations. Had all these men forgotten the fate of Nadab and Abihu? Did they think they could make their own fire and stir in their own incense and not face God’s wrath? He couldn’t sleep thinking about what might happen!

  The next morning Aaron went out with his censer. Breathing in the sweet scent of frankincense, he stood with Moses at the entrance to the Tabernacle.

  Korah came, head high. The number of his followers had multiplied.

  The air became denser, warmer, humming with power. Aaron looked up and saw the glory of the Lord rise, Shekinah streaming light in all directions. Aaron heard the indrawn breath from the Israelites who had come to see whom God would choose. Aaron knew they were disappointed, as they had fixed their anger on God’s prophet and spokesman. They stood en masse behind Korah.

  Aaron heard the Voice.

  Get away from these people so that I may instantly destroy them!

  As God had put an end to Nadab and Abihu! Crying out, Aaron fell on his face before the Lord, not wanting to see the nation obliterated by fire. Moses fell down beside him praying frantically. “O God, the God and source of all life, must You be angry with all the people when only one man sins?”

  The people talked nervously, looking this way and that, looking up, edging back.

  Moses came to his feet clumsily and shouted, “Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram!” He spread his hands and hurried toward the people. “Quick! Get away from the tents of these wicked men, and don’t touch anything that belongs to them. If you do, you will be destroyed for their sins!”

  “Do not listen to him!” Korah shouted. “Every man you see standing with a censer is holy!”

  Aaron stayed on the ground. God, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing!

  Nothing had changed within the people. They were the same as they had always been—hard-hearted, stubborn, defiant. Just like Pharaoh, who had forgotten the hardships of the plagues each time God lifted His hand, these people forgot God’s kindness and provision when hardship came. Just as Pharaoh had clung to Egypt’s ways and his pride, these people clung to their longing for a self-indulgent life. They longed to return to the idol-infested country that had enslaved them.

  “Were we not ourselves chosen by God to lead as a council?” Someone else called out in rebellion.

  “What has this old man done for you? We will show honor to God by leading you into the land God conquered for us. We will return to Egypt, and we will be the masters this time!”

  Moses cried out, “By this you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things that I have done—for I have not done them on my own. If these men die a natural death, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord performs a miracle and the ground opens up and swallows them and all their belongings, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

  The earth rumbled. Aaron felt the ground roll violently beneath him as if the Lord were shaking dust from a blanket. Aaron rose, spreading his feet for balance, holding tight to his censer. Rocks cracked and a chasm opened. Korah pitched forward, screaming, and fell headfirst into the gaping hole, his men after him. Down went his tent with his wife and concubines, his servants. All of those whom the Lord found guilty went down into the earth alive. The horrific screams that rose from the crevice sent the people scattering in terror.

  “Get back! Get away! The earth will swallow us, too!”

  The chasm closed, deadening the horrific sounds of pain and terror that came up from the earth.

  Fire blazed forth from the Lord and burned up the two hundred and fifty men offering incense, turning them into charred corpses like Nadab and Abihu. They dropped where they stood, their bodies smoldering, blackened fingers still gripping the censers that clattered to the ground spilling out homemade incense.

  Aaron alone remained standing before the entrance of the Tabernacle, the censer of incense still clutched in his hand.

  “Eleazar!” Moses beckoned Aaron’s son. “Collect the censers and hammer them into sheets to cover the altar. The Lord has said this will remind the people now and in the future that no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before Him, or he will become like Korah and his followers.”

  All through the night, Aaron heard the echo of hammer against bronze as his son obeyed the Word of the Lord. Far into the night, Aaron prayed with tears streaming into his beard. “According to Your will, Lord . . . as You will. . . .”

  Aaron thought he was still dreaming when he heard angry cries. Exhausted, he rubbed his face. He wasn’t dreaming. He groaned as he recognized Dathan’s and Abiram’s voices. “Moses and Aaron have killed the Lord’s people!”

  Would these people never change? Would they never learn?

  He rose quickly, his sons Eleazar and Ithamar with him, and met Moses before the Tabernacle. “What do we do?” The people were heading toward them.

  The mob came, shouting accusations. “You two have killed the Lord’s people.”

  “Korah was a Levite just as you are and you killed him!”

  “The Levites are servants of the Lord!”

  “You killed them!”

  “You two won’t be satisfied until we’re all dead!”

  The cloud came down and covered the Tent of Meeting and the Shekinah glory glowed from within the cloud.

  “Come with me, Aaron.” Moses went to the front of the Tabernacle, and Aaron joined him there. Shaking, Aaron heard the Voice fill his mind. He fell on his face, arms outstretched.

  Get away from these people so that I can instantly destroy them!

  And what would the nations say then if the Lord could not bring His people into the land He promised?

  People screamed, and then Moses spoke. “Quick, take an incense burner and place burning coals on it from the altar. Lay incense on it and ca
rry it quickly among the people to make atonement for them. The Lord’s anger is blazing among them—the plague has already begun.”

  Aaron clambered to his feet and ran as fast as his aging legs could carry him. Breathing hard, he took the censer and ran to the altar. He took the golden utensil and scooped burning coals into his censer. His hand shook. People were already dying!

  Thousands fell on their faces, crying out to the Lord, crying out to Moses, crying out to him. “Lord, have mercy on us. Have mercy! Save us, Moses. Aaron, save us!”

  He must hurry! Aaron sprinkled the incense onto the coals and turned back. Huffing and puffing, heart pounding and pain spreading across his chest, he headed straight into the midst of men and women falling to the right and left. He held the censer high. “Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, forgive them. Oh, God, we repent! Hear our prayer!”

  Dathan and Abiram lay dead, their faces stiff in agony. Everywhere Aaron looked, men and women were dropping from the plague.

  Aaron stood in the midst of them and cried out, “Those who are for the Lord, get behind me!” The people moved like the tide of a sea. Others who stood their ground screamed and fell, groaning in agony as they died. Aaron did not move from his post, the living on one side and the dying on the other. He stayed, arm trembling as he held the censer high and prayed.

  The plague abated.

  His breathing slowed. Bodies sprawled all over the camp, thousands of them. Some lay close to the burned places where the two hundred and fifty Levites had died only yesterday. Survivors clutched one another and wept, wondering if they would be struck down by fire or die in agony of plague. Each body would have to be lifted and carried for burial outside the camp.

  Weary, Aaron walked back to Moses standing at the entrance of the Tabernacle. Aaron looked into the stricken faces of the people staring at him. Would another rebellion begin tomorrow? Why couldn’t they see that he wasn’t their leader? Even Moses did not lead them. When would they understand that the Lord directed their path! It was God’s divine presence that would make them into a holy nation!