He Stood Between the Dead and the Living
36 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 37 “Speak to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter the fire away from the camp; for they are holy, 38 even the censers of those who sinned against their own lives. Let them be beaten into plates for a covering of the altar, for they offered them before Yahweh. Therefore they are holy. They shall be a sign to the children of Israel.” 39 Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers which those who were burned had offered; and they beat them out for a covering of the altar, 40 to be a memorial to the children of Israel, to the end that no stranger who isn’t of the offspring of Aaron, would come near to burn incense before Yahweh, that he not be as Korah and as his company; as Yahweh spoke to him by Moses. 41 But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed Yahweh’s people!” 42 When the congregation was assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they looked toward the Tent of Meeting. Behold, the cloud covered it, and Yahweh’s glory appeared. 43 Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of Meeting. 44 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 45 “Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!” They fell on their faces. 46 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from Yahweh! The plague has begun.” 47 Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the middle of the assembly. The plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. 48 He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. 49 Now those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, in addition to those who died about the matter of Korah. 50 Aaron returned to Moses to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and the plague was stopped.
The day after the earth swallows the rebels the nation blames Moses for it, and Aaron runs into the plague with a censer.
The censers of the dead men are hammered into a covering for the altar, a sign to the children of Israel Numbers 16:38 — the instruments of the rebellion permanently attached to the place they wanted access to.
And then the sentence that is harder to believe than the earthquake: on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, saying, "You have killed Yahweh's people!" Numbers 16:41.
One day. They watched the ground open and fire fall on two hundred and fifty men, and within twenty-four hours they have concluded that Moses arranged it.
A plague begins, and what Aaron does next is the finest act in the book.
Moses tells him to take a censer with fire from the altar and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them Numbers 16:46. And Aaron ran into the middle of the assembly Numbers 16:47.
An old man runs toward a plague, into a crowd that has just accused him of murder, carrying the very object over which two hundred and fifty men had died the day before. The incense that killed them in the hands of the unauthorized is the thing that saves in the hands of the priest.
And then the line the whole book is remembered for: he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed Numbers 16:48.
That is the priesthood described in seven words. He does not stop the plague by any technique; he puts himself in the gap, and it stops where he is standing.
The cost is recorded without softening — fourteen thousand seven hundred, in addition to those who died over Korah Numbers 16:49. The intercession worked and it did not undo what had already happened.
And the last verse has him walk back to the door of the tent, and the plague was stopped Numbers 16:50. He returns to his post, and the office he had been accused of usurping has just been demonstrated to be the thing keeping his accusers alive.
settled What this mark means