Num 20:23-28 | KingComments | STEP | The LORD commands Moses regarding the death of Aaron. He gives the reason for his death. He also takes care of a successor. Eleazar becomes high priest instead of his father Aaron. Eleazar brings the people into the land. Aaron is the high priest of a people travelling through the wilderness. This change indicates the different facets of the High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus. Moses does as the LORD has commanded. His obedience to the LORD is unbroken, despite all the setbacks he has suffered in this chapter: 1. First the death of his sister Miriam, 2. then the uprising of the people, 3. then his own failure and the punishment for it, 4. the refusal and hostility of Edom which means a by-way and thus postponement of the destination to be reached, and 5. finally the death of his brother Aaron, whom he sees dying with his own eyes. Moses is a great example for us if we have to deal with setbacks. Let us also always remain open to the Lord’s will. Eleazar is the third son of Aaron. He is a type of the Lord Jesus as High Priest, but in connection with the land. The number three speaks of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, Who rose from the dead on the third day ( ; ; ). Eleazar presents the Lord Jesus as High Priest Who has been dead and now lives. By His death He opened heaven and all blessings that are there, to all who are connected with Him. That is what the promised land speaks of. Before Aaron dies, he has seen Eleazar being clothed with his garments (cf. ). He might have been able to say what Simeon says in Luke 2 ( ). Eleazar derives everything from Aaron. He continues Aaron’s work in a new form. Aaron silently submits to what the LORD says. He dies, 123 years old, in dignity and peace, not as someone who is exterminated from the people. After that he is buried ( ), we may assume by his brother and his son. The people weep for him thirty days. They weep for the loss of him, against whom they have so often grumbled during his life. Similarly, there is often grief about the loss of blessings that we have not appreciated before. Godly people are often given more honor after death than during their life. Similarly, prophets have been persecuted and killed during their life, but once they are killed, their graves are decorated as a kind of homage: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been [living] in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in [shedding] the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets” ( ).

‏ Numbers 20:23-28

The Death of Aaron

The LORD commands Moses regarding the death of Aaron. He gives the reason for his death. He also takes care of a successor. Eleazar becomes high priest instead of his father Aaron. Eleazar brings the people into the land. Aaron is the high priest of a people travelling through the wilderness. This change indicates the different facets of the High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus.

Moses does as the LORD has commanded. His obedience to the LORD is unbroken, despite all the setbacks he has suffered in this chapter:

1. First the death of his sister Miriam,

2. then the uprising of the people,

3. then his own failure and the punishment for it,

4. the refusal and hostility of Edom which means a by-way and thus postponement of the destination to be reached, and

5. finally the death of his brother Aaron, whom he sees dying with his own eyes.

Moses is a great example for us if we have to deal with setbacks. Let us also always remain open to the Lord’s will.

Eleazar is the third son of Aaron. He is a type of the Lord Jesus as High Priest, but in connection with the land. The number three speaks of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, Who rose from the dead on the third day (Mt 16:21; Lk 24:46; 1Cor 15:3-4). Eleazar presents the Lord Jesus as High Priest Who has been dead and now lives. By His death He opened heaven and all blessings that are there, to all who are connected with Him. That is what the promised land speaks of.

Before Aaron dies, he has seen Eleazar being clothed with his garments (cf. Isa 22:20-21). He might have been able to say what Simeon says in Luke 2 (Lk 2:29-30). Eleazar derives everything from Aaron. He continues Aaron’s work in a new form. Aaron silently submits to what the LORD says. He dies, 123 years old, in dignity and peace, not as someone who is exterminated from the people. After that he is buried (Deu 10:6), we may assume by his brother and his son.

The people weep for him thirty days. They weep for the loss of him, against whom they have so often grumbled during his life. Similarly, there is often grief about the loss of blessings that we have not appreciated before. Godly people are often given more honor after death than during their life.

Similarly, prophets have been persecuted and killed during their life, but once they are killed, their graves are decorated as a kind of homage: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been [living] in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in [shedding] the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets” (Mt 23:29-31).