[X. AARON'S ROD THAT BUDDED]
NUMBERS 16 AND 17
BEFORE we begin to talk about the pleasant happy story of Aaron's Rod, and how it came out into buds and flowers, there is a very dark and sorrowful story which we must think of first.
The Lord told Moses to make a beautiful Tabernacle or Tent, where He would speak to him face to face; and He appointed the different Tribes to pitch their tents round it.
God choose Aaron, the elder brother of Moses, to be the High Priest. Aaron was the head of the tribe of Levi, and his family were the only ones who were allowed to approach God in the offerings which were to be presented for sin; and to offer the sweet Incense on the Golden Altar of Incense, which was in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle.
God said this Incense was to be made in a special way, and no one was to make any like it. And the Lord warns the people that "the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death."
Even Aaron's two elder sons, Nadab and Abihu, died before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, when they took their censers, "and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not."
These things were well known, and understood by the Israelites; but so evil are men's hearts and so easily excited to jealousy, that three men named Korah, Dathan and Abiram, gathered together a number of the Princes of the Congregation, and came to Moses and Aaron with complaints, that Moses and Aaron were taking too much upon themselves, and that all the Congregation were equally fit to draw near to God, and to do those parts of the Holy Service, which God had appointed that only Aaron and his sons should do.
Moses was dreadfully grieved, and he fell on his face in bitter sorrow.