Context No. 3265 of 4322 · Numbers

Numbers 16:46-50: in context

46Moses 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 the LORD! The plague has begun.” 47Aaron 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. 48He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. 49Now those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, in addition to those who died about the matter of Korah. 50Aaron returned to Moses to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and the plague was stopped.

In the aftermath of Korah's rebellion, wrath breaks out and a plague begins sweeping through the congregation. Moses sends Aaron running into the midst of it with a censer of incense to make atonement. Aaron stands between the dead and the living, and the plague is stopped, though many have already fallen.

It is a stark image of the priest's role: the mediator standing in the very midst of death, between the dying and those still alive, holding back the destruction with an offering. Aaron does not flee the plague; he runs toward it to intercede for the people. This is what a true priest does, place himself between judgment and those under it, at real risk to himself. And it points ahead to Christ, who stood between us and death, holding it back not with incense but at the cost of his own life. To have such a one standing in the gap is no small thing.

Do I grasp what it cost to have one who stands between me and death, and does it move me to intercede for others rather than flee from their need?

Sources

Numbers 16:48: "He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed."
Numbers 16:47: "He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people."
1 Timothy 2:5: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."