Standing Between The Living & The Dead

STANDING BETWEEN THE LIVING & THE DEAD

Num. 16:41-50

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: Repeating the Same Mistakes

1. I visited someone in the hospital and they told me they met a lady in the emergency room who had both ears bandaged. "What happened to you?"

2. "I was ironing some clothes at home when the phone rang, and I unconsciously put the hot iron to my ear."

3. "Okay, but you have both ears bandaged. How come?" "Because they called back a second time."

B. TEXT

35 “And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense. 41 The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the Lord’s people,” they said. 42 But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the tent of meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. 43 Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the tent of meeting, 44 and the Lord said to Moses, 45 “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” And they fell facedown. 46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” 47 So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. 48 He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. 49 But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah” Numbers 16:35, 41-49.

C. THESIS

1. The God we serve is a God of Power, a holy God, not part of this creation. It’s part of His nature to destroy evil.

2. One would think that the death of 250 men and the ground opening to swallow Abiram’s rebels would be enough to discourage the rebellion of Israel. But the next day all the Israelites gathered and surrounded Moses and Aaron, charging them with killing the Reubenites & Levites.

3. Can you picture the scene? The infuriated mob, numbering in the millions, coming toward the two men, alone by God’s Tent. No doubt they would’ve torn them to pieces on the spot.

4. But just as they were rushing up like waves of the sea, the cloudy pillar which hung above the tabernacle descended, and enveloped the tent in its mysterious billows. Then in the center of this cloud there blazed out that marvelous light called the Shekinah – the indication of the presence of Him who can’t be seen, but whose glory is manifested.

5. The people stood back a little, and Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces in prayer, pleading with God to spare the people, for they heard the voice of God saying, “Get away from these people, that I may destroy them in at once.” Moses, with his undimmed vision, saw the Israelites on the far edge of the crowd begin to collapse to the ground, in a wave of death.

6. Moses shouted, “Up Aaron! Take your censer, put in incense and holy coals, and run among the people, for the plague has begun.” Aaron, a man of probably a 120 years, filled his censer and ran as if he were a youth, swinging it toward heaven with holy energy, knowing that in his hand was the life of the people. When the incense was accepted in heaven, the scythe of death stopped its gruesome harvest.

7. On one side of Aaron were heaps of corpses going off into the distance, and on the other side stood the living people, living only because of Aaron’s intercession. If Aaron had not intervened, all 2.7 million Israelites would have fallen dead.

8. Paul said, “These things happened to them as examples...as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come” 1 Cor. 10:11.

I. REASON FOR THE SUDDEN DEATHS

A. BECAUSE GOD MUST HAVE A PURE CHURCH

1. This event should shock all readers: isn’t this God’s elect people? Whom God, by great signs and wonders, delivered from the Egyptians? Hadn’t God promised to bring them in the promised land? Why then would God now almost destroy them?

2. BECAUSE GOD MUST HAVE A PURE CHURCH. The Israelites had suffered a lot from the Egyptians. On their journey other nations attacked them. But the MOST DANGEROUS threat wasn’t from outside Israel, but from within them; the lack of the fear of the Lord!

3. DO WE FEAR GOD? "God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning," Ex. 20:20. “Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord. “Should you not tremble in my presence?” Jer. 5:22. The Lord Jesus said, "...do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more....Fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him” (Lk. 12:4-5).