“Moshe did as Adonai had ordered. They went up onto Mount Hor before the eyes of the whole community. Moshe removed the garments from Aharon, and put them on Eleazar his son, and Aharon died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moshe and Eleazar came down the mountain. When the entire community saw that Aharon was dead, they mourned Aharon thirty days, the whole house of Israel.”-Numbers 20:27-29
The end of Aaron’s days has arrived.
Before Aaron breathes his last breath, the Lord orders him to strip off his High Priest’s garments and turn them over to his son Eleazar who would soon become the new High Priest.
We’re told the “entire community” witnessed this event.
We’re then told of the death of Aaron and it is recorded as simply a matter of fact, as if his passing away was nothing less than a simple transaction on a financial statement.
No eulogy is given recounting his life and the service he provided for the Lord to the people of Israel.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, this seems to be the normal way Scripture deals with the passing away of all the significant Biblical characters.
Nevertheless, Aaron did die a blessed man.
He lived to see his son succeed him as the High Priest.
In those days, it was considered a great blessing for the father to be able to pass his mantle of leadership over to his son.
Unfortunately, Moses would not receive such a blessing and honor.
Later we’ll find out that Moses’ sons did not become the new God-ordained leaders of Israel in place of their father.
This was also the case with Yeshua as well since he didn’t have any sons.
Next we’re told that after Moses and Eleazar came back down the mountain, the whole nation of Israel mourned Aaron for 30 days.
Isn’t it interesting that in the TANACH, great spiritual events usually take place on mountaintops?
One reason for this is because of the ancient belief that deities dwelled up in the mountains.
In fact the word EL SHADDAI, which is commonly mistranslated as “God Almighty” actually means “God of the Mountain“.
For a more extensive treatment of this topic, click here.
God calling Moses, Aaron and Eleazar to come up to the mountaintop was an indication that a great spiritual event was about to take place.
However, one question that is sometimes asked is since God’s current dwelling place was the Tabernacle and NOT the mountaintop, why didn’t God call Moses, Aaron and Eleazar to the Tabernacle area?
The answer to this question is one that astute students of Torah should get right away.
At this stage in our Torah studies, it should be pretty clear that there is nothing more defiling to God’s HOLINESS than death.
If Aaron was to die in the Tabernacle area, God’s HOLINESS would have been compromised and that would have been a big NO-NO.
Hence, the officiation over Aaron’s death had to take place in an area far away from the HOLY Camp of Israel.
In this case, it took place on a high place (called BEMAH in Hebrew).
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN NUMBERS CHAPTER 21
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