Numbers 16:50

To kill them, as the Targum of Jonathan adds; who, perhaps, upon uttering their murmurs, made up to them, and by their gestures showed an intention to murder them: that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation; either the people did, to see whether they could observe any appearance of the displeasure of God against them; or rather Moses and Aaron looked that way for help and deliverance in this extreme danger, knowing there was no salvation for them but of the Lord, Jeremiah 3:23; and, behold, the cloud covered it; as when it was first erected, and which was a token of the divine Presence, Numbers 9:15; perhaps it had dispersed immediately upon the death of the rebels, and now returned again in favour of the servants of the Lord: and the glory of the Lord appeared; in the cloud, as in Numbers 16:19; to encourage Moses and Aaron, and to deliver them out of the hands of the people, and to the terror of them. Numbers 16:43 Ver. 43. And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation. Whose tent was not far from it, about which the people of Israel were gathered; and from whence they came to the tabernacle, both for shelter and safety, and for advice and instruction how to behave in this crisis; they did not go into it, but stood before it; the Lord being in the cloud over it, they stood in the door of it, Numbers 16:50; so the Targum of Jonathan, "and Moses and Aaron came from the congregation to the door of the tabernacle.'' Numbers 16:44 Ver. 44.

16:41-50 The gaping earth was scarcely closed, before the same sins are again committed, and all these warnings slighted. They called the rebels the people of the Lord; and find fault with Divine justice. The obstinacy of Israel notwithstanding the terrors of God's law, as given on mount Sinai, and the terrors of his judgments, shows how necessary the grace of God is to change men's hearts and lives. Love will do what fear cannot. Moses and Aaron interceded with God for mercy, knowing how great the provocation was. Aaron went, and burned incense between the living and the dead, not to purify the air, but to pacify an offended God. As one tender of the life of every Israelite, Aaron made all possible speed. We must render good for evil. Observe especially, that Aaron was a type of Christ. There is an infection of sin in the world, which only the cross and intercession of Jesus Christ can stay and remove. He enters the defiled and dying camp. He stands between the dead and the living; between the eternal Judge and the souls under condemnation. We must have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins. We admire the ready devotion of Aaron: shall we not bless and praise the unspeakable grace and love which filled the Saviour's heart, when he placed himself in our stead, and bought us with his life? Greatly indeed hath God commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Ro 5:8.

And Aaron returned unto Moses,.... After he had by his atonement and intercession put a stop to the wrath of God broken forth upon the people: unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; where Moses was waiting for his return, and to know the issue of this affair: and the plague was stayed: even before Aaron left the camp, and is here repeated for the certainty of it, and to intimate that it continued to cease, and broke not out again.

A striking proof of the efficacy of that very Aaronic priesthood which the rebels had presumed to reject. The incense offering which had brought down destruction when presented by unauthorised hands, now in the hand of the true priest is the medium of instant salvation to the whole people. Aaron by his acceptable ministration and his personal self-devotion foreshadows emphatically in this transaction the perfect mediation and sacrifice of Himself made by Christ.

Thereupon they both went into the court of (פּני אל, as in Leviticus 9:5 ) the tabernacle, and God commanded them to rise up (הרמּוּ, Niphal of רמם equals רוּם; see Ges. 65, Anm. 5) out of this congregation, which He would immediately destroy. But they fell upon their faces in prayer, as in Numbers 16:21-22 . This time, however, they could not avert the bursting forth of the wrathful judgment, as they had done the day before ( Numbers 16:22 ). The plague had already commenced, when Moses told Aaron to take the censer quickly into the midst of the congregation, with coals and incense (הולך, imper. Hiph.), to make expiation for it with an incense-offering. And when this was done, and Aaron placed himself between the dead and the living, the plague, which had already destroyed 14,700 men, was stayed. The plague consisted apparently of a sudden death, as in the case of a pestilence raging with extreme violence, though we cannot regard it as an actual pestilence. The means resorted to by Moses to stay the plague showed afresh how the faithful servant of God bore the rescue of his people upon his heart. All the motives which he had hitherto pleaded, in his repeated intercession that this evil congregation might be spared, were now exhausted. He could not stake his life for the nation, as at Horeb (Exodus 32:32), for the nation had rejected him.

He could no longer appeal to the honour of Jehovah among the heathen, seeing that the Lord, even when sentencing the rebellious race to fall in the desert, had assured him that the whole earth should be filled with His glory (Numbers 14:20.). Still less could he pray to God that He would not be wrathful with all for the sake of one or a few sinners, as in Numbers 16:22, seeing that the whole congregation had taken part with the rebels. In this condition of things there was but one way left of averting the threatened destruction of the whole nation, namely, to adopt the means which the Lord Himself had given to His congregation, in the high-priestly office, to wipe away their sins, and recover the divine grace which they had forfeited through sin, - viz., the offering of incense which embodied the high-priestly prayer, and the strength and operation of which were not dependent upon the sincerity and earnestness of subjective faith, but had a firm and immovable foundation in the objective force of the divine appointment.

[Reformed Biblical] g good to them for evil, which the people requited with evil for their kindness. Numbers 16:46 ## Put on incense; which was a sign of intercession, Psa_141:2, and was to be accompanied with it, Luk_1:9 ,10 . ## Go quickly unto the congregation, with the incense, to stir up the people to repentance and prayer to prevent their utter ruin. This he might do upon this extraordinary occasion, having God’s command for his warrant, though ordinarily incense was to be offered only in the tabernacle. ## The plague is begun, in cutting off the people by a sudden and miraculous stroke. Numbers 16:47 ## Ran into the midst of the congregation; hazarding his own life to obey God, and to do this wicked people good. Numbers 16:48 Whereby it may seem that this plague, like that fire, Num_11:1, began in the uttermost parts of the congregation, and proceeded, destroying one after another in an orderly manner, which gave Aaron occasion and direction so to place himself as a mediator to God on their behalf. Numbers 16:49 Numbers 16:50 ## Numbers 17:1 NUMBERS CHAPTER 17 God confirming Aaron’s calling by the budding and the blossoming of his rod, Num_17:1-9, commandeth it to be laid up for a memorial and terror to rebels, Num_17:10. The people being terrified ther