Website for Book of Common Prayer, 1928 (USA) Daily Offices & Lectionary.
The Other Morning Lesson
Numbers 20, NRSV
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, Let Aaron be gathered to his people. For he shall not enter the land that I have given to the Israelites, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and his son Eleazar, and bring them up Mount Hor; strip Aaron of his vestments, and put them on his son Eleazar. But Aaron shall be gathered to his people, and shall die there.’ Moses did as the Lord had commanded; they went up Mount Hor in the sight of the whole congregation. Moses stripped Aaron of his vestments, and put them on his son Eleazar; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron for thirty days.
Reflection
God enacts judgement among his chosen people to purify them and lead them on to blessing.
Aaron the High Priest and Moses the Prophet were denied the promised land because they took matters into their own hands, compromising their God-ordained leadership with a forceful display of their own human will. "Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’"
Yet God did not take Aaron's priestly vestments, throw them away and start over. God took what was holy and passed it to Aaron's son.
Let us pray that our GAFCON pilgrims, and all of us hoping for a purified, blessed Anglicanism, will carry out God's death sentence on our own wilful, worldly ways (Colossians 3:5); be clothed with nothing less than Christ (Galatians 3:27); and serve as a God-ordained priesthood (I Peter 2:5).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
This passage give me chills, how arrogant and selfishly wise can we be! How we are always looking to stamp the work of the Lord with our marks, with our wisdom, wit our latest worldy convictions! How terrifying that the Lord will use us as vessels until our work is complete well. Who shall cross over with the "baptismal" waters with a new generation? Shall those who deny the Trinity seize the day? Or will the Lord once again send his most unlikely servants to speak His words and rescue His people among the tares? It is a terrible thing to live and see the Lord's vindication that we have been denying because of lack of faith and wontoness. May Jesus have mercy on us all, for He will rescue His sheep and strike the wolfes with His rod. Praise Him.
Post a Comment