Hiding under the Communion Table
Growing up as a Pastor's kid, my life was spent at church. I spent more time at church than I did at home most weeks. I'm not emotionally scared by that, it was actually loads of fun. When you spend days inside the church sanctuary that most people spend an hour or two a week in, you find ways to play and occupy yourself. When I was a kid, one of the things we (that is me and the mischievous deacons kids; they are the ones you really have to watch out for); we used to hide from our parents when they were trying to lock up after a long day at church. They wanted to go eat, and we wanted to play, so we would hide from them. The absolute best place in the sanctuary to hide was under the communion table. There was only one way in. The particular communion table I'm speaking of had a closed front and a hollow back so you would have to crawl in under it from the back which was the stage side. Since it was dark, you couldn't see if any one was hiding under it. I'll never forget the gleeful joy of hearing my dad call for me and sitting in silence, knowing he couldn't find me.
That is until his exasperated calling for me reached a certain pitch and then one of us would have to emerge and face the judgment for our rebellion. Numbers 16 & 17 finds Moses and Aaron hiding under the Communion Table of sorts and it sets the table (pardon the pun) for a beautiful picture of the Savior taking the judgment that was ours for our atonement. Here's what God taught me in these chapters.
Highlight:
'So Aaron took his firepan as Moses had ordered, ran into the middle of the assembly, and saw that the plague had begun among the people. After he added incense, he made atonement for the people. He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was halted. ' Numbers 16:47-48
Explain:
Numbers 16 & 17 is a tragedy that informs us of God’s holiness, His authority, and the reverent fear we should have of it. The chapter opens with the rebellion of Korah, a Levite priest, On, Dathan and Abiram and 250 other rebellious insurrectionists who learned all to quickly of the swift judgment that follows their rebellion. They come to Moses and insist that they are as holy as Moses and Aaron is. Their self-righteous jealousy has incited them to question Moses and Aaron’s authority in the assembly of God’s chosen people.
Moses response is incredibly informative. Rather than defend His leadership in the sight of the people at the ridiculous accusations that were coming at him. Moses falls facedown on the ground. It is a sign of humility before God and a willingness to allow God to choose who would be the leader of all Israel. God had called Moses to this, He didn’t volunteer for it. In fact, he’d just as soon not have it most days. But He is willing nevertheless to leave God to vindicate his authority rather than defend it himself.
These were men who God had given the privilege of serving Him continuously and yet their jealousy made them question Moses’ authority.
When Moses sends for Dathan ad Abiram, they won’t even meet with him, instead they accuse him of not leading them into the promised land when it was their unbelief as a people that precluded them from that! They construct an alternate narrative of why they didn’t get into the promised. Arrogance has a way of distorting our perspective and justifying our accusations.
God quite miraculously swallows them up in judgment and the fire of God’s holiness consumes the arrogance of the 250 who raise up their face in accusation against Moses and Aaron.
The next day the people blame Aaron and Moses for the judgment of God on the 250 priests. They assemble against Moses and Aaron and they flee toward the tent of meeting. Instantly the cloud of God’s glory covered them as they hid in the tent of meeting. I can picture thousands of men standing there ready to kill Moses and Aaron and they run to the only place they can go, the tent of meeting. The cloud has covered them there…now what?
God is so incensed at their arrogance against Moses and Aaron and really His appointment of them as the people’s leaders that He intends to destroy them all. But once again, It was the prayers of Moses that saves the people from certain destruction. As the plague breaks out on the people, the High Priest, the one whose authority they had questioned, is ordered to stand among the people. He leaves the presence of God in the tent of meeting with the glory of God, and takes the fireman and stands between the dead and living and makes atonement for the people, the very ones questioning his authority, and the plague was halted.
Apply:
What an incredible picture of Jesus! Fast forward a few hundred years and we find a people who had had God’s law, but like these people had rejected it. They had questioned God’s authority over their lives, even though they are God’s chosen people, they were walking in abject rebellion. Even though they would feel the weight of God’s judgment on them because of their sin through the captivity of Babylon and then Rome, they are living in open rebellion thinking that they are holy enough to have relationship with God on their own, they don’t need a Savior, much like this people thought they were holy on their own without Moses and Aaron. They walk in their rebellion.
Even when they hear the message from John the Baptist, they reject it. They hear the warnings of John the Baptist much like this people heard the warnings of Moses and yet they reject it. Had he lived in another time, Korah might have been a Pharisee. When out of the tent of meeting, the glory of God’s presence, steps the High Priest Himself. They will reject His message much like this people rejected Moses. In their arrogance, they will reimagine the narrative rather than face the facts. They are squarely in line with God’s judgment.
But they aren’t the only ones who do this. All of us walk in the arrogance of our own lives and if we aren’t careful we will think we are good enough to be holy too. We will make our own excuses and reconstruct our own narratives of how we got to where we are and mankind will shake our fists at God. God will always defend His name and He will vindicate His anointed. The judgment for our arrogance, like in this story, is the plague of death. Unless one descends from the tent of meeting carrying the presence of God and makes an offering for sin, we will all die.
Thankfully our High Priest did leave the tent of meeting, the presence of God and did descend among the dying people from the plague of our arrogance. And after adding incense (which is always representative of prayer) in the garden of Gethsemane stands among the people, literally between the dead and the living and offers atonement for our arrogance and the plague of death that follows it.
Our lives have been spared and the plague is halted in our lives not because we were such good people able to be made holy on our own because we think we are good enough. That leads to the plague of death, but only through the worth of the High Priest who descended from the tent of meeting, the tabernacle of heaven, and offers atonement for our rebellion. Only through this sacrifice can we be spared.
Respond:
Jesus thank You for being the merciful High Priest who at the request of the Father (like Moses whose authority had been questioned) descends from the tent of meeting to offer atonement. Thank You for stepping between the dead and the living. Though we deserve the plague of death, Your intercession and pleading spared us. Your atonement and sacrifice forgave our rebellion and saved us from the wrath we deserved.
