Moses' brother Aaron helped lead the nation of Israel. This morning I was struck with the highest point and the lowest point of his life, only a short time apart, and how great his fall actually was.
Aaron's highest point had to be the account recorded in Exodus 24. "Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank" (24:9-11, emphasis mine). Imagine that--they SAW the God of Israel and ate and drank in His presence! That is an honor that only a few people have ever had.
Then we have a number of chapters in which the Lord gives the Ten Commandments to Moses, along with clear instructions for the building of the tabernacle. If I'm reading Exodus 24:15-18 correctly, after Aaron returned to the people, Moses was on the mountain another 46 days.
During that month and a half, the people of Israel convinced Aaron to build a new god, representative of one of the gods of Egypt. Worse, Aaron led in sacrifices and worship to this god in place of the true God of Israel. We read about all of this in Exodus 32:1-20.
Still more, when Moses confronted Aaron about his sins, Aaron both lied and tried to minimize the sins he had committed (Exodus 32:21-24). He even said that the calf just magically popped out of the fire when he threw in the gold jewelry brought by the people (see Exodus 32:24)!
Aaron went from being in the very presence of God to worshiping a golden image (and lying about it) in just a few weeks' time! How high was Aaron's high, and how low was his low!
Reading things like this makes me all the more determined to be ever-vigilant to follow Christ closely EVERY DAY. I--you--we are all quite capable of committing horrible sins that dishonor our Lord. Even when we have followed Him closely and experienced His work deeply in our lives, our sinful hearts can deceive us and cloud our memory and lead us into any of a number of sins. Our enemy, the devil, would love nothing more than to cause God's children to fall into grievous sin. First Peter 5:8-9 tells us, "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." The devil wants to pull us away from God, but we can effectively resist him as we stand firm in our faith.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, please join me in being faithful to God and watchful against any sin that could dishonor our Lord. Where we might have a particular weakness for one sin or another, let us be extra-vigilant. Let's not make the kinds of mistakes Aaron did, nor commit even smaller sins. Rather, let us stay faithful to our Lord every moment of every day.
Lord, please grant myself and every reader the grace to do this. Amen.
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