Numbers 33:38-56 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

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No Compromise with Idolatry

Numbers 33:38-56

Aaron's death must have been deeply felt by his brother Moses. During the great crisis of Hebrew history they had been so closely associated that the wrench must have been very considerable. In addition, there was the recollection of the sin which had excluded the two brothers from Canaan. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the death of Aaron is recorded to set forth the eternal priesthood of Christ, Hebrews 7:17. Our High Priest has no successor; His office cannot be passed to another. It is not after Aaron, but Melchizedek.

The last paragraph, Numbers 33:50-56, is especially impressive. There must be no complicity with evil; for if there be, it will eat out the very heart of our character and happiness. It is much better to root out evil with a strong hand than to suffer it in any form, for, like the boomerang of the savage, our sinful permissions will come back on ourselves.

Related Commentaries of Numbers 33:38

Numbers 33:38-56

38 And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the LORD, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month.

39 And Aaron was an hundred and twenty and three years old when he died in mount Hor.

40 And king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.

41 And they departed from mount Hor, and pitched in Zalmonah.

42 And they departed from Zalmonah, and pitched in Punon.

43 And they departed from Punon, and pitched in Oboth.

44 And they departed from Oboth, and pitched in Ijeabarim,b in the border of Moab.

45 And they departed from Iim, and pitched in Dibongad.

46 And they removed from Dibongad, and encamped in Almondiblathaim.

47 And they removed from Almondiblathaim, and pitched in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.

48 And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

49 And they pitched by Jordan, from Bethjesimoth even unto Abelshittimc in the plains of Moab.

50 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

51 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;

52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

53 And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.

54 And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the mored inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.

55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.

56 Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.