Take a censer, &c.— Incense could regularly be offered no where but at the golden altar, within the sanctuary: but now, in this extraordinary case, Aaron is sent with it unto the camp; that so, the plague being stopped upon his offering incense, and making intercession for the people, they might have a new and convincing testimony of the authority of his ministry. Accordingly, getting intelligence in what part of the camp the plague raged, Aaron situated himself, Numbers 16:48 between the infected and the sound quarters of it; and upon his offering, and praying, it stayed, and went no farther. Thus, to use the words of St. Jerome, the anger of God, poured forth with rapidity, was arrested by the prayers of the high priest. In this, Aaron was a remarkable type of the happy effects of the intercession of our great high priest Jesus Christ, Revelation 8:3. If Aaron's sacrifice was thus accepted, says Bishop Hall, how much more shall the high-priest of the New Testament, by interposing himself to the wrath of his Father, deliver offenders from death? The plague had entered upon all the sons of men: O Saviour! thou stoodest between the living and the dead, that all who believe in thee should not perish. Aaron offered, and was not stricken; but thou, O Redeemer, wouldest offer and be struck, that by thy stripes we might be healed. So stoodest thou betwixt the living and the dead, that thou wert both alive and dead; and all this, that we, when we were dead, might live for ever.
Related Commentaries of Numbers 16:46
Numbers 16:46
46 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun.