I. The first and most superficial aspect of death is that it is the close of an earthly career. There could be no question as to the prominence of Aaron's career. (1) In the great work of leading the children of Israel out of Egypt to the confines of the Promised Land Aaron is only second to Moses. (2) Aaron was the first high-priest of the chosen people. His consecration was of itself calculated to awe the minds of Israel, and it was followed by high sanctions of his office, which must have done so still more.
II. Aaron was morally a weak man. He had no such grasp of principle as would enable him to hold out against strong pressure. His weakness became conspicuous on the critical occasion of Moses going up to Sinai to receive the sacred law. Aaron was left below in virtual command, in a position of responsibility for which, as the event proved, he was not fitted. The Greeks had a proverb that leadership will show what a man really is, and so it was with Aaron. His weakness is implied in the allusion in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "for that he himself also was compassed with infirmity."
III. Nothing is more noticeable in the account of Aaron's death than his deliberate preparation for it. He did not let death come on him; he went to meet it. There was a twofold motive in the act of Moses in stripping Aaron of his garments. (1) It showed that the office of the high-priesthood did not depend on the life of any single man, and (2) it reminded Aaron personally of the solemn truth of the utter solitariness of the soul in death.
IV. The phrase of Moses, "Aaron was gathered to his people," seems to point to a world in which the bygone generations of men still live, a world of the existence of which God's ancient people were well assured, though they knew much less of it than we.
H. P. Liddon, The Family Churchman,April 27th, 1887.
References: Numbers 20:28. C. J. Vaughan, Sunday Magazine,1873, p. 169. Numbers 20:29. Parker, vol. iii., p. 267. Numbers 20; Numbers 21 J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era,p. 285.Numbers 21:4. J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 187; Parker, vol. iii., p. 276. Numbers 21:4; Numbers 21:5. F. Strutt, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xvi., p. 161.Numbers 21:4; Numbers 21:9. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiv., p. 156; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxix., No. 1722.Numbers 21:5. Bishop Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the Old Testament,p. 14.Numbers 21:5-9. Parker, vol. iii., p. 287. Numbers 21:8. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 285.