Aaron

Aaron was Moses’ older brother and served beside him as Israel left Egypt. He later became a priest. He was a son of Amram and Jochebed from the tribe of Levi, and Miriam was their sister. Aaron and his wife Elisheba had four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. When Moses hesitated to return to Egypt because he did not speak well, God said that Aaron could speak and would help him.

God told Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness. Aaron found his brother at the mountain of God and kissed him. Moses explained the words and signs God had entrusted to him. Together they gathered Israel’s elders. Aaron spoke the message and performed the signs before the people. Hearing that God had seen their suffering, the people believed, bowed their heads, and worshiped.

Aaron was eighty-three and Moses was eighty when they spoke to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Their demand that Israel be released to serve God in the wilderness brought harsher labor. Pharaoh withheld straw for brickmaking but required the same number of bricks. Israelite supervisors were beaten and blamed Moses and Aaron. To show the sign God commanded, Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh. It became a serpent. The magicians did the same, but Aaron’s staff swallowed theirs.

The water turned to blood, and plagues of frogs, insects, livestock disease, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness followed. In several scenes Aaron stretched out his staff or hand as God commanded. Pharaoh offered concessions: sacrificing inside Egypt, traveling only a short distance, taking only the men, or leaving the livestock behind. Moses answered that the young and old, sons and daughters, flocks and herds must all go. When relief came, Pharaoh repeatedly reversed his promise to release them.

Before the final plague, God gave Moses and Aaron instructions for Passover. Each household was to prepare a lamb, put its blood on both doorposts and the lintel above them, and eat the meat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. On the night Egypt’s firstborn died, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and told them to leave with the people and their livestock. Israel left Egypt and crossed the sea.

When the people complained about food in the wilderness, Moses and Aaron told them that God had heard. Moses said their complaints were directed against God rather than against himself and Aaron. Later Amalek attacked at Rephidim. Joshua led the fighting while Moses held up his hands on a hill. As Moses tired, Aaron and Hur seated him on a stone and supported his hands until sunset. Aaron later went up Sinai with Moses, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel. They saw God and ate and drank.

At Sinai, God told Moses to appoint Aaron and his sons as priests. Aaron’s garments included an ephod, robe, tunic, turban, sash, and breastplate. Stones on the breastplate represented Israel’s twelve tribes, whose names Aaron would carry over his heart when he entered the holy place. A gold plate on his forehead marked his consecration to the LORD.

Before beginning his priestly service, Aaron took part in making the golden calf. When Moses delayed on the mountain, the people asked for gods to lead them. Aaron collected gold earrings and fashioned a calf with a tool. He built an altar before it and announced a feast to the LORD for the following day. The people sacrificed, ate, drank, and rose to play. When Moses returned and questioned him, Aaron described the people’s demand and said that he had thrown the gold into the fire and the calf came out.

Looking back on the golden-calf episode, Moses says that God was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. Moses recalls that he prayed for Aaron at that time as well.

After the tabernacle, the tent used for worship in the wilderness, was established, Moses consecrated Aaron and his sons before the congregation. He washed them, dressed them in the appointed garments, and poured oil on Aaron’s head. Sin, burnt, and ordination offerings were presented. Aaron and his sons remained at the tent entrance for seven days. On the eighth day Aaron offered sacrifices for himself and the people and raised his hands to bless them. When Moses and Aaron came out of the tent, God’s glory appeared and fire consumed the offering. The people shouted and fell facedown.

Leviticus next recounts the deaths of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu. They offered fire that God had not commanded, and fire from before God killed them. Moses spoke about God’s holiness, and Aaron remained silent. Aaron and his surviving sons were told not to loosen their hair, tear their clothes, or leave the tent. Moses rebuked Eleazar and Ithamar because the sin-offering goat had been burned instead of eaten. Aaron asked whether eating the offering that day, after what he had suffered, would have pleased God. Moses accepted his answer.

After the deaths of Aaron’s sons, God said Aaron must not enter the Most Holy Place, beyond the inner curtain, whenever he wished. An annual day of atonement was appointed for the tenth day of the seventh month. Aaron was to offer a bull for himself and his household before offering a goat for the people. Incense smoke was to cover the mercy seat, the cover of the covenant ark, and blood was sprinkled there. Aaron was also to lay his hands on a living goat, confess Israel’s sins over it, and send it into the wilderness with an appointed person.

Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married. They also asked whether God had spoken only through Moses. God called all three to the tent and explained that he spoke plainly with Moses, unlike the dreams or visions given to other prophets. When the cloud lifted, Miriam’s diseased skin was white as snow. Aaron admitted that he and Miriam had acted foolishly and sinned, and he appealed to Moses for her. Moses prayed for healing. Miriam remained outside the camp for seven days, and the people waited for her return before traveling on.

After hearing the scouts’ report from Canaan, the people proposed choosing a new leader and returning to Egypt. Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the assembly. Joshua and Caleb urged the people not to rebel against God or fear the inhabitants of the land, but the assembly threatened to stone them. When God announced judgment, Moses pleaded for pardon. God said the complaining generation would not enter the promised land and that their children would spend forty years in the wilderness. A group later ignored Moses’ warning, went into the hill country, and was defeated.

Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their company challenged Moses and Aaron’s leadership. When God threatened to destroy the congregation, the brothers fell facedown and pleaded for it to be spared. The day after the rebels were judged, the congregation accused Moses and Aaron of killing God’s people. A plague began. Moses told Aaron to take fire from the altar and incense in a censer, a vessel for burning incense, and hurry to the people. Aaron ran into the assembly and made atonement. When he stood between the dead and the living, the plague stopped.

God told Moses to place the tribal leaders’ staffs in the tent, each marked with its owner’s name. Aaron’s name was written on the staff for Levi. By the next day it had sprouted, blossomed, and produced almonds. God told Moses to keep it as a warning against rebellion and complaints. Aaron and his sons were responsible for the sanctuary and altar and had to prevent unauthorized people from approaching.

At Kadesh the people blamed Moses and Aaron because there was no water. The brothers fell facedown at the tent entrance. God told Moses to gather the people with Aaron and speak to the rock in their sight so that it would give water. They gathered the assembly, but Moses called the people rebels and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water flowed abundantly. God said that both men had failed to trust him and show him as holy before Israel. Neither would lead the congregation into the promised land.

When Israel reached Mount Hor on the border of Edom, God told Moses to take Aaron and Eleazar up the mountain. Because of the disobedience at the waters of Meribah, Aaron would not enter the promised land and would die there. Moses removed Aaron’s priestly garments and put them on Eleazar. Aaron died at the age of one hundred twenty-three, on the first day of the fifth month in the fortieth year after Israel left Egypt. When Moses and Eleazar came down, all Israel mourned Aaron for thirty days.