It would have been inspiring and amazing to see the consecration
of Aaron as described in Leviticus 8.
Aaron, who made the mistake of the golden calf and the mistake of
confronting Moses concerning his Cushite wife in Numbers 12 and asking if God
had spoken only through Moses, was made priest over the nation by the Lord
Himself. In the drabness of life in the
wilderness, nothing new for so many years, Aaron would have truly stood out as
he stood bedecked in the priestly garments in the splendor of his office, the
man whom God had chosen to represent the people before Him. In spite of his shortcomings and failures,
Aaron was the spiritual leader of the people, the man who, as the writer of
Hebrews saw, could deal gently with sinners because he was himself a sinner, his
sins were well known to them. He was,
however, God's choice for the job.
Jesus knows the future of Jerusalem because of their
rejection of Him and we see God's reaction to that destiny in His weeping over
the city. God's love for His people is
never-ending and it is deep, our names are written on His hands, how can He
forget us? How does it make you feel
that God has a tattoo with your name on it?
He is unafraid of men, teaching every day in the temple, cleaning the
temple so all can approach and hear His teaching. The Pharisees don't know what to do, the
people love Him and hang on His every word.
The scene is interesting, those leaders who would ordinarily be
strutting in the temple now relegated to the shadows plotting against this man
who is no one, has no training and education, but is adored by the people. God Himself is standing before them teaching
His Word to His people and they are jealous.
Sometimes we miss the evidence of our eyes because we prefer
the witness of our ears but they are more easily deceived. Paul says they saw signs and wonders with his
proclamation, a point he made in his first epistle to them, that his message
was accompanied by power. Likewise,
Jesus' words were accompanied by such power in signs and wonders where the
leaders could do nothing. Paul obviously
cares for the Corinthians in the same way that Jesus loved Jerusalem. He is concerned for their spiritual
well-being and that they not be led astray by deceit and false teaching. It seems likely that these super-apostles
were Gnostics, claiming special revelation and in this Paul is superior as well
but such things are not for their salvation.
The knowledge Paul has been given is not his claim to apostleship, but
rather the knowledge of Jesus he was given.
That message was the one that was authenticated by power. He is ready to come back and his fear is that
they have lost their religion and gone into sin such as would be the case with
a dualistic spirit/body Gnosticism.
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