Coney Hill Baptist Church
Demonstrating God’s Love Together
Aaron - Being No 2
Exodus 6:28 – 7:7
28 Now when the LORD spoke to Moses in
30 But Moses said to the LORD, "Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?"
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in
6 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Numbers 12:1-9
1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 "Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the LORD heard this.
3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
4 At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came out. 5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, 6 he said, "Listen to my words:
"When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?"
9 The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them.
Intro:
There are few greater characters in the Bible than Moses. He towers over the opening 5 books as the great leader, the key figure, dominating the action. Not only that but spiritually too he has a relationship with God that is powerful and personal, unique at the time – he is often held up as the archetype, the one to be admired and emulated.
So it’s good to remember perhaps, that he had a fundamental flaw. Not only was he not perfect, he had a basic problem. From the very beginning he was inadequate, he couldn’t do it alone. To his credit he knew that himself, but God was under no illusions either. Moses needed Aaron, Aaron made up for Moses deficiencies, Aaron completed the picture. Aaron was quite a big deal. He had great ability, real significance, a vital role – even though he wasn’t Moses.
Aaron was 3 years older than Moses, and he was clever. He could talk, win arguments, persuade people, and yet his younger brother had something he didn’t. An indefinable quality - charisma if you like, that and his exotic background and expensive education meant he was always the one people noticed. How annoying must that have been!
Aaron’s Vital Role…
Aaron was one of history’s great number 2’s. That can sound like damning with faint praise but it’s crucial. (Peter Taylor/Brian Clough) He had a talent, a gift, but he would often go unnoticed, others would get the credit and often the reward – even for work he’d done.
What mattered though, wasn’t the increase of his recognition, but that the job got done. God’s heart, in the Exodus as now, was for justice, freedom and the recognition that He is Lord. In New Testament terms it’s the building of His Kingdom. Today it’s about serving to establish a life, a society, a world, that throbs with His heart, His priorities and His love. In that task He recruits willing volunteers, fellow builders if you like, co-workers, the Bible calls them, people like you and me. He calls us, each of us because we have a part to play, a task only we can fulfil. He doesn’t promise us recognition, or even success, not all our aspirations will be fulfilled – others might seem to be preferred, or, at least more respected or recognised, but that in no way detracts from the vital role, the crucial task, that is exclusively ours, and for which we are uniquely fitted.
To celebrate Aaron then, and our similarities to him, is wise. But it’s difficult, because we share…
Aaron’s Basic Problem…
When being number 2 is never enough. ‘Has the Lord only spoken through Moses?’ (v.2) Essentially, we want to consistently ask, with Aaron, what about me?
Moses great virtue was his humility (v.3) it was that which set him apart and brought him close to God – a Jesus-like characteristic. (It’s extraordinary how this should be, possibly, the most significant attribute to emerge from the incarnation.)
Neither, Moses nor Aaron made it to the promised land. That was denied them both for what seemed like a trivial matter. But they were only ever ambassadors – witness to the truth it wasn’t about them. Even their destination wasn’t the crucial thing, it was the manner of their travelling, the constant knowledge that it was God not them, either of them, who this was about.
Conclusion: The Aaron in us all…
Tempted to deny our significance, whilst, at the same time, keen to bolster our pride. Aaron is a warning to get the balance right and to serve God for God’s sake.
Office Address:
Coney Hill Road
West Wickham
Kent
BR4 9BU