Standing between the Dead and the Living
Meditation for the week of February 27, 2011
Numbers 16:47-48 Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.
Recently after breakfast, as I often do, I opened up the home page of our local newspaper using the internet. There was a breaking news item telling about a fire that had broken out on the east side of town. A passerby who was from out of town and who is being called a hero saw the fire and called 911. He then helped a seventeen year old out of the house. The mother was on the second floor and was calling for help to get the seventeen year old out. When the person who saw the fire went back for the mother, the house was engulfed in flames and the mother lost her life.
I am sure that family had not planned for the day to turn out that way. But what I really wondered is, “Did anyone love them enough to share the love of God with them?” Were they prepared for what happened?
In a sense a person who shares the Gospel stands between the “dead and the living” and tries to save people from the judgment of God that is going to fall on unbelievers. He tries to spare people from an eternal separation from God. We are dead IN sins (Ephesians 2:1) when we are born the first time. That just means that sin has separated us from God and we have no “connection” with God, that is, no relationship with Him. We walk the way an unsaved society walks. But when we hear the Gospel, we who respond to it and who trust the Lord who died for us, are born again. We are given a new life in Christ. We are now dead TO sin where sin is our old master (Romans 6:2). But being dead to sin, makes us alive to Christ. Sin, the old master, no longer masters us and we live now to enjoy a new life in Christ. In addition, we who were headed to the second death (Revelation 20:14), are now headed to a life with the Lord in that city where never comes night (Revelation 21:5).
Moses was a great intercessor. He prayed for the people of Israel when they rebelled against God and when they rebelled against him. He kept the judgment of God from falling on them on more than one occasion. He stood in a sense between the dead and the living. I am sure that it would have been easy to see the rebellious Israelites as worthless and unappreciative and to have given up on them. Even though Moses got angry, he never ceased loving and interceding for those who sinned. On the occasion mentioned above, a plague was stopped and people were saved because Aaron was able to stand between the dead and the living according to Moses’ instructions.
I wonder if we realize that we who share and preach the Gospel are really standing between the dead (those who are in rebellion against God) and the living (those who are saved). It is a solemn responsibility to realize that we have the massage that saves and that Satan has the message that kills and destroys and that we who are saved are trying to stop the judgment that sinners deserves. According to John 5:24, when a person trusts Christ, that person passes from death unto life.
Being a doctor and curing a disease must be great. Being a life guard and saving a drowning victim must be really satisfying. These people are standing between the dead and the living. But to preach the Gospel and to see souls delivered from a spiritual death that is eternal, is the greatest responsibility that mortal man can have. Someone met a physical need to stand between the dead and the living for a seventeen year old this week. I hope somebody, met that same spiritual need for this family that experienced such an unexpected tragedy.
Bruce Collins