Then Moses told Aaron, “Grab your fire pan and fill it with hot coals from the altar. Put incense in it, then quickly take it to where the people are and offer it to the LORD, so they can be forgiven. The LORD is very angry, and people have already started dying!” Aaron did exactly what he had been told. He ran over to the crowd of people and stood between the dead bodies and the people who were still alive. He placed the incense on the pan, then offered it to the LORD and asked him to forgive the people’s sin. The disease immediately stopped spreading, and no one else died from it. -Numbers 16:46-48
I don’t think I could have been so generous or forgiving. Had I been in Moses’ and Aaron’s sandals that day, I wonder if I would have just stood aside and watched God’s wrath leap out against those complaining, ungrateful sources of irritation. But stand he did and he saved lives that day.
We are all in need of those who will stand in the gap for us. Family has done it – paid off bills and provided a haven in which to rest. Friends have stood – believing in us when the whole world believed the very worst. And Jesus…thank the Father for the Son Who Stood – and stands today – in the gap for us, interceding and pleading for us in front of the throne of God.
