Roads Not Taken
Roads Not Taken
Exodus 7:6-7
Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the LORD commanded them. Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Up till now, I haven’t said a word about Aaron, not because I intentionally overlooked him, but because other aspects of the text struck me more, but this oversight leads me to today’s principle for reflection: every path of insight we follow takes us away from other paths of insight, which is why we should be grateful that God uses all His children, through each particular gift and experience, to reflect the prism of His glory in diverse ways.
A friend of mine named Sandy, who works in computer engineering and has a background in biology, often shares with me insights he’s learning regarding biblical numerology and Creationism, and just last week he opened my eyes to an astronomer’s work on the significance of the Star of David. That same week, my brother who pastors a church in Charlotte, NC, visited for a few days, and filled me in on some of his own insights. He’s been reading a fascinating book on spiritual warfare and described to me the significance of Mt. Herman in ancient mythologies, the ‘mountain of the gods’ as it’s often called, which scholars believe is the same mountain where Christ was transfigured! Conversations like these always get me musing at the way God reflects a little light here and a little there, giving wisdom to the widowed mother of five and to the ascetic on his mountain, to D.L. Moody on the streets of Chicago and to David Livingstone in an African bush, as if the whole Church is a stained-glass window, each strand connected to the other, but each bathing the world in a different reflective hue.
So as I encounter this eighty-three-year old right-hand man name Aaron who stands physically and symbolically at the head of God’s priestly line of mediators, I realize it’s high time I find some commentary or sermon or article from a brother or sister who can help shed light on this hero of faith. But in the meantime, one thing is abundantly clear already: Aaron obeys God wholeheartedly, he speaks God’s words valiantly even in the face of powerful opposition, and we should too.