Numbers 20:22-29--The Death of Aaron

Numbers 20:22-29
English Standard Version
​
The Death of Aaron
22 And they journeyed from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. 23 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, 24 “Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor. 26 And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.” 27 Moses did as the Lord commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. 29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had perished, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

---

The exact location of Mount Hor remains a mystery, and probably a good thing given what we're going to talk about for the rest of the story here.  God calls to Moses and Aaron and speaks to them at Mount Hor (somewhere on that border of Edom is all we know about this place so far) that it Aaron's time is up and it is time for him to, in the sight of all the people, make Aaron's son Eleazar the high priest.  God said the reason that Aaron would not enter into the land was because he too rebelled against the LORD's command at the waters of Meribah, as he was supposed to be there to make sure that Moses did as the LORD commanded, and he did not--he went along with Moses' rebellion.

Eleazer and Aaron are to go up the mountain together and Aron is to take off high priestly garments and is to put them on his son Eleazer and then Aaron would die there on Mount Hor, and this is to happen in full sight of the entire congregation.  There is barely a mention of the death of Miriam, but with the death of Aaron, the people take a whole month to mourn for him (remember though that Eleazer would not be allowed to mourn because the high priest needed to continue in his duties and let the people mourn for him, just like when Aaron wanted to mourn the loss of his two sons who died, but wasn't allowed to).  So then, you can imagine that as I said in the beginning, it is probably a good thing that we don't know the exact location of this mountain as it probably would have become a shrine as the people would have continued to come back to the grave of Aaron who was buried here, but it was not God's plan for the people to cling to Aaron.

The next chapter in the book of Numbers is going to contain another one of those "gospel snapshots" that we see in the Old Testament.  In fact, Jesus will refer to that part of Numbers 21 in John 3 when he talks to Nicodemus.  I recommend that you read John 3, John 6 (see what's the same and what's different about the grumblings of the people there), and Hebrews 3-5 to see how Jesus fulfilled the roles of both Moses and Aaron, but was greater than either of them.  Those passages should help you put this next part of the story of the people's wandering in the wilderness into perspective.