And Moses said to Aaron, take your censer, and put fire in it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the LORD; the plague has begun — Moses' command to Aaron in the midst of the plague is an act of urgent intercessory improvisation, deploying the incense-censer that was the instrument of Korah's destruction as the means of averting the destruction now threatening the survivors. The very object that marked the illegitimate incense-offering of the 250 men (Numbers 16:17) is now employed by the legitimate high priest to make atonement — the same ritual act that destroyed the rebels now saves the congregation. The command to carry it quickly communicates the emergency: the plague is not merely threatened but has begun, people are dying, and only the high priest's atoning action can interrupt the divine judgment. Moses as director and Aaron as executor of the atonement demonstrates the collaborative character of the priestly and prophetic offices even in crisis.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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