κατά Ιουδαίων - ηʹ

We can also learn from other sources...

how awesome was the dignity of the priesthood.

Indeed, there was a day, when some wicked and evil men revolted against Aaron, quarreled with him over his position in the community, and tried to drive him from his leadership... Moses, the mildest of men, wanted to persuade them by the facts themselves, that he had not brought Aaron to the leadership because he was a brother, relative, or member of his family, but that it was in obedience to God's decree that he had entrusted the priesthood to him.

So he ordered each tribe to bring a staff, and Aaron was instructed to do the same. When each tribe had brought a staff, Moses took all of them, and put them inside the meeting tent. Once he had put them there, he gave orders that they await the decision of God, which would come to them through those staves.

Then all the other staves kept their same appearance, but a single one - Aaron's - blossomed and put forth leaves and fruit. So the Lord of nature used leaves instead of letters, to teach them that he had again elected Aaron.

God said in the beginning: "Let the earth bring forth vegetation," and he stirred up its power to bear fruit. In Aaron's day, he also took that dry and fruitless wood, and made it blossom without earth or root.

That staff was thereafter a proof and witness both of the wickedness of those men and of God's choice. It uttered no word, but the very sight of it, in tones clearer than any trumpet's call, urged every man never to attempt such things as did Aaron's foes.

Not only in this case...

but at another time and in another way...

God made clear his choice of Aaron.

Many men conspired against Aaron in their lust for the leadership for which God selected him. - and leadership is the kind of thing many men fight over and desire... Moses ordered them to bring their censers, put incense in them, and to wait for a decision from heaven. As they were burning their incense, the earth split apart and gulped down all their supporters, and a flame from heaven consumed those who had taken up their censers.

Moses did not want anyone to forget, with the passage of time, what had happened.

Nor did he want men of a later day to remain ignorant of God's wondrous decision.

Therefore he gave orders, that those bronze censers be picked up, and beaten into plates for the altar. Just as the very sight of the voiceless staff sent forth a voice, so these bronze plates would speak to all men thereafter, to exhort and advise them, never to imitate the madness of those men of old.

For fear that they might suffer...

the same judgment.


~chrysostomus~
against the jews
homily 6