I gotta have my orange juice.

The death of a high priest is significant.

Sometimes it is significant because it is a sign of judgment: “Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, ‘The glory has departed from Israel!’” (1 Sam 4:21) But it is always significant in that it releases those who are in prison into a new situation, for better or worse: “After the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.” (Num 35:28) This is true in the greatest sense in Jesus; his death inaugurates a new epoch where those who are slaves of sin are given freedom and a future. You can see a more ordinary example of this in the death of Aaron; in a sense his death sets Israel free from the wilderness and makes it possible for them to conquer the promised land (Num 33).

There is a way in which this is true of all men, whether they be fathers or teachers or pastors; and even if they have planned for their succession with the utmost wisdom and faithfulness. The death of such a man releases a community from an obligation into a kind of freedom, but it also creates a new obligation and responsibility for that community to wrestle with the new future that is facing them. When you suffer the death of such a man, consider what old obligation you are released from, and what new opportunity you must give thanks for; and set your energies toward it.