Numbers 16 - 17

Numbers — Steve Gregg

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Numbers 18 - 20

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Numbers 16 - 17

NumbersSteve Gregg

Numbers 16-17 explores the rebellion against Moses and Aaron led by Korah and his company. Despite the numerous signs and wonders God had shown the Israelites, some still chose to disregard His authority. The rebellion is a reminder that true spiritual leadership cannot be equated with institutional leadership, and that God had chosen Moses and Aaron as visible tokens of His approval. God's judgment swiftly falls upon the rebels, but a memorial with Aaron's rod serves as a lasting proof of his household's position.

Transcript

Let's turn to Numbers chapter 16 where we find, well, another rebellion. What do you expect? We had the rebellion of the whole nation against Moses, against God, in chapter, really, 13 and 14, where the spies had gone into the land and they had brought back an evil report. All that is except for the two spies, Joshua and Caleb, who made, of course, a name for themselves inadvertently.

I mean, they didn't know they were doing so, but they had become the famous ones, the other spies who remembers any of their names. They didn't last long anyway because God killed them because they stirred up the children of Israel to rebellion and the children of Israel refused to enter the promised land. And that was because of their lack of faith.

That's very clear. God said, how long will you people not believe me? And that is what the book of Hebrews tells us, that they failed to enter in because of their unbelief. And so God has always justified people by faith, not just in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament as well.

Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And so these people were not justified. They were faithless and God judged them.

He said they'd all fall dead in the wilderness and their children, who were all under 20 years old at that time, would enter the promised land. And so they turned back away from the land they had actually been at the border of the land they could have gone in had they had the faith, but they did not. So God turned them back and they began to wander for another 38 years.

Somewhere between chapter 14 and chapter 20. In those chapters somewhere there was a passage of 38 years. Only a few incidents are recorded and they are not given any specific chronological placement in the narrative.

So we don't know if the for example, the rebellion of Korah that we'll read about in chapter 16. We don't know if that happened early or late in those 38 years. And likewise, the incident with the serpents.

And it's not entirely clear whether that happened early or late. Actually, I take that back. The one with the serpents did happen late.

I take that back. But the one with the with Korah. And some of the other grumbling that we read about happened sometime during the 38 years.

And it was by the time we come to chapter 20, we're in the 40th year. In chapter 14, we were in the second year of their wanderings. And now in chapter when we get as far as chapter 20, which we are not there yet today, they will be in the 40th year.

So 38 years transpired between these two segments. The part we've read and the part we will encounter in chapter 20. We're now in the middle of that section.

We don't know exactly what the chronology of this is, except that it falls sometime within that time frame. It says in verse 16, verse one. Now, Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, obviously a cousin of Moses.

The son of Levi with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab and On, the son of Peleth, who were sons of Reuben, took men and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel. Two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. They gathered together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, you take too much upon yourselves for all the congregation is holy.

Every one of them and Yahweh is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the congregation of Yahweh? So when Moses heard it, he fell on his face and he spoke to Korah and all his company saying tomorrow morning Yahweh will show who is his and who is holy and will cause him to come near to him. That one whom he chooses, he will cause to come near to him.

Do this. Take censors. That the incense burning censors, Korah and all of your company put fire in them and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow.

And it shall be that the man to whom the Lord, the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi. Then Moses said to Korah here now, you sons of Levi.

Is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself to do the work of the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to serve them and that he has brought you near to himself. You and all your brethren, the sons of Levi with you. And are you seeking the priesthood also? Therefore, you and all your company are gathered together against Yahweh.

And what is Aaron that you murmur against him? And Moses sent to date and in a Byron, the sons of Eliab. But they said, we will not come up. Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness that you should keep acting like a prince over us? Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards.

Will you put our eyes? Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up. Now, I read that far so you could hear the words of Dathan and Byron also, because their concerns are different than those of Korah. We have two different factions here.

Both of them are together criticizing Moses and Aaron. The one faction, the Levites under Korah. Who, as I said, is a course of a first cousin of both Moses and Aaron.

He is leading a rebellion against Aaron, primarily Moses and Aaron, but primarily Aaron, because Aaron is the priest. And these guys think they should be able to be priests to and notice when Moses addresses him in verse 11, what is Aaron that you murmur against him? Primarily, their murmuring was against the priest, not against Moses himself. Although the fact that Moses stood with Aaron and Aaron and Moses were a team would have made Moses equally an object of their criticism.

Dathan and Byron, however, were not Levites. They weren't interested in being priests. They were not ambitious for that.

They were Reubenites. And yet they were their complaint was against Moses. They said of Moses, you know, you brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in this wilderness.

Verse 13. Now, when it says you brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, it sounds as if they mean Egypt because Moses had brought them up out of Egypt. And if they are referring to Egypt as a land flowing with milk and honey, it's rather strange since they were slaves there and they and and previously Egypt has not been described that way.

Obviously, Canaan is the land that is described that way throughout the scripture. So they may not be saying you brought us out of Egypt, which, of course, he did, but that you brought us back away from the land of milk and honey, which we were on the verge of going into. Actually, a few of us went into it.

Some of our number went into the land of milk and honey and came back and we could have all gone in there. You've taken us out of there and taken us back out in the wilderness to die. It's kind of a strange complaint against Moses, since God is the one who's doing all of this.

And the interesting thing is how. How dull. These rebels are when they can actually see the pillar of cloud on a daily basis in the pillar of fire at night, they can hear the audible voice of God from time to time, they see the glory of the Lord appearing at the tabernacle, they see judgments from God.

They had even seen the Red Sea open. They had seen God act, and yet they're so forgetful. What they're mindful of is their daily circumstance.

What they're mindful of is the food they're eating, which is manna and the hardship they're living under, the weather, the dryness of the region and so forth, rather than the land of milk and honey. Now, anyone could find that taxing. Anyone could find that trying to be long term, especially if you know you're going to die out there in the wilderness, not going to go into the land to know your circumstances are not going to get any better.

Anyone could find that vexing, of course, but. But really, what's what's the good of complaining to Moses about it? Moses has no control over God and that they would have such visible evidence of God's presence and of God's guidance of them. It just seems so bizarre that they would turn against Moses.

And yet, bizarre as it seems, it's quite human. It's quite common among humans to do that. Every Christian who backslides, well, I shouldn't say every Christian who backslides because there probably are some who backslide quite quickly after their conversion before they've seen much of the works of God.

But any Christian has been a Christian for any period of time, has had prayers answered, has had transformation in their life, has heard testimonies of friends and seen transformations in their lives, has experienced something of the presence of God. And yet when they turn from God, they just choose to forget those things or ignore all those things. Why is it? Because they really don't believe them anymore.

I don't know. I'm not sure why people backslide. Never quite understood it.

I don't know how you can turn against what you know to be true. But there are people who choose not to pay attention to God because their physical circumstances are more their concern. You know, being a Christian presents some hardships.

What people don't seem to realize is that not being a Christian also presents hardships. It's not as if life in the world is easy when you're not a Christian. In fact, in the trials I've been through, I've always wondered how in the world I would ever have endured them if I had not been a Christian.

I can't even imagine how a person without God makes it through their trials. But I guess I don't have to imagine because I know I've seen how some of them make it. They get drunk and they get depressed and they go to psychiatrists and their life is messed up.

Their relations get messed up. Their moods get messed up. They get bitter and so forth.

But with God, there are hardships. But when you've got the consolation of the Holy Spirit, you've got God's presence in your life. I don't really understand how anyone could think life would be better away from God, especially after they have seen him.

Now, these people, their rebellion is really not ostensibly against God because they say all the people are holy to the Lord. We're all the Lord's people. But against God's choice of leaders, in this case, Aaron among the priests and Moses, who keeps acting like a prince over them.

So, Dathan and Abiram, who were not happy with this. Now, earlier in verse one, we're told that Dathan and Abiram had a friend with them named On, the son of Pelleth, and they were all sons of Reuben. We don't read of On anymore here.

Jewish tradition holds that his wife persuaded him to come back over to Moses side after this confrontation and that he didn't. That's why he didn't perish with the rest of them. And we don't read of his further rebellion.

I don't know where the Jewish tradition arose, but I guess they had to explain somehow why he is mentioned as involved with him in verse one, but not apparently involved with him thereafter. But it is possible, of course, that he did see the light. But when they say that Moses and Aaron take too much upon themselves in verse three.

This is such an evil accusation. Moses, we don't know how reluctant Aaron may have been, but Moses was extremely reluctant to take the position that God gave him and on occasion asked to be dismissed from it. He didn't take it on himself, and he even complained to God that God chose him for this burden to bear.

Furthermore, in verse 15, he says to the Lord, do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, nor have I hurt one of them. Notice I have not used my position of power to oppress them, to take their stuff.

You know, I've just been I've served God with nothing but pure motives. They can't point to anything I've done that was an abuse of my position or my authority or was harmful to them. And that is often how it is.

I mean, there are leaders who do things wrong and when they do things wrong, they deserve to be criticized, corrected, maybe even brought to discipline. But when you know, when leaders don't do anything wrong, when they're actually doing what they should be doing, they often will receive criticism just from rebels who resent the fact that somebody else has the prominence and not them. We see Moses response, first of all, to to Korah.

His first response in verse four is he fell on his face. And we find that that's pretty much how Moses and Aaron tend to respond. When people are showing their rebellion, they tend to fall on their faces, and that is what we find, for example, in chapter 14.

In verse five, when the people said, select a leader and return to Egypt, says Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly here. Moses falls on his face again, and we're going to find him doing it from time to time in the future. Just about every time the people rebel, that happens again.

It happens again in chapter 16, verse 22. And frankly, repeatedly in the in the rest of some of these chapters and falling on his face is no doubt an expression of his total submission to the will of God and prayer to God. It's like he's not defending himself.

He's the humblest of all the men that walk on the face of the earth when he's accused. He just prostrates himself before God. And a lot of times it's not because he's accused.

It's because he realizes the people are in great danger. They're saying such blasphemous things that he needs to immediately go to prayer for them. And we see that in several cases in the chapters before us that the people express tremendous evil and rebellion.

And what happens is Moses and Aaron get on their faces and they pray and they intercede for the people that God won't judge them. Moses and Aaron seem to realize when the people are treading on thin ice and they they just go to prayer immediately and supplicate before God for the people. And so when Moses answers them.

In verse 16, I mean, chapter 16, verse seven. He says, listen, here's we'll let we'll let the Lord decide whether we're taking too much on ourselves or not. You and your 250 men.

Now, these 250 men that were with them were leaders of the congregation and representatives of the congregation, men of renown. These were important, influential people. This is this is an important rebellion.

This could this is dangerous. These had influential people against the leader. And he says, take those 250 men, put incense censors out and bring them to the tabernacle barn.

Well, let's see what God does and he'll show who his chosen priest is. And he turns back their words on themselves at the end of verse seven. He says, you take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi.

The fact is that Moses and Aaron didn't take anything upon themselves. God put it upon them. And he says that also in verse 11, he says, therefore, you and all your company are gathered together against the Lord, not against us.

We didn't make these decisions. The Lord did. What is there in that you murmur against him? So you guys are the ones who are taking something on yourselves.

God has not given Korah and the other Levites the priesthood, and therefore they're trying to gain that for themselves. And that's something they're trying to seize by their own ambition. And Moses says to them, because they are Levites in verse nine, is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel? To bring you near to himself, to do the work of the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to serve him.

And then he has brought you near to himself, you and all your brethren, the sons of Levi. And do you seek the priesthood also? Now, the priesthood, of course, here corresponds with reference to any analogy to the church. Of course, the church is a kingdom of priests.

But in this particular connection, the church would be more like the Levites. Every Christian is like a Levite. God has chosen us from among the nations to have the privilege that the nations do not have to come before him in the name of Jesus, to actually have access to him, be seated in heavenly places with him, to stand before the world and represent God.

Although, of course, the world doesn't always appreciate the fact that we do so. It is a privilege to be God's messengers, to be God's representatives in the world. That is something that God has given us, but he has not given other nations, not given other religions, not given to people who are not the followers of Christ.

And yet not all of us are the leaders of the group. I mean, God does put leadership gifts upon some people and not others. And frankly, I have known some people who wanted those leadership gifts but did not have them.

People like Korah, the book of Jude talks about people like that. There were people in the church known to Jude who apparently were against the leadership of the church also. And we're parallel in their rebellion.

To Korah, because it says in verse 10, Jude, verse 10 and 11, these speak evil of whatever they do not know and what they know naturally, like brute beasts and these things, they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. They have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

Now, one thing we know about these people, the Jews talk about verse eight, is that likewise, these dreamers defile the flesh and reject authority and speak evil of dignitaries. So dignitaries in the Greek is simply the word glories. But Paul sometimes spoke about his companions as the glory of Yahweh or the glory of God.

And these glories apparently are the dignitaries or the spiritual leaders. And the churches now remember, my position is that spiritual leadership is not the same thing as institutional leadership. I believe a person might hold an office in an organization called a church and himself not be a spiritual leader at all.

In fact, the whole organization might not be a church as far as God is concerned, any more than any two Christians gathering at a restaurant to talk about the things of God. For two or more gathered Jesus is there. And, you know, any organization that has two or more Christians gathered, I suppose, is an expression of the church.

But in many cases, the persons in that assembly are who are not Christians may outnumber those who are. Therefore, the organization itself is not a church, as it is sometimes called simply by the manner of speaking of modern times. And therefore, an organization that might not even be a godly organization as far as God is concerned.

It may have leaders who are not at all ordained of God to be spiritual leaders, or there can be a church that is a godly organization. And that is a good example of church. But it also can have leaders that are not spiritual leaders if they appoint them.

Because an org what we call a church today is an organization organized by man. That doesn't mean God can't be present there, God can't bless it or that God can't honor it or that God can't recognize it. He can.

But the truth of the matter is, every organized church was organized by people, by humans. And either those people were guided by God to do it or they were guided by some other influence, some desire to start an organization or some whatever. A lot of denominations probably got started out of rebellion against existing churches that already were there.

And someone didn't like the leadership, and so they just went off and started their own group, their own rebel movement, and then they became institutionalized. And now they're called churches, too. But they were begun in rebellion.

There are movements that were begun in rebellion, and yet they have now become institutionalized as churches. Now, I'm not saying there's not true Christians in it, what I'm saying is it's a mistake to think that because some organization is called a church, that God recognizes it as his chosen body to bear witness to him in that community. There might be some true Christians in it.

But just because there's an organization and they have bylaws by which they can elect leaders and they can raise up men to be leaders, it doesn't mean that those men are raised up by God. Or that they are leaders in a spiritual sense. They hold an office, a political office in an organization that men organize.

Now, again, I'm not trying to by that observation rule out the legitimacy of every church. I'm saying there's only some when we every church has this in common. They were organized by people.

The question of whether God led those people or whether something else with them is another question, I guess, would have to be determined case by case. But what I'm saying is the fact that those organizations that people have organized have also organized a way to raise up leaders, usually by election through a general election of the people, does not prove anything about the spiritual nature of the leadership of those people. So I do not equate spiritual leadership necessarily with institutional leadership.

And the group is a happy group and a good group if all of its institutional leaders are also spiritual leaders. And that can be true. I've been in churches, I would say all the elders there I knew were spiritual men and seemed to have true spiritual leadership.

I've seen that. So I'm not eliminating that as a possibility. God give us more of those.

But what I'm saying is that spiritual leadership is defined differently than institutional leadership. It so happens that Moses and Aaron were both spiritual leaders appointed by God and institutional leaders. The institution of the tabernacle, God had set that God had instituted it.

The institution of the nation of Israel, God had instituted it. And Moses and Aaron were truly the spiritual leaders there. But the parallels in the church would not be quite the same.

And that is why I think it's such a mistake for people to use the example of Korah's rebellion or even the statements elsewhere in Scripture that touched not the Lord's anointed and to apply them to every pastor or every spiritual leader in every church. Because these statements in Scripture. These examples in Scripture presuppose that the men in question were raised up by God.

And that they are the Lord's anointed. Even Saul, King Saul, though he went bad, was the Lord's anointed. And when someone is the Lord's anointed, when they really are spiritual leaders, when the Spirit of God has given them leadership gifts and their spiritual lives, their witness to that and so forth.

Well, then it would be a very bad thing to rebel against them, not because of them, but because of God. God was the one who stood behind Moses's authority here. And insofar as God stands behind the authority of any man.

It is a mistake and an evil to rebel or to criticize that man, you know, simply because you resent his authority. Of course, no man is above criticism. Even Moses did something wrong and was excluded from going to the promised land.

So, I mean, there even godly men should be criticized. Jesus criticized Peter when Peter said the wrong thing. And even Paul criticized Peter in Antioch, according to Galatians, Chapter two.

So I'm not saying that a real leader is above criticism. But these people were not criticizing Moses for anything he had done. They're criticizing because they resented his authority and they resented Aaron's position.

It was not that they were saying these men have been abusing their authority. It was that they're saying they shouldn't be the ones who are in authority. We should be in authority as much as them.

Who are they? That we should be following them. We're Levites. We are God's holy people, too.

Why should we have to listen to them? Miriam and Aaron had made the mistake, the same mistake in criticizing Moses earlier. And so those that Jude is talking about are the ones who despise, they reject authority, meaning true authorities. In the early church, they didn't have the same kind of institutional ideas that we have about church.

For example, you couldn't just go start a church on the next corner when there was already a church in town. There's only one church in every town. If you start a second church, then you're causing division.

There's only one true church in every town in the days of the apostles, and that was the church started by the apostles. The apostle come to town, started church, raise up leaders, leave. And anyone who got saved in the town was part of that church and not another one because there's only one body.

We now have an entirely different system where you can go into a town that already has 20 or 100 churches and you can just start another church if you want to. And eventually there'll be 101 churches there. And, you know, in starting your church, you can raise up your own leadership structure, your own political structure and ignore the leaders of other churches because that's not your church.

You're in this church. They're in that church on the next corner. That concept was inconceivable in the early church.

It began to develop in Corinth, but Paul was aghast and nipped it in the bud when the Corinthians were saying, I'm a Paul or I'm a Cephas or I'm of Apollos. Paul said, is Christ divided? He couldn't even understand the mentality. How can you think that some Christians can be of this group and some of that group and some of that group when we're talking about Christ here, whatever the body of Christ, Christ isn't divided.

How do you think like that? But because we do think that way still or again or now, because that is how the church thinks. It thinks the way that Paul could not conceive of people thinking. It's the church now almost universally thinks the way that Paul said the Corinthians were carnal and babes for thinking that way.

But because that is the mentality, we have to remember that just because there's a body over here that calls himself a Christian church and they have certain leaders, I don't care if it's a body of 50 people or 30 people or 5000 people. It doesn't matter how big it is. It's an organization that some men decided to start at some point.

Under God's leadership or not, that has to be that that has to be decided case by case. But in the days of Jude, the leaders in the church were the leaders in the only church. There was only one church in their town and the leaders there were the ones the apostles appointed and they were appointed on the basis of their spiritual qualifications.

And they were true spiritual authorities. A little harder, a little harder for us today, I think, to determine who the true spiritual authorities are, because you can't judge just by the fact that they hold an office of leadership in an organization. You can't be sure that they're spiritual or true authorities that God has authorized from that.

The best way to understand who they are, I think, is from Hebrews chapter 12 or chapter 13, excuse me, Hebrews 13. Three times the writer mentions persons that are the leaders of the church, those who lead you. In the New King James, the term is who rule over you.

But that's a mistranslation, as the marginal note point out, the Greek word means who leads you. It's one thing to lead people, it's not to rule over them. And in verse seven, it says, remember those who lead you.

Who has spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct. And verse 17 says, obey those who lead you, the same expression, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must be given account. Let them do so with joy, not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

And. So on. There's also verse 24, greet all those who lead you.

So there's a group of people in the Hebrew congregations who were the leaders. How are they understood? Well, they were. There's about there's three things I can see that would identify them.

One is they speak the word of God to you in verse seven. And secondly, in the same verse. Their faith is worthy of emulation.

That is, they have. They set a good example to be followed, you follow their faith, considering the outcome of their faith and or of their conduct. And in verse 17, they watch out for your souls.

So they have sort of a pastoral heart and they are concerned for your well-being. Now, it doesn't say they oversee an organization, though they might. A true spiritual authority might also be in a position to oversee an organization, but that's not what makes them an authority.

What makes them authority is that they speak the word of God to you. Their their lives are something that Christians ought to imitate. And also, they have a pastoral heart.

They they oversee people's souls. They watch out for your souls. That would be like Moses.

Moses was like that. And that's how the leaders were that God raised up. And so.

Although, you know, people could easily tell who the leaders were in Israel because God had given so many visible tokens of his approval of Moses and Aaron. We can't always tell at a glance who is or who is not in spiritual authority. But those who are like Korah in Jude are the ones who despise the legitimate authorities that God raises up in their lives.

And again, we need to remember that Jesus is our authority, not man. Paul said the head of every man is Christ. In First Corinthians 11 3. And therefore, we're all followers of Christ, not of a man.

Those who are, in fact, in spiritual authority only provide a service to us. The service of speaking the word of God to us. The service of providing a good example to us.

The service of watching out for us. That is, we start to go astray. They'll come after us and say, hey, where do you think you're going? That's that's the kind of oversight they have, but they're not they're not bosses.

They're not lords. And Peter said to the elders of the church, don't lord it over the church, but be examples to the flock. So and that's what Moses was.

Moses didn't lord it over them. He led them like a shepherd leads sheep. That's a service he provided.

They needed someone. They were like dumb sheep who tended to go the wrong way if they weren't led. So he provided godly leadership, but he didn't oppress them or anything like that.

So. These people. You know, they were really rebelling against God and God's appointment.

And when Moses called for Dathan and Abiram in verse 12, whom he had heard, apparently he had heard that they were also rebelling. He asked them to appear before him. They wouldn't even show up.

They sent a message back to him, said, is a small thing that you brought us out of the land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness. You should keep acting like a prince over us. And they blame him in verse 14.

You have not brought us into the land flowing with milk and honey. Well, it's not exactly his fault. The people have refused to go in.

But people forget those things they'd like to do when they're upset with their circumstance, they look for somebody to blame. The guy who's at the front is probably the easiest guy to pick out to blame. And they said in verse 14, will you put out the eyes of these men? What that means is, do you hope to hoodwink these people? Do you hope to blind these people to what you're doing, Moses? You're just a big egotist.

You're just a big megalomaniac. You just want to be the big fish in the pond. You think we can't see that? You think everyone's blind? That's what they're saying to him.

And that made Moses angry in verse 15. He said to the Lord, don't respect their offering. They're going to bring 250 censers to the tabernacle the next day.

And and God is going to show respect to one and not the others. He does not say how that respect will be shown. But we do find the way that it's shown later on in verse 35, which we'll see when we get there.

Moses said, I have not taken one donkey from them, nor have I hurt one of them. And Moses said to Korah, tomorrow you and all your company be present before the Lord, you and they, as well as Aaron. Each of you take his censer and put incense in it and each of you bring his censer before the Lord.

Two hundred and fifty censers. You also and Aaron, each of you with this censer. So every man took his censer and put fire in it.

This is the next day and laid incense on it and stood at the door of the tabernacle of meeting with Moses and Aaron. And Korah gathered all the congregation against them at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Apparently, the 250 were required to be there with their incense censers because they were all participating in this test.

But Korah urged all the congregation to show up also so they could witness the outcome. I'm not sure why Korah would want that to be. It's hard to imagine after all that had gone on that Korah could expect somehow to be vindicated by God.

And somehow for God to turn against Aaron, but that's it's just the way I think people are when they are jealous of a position, jealous of authority. They wish they were the ones in charge of someone else that they actually in their minds make the other person who is in charge out to be an evil person. And I think God is on their own side and against that person.

Actually, Aaron had not done anything to give them that impression. But we saw this once years ago at the Great Commission School in Bandon. It was a very bad year.

The years ago, we used to have good years, but there was a group of students who, for whatever reason, were not satisfied with the way things were being done in the kitchen. And then they began to find fault with other things that they thought the rules could be changed better or the policies could be better or the leaders could do better. And actually, it was just like any other year.

In fact, I mean, the school was going well. We weren't charging any money for it. We didn't take even a donkey from them.

You know, we certainly didn't oppress them. We just we just had the school going in the normal program like we did every year. But we just had a group of students, especially one guy.

Who I could tell he wanted to be the leader, but he was a student and he just he got behind our back, the leaders back and he grumbled to the people and and he'd actually have he'd call meetings of the people, you know, without us there and talk about all the bad things we're doing and stuff. And in retrospect, I'd say I don't know of anything legitimate he could have had against this. We were just serving.

We weren't doing anything. We were just serving and, you know, we're not perfect, but we weren't doing things that were blameworthy either. And that was that was a very awkward year.

Eventually, that man, of course, left on bad terms. But I but I've been in situations in churches and in other situations where I've seen this kind of rebellion, even though the leaders were were not doing anything to serve themselves at all. But they were accused because the person who was accused then was ambitious for a position himself.

And that's just as a rebellious attitude that exists in some people that despise authority. And so they gathered. And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation at the end of verse 19.

Now, at this point, it would appear that Cora somehow separated himself from from the group and apparently was back in his tent for some reason. But the other 250 guys were still tabernacle. We don't read about exactly how this transpired, but we do see that it is so.

In verse 20, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment, not just. Cora and his Confederates, but the whole congregation, God was again ready to get rid of them all. Then Moses Aaron fell on their faces and said, oh, God, the God of spirits of all flesh, shall one man stand and you be angry with all the congregation.

Interesting how. Generous spirited both Moses and Aaron were toward those who turned against them. They spoke as if there's only one man who's really guilty here.

Here there were 20, 250 leaders of the people who were grumbling and explosives there and trying to overthrow their authority. And yet they just saw them as pawns that had been manipulated by this one man, Cora. And so they don't even even take their guilt into that is the guilt of those men into consideration.

Although those men are criticizing them and undermining them and and making their life miserable in the community, they still see only the guilt of Cora. If they show one man's sin and everybody else be wiped out. So you always spoke to Moses saying, speak to the congregation saying, get away from the tents of Cora, Dathan and Byron.

Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Byron because they wouldn't come to him. Remember, he called them and they wouldn't come. So he went to them and the elders of Israel followed him and he spoke to the congregation saying, depart now from the tents of these wicked men.

Touch nothing of theirs lest you be consumed in all their sins. So they got away from around the tents of Cora, Dathan and Byron. And Dathan and Byron came out and stood at the door of their tents with their wives, their sons and their little children.

Apparently, they just came out to present themselves defiantly against Moses. Then Moses said, by this you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works, for I've not done any of them on my own will of my own will. If these men die natural death naturally, like all men, or if they are visited by the common fate of all men, then Yahweh has not sent me.

But if Yahweh creates a new thing and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them. And they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected Yahweh. Then it came to pass as he finished speaking all these words that the ground split apart under them and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households and all the men with Cora and with their goods.

So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit. The earth closed over them. The earth didn't just open its mouth, it closed its mouth after they went down.

And so that fissure disappeared. I don't know if it left a scar on the face of the ground or not, but it's it's not there anymore. Then all Israel who were around them fled at their cry and said, let the earth swallow us up also.

I was still those 250 guys at the tabernacle, but not much longer. A fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering incense. I guess that would if he had consumed Nadab and Abihu who were legitimate priests for doing something offering incense wrong.

And these guys who were presumptuously presenting themselves as priests of the same fire came out and consumed them, too. Now, you would expect that this demonstration would put the fear of God in the people. Amazingly, down in verse 41, it says the next day, all the congregation of Israel murmured against Moses and saying, you've killed the people of the Lord.

Like Moses had the power in himself to cause the earth to open up and cause fire to come out from the presence of God, I mean, these people were extremely dull and extremely rebellious. And it was just the next day they're complaining again. Where's the fear of God in these people? And verse 36 says, Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, tell Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest, pick up the censors out of the blaze.

As those 250 censors were left untouched, the people were burned up. The censors were left on the ground burning incense for they are holy and scattered the fire some distance away. That is the ashes and the coals.

The censors of these men who sinned against their own souls, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar because they presented them before the Lord. Therefore, they are holy. And they shall be assigned to the children of Israel, anything that is offered to the Lord by any Israelite was itself holy for having been offered.

And since these incense altars, although illegitimately offered by men who were presuming to enter the priesthood, yet the incense was offered to the Lord so it can't be treated as common stuff. So they would beat the bronze or the brass for which they are made into plates and use them for coverings to cover the altar. Apparently, when it was not in use, they needed to cover the altar with bronze plates, the bronze altar.

And those plates to cover the altar will be a memorial to the children of Israel that no outsider who is not a descendant of Aaron should come near to the near to offer incense before the Lord that he might not become like Quorra and his companions. Just as the Lord has said to him through Moses. Now, it should be pointed out that the families of Dathan and Abiram, even their children, are said to have been destroyed in this opening of the earth that swallowed them up and Quorra himself was killed in that also.

But Quorra's sons were not. We'll find that mentioned later on. Quorra's sons were not swallowed up in the earth, and that may be because they were adults and had moved out and were living separately.

They may not have been involved with Quorra in this rebellion at all. Later, many of the Psalms were written by the sons of Quorra. The sons of Quorra were Levites who apparently were maybe among the musicians who played music and worshiped God in the days of David and beyond.

And a number of the Psalms we will find are written by the sons of Quorra or for the sons of Quorra to perform. And therefore, although Quorra was an evil man, his sons were not, you know, doomed to be of no use to God because of their father's sin. Rather, they actually were useful in writing inspired scripture later on.

So on the next day, the congregation of children of Israel, verse 41, murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, You have killed the people of the Lord. Now, it happened when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron. That they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting and suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared.

Then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Get away from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. That's the same thing he said back in verse 21. Now, God can hardly restrain himself, but Moses and Aaron fell on their faces again.

So they're interceding for these people who are grumbling against them. Moses and Aaron are actually so meek. They don't say, Yeah, God, these people are nothing but a headache.

Please wipe them out. Give us a break. Come vindicate us.

But they actually are true shepherds. I mean, they really care about the people. They see the people as foolish, stupid sheep, but they care about them.

And so they intercede for them. So Moses said to Aaron, Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar and put incense on it and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. For the wrath has gone out from the Lord.

The plague has begun. Then Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the congregation. And already the plague had begun among the people.

So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living. So the plague was stopped.

Now, those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred besides those who died in the court incident. So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting for the plague had stopped. So this is the first and only time in the Bible that incense burning incense is said to make an atonement.

Essentially, almost every other time it was necessary to offer animals to make atonement. But on this occasion, apparently because the urgency of plague just started knocking people out, killing them at one end of the congregation, it was moving across. You could tell because Aaron could go and stand between the dead and the living.

It's clear that it was a geographical movement of this plague starting at one end of the camp and just moving through. And people were dropping dead to fourteen thousand seven hundred and almost fifteen thousand were dead. And this is this would have eventually taken over the whole camp and wiped them all out.

There wasn't time to offer animals to sacrifice, to slaughter a bull or whatever. And so God allowed on this occasion himself to be appeased by Aaron burning incense before him. He had to stand right in front of the plague.

Actually, in the place where he would have been next, he stood between the dead and the living. Well, the plague was moving that direction. Aaron stood right where he would have been the next one hit.

But as a good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep, Aaron goes and puts himself right in harm's way. But God stops the plague there, as he will do later when Phineas also does a heroic act. Now, verse 17, chapter 17, gives me and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel and get them get from them a rod from each father's house.

All their leaders, according to their father's houses, twelve rods, right. Each man's name on his rod. Now, one of these rods is to be the house of Levi.

Which means they must have counted the house of Joseph as one to keep twelve rods. Twelve, because if they counted Ephraim and Manasseh separately, then there would have been 13 rods if they include Levi and Levi was on this. So it must be the house of Joseph was one of the rods, including Manasseh and Ephraim.

So then you shall write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi, for there should be one rod for the head of each father's house. Then you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before the testimony that is before the Ten Commandments, which were in the Ark. Where I meet with you and it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom.

Now, these are dead sticks, so they're not green wood, they're not they can't blossom. They're just old dead wood that's used for walking sticks. That's I will rid myself of the murmuring of the children of Israel, which they murmur against you.

So Moses spoke to the children of Israel and each of their leaders gave him a rod of peace for each leader, according to their father's houses, 12 rods and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. So Moses placed the rods before Yahweh in the tabernacle of witness. Overnight.

Now, it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness and behold, the rod of Aaron of the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds. Now, it's very clear, then, that God didn't just cause the rod to he didn't just make almonds on the rod. The rod had gone through all the stages of growth to produce almonds just sped up overnight, would usually take days or perhaps weeks.

I don't know how long it takes for almonds to form on an almond tree, but what would have usually taken days or weeks happened in a few hours time as the rod came to life and started growing and went through the various stages of growth, the buds, the flower and then the ripe almonds were there. And so we see God speeding up the course of nature as well as going reversing the course of nature. Because this is death.

This is life from the dead. This rod becomes an emblem of resurrection of the dead. And it's one of the few things that ends up being placed permanently before the Ark of the Covenant as a witness.

And so Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord to all the children of Israel. And they looked and each man took his rod and they saw, of course, that theirs hadn't budded. And nor would they have any reason to expect it to.

Rods don't do that. And Yahweh said to Moses, bring Aaron's rod back before the testimony to be kept as a sign against the rebels that you may put their murmurings away from before me, lest they die. Thus did Moses, just as the Lord commanded him.

So he did. Now, saving this rod as a memorial is a proof of Aaron's and his household's position forever. It served a little bit like a scepter serves to a king in later history.

A scepter is simply a rod, usually an ornamental rod with jewels and all that kind of stuff, which represents the authority of a king. And if the king on special occasions of ceremony or state is holding the scepter, it's his way of showing that he is the one who is in charge. Whoever has the scepter in modern times, scepters have been kept in faiths in in in certain monarchies, because if someone would steal the scepter, they would be able by possession of the scepter to claim that they are the king.

And so the scepter is like the emblem of a genuine authority. Aaron's rod became like an emblem of genuine authority. It was kept in a safe place.

It was kept actually in the Holy of Holies. Where you couldn't get at it easily, but it would be there in a safe place if ever a time came again when anyone doubted that God had raised up the family of Aaron to be the legitimate priest. This could apparently be retrieved and presented.

And it would, of course, prove that Aaron still had the scepter of the priesthood. Verse 12 and 13 says, Then the children of Israel spoke to Moses saying, Surely we die. We perish.

We all perish. Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord must die. Shall we all utterly die? Now, we don't have an answer given to them there.

This is just their reaction. In fact, it's even possible that it's shown here out of chronological order. It's hard to say.

The people could have said that when the plague was hitting them, they could have said that when they ground opened up or they might have done it on this occasion when there was no real danger because God wasn't bringing judgment at this moment. But he was just bearing witness to who his true priest was. But perhaps because they had murmured against Aaron and God had shown this remarkable demonstration of his favor upon Aaron by causing his rod to bud.

This may have struck them. They may have been convicted by that demonstration of their error and realized that they deserve to die. After all, they have seen many of their companions die recently because of almost exactly the same, the very same error.

And so they thought they would all die. But of course, they didn't on this occasion. And Chapter 18 goes another direction, which we will talk about after we take a break.