The Rebels Executed

The people were going along with Korah and his followers’ demands to serve as priests, without considering God’s plan.  God had threatened to start over with Moses’ family when they refused to follow his plan, determined to have their own way, and a few weeks later, here they are doing almost the same thing.   Moses and Aaron had to intervene on the people’s behalf again, as  Numbers 16:20-22 describes.  “And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.  And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?”

 

A holy God was frustrated by such stubborn selfishness.  Had it not been for Moses and Aaron’s intervention he might well have destroyed them.  Knowing his perfectionism, God has chosen to use human priests to intervene for people’s sin, as Hebrews 5:1-2 tells us.  “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.”  Moses and Aaron were chosen because they would consider both God’s and the peoples’ sides of the conflict.  This is why it is so important that Jesus Christ was both God and man, so that he could fully understand both sides, as Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us.  “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

 

In their demands to be priests, Korah and his followers were demonstrating a total disregard for God.  God ordered the people who were nto actively involved in the rebellion to separate from those who were in Numbers 16:23-27.  “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.  And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him.  And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.  So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children.” 

 

Moses informed them that God would show a miracle to clearly designate who he had chosen as his priests, in Numbers 16:28-30.  “And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind.  If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me.  But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.”  They would die as a result of a miraculous action by God.

 

Numbers 16:31-34 35 describes two miraculous events.  “And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.  They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.  And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.  And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.”

 

It was pretty obvious this was not a normal earthquake as the epicenter was exactly where the ringleaders of the rebellion had set up their tents, killing them and their families, and sending panic among the other people.  Along with the earthquake, God sent a burst of fire which killed the two hundred fifty men who had decided to be priests.  None of them died of old age or natural disease.  It was pretty obvious God had caused their deaths. 

 

God directed that the censers they had used be attached to the brazen altar as a constant reminder of the results of rebellion, in Numbers 16:36-40.  “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are hallowed.  The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar: for they offered them before the LORD, therefore they are hallowed: and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel.

 

And Eleazar the priest took the brazen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar: To be a memorial unto the children of Israel, that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before the LORD; that he be not as Korah, and as his company: as the LORD said to him by the hand of Moses.”  It was to be a warning that only God had the authority to choose who would serve as priests.  Real faith and respect for God requires we recognize his authority as God.