Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took some men. They rose up before Moses, with some of the children of Israel, two hundred fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much on yourself, since all the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and Yahweh is among them! Why do you lift yourselves up above Yahweh’s assembly?”
Parallel Translations
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Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took some men.
They rose up before Moses, with some of the children of Israel, two hundred fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown.
They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much on yourself, since all the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and Yahweh is among them! Why do you lift yourselves up above Yahweh’s assembly?”
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Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:
And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?
Show all 3 translations
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Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men;
and they rose up in face of Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty men; they were princes of the congregation, the elect men of the assembly, men of renown;
and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them: 'Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?'
Cross-references (31)
- Jude 1:11 (v1) Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah’s rebellion.
- Psalms 106:16 (v3) They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, Yahweh’s saint.
- Exodus 6:21 (v1) The sons of Izhar: Korah, and Nepheg, and Zichri.
- Deuteronomy 11:6 (v1) and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their…
- Genesis 49:3-4 (v1) “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excelling in dignity, and excelling in power. Boiling over like…
Show all 31 cross-references
- Exodus 6:18 (v1) The sons of Kohath: Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel; and the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred thirty-three years.
- Exodus 19:6 (v3) and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
- Numbers 14:14 (v3) They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are among this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to…
- Numbers 26:9 (v2) The sons of Eliab: Nemuel, Dathan, and Abiram. These are that Dathan and Abiram who were called by the congregation, who rebelled against…
- Numbers 26:9-10 (v1) The sons of Eliab: Nemuel, Dathan, and Abiram. These are that Dathan and Abiram who were called by the congregation, who rebelled against…
- Numbers 27:3 (v1) “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against Yahweh in the company of…
- Numbers 16:7 (v3) put fire in them, and put incense on them before Yahweh tomorrow. It shall be that the man whom Yahweh chooses, he shall be holy. You have…
- Ezekiel 23:10 (v2) These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters; and they killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women;…
- Acts 7:51 (v3) “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.
- Genesis 6:4 (v2) The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them.…
- Exodus 29:45-46 (v3) I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, who brought them out of the…
- Numbers 1:16 (v2) These are those who were called of the congregation, the princes of the tribes of their fathers; they were the heads of the thousands of…
- Numbers 12:1-2 (v3) Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman. They said, “Has…
- Numbers 14:1-4 (v3) All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. All the children of Israel murmured against Moses…
- Numbers 16:11 (v3) Therefore you and all your company have gathered together against Yahweh! What is Aaron that you complain against him?”
- Numbers 35:34 (v3) You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, where I dwell; for I, Yahweh, dwell among the children of Israel.’ ”
- 1 Chronicles 5:1-2 (v1) The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn; but, because he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given…
- 1 Chronicles 5:24 (v2) These were the heads of their fathers’ houses: even Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor,…
- Ezra 9:2 (v3) For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy offspring have mixed themselves with the peoples…
- Psalms 68:17 (v3) The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary.
- Isaiah 1:11-16 (v3) “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed…
- Jeremiah 7:3-12 (v3) Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Don’t trust in…
- Acts 7:39 (v3) to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,
- Romans 2:28-29 (v3) For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly,…
- 1 Chronicles 12:30 (v2) Of the children of Ephraim: twenty thousand eight hundred, mighty men of valor, famous men in their fathers’ houses.
- Matthew 3:9-10 (v3) Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Or, took others with him.
Or, took others with him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Num 16:1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the…
Num 16:1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took [men]:
Ver. 1. The son of Izhar.] And so first cousin to Moses and Aaron; for Izhar was brother to Amram their father. {Exo 6:18}
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Sons of Reuben.] Who, being next neighbours to Korah in the camp, were the sooner corrupted by him.
“ Uvaque corrupta livorem ducit ab uva. ” - Juven.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Korah, the first and chief author of this rebellion,…
Korah, the first and chief author of this rebellion, Num 16:11; Jud 1:11.
Izhar was Amram’s brother, Exo 6:18, therefore Moses and he were cousin-germans. Moreover Izhar was the second son of Kohath, whereas Elizaphan, whom Moses had preferred before him, and made prince or ruler of the Kohathites, Num 3:30, was the son of Uzziel, the fourth son of Kohath. This, the Jewish writers say, made him malcontent, which at last broke forth into sedition.
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Sons of-Reuben: these are drawn into confederacy with Korah, partly because they were his next neighbours, both being encamped on the south side, and therefore could easily communicate counsels; partly in hopes to recover their rights of primogeniture, in which the priesthood was comprehended, which was given away from their father.
Took men, to wit, those two hundred and fifty mentioned Num 16:2. In the Hebrew there is nothing but took, and the Hebrew words are placed and may well be rendered thus, Now Korah—took both Dathan and Abiram, &c., or took Dathan, &c., the particle vau being here superfluous, as it is Gen 8:6, and elsewhere.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Here is, I. An account of the rebels, who…
Here is, I. An account of the rebels, who and what they were, not, as formerly, the mixed multitude and the dregs of the people, who are therefore never named, but men of distinction and quality, that made a figure. Korah was the ring-leader: he formed and headed the faction; therefore it is called the gainsaying of Korah, Jde 1:11. He was cousin-german to Moses, they were brothers' children, yet the nearness of the relation could not restrain him from being insolent and rude to Moses. Think it not strange if a man's foes be those of his own house. With him joined Dathan and Abiram, chief men of the tribe of Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob. Probably Korah was disgusted both at the preferment of Aaron to the priesthood and the constituting of Elizaphan to the head of the Kohathites (Num 3:30); and perhaps the Reubenites were angry that the tribe of Judah had the first post of honour in the camp. On is mentioned (Num 16:1) as one of the heads of the faction, but never after in the whole story, either because, as some think, he repented and left them, or because he did not make himself so remarkable as Dathan and Abiram did. The Kohathites encamped on the same side of the tabernacle that the Reubenites did, which perhaps gave Korah an opportunity of drawing them in, whence the Jews say, Woe to the wicked man, and woe to his neighbour, who is in danger of being infected by him. And, these being themselves men of renown, they seduced into the conspiracy two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly (Num 16:2); probably they were first-born, or at least heads of families, who, before the elevation of Aaron, had themselves ministered in holy things. Note, The pride, ambition, and emulation, of great men, have always been the occasion of a great deal of mischief both in churches and states. God by his grace make great men humble, and so give peace in our time, O Lord! Famous men, and men of renown, as these are described to be, were the great sinners of the old world, Gen 6:4. The fame and renown which they had did not content them; they were high, but would be higher, and thus the famous men became infamous.
II. The rebels' remonstrance, Num 16:3. That which they quarrel with is the settlement of the priesthood upon Aaron and his family, which they think an honour too great for Moses to give and Aaron to accept, and so they are both charged with usurpation: You take too much upon you; or, "Let it suffice you to have domineered thus long, and now think of resigning your places to those who have as good a title to them and are as well able to manage them." 1. They proudly boast of the holiness of the congregation, and the presence of God in it. "They are holy, every one of them, and as fit to be employed in offering sacrifice as Aaron is, and as masters of families formerly were, and the Lord is among them, to direct and own them." Small reason they had to boast of the people's purity, or of God's favour, as the people had been so frequently and so lately polluted with sin, and were now under the marks of God's displeasure, which should have made them thankful for priests to mediate between them and God; but, instead of that, they envy them. 2. They unjustly charge Moses and Aaron with taking the honour they had to themselves, whereas it was evident, beyond contradiction, that they were called of God to it, Heb 5:4. So that they would either have no priests at all, nor any government, none to preside either in civil or sacred things, none over the congregation, none above it, or they would not acquiesce in that constitution of the government which God had appointed. See here, (1.) What spirit levellers are of, and those that despise dominions, and resist the powers that God has set over them; they are proud, envious, ambitious, turbulent, wicked, and unreasonable men. (2.) What usage even the best and most useful men may expect, even from those they have been serviceable to. If those be represented as usurpers that have the best titles, and those as tyrants that govern best, let them recollect that Moses and Aaron were thus abused.
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III. Moses's conduct when their remonstrance was published against him. How did he take it?
1. He fell on his face (Num 16:4), as before, Num 14:5. Thus he showed how willing he would have been to yield to them, and how gladly he would have resigned his government, if it would have consisted with his duty to God and his fidelity to the trust reposed in him. Thus also he applied to God, by prayer, for direction what to say and to do upon this sad occasion. He would not speak to them till he had thus humbled and composed his own spirit (which could not but begin to be heated), and had received instruction from God. The heart of the wise in such a case studies to answer, and asks counsel at God's mouth.
2. He agrees to refer the case to God, and leave it to him to decide it, as one well assured of the goodness of his title, and yet well content to resign, if God thought fit, to gratify this discontented people with another nomination. An honest cause fears not a speedy trial; even tomorrow let it be brought on, Num 16:5-7. Let Korah and his partisans bring their censers, and offer incense before the Lord, and, if he testify his acceptance of them, well and good; Moses is now as willing that all the Lord's people should be priests, if God so pleased, as before that they should all be prophets, Num 11:29. But if God, upon an appeal to him, determine (as no doubt he would) for Aaron, they would find it highly dangerous to make the experiment: and therefore he puts it off till tomorrow, to try whether, when they had slept upon it, they would desist, and let fall their pretensions.
3. He argues the case fairly with them, to still the mutiny with fair reasoning, if possible, before the appeal came to God's tribunal, for then he knew it would end in the confusion of the complainants.
(1.) He calls them the sons of Levi, Num 16:7, and again Num 16:8. They were of his own tribe, nay, they were of God's tribe; it was therefore the worse in them thus to mutiny both against God and against him. It was not long since the sons of Levi had bravely appeared on God's side, in the matter of the golden calf, and got immortal honour by it; and shall those that were then the only innocents now be the leading criminals, and lose all the honour they had won? Could there be such chaff on God's floor? Levites, and yet rebels?
(2.) He retorts their charge upon themselves. They had unjustly charged Moses and Aaron with taking too much upon them, though they had done no more than what God put upon them; nay, says Moses, You take too much upon you, you sons of Levi. Note, Those that take upon them to control and contradict God's appointment take too much upon them. It is enough for us to submit; it is too much to prescribe.
(3.) He shows them the privilege they had as Levites, which was sufficient for them, they needed not to aspire to the honour of the priesthood, Num 16:9, Num 16:10. He reminds them how great the honour was to which they were preferred, as Levites. [1.] They were separated from the congregation of Israel, distinguished from them, dignified above them; instead of complaining that Aaron's family was advanced above theirs, they ought to have been thankful that their tribe was advanced above the rest of the tribes, though they had been in all respects upon the level with them. Note, It will help to keep us from envying those that are above us duly to consider how many there are below us. Instead of fretting that any are preferred before us in honour, power, estate, or interest, in gifts, graces, or usefulness, we have reason to bless God if we, who are less than the least, are not put among the very last. Many perhaps who deserve better are not preferred so well. [2.] They were separated to very great and valuable honours, First, To draw near to God, nearer than the common Israelites, though they also were a people near unto him; the nearer any are to God the greater is their honour. Secondly, To do the service of the tabernacle. It is honour enough to bear the vessels of the sanctuary, and to be employed in any part of the service of the tabernacle. God's service is not only perfect freedom, but high preferment. Thirdly, To stand before the congregation to minister unto them. Note, Those are truly great that serve the public, and it is the honour of God's ministers to be the church's ministers; nay, which adds to the dignity put upon them, [3.] It was the God of Israel himself that separated them. It was his act and deed to put them into their place, and therefore they ought not to have been discontented: and he it was likewise that put Aaron into his place, and therefore they ought not to have envied him.
(4.) He convicts them of the sin of undervaluing those privileges: Seemeth it a small thing unto you? As if he had said, "It ill becomes you of all men to grudge Aaron the priesthood, when at the same time that he was advanced to that honour you were designed for another honour dependent upon it, and shine with rays borrowed from him." Note, [1.] The privilege of drawing near to the God of Israel is not a small thing in itself, and therefore must not appear small to us. To those who neglect opportunities of drawing near to God, who are careless and formal in it, to whom it is a task and not a pleasure, we may properly put this question: "Seemeth it a small thing to you that God has made you a people near unto him?" [2.] Those who aspire after and usurp the honours forbidden them put a great contempt upon the honours allowed them. We have each of us as good a share of reputation as God sees fit for us, and sees us fit for, and much better than we deserve; and we ought to rest satisfied with it, and not, as these, exercise ourselves in things too high for us: Seek you the priesthood also? They would not own that they sought it, but Moses saw that they had this in their eye; the law had provided very well for those that served at the altar, and therefore they would put in for the office.
(5.) He interprets their mutiny to be a rebellion against God (Num 16:11); while they pretended to assert the holiness and liberty of the Israel of God, they really took up arms against the God of Israel: You are gathered together against the Lord. Note, Those that strive against God's ordinances and providences, whatever they pretend, and whether they are aware of it or no, do indeed strive with their Maker. Those resist the prince who resist those that are commissioned by him: for, alas! says Moses, What is Aaron, that you murmur against him? If murmurers and complainers would consider that the instruments they quarrel with are but instruments whom God employs, and that they are but what he makes them, and neither more nor less, better nor worse, they would not be so bold and free in their censures and reproaches as they are. Those that found the priesthood, as it was settled, a blessing, must give all the praise to God; but if any found it a burden they must not therefore quarrel with Aaron, who is but what he is made, and does but as he is bidden. Thus he interested God in the cause, and so might be sure of speeding well in his appeal.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of…
Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi,.... A great grandson of Levi's, and own cousin to Moses and Aaron, being brothers children; for Amram the father of Moses and Aaron, and Izhar the father of Korah, were own brothers, both of them the sons of Kohath, and Amram the eldest, and Izhar the next, Exo 6:16; this man is mentioned first, being the contriver, and plotter, and ringleader of the following sedition, and which is called "the gainsaying of Core", Jde 1:11; when this was made is not certain; Aben Ezra thinks this affair happened in the wilderness of Sinai, when the firstborn were exchanged, and the Levites were separated for holy service, Num 3:1; but, according to the Targum of Jonathan, it was after the law concerning the fringes was given, which it here follows, and was on that account; for it says, that Korah took his coat, which was all blue, and that the men with him rose up, and in the face of Moses taught the rite concerning the blue ribbon; when Moses declared he had it from God, that the fringe should be of white, and one thread of blue should be in it; but Korah and his company made their coats and fringes all of blue, which the Lord commanded not: but what Korah is said to take is either himself, or men, or both, and not clothes, as follows:
and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth,
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sons of Reuben, took men; which men are described in Num 16:2, even princes of the assembly, &c. or he, Korah, took himself, as Ben Melech, or divided himself, as Onkelos, separated himself from the congregation, and set himself at the head of a party he gathered together; and the "vau" or "and" before "Dathan" may be additional or superfluous, as Chaskuni observes, and so Abendana; and then the sense is, that Korah took Dathan, Abiram and On, apart by themselves, and entered into a consultation and confederacy with them against Moses and Aaron, with whom he was offended on account of the priesthood being bestowed on the latter by the former; and these men he associated to him, being the sons of Reuben, who would the rather listen to him, and join with him, because the right of the firstborn was taken from them, and the camp of Judah was placed before them; and with these men he could more easily commune, because the camp of Reuben and the Kohathites lay on the same side of the tabernacle, Num 2:10; Eliab, the father of Dathan and Abiram, was the son of Pallu, the second son of Reuben, Num 26:5; but as for On, no mention is made of him elsewhere, nor any more in this place; it is thought he separated from his company after he had heard what Moses said to them; and the Rabbins say, his wife delivered him out of their hands, as Abendana observes.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Korah, Dathan and Abiram, rise up against Moses, ver.…
Korah, Dathan and Abiram, rise up against Moses, ver. 1-4. Moses reasons with them, ver. 5-11. Sends for Dathan and Abiram, who refuse to come, ver. 12-14. His proposal to Korah, ver. 15-19. The punishment of the rebels, ver. 20-35. Their censers preserved for a memorial, ver. 36-40. A new insurrection stopped by a plague, ver. 41-45. Aaron stays the plague, ver. 46- 50.
The son of Izhar - Amram's brother, Exod. vi, 18, therefore Moses and he were cousin germans. Moreover, Izhar was the second son of Kohath, whereas Elizaphan, whom Moses had preferred before him, and made prince or ruler of the Kohathites, chap. iii, 30, was the son of Uzziel, the fourth son of Kohath. This, the Jewish writers say, made him malcontent, which at last broke forth into sedition. Sons of Reuben - These are drawn into confederacy with Korah, partly because they were his next neighbours, both being encamped on the south-side, partly in hopes to recover their rights of primogeniture, in which the priesthood was comprehended, which was given away from their father.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 The rebellion of Korah and his company against Moses,…
CHAPTER XVI
The rebellion of Korah and his company against Moses, 1-3.
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He directs them how to try, in the course of the next day, whom
God had called to the priesthood, 4-11.
Dathan and Abiram use the most seditious speeches, 12-14.
Moses is wroth, 15;
and orders Korah and his company to be ready on the morrow with
their censers and incense, 16-18.
Korah gathers his company together, 19.
The glory of the Lord appears, and he threatens to consume them,
20, 21.
Moses and Aaron intercede for them, 22.
The people are commanded to leave the tents of the rebels, 23-26.
They obey, and Korah and his company come out and stand before
the door of their tents, 27.
Moses in a solemn address puts the contention to issue, 28-30.
As soon as he had done speaking, the earth clave and swallowed
them, and all that appertained to them, 31-34;
and the 250 men who offered incense are consumed by fire, 35.
The Lord commands Eleazar to preserve the censers, because they
were hallowed, 36-38.
Eleazar makes of them a covering for the altar, 39, 40.
The next day the people murmur anew, the glory of the Lord
appears, and Moses and Aaron go to the tabernacle, 41-43.
They are commanded to separate themselves from the congregation,
44, 45.
Moses, perceiving that God had sent a plague among them, directs
Aaron to hasten and make an atonement, 46.
Aaron does so, and the plague is stayed, 47, 48.
The number of those who died by the plague, 14,700 men, 49, 50.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVI
Verse 1. Now Korah - took men] Had not these been the most brutish of men, could they have possibly so soon forgotten the signal displeasure of God manifested against them so lately for their rebellion. The word men is not in the original; and the verb ויקח vaiyikkach, and he took, is not in the plural but the singular, hence it cannot be applied to the act of all these chiefs. In every part of the Scripture where this rebellion is referred to it is attributed to Korah, (see Nu 26:3, and Jude 1:11), therefore the verb here belongs to him, and the whole verse should be translated thus: - Now Korah, son of Yitsar son of Kohath, son of Levi, HE TOOK even Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, son of Peleth, SON OF REUBEN; and they rose up, c. This makes a very regular and consistent sense, and spares all the learned labour of Father Houbigant, who translates יקח yikkach, by rebellionem fecerunt, they rebelled, which scarcely any rule of criticism can ever justify. Instead of בני ראובן beney Reuben, SONS of Reuben, some MSS. have בן ben, SON, in the singular this reading, supported by the Septuagint and the Samaritan text, I have followed in the above translation. But as Eliab and Peleth were both Reubenites, the common reading, SONS, may be safely followed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Num 16:1-2. The many ample testimonies, nay, the astonishing…
Num 16:1-2. The many ample testimonies, nay, the astonishing miracles, whereby God had established the authority of Moses as chief governor, and of Aaron and his family as priests, were not sufficient to restrain the ambition of mutinous and designing men. Korah, cousin-german to Moses and Aaron, a man of some note among the Levites, thinking himself undervalued, it seems, by the post he was in as a mere Levite, and being left without hopes of arriving at the priesthood, as things now stood, resolves upon a mutiny against them, and attempts to raise himself to the priesthood, by forcing them to change their measures, or else putting them down from their authority. Sons of Reuben — These are drawn into confederacy with Korah, partly because they were his next neighbours, both being encamped on the south side, partly in hopes to recover their rights of primogeniture, in which the priesthood was comprehended, which was given away from their father. Rose up — That is, conspired together, and put their design in execution; before Moses — Not obscurely, but openly and boldly, not fearing nor regarding the presence of Moses.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Amram and Izhar were brothers (compare Exo 6:18), and…
Amram and Izhar were brothers (compare Exo 6:18), and thus Korah, the “son,” i. e. descendant of Izhar, was connected by distant cousinship with Moses and Aaron. Though being a Kohathite, he was of that division of the Levites which had the most honorable charge, yet as Elizaphan, who had been made “chief of the families of the Kohathites” Num 3:30, belonged to the youngest branch descended from Uzziel Num 3:27, Korah probably regarded himself as injured; and therefore took the lead in this rebellion. Of the others, On is not again mentioned. He probably withdrew from the conspiracy. Dathan, Abiram, and On were Reubenites; and were probably discontented because the birthright had been taken away from their ancestor Gen 49:3, and with it the primacy of their own tribe among the tribes of Israel. The Reubenites encamped near to the Kohathites (compare Num 2:25 and plan), and thus the two families were conveniently situated for taking counsel together. One pretext of the insurrection probably was to assert the rights of primogeniture - on the part of the Reubenites against Moses, on the part of Korah against the appointment of Uzziel.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Isaar was brother of Amram; and, consequently, his son…
Isaar was brother of Amram; and, consequently, his son was the cousin of Moses. --- Core engaged the rest in his revolt. Hebrew, "took or replied," interrupting Moses at the very time when he was speaking, in the name of God, and requiring that he should shew by what right he arrogated to himself alone that authority. "Core separated himself," Chaldean. "He retired," Syriac. "Core spoke....and Dathan....and they rose up," Septuagint. The Caathites encamped near the tribe of Ruben; and hence Core had an opportunity to engage some of them in his revolt, by insinuating that Moses occupied the post in the state which ought to belong to them, as Ruben was the first-born; while Aaron had obtained the high priesthood, and the rest of the Levites, though of equal nobility, were to be treated as his servants. It is not known when this revolt happened. Some place it at the camp of Sinai; others at that of Jetebata, Deuteronomy x. 8.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1
THIRD SECTION
A.—THE REBELLION OF KORAH, DATHAN AND ABIRAM (THEIR ANTICIPATION OF THE UNIVERSAL PRIESTHOOD AND THEIR JUDGMENT).
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Num_16:1-35
1Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, 1took men: 2And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the 2assembly, 3famous in the congregation, men of renown: 3And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, 4Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? 4And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face: 5And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the Lord will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. 6This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company; 7And put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord to morrow: and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy: 5ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. 8And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi: 6 9Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? 10And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also? 11For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?
12And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; 7which said, We 13will not come up: d Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make 14thyself altogether a prince over us? Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou 8put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up. 15And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their 9offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them. 16And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before the Lord, thou, and they, and Aaron to morrow: 17And take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye before the Lord every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; thou also, and Aaron, each of you his censer. 18And they took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood 10in the door of the 11tabernacle of the congregation 12with Moses and Aaron. 19And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the htabernacle of the congregation: 20and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 21Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. 22And 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?
23And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 24Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 25And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him. 26And 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 13consumed in all their sins. 27So 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. 28And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; 14for I have not done them of mine own mind. 1529If these men die 16the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the Lord hath not sent me. 30But if the Lord 17make 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 18the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have 19provoked the Lord.
31And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: 32And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. 33They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into mthe pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the 20congregation. 34And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. 35And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Num_16:2. We read with Knobel וַיִּקְשׁוּ instead of וַיִקַּח, which is inexplicable, for which comp. 1Ki_7:25; 1Ki_16:9; 2Ki_15:10; 2Ki_15:25; Amo_7:10. Ewald proposes וַיִקָהֵל; but, as Knobel well remarks, that does not well suit for only four men. LXX.: καὶ ἐλάλησε. Vulg.: ecce!
We do not adopt the conjecture of our translator, [viz., that given above by Pastor Fay, who in the German original translates the text of Leviticus and Numbers.—Tr.]. The difficulty is more easily solved if we omit the וְ before Dathan, or take the three Vavs in connection: he took along with him both Dathan and Abiram and also On. Thus Korah is designated as the real author, as also in Num_16:22 he is given this prominence. Another explanation, which is also more acceptable than the above conjecture, is the assumption of Gesenius [Thes., p. 760] that the singular is to be read as plural: Korah, Dathan, etc., took 250 men to them.
Num_16:11. We cannot adopt Keil’s construction: “Therefore thou and thy faction that have joined against Jehovah—and Aaron, what is he, that ye murmur against him?” An Aposiopesis that is quite superfluous.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
One might call this history a prototype of conspiracy and insurrection. Various party interests, essentially and wholly diverse and mutually conflicting, combine in the element of antipathy against the princely authority of Moses, and the priestly authority of Aaron (one might say against the authority of the State and of the Church). But there rests an obscurity of confusion over this sympathetic conspiracy against the authority appointed by Jehovah, as there could not but be in interests so diverse. Koran with his following (not his sons) is a Levite. Therefore he had himself also a privileged position. But the precedence of the Aaronic priesthood is to him a thorn in the eye. Therefore in reality it is not universal right that he would insist on, but a share in the clerical prerogatives of Aaron. Dathan, Abiram and On, the descendants of Reuben, no doubt have in mind the fact that their ancestor was the first-born, but not the transference of the rights of the first-born to Judah by the Patriarch. It must be mentioned to their praise that the tribe of Judah makes no special claims, but is only drawn into sympathy in a general way. But the real princes of the conspiracy conceal their particular pretensions under the demagogical watch-word: the entire congregation is holy, and under the radical definition of the entire congregation: they all are holy (evidently the idea of the plebiscite). This watchword is supported by the reproach: why do ye exalt yourselves over the congregation of Jehovah? In this reproach the conspiracy seems to convert an element of truth into a lie. There was, it is true, a theocratic authority over the congregation, that was not mediated by a legal representation of the congregation, yet elements of mediation were still there, the elders, the princes of the tribes, the prophetic voices, enough, a potential mediation by signs of the Spirit was indeed in existence; but of course no organized one. And such an one, too, could only distantly hover before the minds of the people; what the crowd desired was the dissolution of all authority, anarchy. Still the glitter of the idol of freedom and equality was even here so influential, that the whole nation was electrified by it, and they did not notice how they were made the sport of clerical and legitimist party interests. Hence even after the first judgment, there remained still a mutinous disposition that evoked a second judgment. Perhaps, too, this mutinous disposition sprang in part from the recollection of the stern judgment of stoning inflicted on the blasphemer and on the Sabbath-breaker: for here again it is nourished by the embittered feeling at the death penalty inflicted on the conspirators, although that appeared as a divine decree. The excitement, the stormy commotion, and the confusion of the event are reflected in the intricacy of the representation, and this has occasioned no little exegetical confusion which we must try to avoid. [See Text. and Gram., Num_16:2].
Evidently there was first a conspiracy that brooded in secret. The original agitators, Koran, Dathan and Abiram, succeeded in drawing to their party representatives from the whole congregation, princes of the particular tribes. Thus they arose against Moses and Aaron. Their cry to these two leaders: enough for you, may not be translated by the cool language: let what has been hitherto suffice you. It is a quo usque of indignation. To it is attached pretension in quite a radical form. When Moses falls on his face it is because he is in the greatest extremity and needs a divine decision, and looks for it. And on this decision reposes his exceeding bold and surprising answer. Not he will decide, but Jehovah. Let them all present themselves before Jehovah, the next morning even, as would-be priests, with censers, in order to stand before Jehovah along with Aaron in opposition and in rivalry, then Jehovah Himself will decide. According to the law, even the sons of the priests were forbidden to offer strange fire to Jehovah, much more were mere Levites and non-Levites forbidden to sacrifice, let alone to perform the holiest act of offering which was done in the very Sanctuary of the Tabernacle. Hence Moses could not have instituted such measures as he did here, had he not regarded the law as completely broken and suspended. His expedient reminds us of the words of Jesus to Judas: “that thou doest do quickly.” With the congregation seduced as it was, Moses could not act with its support; the law could only be restored again by a mighty judgment of God. Still the rebels were not to be left in doubt about the great irony that lay in the admission of this candidating, hence the addition, in which he repeats the word of the Levites as a rebuking echo: it is enough with you, upon which follows a reproof. Hear, ye sons of Levi, etc., Num_16:8. Now he brings home to the Levites that they themselves had received from Jehovah—not from him—a prerogative above that of the other tribes of Israel, by which he lays bare the contradiction in their revolutionary watch-word. He charges them with untruthfulness; it was not the universal priesthood that they wanted, but they were emulous of the high-priesthood of Aaron (Num_16:9-10). Ye rebel, he says, against Jehovah Himself, not, as ye suppose, against Aaron, for he as a man signifies nothing in this business, that ye should murmur against him (Num_16:11). In other words: your would-be murmuring against Aaron is a rebellion against Jehovah.
And Moses said to call Dathan, etc., Num_16:12 sqq. This begins the account of Moses’ dealing with the Reubenites. With great penetration he sees through the coalition, and deals with each faction singly, as befitted it. The Korah faction aimed specially at Aaron, and he contended with it accordingly, and, as appears, with such success that the sons of Korah held aloof from the sedition of their father (Num_26:11). But the Reuben faction was primarily directed against, the princely position of Moses himself. He accordingly summons Dathan and Abiram to appear before him, (he does not, as Baumgarten supposes, call on them to make sacrifice); the third, On, appears already or later to have drawn back. Also Zelophehad, an influential man of the tribe of Manasseh, had renounced the general craze. But the Reubenite faction answered roughly and refused obedience to Moses with malignant irony. We will not come up, they said, with reference to the tabernacle that is regarded as an exalted tent. He has brought them out of a land flowing with milk and honey, but not brought them into such a land; he has sorely deceived them, and seems as if he would bore out the people’s eyes, i.e., as if he would degrade them to absolute, blind obedience against all private judgment. This reproach, that he desired to rule over them as an absolute despot of the conscience, provoked the extremest indignation of the faithful servant of God, who could appeal to his unselfishness, whereby at the same time the sentiment is expressed that despotism of the conscience always springs from ambition and avarice. Respect not thou their offering, (Num_16:15) is his prayer—the mildest form in which he could implore the divine vindication of his uprightness.
And Moses said unto Korah, etc., Num_16:16 sqq. Here follows the summons already mentioned in Num_16:6 : appear to-morrow with censers before Jehovah for rivalry with Aaron; only now it is amplified to the effect that the whole company, and as such also the third faction likewise should appear with their censers, the symbols of their pretensions. And they actually appeared. Also the 250 with their censers. Thus 250 censers, it is added supplementally; as if we were to say: 250 horse, or so many cowls. The 250 censers instead of the one censer of Aaron is the main point. But Korah had contrived that, beside this, the whole congregation appeared before the Tabernacle, if not as his decided adherents, still with the inclination to go over to his party, that stood opposed to the two apparently helpless men, Moses and Aaron. So the crowd of people stood wavering on Carmel, inclined to apostacy, when Elijah contended with the priests of Baal, and so the mass of craven souls mostly stand in decisive crises in which fidelity has to contend with a seductive novelty. But invariably in such a situation there occurs a miraculous turn of affairs: the glory of the Lord appears. Thus it appeared as Paul went to Damascus; when Gustavus Adolphus came to Germany; when William of Orange went to England. It is not stated how in the present case it displayed itself to the whole people; how a dread of God developed within the Tabernacle as the entire crowd pressed to the Tabernacle door to profane the sanctuary.
The word of Jehovah: Separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them, Num_16:21 sqq., was probably manifested to the people only by their seeing Moses and Aaron (likely within the Tabernacle) fall on their faces in prayer. Both act as intercessors and mediators for the erring people. Ah, great God (El), thou God of the spirits of all flesh, what may that mean? Art Thou not now their Jehovah, still Thou art the almighty God, that rules over the spirits according to their peculiarity, according to the different measures of their guilt and innocence, even if as flesh they appear in a compact mass. As the God that judges the spirits, that looks on the heart, He cannot treat all alike in a deceived people. According to Baumgarten the expression means the same as God of gods; according to Keil, it designates the spirits as creatures; according to Knobel: Author and Lord of all life. The intercession runs: the one man, he may have sinned, wilt Thou on this account burst out on the whole congregation? With this the one man is of course surrendered to the righteous punishment of God; yet it cannot for that release the whole congregation, but all will depend on who is hardened and who not when the separation is called for between the congregation and the guilty man.
Speak unto the congregation, etc., Num_16:21 sqq. From this point the representation becomes difficult. It is assumed that the tents of the Levites did not lie far from those of the Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram. But from what follows it appears that we are to understand a distinction between the Korah faction, or those sacrificing before the Tabernacle, and the faction of Dathan and Abiram, an itio in partes, as indeed further on is accomplished a twofold judgment. Then the first direction reads, verse Numbers 24 : take your stand high up (far enough off) making a circuit of the tents Korah, Dathan, Abiram. In this appears already the idea of the abyss in the earth developed further on. And now there begins a flow of the people from the Tabernacle toward the dwelling of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. We leave at the Tabernacle the men burning incense, but Moses goes now to the tents of Dathan and Abiram. At the Tabernacle the Levites and the 250 censers have apparently come by their rights; now also the Reubenites must be distinguished according to their claims. Korah, too, must follow this main current, which is signified when it is stated that Moses and the elders went in advance. [The omission of express mention of Korah in Num_16:27; Num_16:32, gives reason for supposing he remained at the Tabernacle.—Tr.]. When the people had stationed themselves, making a circuit of the tents, a position that seemed to prepare for paying homage, then the second direction to the people follows: Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, etc. A ban is pronounced upon them, they shall perish for their sin. Meanwhile Dathan and Abiram, with their families, still stand in the door of their tent as if they expected that homage would be done them. There-upon Moses announces the decisive sign that was to attest his call (Num_16:28). [Dr. Lange paints into this scene too much of what he calls irony. Nothing in the simple account justifies this idea of a mockery, of seeming to set up the 250 Levites as the objects of priestly homage, and then, in their turn, the Reubenites as the objects of princely homage, while Moses himself leads the farce by setting the people around in a circuit, the whole to be turned, in the catastrophe, into a trap for the awful destruction of these parties. Touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be swept away in all their sins, shows no pretence of homage, but directly the reverse. Princes do not stand in the door of their tent with their families, even to the little babes, when they would receive homage. This was simply the posture of looking on as passive spectators of their own desertion.—Tr.].
If all goes on as usual with these men, so that they die a common death and thus meet the universal fate of men, then the LORD hath not sent me, Num_16:29. Then the contrary condition is expressed in a manner that is quite significant: but if the Lord makes something altogether creative, new (בְּרִיאָה יִבְרָא), as it is further defined, then ye shall know that (with a happy turn of expression) these people have rejected Jehovah, i.e., not me, therefore, as this statement quite reminds us of Num_16:11 : ye conspire against Jehovah—what is Aaron? Blessed men whose guilelessness gave them this assurance, that it was God’s affair that was attacked in them (Joh_20:23)! How basely this assurance has been abused by hierarchs ancient and modern! But here it proceeds from the testimony of the Spirit of God. The word: if Jehovah shall do something creative, designates the miracle proper. For the miracle is something out and out new in an old familiar sphere of life; a new word as a prophecy (Isa_42:9), a new fact as a miracle in the narrower sense (Jer_31:22), a new covenant as the unity of the new word and of the new fact (Jer_31:31), which is celebrated on to eternity in a new song, and, in respect to matter and form (Luk_5:38) proves itself to be the new principle and the impelling power of the world’s renovation (Rev_21:5), and also forms the reason for the new life and the new name (Isa_62:2). The new fact that Moses announces will be a miracle of punishment: the earth will open her mouth and swallow the rebels alive.—And so it happened; a sudden caving in of the ground swallowed the entire space where the rebels were. The surrounding circle of the people, among whom we are to suppose were the sons of Korah, draws back with terror. It is worthy of note that here, too, the terror of the people (as attritio) has no sort of religious manifestation as its consequence. While here the earth swallowed up the greater part of the conspiracy, which is properly designated as that of Korah, in the group of false priests that were offering incense there broke out a fire from the Lord that destroyed them; as in their time Nadab and Abihu were destroyed by fire. Fire from heaven devours the men that committed sacrilege on the true priesthood, on the fire of the Spirit; but under the rebels against the God-ordained earthly power the ground under foot caves in. Moses, however, appears here, too, as the man whose wonderful presentiment becomes a miraculous prophecy by the Spirit of revelation. The discrepancies that Knobel has tried to find in this section Keil clears up.
Footnotes:
[1]conspired [?]
[2]congregation.
[3]called of the assembly.
[4]Heb. It is much for you.
[5]Heb. It is much for you.
[6]Is it too small a thing?
[7]And they said.
[8]Heb. bore out.
[9]meal-offering.
[10]at.
[11]Tent of Meeting.
[12]and
[13]swept away.
[14]that it is not of.
[15]Heb. bore out.
[16]Heb. as every man dieth.
[17]Heb. create a creation.
[18]underworld [the Sheol.]
[19]blasphemed.
[20]assembly.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v3 they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron--The…
they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron--The assemblage seems to have been composed of the whole band of conspirators; and they grounded their complaint on the fact that the whole people, being separated to the divine service (Exo 19:6), were equally qualified to present offerings on the altar, and that God, being graciously, present among them by the tabernacle and the cloud, evinced His readiness to receive sacrifices from the hand of any others as well as from theirs.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. Korah was a Levite of the family of…
1. Korah was a Levite of the family of the Kohathites, whose service was the transportation of the sacred furniture of the tabernacle. He was probably a first cousin of Moses and Aaron. See Exo_6:18, and Num_4:18, note. The prince who stands next to the throne is most tempted to supplant the king.
Dathan and Abiram — Reubenites of the family of Pallu. Num_26:8-9. On, also a Reubenite, is not mentioned again. The rabbinical tradition is, that he was prevailed upon by his wife to withdraw from his accomplices after Moses spoke with them. Josephus omits the name of On, but retains that of his father in the form of Phalous, thus identifying him with Pallu. Num_26:5, note. These may have felt sore because the birthright and headship of Israel had been taken away from their ancestor on account of his crime. See Num_2:3, note.
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Took men — In the original the verb “took” has no object. “There is an anakolouthon rather than an ellipsis, and not merely a copyist’s error in these words, ‘took and rose up against Moses with two hundred and fifty men,’ for they took two hundred and fifty men, that is, gained them over to the conspiracy, and rose up with them,” etc. Dr. A. Clarke forgets a plain principle of Hebrew syntax when he makes Dathan, etc., the objects and Korah the sole subject of “took” because it is singular. When the verb stands before several subjects it often agrees only with the first.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Num_16:1. and Dathan and Abiram] These words are from…
Num_16:1. and Dathan and Abiram] These words are from the opening of the J E narrative, and the verb which belongs to them is ‘rose up’ in Num_16:2.
and On, the son of Peleth] The name On does not appear again in the narrative, or anywhere else in the O.T. In Num_26:8 f. Dathan and Abiram are called sons of Eliab the son of Pallu. If Peleth is a corruption of Pallu, ‘and On’ (ואון)1 [Note: Before the final ן came into use the letter נ would be easily written for ב, and the letters י and ו are frequently interchanged.] may have arisen from an accidental repetition of יאב, the last three consonants of Eliab; in which case the words should run the sons of Eliab the son of Pallu, sons of Reuben.
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took men] In the Heb. the object of the verb is absent, and it is unlikely that ‘men’ is the right word to be supplied. Perhaps read ויקם for ויקח, ‘and Korah rose up,’ in which case the beginning of the Korah narrative corresponds to the beginning of the other narrative.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 (1) Now Korah, the son of Izhar . .…
XVI.
(1) Now Korah, the son of Izhar . . . —Some suppose that the copula before “Dathan and Abiram” should be omitted, and that the verse should be rendered thus: Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, took Dathan and Abiram, &c. The rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram is the only important event which is recorded in connection with the protracted wandering in the desert. The time and place of its occurrence cannot be positively determined. The circumstances out of which it appears to have arisen render it probable that it took place during one of the early years of the wanderings in the wilderness, either during the abode at Kadesh or subsequently to the departure from it. In favour of the supposition that the occurrence took place during the sojourn at Kadesh, it may be urged—(1) that the history of the Israelites between the first and the second encampments at Kadesh appears to be designedly regarded and treated as a blank; and (2) that during that interval they appear to have been dispersed over the face of the wilderness, whilst the narrative of the rebellion of Korah seems to assume the concentration of the people in one place. The whole of the narrative bears the clear impress of historical truth. The leaders of the rebellion, amongst whom Korah holds the most conspicuous place (comp. Num_16:1; Num_26:9; Jud_1:11), belonged to the tribes of Levi and Reuben. Korah, as the descendant of Izhar, the brother of Amram, who was the father (or. as some maintain, the more distant ancestor) of Moses and Aaron, may well be supposed to have been jealous of the peculiar prerogatives of the priestly family, and also of the leadership of Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel (Num_3:30), who appears to have been the youngest son of Kohath, whilst the name of Izhar stands next to that of Amram (Num_3:19). Dathan and Abiram, moreover, as the sons of Eliab, the son of Pallu, the son of Reuben (Num_26:5-9), who was the eldest son of Jacob, may, on like grounds, be supposed to have been discontented on account of the transference of the birthright, and the consequent loss of the leadership which had been possessed by their tribe, and which was now held by the tribe of Judah. It is possible that they may have regarded the priesthood also as amongst the prerogatives of the firstborn which should have descended to them. The proximity of the Kohathites to the Reubenites—for both were encamped on the south side of the Tabernacle—afforded opportunity for their common deliberations; and it has been inferred by some, from Num_16:24-27, that they had erected a tabernacle in rivalry with the Tabernacle of the Congregation. No further mention is made of the name of On, nor is he expressly included in the account of the final punishment.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Numbers 16
Numbers 16
The chapter on which we have just been dwelling, is what may be called a digression from the history of Israel’s wilderness life, except indeed the short paragraph respecting the Sabbath-breaker, It looks forward into the future, when, spite of all their sin and folly, their murmuring and rebellion, Israel shall possess the land of Canaan, and offer sacrifices of righteousness and songs of praise to the God of their salvation. In it we have seen Jehovah rising far above all the unbelief and disobedience, the pride and wilfulness exhibited in Numbers 13 and Numbers 14, and looking on to the full and final accomplishment of His own eternal purpose, and the fulfilment of His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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But in chapter 16 the wilderness story is resumed - that sad and humbling story, so far as man is concerned; but a bright and blessed story of the exhaustless patience and boundless grace of God. These are the two grand lessons of the wilderness. We learn what man is, and we learn what God is. The two things lie side by side on the pages of the Book of Numbers. Thus in chapter 14 we have man and his ways. In chapter 15 we have God and His ways. And now, in the chapter which opens before us, we come back to man and his ways again. May we reap much deep and solid instruction from the double lesson!
"Now Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?" Verses 1-3.
Here then we enter upon the solemn history of what the Holy Ghost, by the Apostle Jude, terms "The gainsaying of Core." The rebellion is attributed to Korah, inasmuch as he was the religious leader in it. He seems to have possessed sufficient influence to gather around him a large number of influential men" princes, famous men, and men of renown." In short, it was a very formidable and serious rebellion; and we shall do well to look closely at its source and moral features.
It is always a most critical moment in the history of an assembly when a spirit of disaffection displays itself; for, if it be not met in the right way, the most disastrous consequences are sure to follow. There are materials in every assembly capable of being acted upon, and it only needs some restless master spirit to arise, in order to work on such materials, and fan into a devouring flame the fire that has been smouldering in secret. There are hundreds and thousands ready to flock around the standard of revolt, when once it has been raised, who have neither the vigour nor the courage to raise it themselves. It is not every one that Satan will take up as an instrument in such work. It needs a shrewd, clever, energetic man - a man of moral’ power - one possessing influence over the minds of his fellows, and an iron will to carry forward his schemes. No doubt Satan infuses much of all these into the men whom he uses in his diabolical undertakings. At all events, we know, as a fact, that the great leaders in all rebellious movements are generally men of master minds, capable of swaying, according to their own will, the fickle multitude, which, like the ocean, is acted upon by every stormy mind that blows. Such men know how, in the first place, to stir the passions of the people; and, in the second place, how to wield them, when stirred. Their most potent agency - the leper with which they can most effectually raise the masses-is some question as to their liberty and their rights. If they can only succeed in persuading people that their liberty is curtailed, and their rights infringed, they are sure to gather a number of restless spirits around them, and do a vast deal of serious mischief.
Thus it was in the matter of Korah and his coadjutors. They sought to make it appear that Moses and Aaron were lording it over their brethren, and interfering with their rights and privileges as members of a holy congregation, in which, according to their judgement, all were on a dead level, and one had as much right to be active as another.
"Ye take too much upon you." Such was their charge against "the meekest man in all the earth." But what had Moses taken upon him? Surely the most cursory glance back at the history of that dear and honoured servant would have been sufficient to convince any impartial person that, so far from taking dignity and responsibility upon him, he had shown himself only too ready to shrink from them when presented, and sink under them when imposed. Hence, therefore, any one who could think of accusing Moses of taking upon him, only proved himself totally ignorant of the man’s real spirit and character. Assuredly the one who could say to Joshua," Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His spirit upon them!" was not very likely to take much upon him.
But, on the other hand, if God calls one a man into prominence - if he qualifies him for work - if He fills and fits the vessel for special service - if He assigns a man his position - then of what possible use can it be for any one to quarrel with divine gift, and divine appointment? In truth, nothing can be more absurd. "A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven." And therefore it must prove worse than useless for any one to assume to be or have anything, for all such assumption must prove hollow in the end. Men will, sooner or later, find their level; and nothing will stand but what is of God.
Korah and his company, therefore, were quarrelling with God and not with Moses and Aaron. These latter had been called of God to occupy a certain position, and to do a certain work, and woe be to them if they refused. It was not they who had aimed at the position or assumed the work; they were ordained of God. This ought to have settled the question; and it would have settled it for all save restless, self-occupied rebels, who sought to undermine the true servants of God in order to exalt themselves. This is always the way with the promoters of sedition or disaffection. Their real object is to make themselves somebody. They talk loudly and very plausibly about the common rights and privileges of God’s people; But, in reality, they themselves are aiming at a position for which they are in no way qualified; and at privileges to which they have no right.
In point of fact, the matter is as simple as possible. Has God given a man his place to fill - his work to do? Who will question this? Well, then, let each one know his place and fill it - know his work and do it. It is the most senseless thing in the world for one to attempt to occupy another’s post or do another’s work. We were led to see this, very distinctly, when meditating on Numbers 3 and Numbers 4, It must ever hold good. Korah had his work; Moses had his. Why should one envy another? It would be quite as reasonable to charge the sun, moon, and stars with taking too much upon them, when they shine in their appointed spheres, as to charge any gifted servant of Christ therewith, when he seeks to discharge the responsibility which his gift, most surely, imposes upon him. These luminaries serve in the place assigned them by the hand of the almighty Creator; and so long as Christ’s servants do the same, it is charging them falsely to say that they take too much upon them.
Now this principle is of immense importance, in every assembly, large or small - under all circumstances where Christians are called to work together. It is a mistake to suppose that all the members of the body of Christ are called to places of prominence; or that any member can select his place in the body. It is wholly and absolutely a matter of divine appointment.
This is the clear teaching of 1 Corinthians 12. "The body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him." Verses 14-18.
Here lies the true, the only true source of ministry in the Church of God - the body of Christ. "God hath set the members." It is not one man appointing another; still less is it a man appointing himself. It is divine appointment or nothing, yea, worse than nothing, a daring usurpation of divine rights.
Now, looking at the subject in the light of that marvellous illustration of 1 Corinthians 12 what sense would there be in the feet charging the hands, or the ears charging the eyes, with taking too much upon them? Would not the notion be preposterous in the extreme? True, those members occupy a prominent place in the body; but why do they? Because God has set them there, as it pleased him." And what are they doing in that prominent place? They are doing the work which God has given them to do. And to what end? The good of the whole body. There is not a single member, however obscure, that does not derive positive benefit from the duly discharged functions of the prominent member. And, on the other hand, the prominent member is a debtor to the duly discharged functions of the obscure one. Let the eyes lose their power of vision, and every member will feel it. Let there be functional derangement in the most trivial member, and the most honourable member will suffer.
Hence, therefore, it is not a question of taking upon us much or little, but of doing our appointed work, and filling our appointed place. It is by the effectual working of all the members, according to the measure of every part, that the edification of the whole body is promoted. If this great truth be not seized and carried out, edification, so far from being promoted, is most positively hindered, the Holy Ghost is quenched and grieved; the sovereign rights of Christ are denied; and God is dishonoured. Every Christian is responsible to act on this divine principle, and to testify against everything that practically denies it. The fact of the ruin of the professing Church is no reason whatever for abandoning the truth of God, or sanctioning any denial of it. The Christian is always solemnly bound to submit himself to the revealed mind of God. To plead circumstances as an excuse for doing wrong, or for neglecting any truth of God, is simply flying in the face of divine authority, and making God the Author of our disobedience.
But we cannot pursue this subject further. ’We have merely referred to it here in connection with our chapter, with which we must now proceed. It is undoubtedly a most solemn page of Israel’s wilderness story.
Korah and his company were very speedily taught the folly and sin of their rebellious movement. They were awfully wrong in daring to set themselves up against the true servants of the living God. As to Moses, the man against whom they were gathered together, when he heard their seditious words, ’’he fell upon his face." This was a very good way to meet rebels. We have seen this beloved servant of God on his face when he ought to have been on his feet. (Ex. 14) But here it was about the best and safest thing he could do. There is never much use in contending with restless and disaffected people; better far leave them in the Lord’s hands; for with Him, in reality, is their controversy. If God sets a man in a certain position, and gives him a certain work to do, and his fellows think proper to quarrel with him, simply on the score of his doing that work, and filling that position, then is their quarrel really with God, who knows how to settle it, and will do it in His own way. the assurance of this gives holy calmness and moral elevation to the Lord’s servant, in moments when envious and turbulent spirits rise up against him. It is hardly possible for any one to occupy a prominent place of service, or to be pre-eminently used of God, without, at some time or another, having to encounter the attacks of certain radical and discontented men, who cannot bear to see any one more honoured than themselves. But the true way to meet such is to take the place of utter prostration and nothingness, and allow the tide of disaffection to roll over one.
"And when Moses beard it, he fell upon his face. And he spake unto Korah and all his company, saying, Even to-morrow the Lord will show [not Moses will show] who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom He hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. This do; take you censers, Korah and all his company; and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow: and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi." Verses 4-7.
This was placing the matter in the proper hands. Moses gives great prominence to the sovereign rights of Jehovah. "The Lord will show" and "The Lord will choose." there is not a syllable about himself or Aaron. The whole question hinges upon the Lord’s choice and the Lord’s appointment. The two hundred and fifty rebels are brought face to face with the living God. They are summoned into His presence, with their censers in their hands, in order that the whole matter may be thoroughly gone into, and definitely settled before that grand tribunal from which there can be no appeal. It would, obviously, have been of no possible use for Moses and Aaron to attempt to give judgement, inasmuch as they were defendants in the cause. But Moses was blessedly willing to have all parties summoned into the divine presence, there to have their matters judged and determined.
This was true humility and true wisdom. It is always well, when people are seeking a place, to let them have it, to their hearts content; for most assuredly, the very place after which they have foolishly aspired will be the scene of their signal defeat and deplorable confusion. you may sometimes see men envying others in a certain sphere of service, and longing to occupy that sphere themselves. let them try it; and they are sure, in the end, to break down and retire covered with shame and confusion of face. The Lord will surely confound all such. There is no use in man trying to do it; and hence it is always best for such as may happen to be the objects of envious attack just to fall on their faces before God, and let Him settle the question with the malcontents. It is most sad when such scenes occur in the history of God’s people; but they have occurred; they do occur; and they may occur again and again; and we feel assured that the very best plan is to let men of a restless, ambitions, disaffected spirit run to the full length of their tether, and then they are sure to be pulled up. It is, in point of fact, to leave them in the hands of God, who will most surely deal with them in His own perfect way.
"And Moses said unto Korah, hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi: seemeth it but a small thing unto yon, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? And he hath brought thee near unto him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the Priesthood also? For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against Him?" Verses 8-11.
Here we are conducted to the very root of this terrible conspiracy. We see the man who originated it. and the object at which he aimed. Moses addresses Korah, and charges him with aiming at the priesthood. Let the reader carefully note this. It is important that he should have this point clearly before his mind, according to the teaching of scripture. He must see what Korah was - what his work was - and what the object of his restless ambition was. He must see all these things if he would understand the true force and meaning of Jude’s expression," The gainsaying of Core."
What then was Korah? He was a Levite, and, as such, he was entitled to minister and to teach: "They shall teach Jacob thy judgements, and Israel thy law." ’’ The God of Israel hath brought you near to himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them." Such was Korah, and such his sphere of work. at what did he aim? At the priesthood. "Seek ye the priesthood also?"
Now, to a cursory observer it might not have appeared that Korah was seeking anything For himself. He seemed to be contending for the rights of the whole assembly. But Moses, by the Spirit of God, unmasks the man, and shows that, under the plausible pretext of standing up for the common rights of the congregation, he was audaciously seeking the priesthood for himself. It is well to note this. It will most generally be found that loud talkers about the liberties, rights, and privileges of God’s people are, in reality, seeking their own exaltation and advantage. Not content with doing their proper work, they are seeking an improper place. This is not always apparent; but God is sure to make it manifest sooner or later, for "by him actions are weighed." Nothing can be more worthless than seeking a place for oneself. It is sure to end in disappointment and confusion. The grand thing for each one is to be found filling his appointed place and doing his appointed work; and the more humbly, quietly, and unpretendingly, the better.
But Korah had not learnt this simple but wholesome principle. He was not content with his divinely appointed place and service, But aimed at something which did not belong to him at all. He aimed at being a priest. His sin was the sin of rebellion against God’s high priest. This was "the gainsaying of Core."
It is important to seize this fact in Korah’s history. It is not generally understood; and hence it is that his sin is charged, now-a-days, upon those who seek to exercise any gift which may have been bestowed upon them by the Head of the Church. But a moment’s calm reflection upon the subject in the light of scripture would be quite sufficient to show how utterly baseless is such a charge. Take, for example, a man to whom Christ has manifestly given the gift of an evangelist. Are we to suppose him guilty of the sin of Korah because, in pursuance of the divine gift and the divine commission, he goes forth to preach the gospel? Should he preach? or should he not preach? Is the divine gift - the divine call - sufficient. Is he acting as a rebel when he preaches the gospel?
So also as regards a pastor or teacher. Is he guilty of the sin of Korah, because he exercises the special gift imparted to him by the Head of the Church? Does not Christ’s gift make a man a minister? Is anything further necessary? is it not plain to any unprejudiced mind - to any one willing to be taught by scripture - that the possession of a divinely imparted gift makes a man a minister, without anything further whatsoever? And is it not equally plain that, though a man had everything else that could be had, and yet had no gift from the Head of the Church, he is no minister? We confess we do not see how these plain propositions con be called in question.
We are speaking, be it remembered, of special gifts of ministry in the Church. No doubt, every member in the body of Christ has some ministry to fulfil, some work to do. This is understood by every well-instructed Christian; and, moreover, it is clear that the edification of the body is carried on, not merely by some special prominent gifts, but by the effectual working of all the members in their respective places, as we read in the epistle to the Ephesians: "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to The effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." Eph. 4: 15, 16.
All this is as plain as scripture can make it. But, as to any special gifts, such as that of evangelist, pastor, prophet, or teacher, it must be received from Christ alone; and the possession of it makes a man a minister, without anything further. And, on the other hand, all the education and all the human authority under the sun could not make a man an evangelist, a pastor, or teacher, unless he has a bona fide gift from the Head of the Church.
Thus much as to ministry in the Church of God. we trust enough has been said to prove to the reader that it is a very grave mistake indeed to charge men with the awful sin of Korah because they exercise those gifts which have been imparted to them by the great Head of the Church. In point of fact it would be a sin not to exercise them.
But there is a very material difference between ministry and priesthood. Korah did not aim at being a minister, for that he was. He aimed at being a priest, which he could not be. The priesthood was vested in Aaron and his family; and it was a daring usurpation for any one else, no matter who, to attempt to offer sacrifice, or discharge any other priestly function. Now, Aaron was a type of our great High Priest who is passed into the heavens - Jesus the Son of God. Heaven is the sphere of His ministry. "If he were on earth he should not be a priest." (Heb. 8: 4) "Our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood." There is no such thing as a priest on earth now, save in the sense in which all believers are priests. Thus we read in Peter, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood." (1 Peter 2: 9) Every Christian is a priest in this sense of the term. The very feeblest saint in the Church of God is as much a priest as Paul was. It is not a question of capacity or spiritual power, but simply of position. All believers are priests, and they are called to offer spiritual sacrifices, according to Hebrews 13: 15, 16: "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good, and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."
This is the Christian priesthood. And let the reader note it carefully, that to aim at any other form of priesthood than this - to assume any other priestly function - to set up a certain priestly class - a sacerdotal caste - a number of men to act on behalf of their fellows - or discharge priestly service for them before God - this is, in principle, the sin of Korah. We only speak of the principle; not of persons. The germ of the sin is as distinct as possible. By and by there will be the full blown fruit.
The reader cannot possibly be too simple in apprehending this entire subject. It is, we may truly say, of capital importance, at this moment. Let him examine it only in the light of Holy Scripture. Tradition will not do. Ecclesiastical history will not do. It must be God’s word alone. In the light of that word let the question be asked and answered, "Who are justly chargeable with the sin of Korah? Is it those who seek to exercise whatever gifts the Head of the Church has bestowed; or those who assume a priestly office and work which only belong to Christ Himself?" This is a very weighty and solemn question. may it be calmly pondered, in the divine presence; and may we seek grace to be faithful to Him who is not only our gracious Saviour but our sovereign Lord!
The remainder of our chapter presents a most solemn picture of divine judgement executed upon Korah and his company. The Lord very speedily settled the question raised by those rebellious men. The very record of it is appalling beyond expression. What must the fact have been? The earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the three principal movers in the rebellion; and the fire of the Lord went forth and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who undertook to offer incense.
"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." Verses 28-30.
Moses, in these words, makes it a question simply between Jehovah and the rebels. He can appeal to God, and leave all in His hands. This is the true secret of moral power. A man who has nothing of his own to seek - no aim or object but the divine glory - can confidently wait the issue-of things. But in order to this, the eye must be single, the heart upright, the purpose pure. It will not do to assume or affect anything. If God is going to judge, He most assuredly will expose all assumption and affectation. These things can have no place when the earth is opening her mouth, and the fire of the Lord is devouring all around. It is all very well to swagger, and boast, and speak great swelling words, when all is at rest. But when God enters the scene, in terrible judgement, the aspect of things is speedily changed.
"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." Verses 31-34
Truly, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his saints; and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about Him." "Our God is a consuming fire." How much better it would have been for Korah had he rested content with his Levite service which was of the very highest order. His work as a Kohathite was to carry some of the most precious vessels of the sanctuary but he aimed at the priesthood, and fell into the pit.
Nor was this all. Hardly had the ground closed over the rebels, when "there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense." It was a most terrific scene altogether - a signal and soul-subduing exhibition of divine judgement upon human pride and pretension. It is vain for man to exalt himself against God, for He resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble, What consummate folly for worms of the dust to lift themselves up against the almighty God! Poor man! He is more silly by far than the moth that rushes against the blaze that consumes it.
Oh! to walk humbly with our God! to be content with His will; to be satisfied to fill a very humble niche, and to do the most unpretending work! This is true dignity, and true happiness. If God gives as a crossing to sweep, let us sweep it, as under His eye, and to His praise. The grand and all-essential point is to be found doing the very work which he gives us to do, and occupying the very post to which He appoints us. Had Korah and his company learnt this, their piercing wail would never have terrified the hearts of their brethren. But, no; they would be something When they were nothing, and hence they went down into the pit. Pride and destruction are inseparably linked together in the moral government of God. This principle always holds good, however the measure may vary. Let us remember it. Let us seek to rise from the study of Numbers 16. with a deepened sense of the value of an humble and contrite spirit. We live at a moment in the which man is pushing himself upward and onward. "Excelsior" is a very popular motto just now. Let us look well to our mode of interpreting and applying it. "He that exalteth himself shall be abased." If we are to be governed by the rule of God’s kingdom, we shall find that the only way to get up is to go down. The One who now occupies the very highest place in heaven is the One who voluntarily took the very lowest place on earth. See Philippians 2: 5-11.
Here is our example, as Christians; and here, too, the divine antidote against the pride and restless ambition of the men of this world. Nothing is more sad than to witness a pushing, bustling, forward, self-confident spirit and style in those who profess to be followers of Him who was meek and lowly in heart. It is such a flagrant contradiction of the spirit and precepts of Christianity, and is a sure accompaniment of an unbroken condition of soul. It is utterly impossible for any one to indulge in a boastful, pretentious, self-confident spirit, if ever he has really measured himself in the presence of God. To be much alone with God is the sovereign remedy for pride and self-complacency. May we know the reality of this in the secret of our own souls! May the good Lord keep us truly humble, in all our ways, simply leaning on Himself, and very very little in our own eyes!
The closing paragraph of our chapter illustrates, in a most striking manner, the incorrigible evil of the natural heart. One might fondly hope that after the impressive scenes enacted in the presence of the congregation, deep and permanent lessons would be learnt. Having seen the earth open her mouth - having heard the heart-rending cry of the rebels as they descended into the pit - having seen the fire of the Lord coming forth and consuming, as in a moment, two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation - having witnessed such tokens of the divine judgement - such a display of divine power and majesty - one might suppose that the people would henceforth walk softly and humbly; and that the accents of discontent and rebellion would no more be heard in their tents.
Alas! alas! man is not to be so taught. The flesh is utterly incurable. This truth is taught in every section and on every page of the volume of God. Illustrated in the closing lines of Numbers 16. "On the morrow." Think of that! It was not in a year, or a month, or even a week after the appalling scenes on which we have been dwelling, "But, on the morrow, all the congregation (no longer a few daring spirits merely) murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment." Verses 41-45.
Here is another opportunity for Moses. the whole congregation is again threatened with immediate destruction. All seems hopeless. The divine long-suffering seems at an end, and the sword of judgement is about to fall on the whole assembly. But now it appears that in that very priesthood which the rebels had despised lies the only hope for the people; and that the very men whom they had charged with killing the Lord’s people, were God’s instruments in saving their lives. "And Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces. Had Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague had begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people. and He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed." Verses 46-48.
It is here made very apparent that nothing but priesthood - even that very priesthood which had been so despised - could avail for a rebellious and stiff-necked people. There is something unspeakably blessed in this closing paragraph. There stands Aaron, God’s high priest, between the dead and the living, and from his censer a cloud of incense goes up before God - impressive type of One greater than Aaron, who having made a full and perfect atonement for the sins of His people, is ever before God in all the fragrance of His Person and work. Priesthood alone could bring the People through the wilderness. It was the rich and suited provision of divine grace. The people were indebted to intercession for their preservation from the just consequences of their rebellious murmurings. Had they been dealt with merely on the ground of justice, all that could be said was," Let me alone that I may consume them in a moment."
This is the language of pure and inflexible justice. Immediate destruction is the work of justice. Full and final preservation is the glorious and vital characteristic work of divine Grace - grace reigning through righteousness. Had God dealt in mere justice with the people, His name would not have been declared, inasmuch as there is far more in His name than justice. There is love, mercy, goodness, Kindness, long-suffering, deep and unfailing compassion. But none of these things could be seen had the people been consumed in a moment, and hence the name of Jehovah would not have been declared or glorified. "For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain from thee, that I cut thee not off..... For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another." Isaiah 48: 9, 11.
How well it a for us that God acts towards us, and for us for the glory of His own name How wonderful too that His glory should most fully shine - yea, could only be seen in that vast plan which His own heart has devised, in which He is revealed as "A just God and a Saviour." Precious title for a poor lost sinner! In it is wrapped up all that such an one can possibly need for time and eternity. It meets him in the depth of his need, as a guilty hell-deserving one, bears him along through all the varied exigencies, trials, and sorrows of the wilderness; and, finally, conducts him to that bright and blessed world above, where sin and sorrow can never enter.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–3 THE GAINSAYING OF KORAH (verses 2Sa_18:18 and elsewhere; but…
THE GAINSAYING OF KORAH (verses 2Sa_18:18 and elsewhere; but the change of number from jQYiw to WfWqYw makes it difficult. It seems best to say that the construction is broken and cannot be satisfactorily explained. Indeed there can be no question that the whole narrative, like the construction of the opening verses, is rely confused, and leaves on the mind the impression that it has been altered, not very skillfully, from its original form. The two parts of the tragedy, that concerning the company of Korah, and that concerning the Reubenites, although mingled in the narrative, do not adjust themselves in the mind, and the general effect is obscure. It is sufficient to point out here that no one can certainly tell what became of the ringleader himself, who was obviously the head and front of the whole business. Some are strenuously of opinion that he was swallowed up alive, others as strenuously that he was consumed with fire; but the simple fact is that his death is not recorded in this chapter at all, although he is assumed to have perished. The obscurity which hangs over this passage cannot be traced to any certain cause; the discrepancies and contradictions which have been discovered in it are clue to mistake or misrepresentation; nor can any evil motive be plausibly assigned for the interpolation (if it be such) of that part of the story which concerns the Reubenites. If, for some reason unknown to us, an original narrative of Korah"s rebellion was enlarged so as to include the simultaneous mutiny of the Reubenites and their fate; and if, further, that enlargement was so unskillfully made as to leave considerable confusion in the narrative, wherein does that affect either its truth or its inspiration? The supernatural influence which watched over the production of the sacred narrative certainly did not interfere with any of those natural causes which affected its composition, its style, its clearness or obscurity. Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi. On the genealogy of the Levites see Exo_6:16-22, and above on Num_3:17-19. It is generally supposed that some generations are passed over in these genealogies. Korah belonged to the same Kohathite sub-tribe as Moses and Aaron, and was related to them by some sort of cousinship; his father (or ancestor) Izhar was the younger brother of Amram and the elder brother of Uzziel, whose descendant Elizaphan had been made chief of the Kohathites. Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. Eliab himself was apparently the only son of Pallu, the second son of Reuben. (Num_26:5, Num_26:8) If the word "son" is to be literally understood in all these cases, then Korah, Dathan, and Abiram would all be great-great-grandsons of Jacob himself. On, the son of Peleth. It is one of the strange obscurities of this narrative that On, who appears here as a ringleader, is never mentioned again either in this chapter or elsewhere. Sons of Reuben. Reubenites. The encampment of their tribe was on the south side of the tabernacle in the outer line, (Num_2:10) while that of the Kohathites was on the same side in the inner line. Thus they were to some extent neighbours; but see below on verse 24.
Vers. 1-40. The true and only Priesthood.
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It is quite clear that the homiletic application of this passage turns upon a question which is strongly controverted a question which it is alike impossible (save at the cost of honesty and truth) to shirk, or to take for granted one way or the other. That the rebellion of Korah was directed under specious pretences against a divinely-ordained priesthood vested in one man and his successors is of course undenied, but is of little interest or value apart from its application to our own times and circumstances. The practical question which immediately arises, and arises only to be disputed, is this, What priesthood now corresponds to that assailed in Aaron? It may no doubt be said that there is nothing which now answers to it, nothing of which that was a shadow and a type; that Judaism was a sacerdotal religion, but that Christianity is not. If that were true then Korah was after all right; his only error was that he held opinions in advance of his age. But apart from that, such a position simply robs both the incident and record of any value for ourselves, and is point-blank opposed to the Apostolic teaching in such places as 1Co_10:11, and Jud_1:11. In the latter the "gainsaying of Korah" is specified as one of those typical acts of wickedness in which a virulent form of moral evil active in the days of the apostle had been anticipated both as to sin and punishment; the bad men of whom he speaks (verses 4, 8, 10) had already met their doom in a figure when Korah and his company perished. It is clear that Holy Scripture recognizes, both generally and specifically, a teaching value for Christian times in this record. The most useful and honest plan will therefore be to set forth the elements of the question impartially, and to leave them to the consideration of the reader. Some points will come out with sufficient clearness to command general (if not universal) assent; and others will at least be cleared of misleading arguments and false associations.
I The first position which we can take up with authority and certainty is the positive position that THE PRIESTHOOD OF AARON AND HIS SONS WAS THE OLD TESTAMENT TYPE AND SHADOW OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST CONFERRED UPON HIM IN HIS HUMAN NATURE AS THE SON OF MAN. This is argued and proved with many illustrations by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. (see especially Num_5:4, 5 7:11-28 8:1-4 10:11-14, 21) The elaborate comparison of the two priesthoods, the old and the new, which was also infinitely older, and especially the assertion that the Levitical priests were many only because death deposed them from office, (Num_7:23) whilst Christ abideth for ever, forbid us to regard any other priesthood than that of our Lord as the Christian analogue of the Jewish priesthood. As far as the type went Aaron lived on in all his priestly race, just as he had lived before in his chosen ancestor Abraham: (Heb_7:10) there was but one Jewish high-priest, and unto him corresponds in the kingdom of heaven Jesus and Jesus alone. Herein all will be substantially agreed who loyally accept the testimony of Scripture, and herein (if it be clearly and devoutly held) is the real heart of the matter, and the sufficient safeguard against superstition.
II The second position which we can take up on purely Scriptural grounds, and which is not fairly assailable, is the negative position THAT NO ARGUMENT AGAINST MINISTERIAL OR SACERDOTAL ASSUMPTIONS OR CLAIMS IS VALID WHICH IS BASED UPON THE HOLINESS AND PRIESTLY CHARACTER OF ALL THE FAITHFUL. It is perfectly clear that Korah and his company had both Scripture and fact on their side when they said that all the congregation were holy and all were priests. They erred in taking for granted that the priesthood of all Israelites was really inconsistent with the special priesthood of Aaron. As things were, it is certain that the universal priesthood of Israel could best express itself, best translate itself into worship, through the ministerial acts of Aaron and his sons. A spiritually-minded Jew, who recognized most deeply his own priestly calling in Israel, would most devoutly give thanks for the separation of the tribe of Levi and family of Aaron, because he would feel that no one benefited so much by that separation as himself; far from standing between him and the God of Israel, it enabled him to draw nigh to God in a multitude of ways otherwise impossible. He would indeed be able to argue from the histories of Gideon, of Samuel, of Elijah, and of others of the chosen race, that the priesthood of the ordinary Israelite, although usually dormant as to outward sacerdotal functions, was always capable of being called into play by Divine permission under stress of circumstances, and he would be prepared to understand the significance of such a passage as Rev_7:5-8, in which Levi takes his place again (and not at all a foremost place) among the tribes, the Holy Ghost thus signifying that in the world to come all such distinctions will be merged for ever in the common priesthood of the saved. But in the mean time there was nothing antagonistic, either in doctrine or in practice, between the truth which Korah asserted and that other truth which Korah assailed: the priesthood of the many was helped, not hindered, by the special priesthood of the few. It is therefore impossible honestly to use such texts as 1Pe_2:9 Rev_1:6, against the doctrine of a special Christian priesthood, because they only assert of Christians what the texts relied upon by Korah asserted of the Jews.
III Abandoning the false line of argument just mentioned, we may yet so far develop the first position taken up as to maintain with confidence, THAT NO PRIESTHOOD CAN HAVE ANY EXISTENCE IN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST OTHER THAN THAT OF OUR LORD HIMSELF. This is made evident, not only by the exclusive way in which his priesthood is dwelt upon in the New Testament, but (what concerns us more in this place) by the whole analogy of the Old. Aaron alone had the priesthood, and the extreme malediction of God lighted upon all, even of the separated tribe, who dared to meddle with it; but Aaron was certainly the type of Christ Himself. Any priesthood which should claim to have any independent existence, even if it professed to draw its authority from Divine appointment, would be ipso facto in direct antagonism to the solitary prerogative of Jesus Christ. Hence it follows that the upholders, not the impugners, of such a priesthood would be "in the gainsaying of Korah." It follows also that there can be no direct analogy drawn between those who rose up against Moses and Aaron, and those who rise up against any earthly ministry; it will be shown that a true resemblance may be traced under certain conditions.
IV Admitting these principles, which ought not to be controverted, we may bring the question to a practical issue as follows: While there cannot be set over us any other priesthood than the only, immutable, and incommunicable priesthood of the Messiah, yet there is nothing in Holy Scripture to negative a priori the idea THAT OUR LORD (being withdrawn from sight and sense) MAY CHOOSE TO PERFORM PRIESTLY FUNCTIONS UPON EARTH VISIBLY AND AUDIBLY BY THE HAND AND MOUTH OF CHOSEN MEN; nor is there anything to negative a priori the further contention that those men were and are set apart in some special and exclusive way. Whether this be so is a matter of fact which must be decided upon the testimony, fairly and conscientiously weighed, of Scripture and of history. It depends upon the two historical questions.
1. Whether our Lord constituted the apostles his representatives for any priestly functions.
2. Whether the apostles transmitted such representation to others after them. In any case our Lord is the only priest, or rather has the only priesthood, although upon one view of the ease he will execute some offices of his priesthood by means of visible human agents, in whom and through whom he himself speaks and acts.
Without, therefore, entering upon any argument, we can safely conclude as to the Christian application of this passage.
1. That it must be directly referred to the everlasting priesthood of Christ, and to assaults upon it, or infringements of it.
2. That it may be in a secondary sense referred to a visible Christian priesthood, and to assaults upon it, on the supposition that such priesthood is in fact and in truth only the priesthood of Christ ministered in time and space by his appointment.
In point of fact there are many obvious and many subtle resemblances between the gainsaying of Korah and the popular contention against a Christian priesthood, or even against any Christian ministry, which no thoughtful student of Scripture can overlook, In the homiletics) however, which follow these are left to speak for themselves, and the deeper line of application will be followed. Consider, therefore
I THAT KORAH ON ONE SIDE, DATHAN AND ABIRAM ON THE OTHER, HAD HARDLY ANYTHING IN COMMON EXCEPT DISLIKE TO THE RULE OF MOSES, THE MEDIATOR OF ISRAEL AND KING IN JESHURUN. (Deu_33:5) His dislike was ecclesiastical, theirs was political; but this common dislike made them allies, and gave them a "tabernacle" in common (verse 27). Even so amongst the many who say, "We will not have this man to reign over us", (Luk_19:14) there are to be found the most various dispositions, and the most distinct causes of complaint. As in the days of his earthly ministry, (Mar_3:6 14:64, "all so now the opposition to him and to his sole governance is made up of the most heterogeneous, and at other times dissociate, elements.
II THAT KORAH WAS HIMSELF A LEVITE OF SOME DISTINCTION, AND WAS THE SOUL OF THE CONSPIRACY. Even so it is hardly possible to find in history any grave assault upon the work or doctrine of Christ which has not been inspired by some one whose ecclesiastical position has given him both aptness and influence for this evil.
III THAT KORAH REPRESENTED MOSES AND AARON IN AN INVIDIOUS LIGHT, AS MEN WHO KEPT THE PEOPLE IN SPIRITUAL SUBJECTION, AND DENIED TO THEM THEIR COMMON RIGHTS AS CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Even so the constant clamour of unbelief is that Christianity is a system devised in the interests of tyranny and obscurantism in order to keep men in moral slavery, and to rob them of their freedom of thought, and to fetter their freedom of action.
IV THAT KORAH ASSERTED TRUE FACTS AND APPEALED TO TRUE PRINCIPLES IN OPPOSITION TO WHAT HAD BEEN DIVINELY APPOINTED, AND WAS TO BE DIVINELY VINDICATED. Even so do men continually bring against the Truth himself facts which are undeniable, and principles which must be admitted. Herein is the real danger when war upon the Truth is waged with half-truths plausibly paraded as whole, with truths on one side confidently assumed to be fatal to the complemental truths on the other side. The liberty, e.g., of private judgment is arrayed against the authority of inspiration; the universal fatherhood of God against any distinction of the children of God, or necessity for the mediation of Christ; the fact that we are all members of one body against any mutual subordination or distribution of functions amongst those members.
V THAT KORAH WAS PROBABLY SINCERE IN SO FAR AS HE HAD PERSUADED HIMSELF THAT HE WAS RIGHT, otherwise he would hardly have ventured upon the fatal test. Even so the leaders of opposition to Christ are commonly sincere; only vulgar intolerance brands them off-hand with hypocrisy or self-seeking. And this is their power, for men are led by personal regard and trust much more than by any ability to judge between rival systems. The only way to meet the sincerity and zeal of error is by showing a more transparent sincerity and a more ardent zeal on the side of truth. (2Co_6:3-10 1Ti_4:12-16 Tit_2:10)
VI THAT WHEN MOSES HEARD THE INDICTMENT AGAINST HIMSELF AND AARON HE COULD BUT REFER IT TO THE DECISION OF THE LORD. The people were either actively or passively on the side of Korah, and argument had been unavailing. Even so when Christianity at large, or any system which we believe to be an integral part of Christianity, is assailed with popular and plausible arguments, there is really nothing to be done but to refer it to the arbitrament of God himself. Arguments convince only those that are convinced; clamours only intensify prejudice; mutual accusations only repel Moses himself effected nothing by the angry words into which he was betrayed. And the arbitrament of God is unequivocally declared by our Lord to be the practical outcome of our religion in our lives. (Mat_7:15, 20 Joh_13:35) That the test is not capable of easy or of immediate application, that it has to be applied broadly, and with many allowances for disturbing causes, is true; but yet it is the test, and the only test, to which our Lord calls us. It is the test out of which Aaron, with all the weight of popular opinion against him, will ultimately come triumphant; in which Korah, with all his sincerity and plausibility, will come to nothing. And note that while religious questions must be referred to the arbitrament of God, and that arbitrament is not always distinct or immediate in this world, there is a further decision which will be absolutely certain and conclusive. "Even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his," "for the day shall declare it", (1Co_3:13) and "it shall be revealed by fire," as it was with Korah"s company. Woe unto them who cannot abide, whether personally or as to their work, the test of fire. Our God is still, as then, a consuming fire, (Heb_12:29) and that fire burns and will burn against all falsity of teaching, as well as all unholiness of living. (1Co_3:15 Heb_12:14) And note again that "even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him;" for although the election be not arbitrary, yet it is the election of grace, and not the personal worth or aptitude or desire, that does place any, or will place any hereafter, near unto God. (cf. Mar_3:13 10:40 Joh_15:16 Rom_8:28)
VII THAT THE AMBITION OF KORAH WAS THE MORE TO BE BLAMED BECAUSE HE WAS HIMSELF A LEVITE, AND INTRUSTED WITH A SPECIAL MINISTRY IN HOLY THINGS. Even so is ambition or envy especially evil in a Christian man, forasmuch as he has an "unction" and an office in the body of Christ to which he cannot with all his zeal do justice, and which if faithfully used will bring him the highest possible reward. (cf. Luk_22:26 1Co_12:16, 22 1Pe_2:5 1Jn_2:20, 27 Rev_3:21 Rev_7:14, sq. )
VIII THAT THE PARTICULAR OFFENCE OF KORAH AND HIS COMPANY WAS THEIR DARING TO OFFER INCENSE, WHICH AARON ALONE MIGHT DO, The incense seems to have signified not simply "prayer," but rather the intercessory and prevailing prayer of the great High Priest and Mediator. Thus the "much incense" in Rev_8:3, Rev_8:4, which is undoubtedly the intercession of Christ, is added to and rises with the prayers of all saints. Thus then the special sin reprobated in Korah is any interference with the mediatorial office of Christ, whether by endeavouring to draw near to God through other mediators, or without any mediator at all. (cf. Joh_14:6 Gal_1:8 1Jn_2:1)
IX THAT THE COMPANY OF KORAH (WHATEVER BECAME OF HIMSELF) DIED BY FIRE, THE ELEMENT IN WHICH THEY SINNED. Even so he that presumptuously meddles with holy things, not being holy himself, shall perish by that very nearness which he rashly courted. The hand that is really and entirely wet can be plunged into molten metal without injury, and so he who is covered with the robe of righteousness may be a ministering servant of the consuming Fire, and live; but how great is the risk if the call be not clear. (cf. Mar_9:49)
X THAT THESE MEN WERE "SINNERS AGAINST THEIR OWN LIVES" IN TRUTH, ALTHOUGH THEY ONLY SEEMED TO BE VINDICATING THEIR JUST RIGHTS AGAINST USURPERS. Even so is every one that seeks his supposed rights not in the spirit of meekness and of personal self-abnegation, but in a spirit of pride, contradiction, and vainglory. To contend for oneself albeit sometimes necessary is of all things most dangerous, lest even in gaining our cause we lose our souls. (cf. Mat_23:12 1Co_13:5 Php_2:5-7)
XI THAT THEIR CENSERS WERE HALLOWED EVEN BY AN UNLAWFUL RELIGIOUS USE. Even so there is a kind of sanctity which attaches to every religious effort, however much it may be stained with pride or vitiated by error, and whatever ill results it may lead to, if it be made with sincerity. No such effort can be ignored as though it had not been made, nor cast out as wholly evil because not rightly made. Nothing which is done in the sacred name of religion (saving sheer hypocrisy) ought to be despised or neglected.
XII THAT THE RESCUED CENSERS BECAME AN ADDITIONAL STRENGTH AND ORNAMENT TO THE ALTAR, AND A WARNING TO ALL GENERATIONS. Even so all assaults upon the faith and discipline of Christ are over-ruled for good, at the same time adding strength to some weak or neglected side of religion, and furnishing a warning against the mistakes and faults which misled their authors. (cf. 1Co_11:19)
Consider again, with respect to the Reubenites
I THAT THEY WERE ANGRY WITH MOSES FOR WHAT WAS DUE TO THEIR OWN FAULT AND THE FAULT OF THE CONGREGATION, If they had not disobeyed they would have been in their own land by this time. Even so men are angry and impatient with the rule of Christ because it has not brought them peace or happiness, whereas this is wholly due to their own unfaithfulness. And so again men assail Christianity for not having reformed the world and abolished all evils, whereas they themselves will not submit to the easy yoke and light burden of Christ.
II THAT THEY FALSELY AND WICKEDLY SPAKE OF EGYPT IN TERMS ONLY APPLICABLE TO CANAAN. Even so do the enemies of Christ speak of a state of nature, and of the life of the natural man, unvexed by fear of hell or hope of heaven, as if that had been true happiness and peace, whereas they know that it is sheer misery and slavery. (Rom 1:28-32:6:20, 21 Eph_2:2, Eph_2:3)
III THAT THEY CHARGED MOSES WITH AMBITION AND SELFSEEKING, AND WITH THROWING DUST IN THE EYES OF THE PEOPLE. Even so is Christianity commonly accounted (or at least described) by its open and more vulgar enemies as mere obscurantism intended to keep the people in darkness, and to make them an easy prey to designing men for power and profit. (cf. 2Co_11:12, 20 12:16, &c.);
IV THAT DATHAN AND ABIRAM, BEING OBDURATE, WERE SWALLOWED UP BY THE EARTH, because it was with their earthly lot that they were angry, and with their earthly ruler that they contended. Even so they that are of the earth earthy shall perish with the perishing world; it is their punishment that they are "swallowed up" in gross material cares or pleasures, and have no lot nor part in the upper air of spiritual life. (1Co_15:48 Php_3:19, and compare the use of "the earth" in the Apoc., as in Rev_7:1 Rev_8:13)
Consider again, with respect to the congregation at large
I THAT THEY WERE IMPLICATED IN THE SIN, AND MIGHT HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THE PUNISHMENT, OF THESE MEN. Even so the pride and discontent which is active in a few is latent in the many, and brings danger and damage to the whole Church of Christ. The conventional restraints of Christianity prevent for the most part any open outbreak; nevertheless, it may be said almost of the mass of nominally Christian people that they have "a revolting and a rebellious heart". (cf. 1Co_5:6 2Ti_2:17 Heb_12:15)
II THAT THEY WERE SAVED BECAUSE THEY GAT UP FROM THE TABERNACLE OF THESE MEN ON EVERY SIDE, AND TOUCHED NOTHING THAT BELONGED TO THEM. Even so our safety is to separate ourselves wholly from the fellowship or influence (in religious things) of such as oppose themselves to the paramount and absolute claims of Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King. (Rom_16:17 1Co_10:22 2Co_6:14-17 Jud_1:22, 23)
HOMILIES BY W. BINNIE Vers. 1-3. Korah"s rebellion.
The ringleader and his policy. Of all the seditious movements which embittered the heart of Moses and wrought trouble in Israel during the forty years" wanderings, the rebellion of Korah was by far the most formidable. The anxious tone of the narrative betrays a consciousness of this, and it is confirmed by the facts narrated. The other seditions were either confined to a few individuals, like the sedition of Miriam and Aaron, or, like the disturbances at Marah, and Kibroth-hataavah, and Kadesh. they were the confused movements of a crowd without definite aims, without leaders, without organization. In this sedition of Korah there is not only a general ferment of rebellious feeling, but there is an organized conspiracy, with a resolute and able man at its head a man who knows exactly what he would be at, and is consummately skilful in turning to account all the floating elements of discontent that exist in the congregation.
I Let us begin by taking careful note of THE RINGLEADER. Korah was, like Moses and Aaron, of the tribe of Levi and family of Kohath. He was therefore a far-off cousin of the men against whom he rebelled. That Korah was the soul of the sedition is too plain to need proof. (Compare "the company of Korah," verses 6, 16, 32; 26:9, &c.; "the gainsaying of Korah," Jud_1:11) His design is not difficult to fathom. He is a man of honourable rank. But being an ambitious man, he cannot rest so long as there is in the camp any one greater than himself. He looks with envious eye on his cousins Moses and Aaron. Moses, under God, is supreme in peace and war. As for Aaron, not only has he been invested with the exclusive right to offer sacrifice and burn incense before the Lord, but his family have been set apart to form a priestly caste in Israel. These honours did not come to the brothers by birthright, but by the special gift and appointment of the Lord. It would seem that Korah was of the elder branch of the family, tie resolves to cast down both brothers from their high place. Thus far his intention is open and avowed. We need not hesitate to add that he means to vault into their place; but about this part of his intention he holds his peace for the present. So much for the man.
II HIS POLICY.
1. He begins by announcing a doctrine or principle. As much as anything else in the sedition, this enables us to take the measure of Korah"s genius for leadership. Movements which repose merely on brute force rarely achieve abiding results. Blood and iron are not all-sufficient. A true leader of men spares no pains to get hold of men"s minds. He likes to give his followers a good watchword or rallying cry. When a nation gets thoroughly possessed with a great and sound principle, when some high and far-reaching doctrine seizes its heart, it is almost invincible. It is characteristic of Korah that he so far appreciates the importance of a great doctrine to rally round, that he casts about for some truth which may be made a handle of for his purpose. In the great oracle which was the first to be uttered at Sinai he thinks he sees what will serve admirably. "Ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation". (Exo_19:6) Accordingly, he raises the cry of Equality and Fraternity! Moses and Aaron have engrossed to themselves privileges which are the inalienable right of every Israelite. They have taken too much upon them, and must be stripped of their usurped honours. A cry of this sort has often been raised, in all sincerity, by men of excitable temperament. But Korah was no enthusiast. The principle that all Israelites are kings and priests, if it had been really inconsistent (as he pretended to think) with the rule of Moses and the priesthood of Aaron, would have been equally inconsistent with the rule which he coveted for himself. Still there can be little doubt that the cry Korah raised would gain him many supporters.
2. He organizes a band of conspirators. By one means or another he succeeds in gathering around him no fewer than 250 accomplices. Nor were these obscure men. They all belonged to the ruling class. They are entitled
(1) "princes of the assembly," i.e., chiefs of the congregation, natural leaders in their several tribes;
(2) "famous in the congregation," more correctly, "men summoned in the assembly," i.e., members of the national council;
(3) "men of renown," i.e., not nameless persons, but men of note among the people. Their names are not given, nor the tribes to which they belonged. Korah would take care to have all the tribes represented; but probably the Levites and Reubenites would be most numerous. It was a formidable conspiracy.
3. He diligently enlists into his company all the malcontents of the congregation. An example is seen in the Reubenites. They had a grievance. Reuben was the first-born, and as such had certain rights of priority, according to immemorial custom. These rights have been ignored, or transferred to Judah and Ephraim. The Reubenites are Korah"s neighbours in the comp. He has inflamed their discontents, and held out flattering hopes. So Dathan, Abiram, and their people join him in open revolt (verses 12-14).
4. Korah does not confine his attentions to the two hundred and fifty leaders and their pronounced followers. The whole camp is pervaded with his emissaries. Things are in such a train that when the two hundred and fifty confront Moses and Aaron at the door of the tabernacle, Korah is able to "gather all the congregation" at the same time. He hopes to overawe Moses by this demonstration of popular sympathy.
We see here:
1. An example of fine abilities abused. What an admirable helper in the kingdom of God Korah might have been! He might have been a second Joshua. Instead of that. he leads the wretched life of a conspirator, comes to a bad end, and leaves behind him an infamous name. The lust of power the determination to be the greatest, has been the ruin of many a richly-gifted man.
2. An admonition to leaders in Church and State. There are leaders, not a few, who are such not of their own choice, but by the call of their brethren and by the clear appointment of Divine providence. It is natural and reasonable for them to expect the loyal support of the people. Certainly they are entitled to expect that they shall not be reviled and resisted, as if they had been ambitious and selfish usurpers. The example of Moses admonishes them not to be surprised if such reasonable expectations should be disappointed. A good conscience is an excellent companion under bitter reproach and opposition, but it will not always ward them off. Never was leader less ambitious, less selfish, than Moses; yet he could hardly have been treated worse if he had been another Korah. B.
HOMILIES BY E.S. PROUT Vers. 1-35. Envy and its bitter fruits.
I A CONSPIRACY OF SLANDEROUS REBELS.
1. They begin by blowing up the flame of envy in one another"s hearts. The vicinity of the Reubenites to the Kohathites in the camp gave opportunities for this. "Woe to the wicked man, and woe to his neighbour," is a Jewish saying perhaps derived from this incident.
2. Their sin the more serious because they were "men of renown." Influential sinners particularly dangerous.
3. Korah"s sin especially grievous
a. because of his kinship to Moses, but chiefly
b. because of the honour already bestowed on him and his brethren (verses 9, 10). Note the insatiableness of sin.
4. Their conduct condemns their motives also as bad. They envied the power or privileges, perhaps even the provision, made for the priests, as being somewhat better than that of the Levites. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.
5. They bring a false charge against Moses (verse 3), which recoils on themselves (verse 7). God had "lifted up" Moses; they were seeking to lift up themselves.
6. They will not avail themselves of "space for repentance" till the morrow, when God will decide. They will not "sleep over it" with any advantage to themselves.
7. They are unmoved by the reminder that their murmuring is really against God (verse 11).
8. They meet the friendly interposition of Moses by a fresh conspiracy of grievous falsehoods: of ambition (verse 13), deception (verse 14: "Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men?"), and responsibility for the evils they had brought on them by their own sins (verses 13, 14: "to kill us;" "thou hast not brought us," &c.). ;
9. They persist in the most audacious defiance of God till the very last. Sketch Korah and his company with their censers at the door of the tabernacle, while Dathan, Abiram, and their kindred are recklessly waiting the issue at the doors of their tents, in spite of the warning of verse 26. This last act of sin one element also of their punishment.
II A FEARFUL RETRIBUTION FROM AN ANGRY GOD.
1. The infatuation of the rebels one part of the judgment. The madness ofhardened sinners their own guilt, but God"s punishment. (cf. Exo_4:21 1Ki_22:19-23 Act_28:23-27)
2. New, strange sins call for a new, "strange work" of judgment. (verses 31-33; Pro_29:1)
3. Those who unbidden handled sacred fire in their censers perished by the fire of God. Learn hence the guilt and peril of murmuring,against the appointments of God in regard to the methods of his government, or the means of acceptable approach to him through our Divine High Priest. Teachers and rulers in God"s Church are to be honoured and followed, (1Th_5:12, 13 Heb_13:17) and Christ is to be recognized as "the head of all principality and power", (Col_2:10) and the one and only medium of acceptance with God. P. (Psa_2:12Jo Psa 5:22, 23 14:6)
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-3. The rebellion of Korah. The conspirators and their pretext.
Here is now the sin of Miriam and Aaron (chapter 12) on a larger scale. Aaron, who had been inveigled into troubling Moses, is now joined with Moses in suffering from the pride and envy of others.
I THE CONSPIRATORS. They were men of position and influence. We come upon a different kind of grievance from that of the ignorant multitude. Korah and his band may have been comparatively free from lusting after the delicacies of Egypt. Different men, different temptations. Korah was a Kohathite, joined therefore in the honourable office of bearing the ark and the sanctuary furniture. (Num_4:1-20) The others belonged to the tribe of Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob, and with them were 250 of the leaders in the nation. A conspiracy of men of this sort was not so easily dealt with as an outbreak of the whole people. Korah was probably a man of deep, deliberate designs, able to bide his time, and watching as he had opportunity, to draw first one and then another into his schemes. Here was a set of men seeking great things for themselves. (Jer_45:5) They had got as far as they could get in the orderly and appointed way, but they wanted to be higher, and somehow or other Moses and Aaron blocked the way. These two men were a long way above the rest, and seemingly in an altogether different order of service, and thus the rebellious, envious spirit of Korah was excited. He was a man of the sort who would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.
II THE PRETEXT OF ATTACK. Conspirators against rightful authority like to have a pretext of something fair and just. Thus Miriam: "Hath the Lord not spoken also by us?" And thus Korah: "All the congregation are holy, every one of them." There was something in Korah"s office to furnish temptation to an envious mind. As he was engaged in the service of the tabernacle he saw Aaron going where he dare not go, touching things which he dare not touch. He heard Moses coming forward with a message professedly from God, but it was a message from the invisible. No one saw this God with whom Moses professed to hold intercourse, and doubtless Korah concluded that the messages were presumptuous inventions of Moses himself. lie considered the honours and privileges only of the leader and priest; he made no allowance for the burdens. Being a self-seeking, self-aggrandizing man, he could see no higher feeling in others. He wanted to be at the top of the tree himself, and seeing Moses and Aaron there, lie made sure they had got there by audacity and determination, and not by any appointment from God at all. "All the congregation are holy." This was a true statement, but an insufficient reason for attack. Thus the plea of all men being equal is put forth against those who hold high rank and great power. The outward eminence only is seen; the burdens of state, the ceaseless care, are all unknown. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." Thus jealously Paul and Timothy were dealt with in the Church at Corinth, when they wished, not to have dominion over the faith of their brethren, but to be helpers of their joy. (2Co_1:24) Little did the schismatics dream of the Apostle"s trials, crowned with the thorniest of all, the care (merimna ) of all the Churches. (2Co_11:23-28) Moses would have rejoiced to take Korah"s place, or even the lowest place in the camp, if God had not put him where he was. But of all this inner life of Moses, Korah knew and cared nothing. In his eyes Moses was a self-exalted man, to be immediately and irretrievably abased. "Do we not all wear the fringes, and look each of us on Ms own riband of blue? Did you not tell us yourself that these were to remind us of our holiness towards God. Why then should you lave an access to God and consequent honour which are denied to us?" Thus these leaders of the people had yet to learn, as only bitter lessons would teach them, that they were under a theocracy. There was no room for a democracy, either real or pretended, in Israel. Nor is the Church of Christ now a democracy, though it is the fashion sometimes to speak of the democratic spirit in it. It does indeed make light of human distinctions, traditions, fashions, and prejudices, but only to put in place of them the authority of Christ. He has appointed his Church humbly and faithfully to execute his will. Professing Christians may indeed choose Church officials, but the real call and choice and guidance are of the Master himself. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Korah . . . Dathan, and Abiram . .…
Num_16:1-35
Korah . . . Dathan, and Abiram . . . gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
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Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
I. The rebels.
1. Influential.
2. Numerous,
3. Deluded--
(1) Concerning Moses, who they asserted, wrongly, was a self-elected leader and an arbitrary prince.
(2) Concerning the people, who they assumed (Num_16:14) would have willingly followed Moses to the promised land, had he tried to lead them hither. Self-deceived, and deceiving others.
II. Their sin. Rebellion against the authority of God which was invested in Moses.
1. Cause in Korah (see Num_3:30); whence it appears that for some unexplained cause a younger relative was appointed to the headship of the Kohathites. Korah was descended from the second son of Kohath (Num_6:18), whilst the present head was descended from the fourth son.
2. Cause in Dathan and Abiram. The priesthood transferred from the first-born of every family to one particular tribe, and that a branch of the house of Moses. But this was done by command of God, not of Moses alone.
3. Cause in the two hundred and fifty. Their own assumed rights might be interfered with, so they thought.
4. Cause in their followers. General dissatisfaction. They charged upon Moses the effects of their own selfishness. Pride in all of them.
III. Their punishment.
1. Of Divine selection. Left on both sides to Divine arbitration. On the part of the rebels, a defiance; on the side of Moses, humble agreement.
2. Manifest. All should see it, and know thereby the Divine will.
3. Of Divine infliction. God took the matter into His own hands. It was a rebellion against Him, more than Moses.
4. Terrible.
5. Complete.
All pertaining to them perished. God could do without men who had thought so much of themselves. Learn:
1. Our God is a consuming fire. A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
2. Beware of resisting Divine authority. How shall ye escape, &c.
3. Have we not all rebelled?
4. God was in Christ, making reconciliation, &c. (J. C. Gray.)
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
The particular characters of these three men, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, are not given in Scripture; but they seem to represent generally all those who rise up against the powers ordained of God: Korah the Levite against Aaron; Dathan and Abiram of the tribe of Reuben against Moses; but both conspiracies being combined together, indicates that it is the same temper of mind which rejects the ordinances of God whether it be in Church or State. Their sin was like that of the fallen angels who from envy, it is supposed, arose against the Son of God. But let us consider how far the case is applicable to ourselves now; as it is in some degree peculiar; for Moses and Aaron had their authority all along confirmed of God by outward signs and miracles. Add to which that their characters were such as less than any other to justify opposition or envy. For Moses was the meekest of men; and Aaron was inoffensive in all his conduct toward them. Their pre-eminence, too, was in hardship rather than in wealth or worldly power: in journeyings in the wilderness, not in the riches of Canaan. But these circumstances do not in fact prevent the application to ourselves; for the Pharisees afterwards had no miracles to prove their authority from God; and moreover they were great oppressors, covetous and cruel: yet our Lord says of them, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; and this He says at the very time when He is cautioning His disciples against their wickedness. They had to obey the ordinance of God, though it had neither outward sign nor holiness to support it. Nor indeed is the presence of God denied by the company of Korah as being vouchsafed to them under the guidance of Moses and Aaron; they say that the Lord is among them, as He was seen in the pillar of fire and the cloud, in the holy tabernacle, in the manna from heaven: but what they complained of was the want of visible fruits and enjoyments, Thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey; Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? as men may say now, We see not our tokens; where are our spiritual privileges? where is the fulfilment of all the glorious things which the prophets have spoken of the Christian Church? But if this case is of universal application and for general warning, then the question will arise, are there no allowances, no limitations, to be made; and is there no relief in the case of oppressive governors and bad pastors? must all resistance be like that of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, displeasing to God? and is it never without sin? Let us consider this a little more particularly. If such powers are of God, then He gives such as are suitable to the people over whom they are placed; not necessarily such as they like, but such as are good for them to have, and such as they deserve. For instance, the Roman emperors during the early days of Christianity, were many of them monsters of cruelty and wickedness; but when we come to inquire into the character of the people over whom they were placed, we find the corruption of morals so deep and extensive that they were as bad as the tyrants that governed them. And it was to these Romans and living under some of the worst of these governors that St. Paul says, Let every one be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And St. Peter unto Christians under the same rule, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake: whether it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him. Moreover, in consequence of this, we find in Scripture that kings and people are often together condemned and visited alike. Pharaoh and Egypt both together oppressed Israel; both hardened their hearts; both were cut off together. The same order of Divine providence applies also to spiritual governors; it is so with the Church of God in all times and places; the angels of the Churches and the Churches themselves are tended on, and in each case addressed together as one by their Lord, who has the seven stars in His hand, while He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. We may therefore consider it as a general law of Gods providence, that their rulers both spiritual and temporal will be such as the people are worthy of; that if they need better rulers, the only way in which this can be produced efficiently and effectively, is by becoming better themselves. But a case of difficulty which may arise is this, if a signal repentance should take place among the people, the spirit of grace and supplication should be poured out upon them, and there should be a general awakening; then the deficiency of their pastors and rulers will come before them in a striking light; and then will be their great temptation to take the amendment of such things into their own hands. But yet not well nor wisely. Surely no reformation can be equal to that which took place suddenly and simultaneously, when the disciples of Christ were yet under the Scribes and Pharisees, yet He said, as they sat in Moses seat they must be obeyed. Or again, when the apostles wrote to Christians, that they must submit themselves to the powers that be, while those powers were the most corrupt of heathen governments. It is true that the change had not then become extensive, or leavened the general state of society, but the law of Gods providence was the same, for it was the gradual progress of that change which would bring over them in Gods own good time their own true governors, such as were meet for them. And in the meanwhile those evil rulers formed a part of that discipline of faith by which they were perfected and established, being purified thereby as gold in the fire. Moreover, it is observed that the Church of God has flourished more under heathen than under its own Christian rulers. This consideration may allay our impatience; we are at best so weak and frail that we need the iron rod more than the golden sceptre; in our present state the Cross is more suited for us than the crown. In prosperity we lean on an arm of flesh, and are weakened; in adversity we lean on God, and are strengthened. But then it may be said that there is a case far more grievous than this, that of evil ministers in the Church itself, whether it be of chief pastors, or of those in their own nearer and subordinate sphere. These are trials peculiarly heavy to a good man; and there are some cases which can only be considered as severe visitations of God, and the scourge of sin. But if God does not afford the power of remedying this great evil, then the same law of patience must be applied. In one ruler or pastor you may read Gods wrath, in another His love. You cannot reject either; take His wrath in meekness, and He may show you His love. And in the meanwhile, with regard to any particular case of great trial, we must practise forbearance, and God will remember us in His own good time. This duty of meekness and patience applies to a case so far as it is one we cannot remedy, like any evil or scourge that comes to us from Gods hand, we must take it as our punishment from Him. But then it may be said, when the case is one that implies grievous sin, an example which dishonours God, corrupts Christs little ones, and poisons the fount of life, are we to acquiesce in this? Does not the love of God constrain us not to resign ourselves to such evil--to lift up our voice and cry--to move heaven and earth? This is most true: for surely there is a remedy with God. When He has forbidden one way of redress, He has pointed out another and a better. Our Lord has pointed out the one and only way, and that is the way of prayer. He did not even Himself send forth apostles without it. Many are cast down because the Church is in bonds. It can neither appoint for itself suitable pastors, nor set aside evil ministers, nor manage its own affairs, and the government of it is falling into the hands of its enemies. But these are not the g, eat evils to be feared; the one great cause for apprehension is this, whether in the body of the Church at large the spirit of prayer is sufficiently strong to cast off all these impediments; for where prayer is, all such evils from without are thrown off, even as in the spring of the year nature throws off all the chains of winter. The imprisoned eagle may even yet soar aloft, and unfold her wing in the free expanse of heaven. (Isaac Williams, B. D.)
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
I. The sin.
1. A jealousy of the privileges and positions of Gods appointed priesthood.
2. A lack of reverence for sacred things.
3. An unauthorised and presumptuous intrusion into Divine mysteries.
II. The conviction.
1. Moses acted wisely.
2. Modestly.
3. Prudently.
III. The punishment.
1. It destroyed the guilty.
2. It involved the innocent.
3. It was deterrent in its tendency.
Lessons:
1. The fatal consequences of extreme irreverence.
2. Before we find fault with others we should take heed to ourselves.
3. All who attempt to get to heaven through their own efforts, instead of by the merits of the great High Priest, Jesus Christ, shall share the fate of these wicked men. (Preachers Analyst.)
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
I. The sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram was this: they were discontented with the arrangement made for public worship by the choosing out of Aaron and his family to be priests. The argument they used was a very plausible one, because it depended upon the great truth of the Lords being with all His people, consecrating and sanctifying them all, making them all in a certain sense holy to the Lord, in a certain sense priests. It also flattered the vanity of the people, and strengthened them in the notion that they were oppressed by their rulers.
II. The answer to this argument was that Moses and Aaron had not lifted themselves up at all; the Lord had lifted then up. This was the answer which was ultimately given, with very terrible emphasis, by the swallowing up of Korah and his company. Korah and his company had laid great stress on the fact that all the congregation of the Lord were holy. Moses and Aaron might very well have replied, that they for their part by no means questioned the fact. Moses had never represented the choice of Aaron and his family as a declaration that they only of the people were holy. Nothing could be a greater mistake on the part of the people than to take this view of the priestly consecration.
III. Between our own priesthood and that of the Israelites there is still the great common ground of ministry before God in behalf of others which must be at the basis of every religion. Hence both priest and people may learn a lesson. The priest may learn that his office does not imply that he is holier or better than his brethren, but that it does imply greater responsibility, greater opportunities of good, greater sin if he does evil. And the people may learn to be gentle and considerate to those who are over them in the Lord, not to be ready to find fault and condemn, but rather to be charitable, and forbearing, and gentle. (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.)
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
God has brought the Israelites out of Egypt. One of the first lessons which they have to learn is, that freedom does mean license and discord--does not mean every one doing that which is right in his own eyes. From that springs self-will, division, quarrels, revolt, civil war, weakness, profligacy, and ruin to the whole people. Without order, discipline, obedience to law, there can be no true and lasting freedom; and therefore order must be kept at all risks, the law obeyed, and rebellion punished. Now rebellion ought to be punished far more severely in some cases than in others. If men rebel here, in Great Britain or Ireland, we smile at them, and let them off with a slight imprisonment, because we are not afraid of them. They can do no harm. Bat there are cases.in which rebellion must be punished with a swift and sharp hand. On board a ship at sea, for instance, where the safety of the whole ship, the lives of the whole crew, depend on instant obedience, mutiny may be punished by death on the spot. And so it was with the Israelites in the desert. All depended on their obedience. The word must be, Obey or die. As for any cruelty in putting Korah, Dathan, and Abiram to death, it was worth the death of a hundred such--or a thousand--to preserve the great and glorious nation of the Jews to be the teachers of the world. Moses was not their king. God brought them out of Egypt, God was their king. That was the lesson which they had to learn, and to teach other nations also. And so not Moses, but God must punish, and show that He is not a dead, but a living God, who can defend Himself, and enforce His own laws, and execute judgment, without needing any man to fight His battles for Him. And God does so. The powers of nature--the earthquake and the nether fire--shall punish these rebels; and so they do. Men have thought differently of the story; but I call it a righteous story, and one which agrees with my conscience, and my reason, and my experience also of the way in which Gods world is governed until this day. What, then, are we to think of the earth opening and swallowing them up? This first. That discipline and order are so absolutely necessary for the well-being of a nation that they must be kept at all risks, and enforced by the most terrible punishments. But how hard, some may think, that the wives and the children should suffer for their parents sins. We do not know that a single woman or child died then for whom it was not better that he or she should die. And next--what is it, after all, but what we see going on round us all the day long? God does visit the sins of the fathers on the children. But there was another lesson, and a deep lesson, in the earthquake and in the fire. Who sends the earthquake and the fire? Do they come from the devil--the destroyer? Do they come by chance, from some brute and blind powers of nature? This chapter answers, No; they come from the Lord, from whom all good things do come; from the Lord who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt; who so loved the world that He spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for us. Now I say that is a gospel which we want now as much as ever men did; which the children of Israel wanted then, though not one whit more than we. You cannot read your Bibles without seeing how that great lesson was stamped into the very hearts of the Hebrew prophets; how they are continually speaking of the fire and the earthquake, and yet continually declaring that they too obey God and do Gods will, and that the man who fears God need not fear them--that God was their hope and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore would they not fear, though the earth was moved, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. And we, too, need the same lesson in these scientific days. We too need to fix it in our hearts, that the powers of nature are the powers of God; that He orders them by His providence to do what He will, and when and where He will; that, as the Psalmist says, the winds are His messengers and the flames of fire His ministers. And this we shall learn from the Bible, and from no other book whatsoever. God taught the Jews this by a strange and miraculous education, that they might teach it in their turn to all mankind. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
Korah
God was pleased under the old, as He has done under the present dispensation, to constitute the priesthood of His Church, in accordance with that principle of orderly arrangement which runs through all His ways, in a threefold order, with a regular distribution and gradation of powers from the lowest to the highest. But the wisdom of men does not quietly acquiesce in Gods wisdom when it goes counter to the interests, impulses, and aspirations of self-love. Men are easily brought to doubt the divinity of a system that sets others over them, and assigns them only an inferior station, even though that be honourable and good. The spirit of discontent and rebellion broke out even in the life of Aaron, and during the sojourn in the wilderness. Even thus early did the presumption of man dare to criticise and amend the institutions of God, and under the guise of a zeal for liberty and for right, the favourite pretext of ambition and selfishness, to break the order which God had established, and substitute devices of its own creation. Korah was a Levite, but he aspired also to be a priest, and could not acquiesce in those limitations, which, what he may have called the accident of birth and the arbitrary restraints of the Law, imposed upon him. And he easily drew to him associates in his nefarious enterprise. The sedition was wide-spread, and threatened the most fatal consequences. Jealousy of power and place is contagious, and always finds an answering sentiment in many hearts. Broach it once among any body of men, and it will run like sparks among the stubble. Equality and the lowering of eminence and distinction, and disregard of law, are popular doctrines, and easily clothe themselves in specious forms. It is alleged that all society is sacred; there is, there ought to be, no special sacredness in any in eminent place, which inferiors in office or men in private condition are bound to recognise and respect. Thus the bonds of social order in the Church, in the State, are loosened and destroyed. We stand on the dignity of human nature, and the spiritual equality of all Christians: we can have no rulers, we will brook no superiors, we will obey no restrictions--the spurious pleas of presumptuous self-will and ambition, in the State and in the Church, in all ages. God, however, quickly interfered in this instance, to vindicate and protect His own appointments, and keep that sacred polity which His wisdom had provided for His Church from being trampled on and destroyed. What, then, is this gainsaying of Core to us? and what may we learn from it that is profitable for admonition and instruction in righteousness?
1. We learn the sacredness of the ministry, and of its divinely appointed order Every man was to know his place and to keep it, and to do the duty of his place and none other, and not, on some specious plea of a higher fitness or a larger usefulness, intrude on work which God had given to others. Now, here are great principles, and these are applicable to the Church in all her periods and in all her forms. There is a ministry now in the Church, and it is there not because man made it, but God. Let a man, says St. Paul, so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. They hold their place, if they are really anything at all, by a Divine commission. Without a ministry recognised as truly Divine, there will never be religious stability, nor long, religious life and true Christian morals. And when these are gone, civil liberty and political order will not last long. And the first, the fatal step towards these dreadful losses is taken when that constitution of the ministry which Christ appointed is changed, and the sacred office begins to be looked upon as a thing which men may mould and alter to their convenience and their fancy.
2. But we must spare a little space for the broader lesson which this gainsaying of Core teaches us, namely, that in the social system, we all, ministers and laymen, especially ministers, have our place, which is appointed us of God, and our true wisdom and happiness lie in knowing what it is, and keeping in it. Korah had a place, and a very good place, but he did not like it. He sought a better by unlawful means, and he lost all, and left his name for a curse unto Gods chosen. He forgot that God had assigned him his place, and that contentment in it was a part of his religious obedience, the service that God required at his hands. How full this world is of restless and uncomfortable aspirings! Men see around them higher places, happier ones as they think; places that are certainly grander, that shine more, that seem to contain a greater plenitude of good, and to open larger sources of pleasure and enjoyment. They are discontented. They are envious. They get very little comfort from what they have by reason of their uneasy hankerings after what they have not. The true antidote of this great evil is faith; faith in God and in His overruling Providence; faith in the Divine order into which we find ourselves wrought, faith in the social economy under which we live as a Divine structure and appointment; faith in our own assignment to that place and those relations in it, which, whatever we may think of them, are the mind of God concerning us, the work of that great fashioning Hand which ordereth all things in heaven and earth, and which appoints to all inferior agents their place and their work, not in caprice, not in cruelty, not in partiality, not in a reckless disregard of their rights and their welfare, but in wisdom, in equity, in benevolence, for His glory and the greatest good of the greatest number of His creatures. (R. A. Hallam, D. D.)
Whatsoever evil men do, they are ready to justify it
When evil men have committed evil, they are ready to justify their evils that they may seem good. We see this in Saul, 1Sa_13:11; 1Sa_31:12; 1Sa_15:15; Joh_12:5-6. Judas pretended the poor and his great care of them; albeit he cared not for them, but for himself.
1. For men are affected to their actions as they are to themselves. Though they be corrupt, yet they would not be thought to be so; and therefore they seek excuses for themselves, as Adam did fig leaves to cover his shame and his sin.
2. If they should pretend nothing, all would be ready to condemn them; therefore, to blind the eyes of others, they cast a mist before them as jugglers used to do that they may not be espied.
Uses:
1. This serveth to reprove divers sorts that go about to varnish their actions with false colours, thereby to blind the world and to put out their eyes. These show themselves to be rank hypocrites.
2. We are to judge no otherwise of all such as transgress the law of God, whatsoever their allegations be. How many men are there that think even palpable sins to be no sins at all, because they can blanch and colour them over! (W. Attersoll.)
Elevated character exposed to violence
Some years ago I went to see the lighthouse which, standing on Dunnet Head--the Cape Orcas of the Romans--guards the mouth of the Pentland Firth. On ascending the tower, I observed the thick plate-glass windows of the lanthorn cracked--starred in a number of places. I turned to the keeper for an explanation. It appears that is done by stones flung up by the sea. The wave, on being thrown forward against the cliff, strikes it with such tremendous force as to hurl the loose stones at its base right up to the height of 300 feet. So are the great light-bearers, by the exposure of their position, and in spite of the elevation of their character, liable to be cracked and starred by the violence of the world. (T. Guthrie.)
Seek ye the priesthood also?--
Wicked ambition faith fully rebuked
I. The greatness of the privileges conferred upon the Levites.
II. The unrighteousness of the ambition cherished by them. Their ambition involved--
1. The disparagement of their present privileges. Their privileges seemed but a small thing unto them. Great as they were, they did not satisfy them. Ambition, says Trapp, is restless and unsatisfiable; for, like the crocodile, it grows as long as it lives.
2. Interference in the Divine arrangements. Seek ye the priesthood also?
III. The heinousness of the rebellion in which they engaged. Moses points out to them concerning their rebellion that--
1. It was unreasonable. What is Aaron that ye murmur against him? The high priest was merely an instrument in the hand of the Lord.
2. It was exceedingly sinful. Thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord. Those resist the prince who resist those that are commissioned by him (comp. Mat_10:40; Joh_13:20; Act_9:4).
Conclusion:
1. Let us crush every rising of ambition which is not in harmony with wisdom and righteousness.
2. Let us seek to give to our ambition a righteous and noble direction. (W. Jones.)
The privileges of the Levites
1. They were separated from the congregation of Israel, distinguished from them, dignified above them; instead of complaining that Aarons family was advanced above theirs, they ought to be thankful that their tribe was advanced above, the rest of the tribes, though they had been in all respects upon the level with them. Note, it will help to keep us from envying those that are above us, duly to consider how many there are above whom we are placed. Many perhaps who deserve better are not preferred so well.
2. They were separated to very great and valuable honours.
(1) To draw near to God, nearer than common Israelites, though they also were a people near unto Him : the nearer any are to God, the greater is their honour.
(2) To do the service of the tabernacle. It is honour enough to bear the vessels of the sanctuary, and to be employed in any part of the service of the tabernacle; Gods service is not only perfect freedom, but high preferment. Note, those are truly great that serve the public, and it is the honour of Gods ministers to be the Churchs ministers: nay (which adds to the dignity put upon them),
(3) It was the God of Israel Himself that separated them. It was His act and deed to put them in their place, and therefore they ought not to be discontented with that; and He it was likewise that put Aaron into his place, and therefore they ought not to envy that.
3. He convicts them of the sin of under valuing these privileges, Seemeth it a small thing unto you? It ill becomes you, of all men, to grudge Aaron the priesthood, when at the same time that he was advanced to that honour, you were designed to another honour dependent upon it, and shine with rays borrowed from him. Note:
(1) The privilege of drawing near to the God of Israel is not a small thing in itself, and therefore must not seem small to us. To those who neglect opportunities of drawing near to God, who are careless and formal in it, to whom it is a task, and not a pleasure, we may properly put this question, Seemeth it a small thing to you that God has made you a people near unto Him?
(2) Those who aspire and usurp the honours forbidden them, put a great contempt upon the honours allowed them. We have each of us as good a share of reputation as God sees fit for us, and sees us fit for, and much better than we deserve; and we ought to rest satisfied With it, and not as these here, exercise ourselves in things too high for us: Seek ye the priesthood also? They would not own that they sought it, but Moses saw that in their eye: the law had provided very well for those that served at the altar, and therefore they would put in for the office.
4. He interprets their mutiny to be a rebellion against God (Num_16:1). While they pretended to assert the holiness and liberty of the Israel of God, they really took up arms against the God of Israel: Ye are gathered together against the Lord. Note, those that strive against Gods ordinances and providences, whatever they pretend, and whether they are aware of it or no, do indeed strive with their Maker. Those resist the prince who resist those that are commissioned by him. For alas! saith Moses, What is Aaron that ye murmur against him? If murmurers and complainers would consider that the instruments they quarrel with are but instruments whom God employs, and that they are but what He makes them, and neither more nor less, better nor worse, they would not be so bold and free in their censures and reproaches as they are. They that found the priesthood, as it was settled, a blessing, must give all the praise to God; but if any thought it a burden, they must not therefore quarrel with Aaron, who is but what he is made, and doth as he is bidden. Thus he interested God in the cause, and so might be sure of speeding well in his appeal. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
Separation for nearness to God
I. Gods separation of His servants.
1. The demand for this may come with the first Divine call of which the soul is conscious. To one living a worldly life there comes a conviction of the folly of this, which is really a Divine call to rise and pass from it, through surrender to Christ, to the number of the redeemed. But that call is not easy to obey at first. The influences under which we have grown hold us where we are; aims to which we have been devoted, and in which we have much at stake, refuse to be lightly abandoned; old associations and pleasures throw their arms about us, like the family of Bunyans pilgrim, detaining us when we would flee; the worlds beauty blinds us to the greater beauty of the spiritual, and we fear to cast ourselves into the unknown.
2. This demand is repeated by Gods constant requirement of His people. For it is the law of spiritual life to die daily, to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts; and what is that but to sever ourselves for Christs sake from objects to which the natural man would cleave!
3. And this demand of God is supplemented by His frequent providence. He calls us to voluntary separation, He also separates us whether we will or no. Evidently spiritual life needs much loneliness.
II. This separation is for nearness to Himself.
1. For apprehending God, we need separation from what is wrong. Every turning, however little, towards the world from the demand of conscience is a turning a little more away from God, till He is behind us and we lose sight of Him, and live as though He were not. Yea, sin not only turns the back on Him, it dims the eye to the spiritual so that though He stand before us we are blind to His presence.
2. Besides this, for communion with God we need separation from engrossing scenes and tasks. How rare it is, said Fenelon, to find a soul still enough to hear God speak!
3. Moreover, for Gods tenderest ministry we need separation from other joys.
III. This is the answer to the spirit of murmuring. Then is the time to think how we are separated for nearness to God, and to hear the question in the text, Seemeth it but a small thing unto you?
1. Let it comfort us in enforced severance from what we love. When we reflect on what we are severed from, let us reflect on the rare compensation--what we are severed to. God is the sum of joy, it is heaven to serve Him and to see His face, all else is nothing compared with conscious nearness to Him, and that is our desire and prayer.
2. Let this impel us to seek Divine nearness in the time of our separation. For nearness has not always followed separation in our experience: on the contrary, the seasons of isolation we have referred to have sometimes left us farther from God than we were. May not that be due to the fact that fellowship with Him requires that we go to Him for reception?
3. And let this give us victory over the temptation to cleave to evil. For when we first hear the call to relinquish sin the demand seems too great, as though we were to leave all for nothing. And after our Christian course has begun, it seems impossible to give up many an object we suddenly find forbidden. From what, then, we are called to leave, let us turn to think of what we are called to have. Fear not, Abram, God said to the patriarch, who had refused the spoil at the slaughter of the kings, Fear not, Abram, I am thy exceeding great reward! And so He says to us, adding, as we waver, Lovest thou these more than Me; are they more to you than My favour, My fellowship, Myself? (C. New.)
The greater our means are to prevent sin, the more we offend if we reject those means
We learn hereby that the more helps we have to prevent sin, the greater our sin is if we break these bands and east these cords from us. The sins of the Israelites are often aggravated, because the Lord had sent His prophets among them (Jer_7:13-14; Jer_11:7-8; Jer_35:14; Psa_78:17; Psa_78:31; Psa_78:35; Psa_78:56; Mat_11:21-24; Dan_9:5-6). The reasons:
1. First, because those men sin against knowledge, having the Word to inform them and their own consciences to convince them.
2. Secondly, it argueth obstinacy of heart; they have many strokes given them, but they feel none of them. For such as transgress in the midst of those helps that serve to restrain sin do not sin of infirmity, but of wilfulness. Now, the more wilful a man is, the more sinful he is.
Uses:
1. This convinceth our times of much sinfulness, and in these times some places, and in those places sundry persons to be greater sinners than others. And why greater? Because our times have had more means to keep from sin than other times have had. What hath not God done for us and to us to reclaim us? Thus do we turn our blessings to be our bane, and Gods mercies to be curses upon us.
2. Secondly, it admonisheth all that enjoy the means of preventing sin as benefits and blessings, the Scriptures and Word of God, His corrections, His promises and threatenings, His patience and longsufferance, that they labour to make profit by them and to fulfil all righteousness, lest God account their sin greater than others.
3. Lastly, learn from hence that the Word is never preached in vain, whether we be converted by it or not (see Isa_55:10-11). (W. Attersoll.)
Every man in his place
In all the departments of life there are men who are as Moses and Aaron. Take any department of life that may first occur to the imagination. Shall we say the department of commerce? Even in the market-place we have Moses and Aaron, and they cannot be deposed. Where is the man who thinks he could not conduct the largest business in the city? Yet the poor cripple could not conduct it, and the greatest punishment that could befall the creature would be to allow him to attempt to rule a large and intricate commercial concern. But it seems to be hard for a man to see some other man at the very head of commercial affairs whose word is law, whose signature amounts to a species of sovereignty, and to know that all the while he, the observer, is, in his own estimation, quite as good a man--a person of remarkable capacity, and he is only waiting for an opportunity to wear a nimbus of glory--a halo of radiance--that would astound the exchanges of the world. But it cannot be done. There are great business men and small business men: there are wholesale men and retail men, and neither the wholesale nor the retail affects the quality of the mans soul, or the destiny of the mans spirit; but, as a matter of fact, these distinctions are made, and they are not arbitrary: in the spirit of them there is a Divine presence. If men could believe this, they would be comforted accordingly. Every preacher knows in his inmost soul that he is fit to be the Dean of St. Pauls, or the Dean of Westminster--every preacher knows that; but to be something less--something officially lower--and yet to accept the inferior position with a contentment which is inspired by faith in God, is the very conquest of the Spirit of heaven in the heart of man, is a very miracle of grace. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Leaders of disaffection
It is always a most critical moment in the history of an assembly when a spirit of disaffection displays itself; for, if it be not met in the right way, the most disastrous consequences are sure to follow. There are materials in every assembly capable of being acted upon, and it only needs some restless master spirit to arise, in order to work on such materials, and fan into a devouring flame the fire that has been smouldering in secret. There are hundreds and thousands ready to flock around the standard of revolt, when once it has been raised, who have neither the vigour nor the courage to raise it themselves. It is not every one that Satan will take up as an instrument in such work. It needs a shrewd, clever, energetic man--a man of moral power--one possessing influence over the minds of his fellows, and an iron will to carry forward his schemes. No doubt Satan infuses much of all these into the men whom he uses in his diabolical undertakings. At all events, we know, as a fact, that the great leaders in all rebellious movements are generally men of master minds, capable of swaying, according to their own will, the fickle multitude, which, like the ocean, is acted upon by every stormy wind that blows. Such men know how, in the first place, to stir the passions of the people; and, in the second place, how to wield them when stirred. Their most potent agency--the lever with which they can most effectually raise the masses--is some question as to their liberty and their rights. If they can only succeed in persuading people that their liberty is curtailed, and their rights infringed, they are sure to gather a number of restless spirits around them, and do a vast deal of serious mischief. (C. H. Mackintosh.)
Discontent a rebellion against God
God counts it rebellion (cf. Num_17:10). Murmuring is but as the smoke of a fire; there is first a smoke and a smother before the flame breaks forth: and so before open rebellion in a kingdom there is first a smoke of murmuring, and then it breaks forth into open rebellion. Because it has rebellion in the seeds of it, it is counted before the Lord to be rebellion. When thou feelest thy heart discontented and murmuring against the dispensation of God toward thee, thou shouldest check thy heart thus: Oh! thou wretched heart! What I wilt thou be a rebel against God? (J. Burroughs.)
Fatal discontent
A fern told me that it was too bad to be always shut up in a shady place, and float; it wanted to grow beside the red rose in the garden. The fern said, I have as much right to be out in the sunshine as the rose has, and I will be out. I transplanted the little malcontent, and in one hot day the sun struck it dead with his dart of fire. Now, if we be where Christ means us to be, in shade or in light, and will grow according to His will, it shall be well with us, but if we touch that which is forbidden, we shall be made to remember that it is written, In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Every man should walk as he is called of God
As in an orchard there is variety of fruit, apple trees, pear trees, plum trees, &c., and every tree endeavours to suck juice answerable to his kind, that it may bear such a fruit; and an apple tree doth not turn a plum tree, nor a plum tree a cherry tree, &c.; but every tree contents itself to be of its own kind: so in the Church and commonwealth there are varieties of callings, pastors, people, magistrates, subjects; some higher, some lower. And here now every man is to walk as he is called of God, and learn what belongs thereunto, not to encroach or intermeddle with that which belongs to others: for the saying of that Roman general to the soldier that kept the tents, when he should have been fighting in the field, Non amo nimium diligentem, will be one day used of God, if He calls us to one possession, and we busy ourselves about another; if He set us on foot, and we will be on horseback; if He make us subjects, and we must needs be superiors. God will not be pleased with such busybodies. (J. Spencer.)
Respect not Thou their offering.
The resentment of Moses against sinners
Moses, though the meekest man, yet finding God reproached in him, was very wroth; he could not bear to see a people ruining themselves for whose salvation he had done so much. In this discomposure--
1. He appeals to God concerning his own integrity; whereas they basely reflected upon him as ambitious, covetous, and oppressive in making himself a prince over them. God was his witness--
(1) That he never got anything by them: I have not taken one ass from them, not only not by way of bribery and extortion, but not by way of recompense and gratuity for all the good offices he had done them; he never took the pay of a general, or salary of a judge, much less the tribute of a prince. He got more in his estate when he kept Jethros flock than since he came to be king in Jeshurun.
(2) That they never lost anything by him: Neither have I hurt any one of them, no, not the least, no, not the worst, no, not those that had been most peevish and provoking to him. He never abused his power to the support of wrong. Note, those that have never blemished themselves need not fear being blemished. When men condemn us we may be easy, if our hearts condemn us not.
2. He begs of God to plead his cause and clear him by showing His displeasure at the incense which Korah and his company were to offer, with whom Dathan and Abiram were in confederacy. Lord, said he, respect not Thou their offering. Wherein he seems to refer to the history of Cain, lately written by his own hand, of whom it is said that to him and his offering God had not respect (Gen_4:4). These that followed the gainsaying of Korah walked in the way of Cain (they are put together, Jude verse 11), and therefore he prays they might be frowned upon as Cain was, and put to the same confusion. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
A fire from the Lord.--
Presumptuous service
No man is indispensable to God. These men had no business to offer incense. God will not have the order of the Church or the order of the universe disturbed without penalty. Things are all fixed, whether you like it or not; the bounds of our habitation are fixed. He who would upset any axiom of God always goes down into the pit, the earth opens and swallows him up. That will be so until the end of time. It is so in literature, it is so in housekeeping, it is so in statesmanship, it is so in preaching. The whole order of creation is Gods; why can we not simply, lovingly accept it, and say, Good is the will of the Lord? Why this chafing against the bars of the cage? Why this discontent with the foundations of things? The Lord placed me here, it is the only place I am fit for, or I have been qualified by Divine compassion and love for this position: good is the will of the Lord! Better that incense be not offered than that it be offered by unworthy hands. There is really nothing in the incense; it is in the motive, in the purpose, it is in the honest handling of the censer, that good is done by any service or by any ceremony. No bad man can preach. He can talk, he can say beautiful words, but he does not preach so as to get at the heart and at the conscience, and so as to bless all the deeper and inner springs of human life and human hope. Officialism is not piety. A man may have a censer, and yet have no right to it. A man may be robed in the clothes of the Church, but be naked before heaven, and be regarded by high heaven as a violator and an intruder. Whoever uses a censer gives himself more or less of publicity: by so much does he become a leader; and by so much as a man is a leader does Gods anger burn hotly against him when he prostitutes his leadership. How many men were there? Two hundred and fifty. That was a great numerical loss. Yes, it was: but numerical losses may be moral gains. The congregation must be weighed as well as numbered. Some churches would be fuller if they were emptier. The Church of Christ would be stronger to-day if all nominal professors were shed off, if the earth would open and swallow them up every one. These were two hundred and fifty trespassers. Whatever they were outside the Church, they had no right to be within it in the sense which they now represent by this action. No true man was ever cut off, let me say again and again. The whole emphasis is upon the word true. He may not be a great man or a brilliant man, he may be nothing of a genius, but if he be true, that is the only genius God desiderates as fundamental and permanent. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Numbers 16; Numbers 17
KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM
Numbers 16; Numbers 17
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BEHIND what appears in the history, there must have been many movements of thought and causes of discontent which gradually led to the events we now consider. Of the revolts against Moses which occurred in the wilderness, this was the most widely organised and involved the most serious danger. But we can only conjecture in what way it arose, how it was related to previous incidents and tendencies of popular feeling. It is difficult to understand the report, in which Korah appears at one time closely associated with Dathan and Abiram, at other times quite apart from them as a leader of disaffection. According to Wellhausen and others, three narratives are combined in the text. But without going so far in the way of analysis we clearly trace two lines of revolt: one against Moses as leader; the other against the Aaronic priesthood. The two risings may have been distinct; we shall however deal with them as simultaneous and more or less combined. A great deal is left unexplained, and we must be guided by the belief that the narrative of the whole book has a certain coherency, and that facts previously recorded must have had their bearing on those now to be examined.
The principal leader of revolt was Korah, son of Izhar, a Levite of the family of Kohath; and with him were associated two hundred and fifty "princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown," some of them presumably belonging to each of the tribes as is shown incidentally in Num_27:3. The complaint of this company-evidently representing an opinion widely held-was that Moses and Aaron took too much upon them in reserving to themselves the whole arrangement and control of the ritual. The two hundred and fifty, who according to the law had no right to use censers, were so far in opposition to the Aaronic priesthood that they were provided with the means of offering incense. They claimed for themselves on behalf of the whole congregation, whom they declared to be holy, the highest function of priests. With Korah were specially identified a number of Levites who, not content with being separated to do the service of the tabernacle, demanded the higher sacerdotal office. It might seem from Num_16:10-11, that all the two hundred and fifty were Levites; but this is precluded by the earlier statement that they were princes of the congregation, called to the assembly. So far as we can gather, the tribe of Levi did not supply princes, "men of renown," in this sense. While Moses deals with Korah and his company, Dathan, Abiram, and On, who belong to the tribe of Reuben, stand in the background with their grievance. Invited to state it, they complain that Moses has not only brought the congregation out of a land "flowing with milk and honey," to kill them in the wilderness, failing to give them the inheritance he promised; but he has made himself a prince over the host, determining everything without consulting the heads of the tribes. They ask if he means "to put out the eyes of these men,"-that is, to blind them to the real purpose he has in view, whatever it is, or to make them his slaves after the Babylonian fashion, by actually boring out the eyes of each tenth man, perhaps. The two hundred and fifty are called by Moses to bring their censers and the incense and fire they have been using, that Jehovah may signify whether He chooses to be served by them as priests, or by Aaron. The offering of incense over, the decree against the whole host as concerned in this revolt is made known, and Moses intercedes for the people. Then the Voice commands that all the people shall separate themselves from the "tabernacle" of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, apparently as if some tent of worship had been erected in rivalry of the true tabernacle. Dathan and Abiram are not at the "tabernacle," but at some little distance, in tents of their own. The people remove from the "tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram," and on the terrible invocation of judgment pronounced by Moses, the ground cleaves asunder and all the men that appertain unto Korah go down alive into the pit. Afterwards, it is said, "fire came forth from the Lord and devoured the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense." "The men that appertained unto Korah" may be the presumptuous Levites, most closely identified with his revolt. But the two hundred and fifty consumed by the fire are not said to have been swallowed by the cleaving earth; their censers are taken up "out of the burning," as devoted or sacred, and beaten into plates for a covering of the altar.
On the morrow the whole congregation, even more disaffected than before, is in a state of tumult. The cry is raised that Moses and Aaron "have killed the people of Jehovah." Forthwith a plague, the sign of Divine anger, breaks out. Atonement is made by Aaron, who runs quickly with his burning censer "into the midst of the assembly," and "stands between the dead and the living." But fourteen thousand seven hundred die before the plague is stayed. And the position of Aaron as the acknowledged priest of Jehovah is still further confirmed. Rods or twigs are taken, one for each tribe, all the tribes having been implicated in the revolt; and these rods are laid up in the tent of meeting. When a day has passed, the rod of Aaron for the tribe of Levi is found to have put forth buds and borne almonds. The close of the whole series of events is an exclamation of amazed anxiety by all the people: "Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. Every one that cometh near unto the tabernacle of Jehovah dieth: shalt we perish all of us?"
Now throughout the narrative, although other issues are involved, there can be no question that the main design is the confirmation of the Aaronic priesthood. What happened conveyed a warning of most extraordinary severity against any attempt to interfere with the sacerdotal order as established. And this we can understand. But it becomes a question why a revolt of Reubenites against Moses was connected with that of Korah against the sole priesthood of the Aaronic house. We have also to consider how it came about that princes out of all the tribes were to be found provided with censers, which they were apparently in the habit of using to burn incense to Jehovah. There is a Levitical revolt; there is an assumption by men in each tribe of priestly dignity; and there is a protest by men representing the tribe of Reuben against the dictatorship of Moses. In what way might these different movements arise and combine in a crisis that almost wrecked the fortunes of Israel?
The explanation supplied by Wellhausen on the basis of his main theory is exceedingly laboured, at some points improbable, at others defective. According to the Jehovistic tradition, he says, the rebellion proceeds from the Reubenites, and is directed against Moses as leader and judge of the people. The historical basis of this is dimly discerned to be the fall of Reuben from its old place at the head of the brother tribes. Out of this story, says Wellhausen, at some time or other not specified, "when the people of the congregation, i.e., of the Church, have once come on the scene," there arises a second version. The author of the agitation is now Korah, a prince of the tribe of Judah, and he rebels not only against Moses but against Moses and Aaron as representing the priesthood. "The jealousy of the secular grandees is now directed against the class of hereditary priests instead of against the extraordinary influence on the community of a heaven-sent hero." Then there is a third addition which "belongs likewise to the Priestly Code, but not to its original contents." In this, Korah the prince of the tribe of Judah is replaced by another Korah, head of a "postexilic Levitical family"; and "the contest between clergy and aristocracy is transformed into a domestic strife between the higher and inferior clergy which was no doubt raging in the time of the narrator." All this is supposed to be a natural and easy explanation of what would otherwise be an "insoluble enigma." We ask, however, at what period any family of Judah would be likely to claim the priesthood, and at what post-exilic period there was "no doubt" a strife between the higher and inferior clergy. Nor is there any account here of the two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, with their partially developed ritual antagonistic to that of the tabernacle.
We have seen that according to the narrative of Numbers seventy elders of the tribes were appointed to aid Moses in bearing the heavy burden of administration, and were endowed with the gift of prophecy that they might the more impressively wield authority in the host. In the first instance, these men might be zealous helpers of Moses, but they proved, like the rest, angry critics of his leadership when the spies returned with their evil report. They were included with the other men of the tribes in the doom of the forty years wandering, and might easily become movers of sedition. When the ark was stationed permanently at Kadesh, and the tribes spread themselves after the manner of shepherds over a wide range of the surrounding district, we can easily see that the authority of the seventy would increase in proportion to the need for direction felt in the different groups to which they belonged. Many of the scattered companies too were so far from the tabernacle that they might desire a worship of their own, and the original priestly function of the heads of tribes, if it had lapsed, might in this way be revived. Although there were no altars, yet with censers and incense one of the highest rites of worship might be observed.
Again, the period of inaction must have been galling to many who conceived themselves quite capable of making a successful assault on the inhabitants of Canaan, or otherwise securing a settled place of abode for Israel. And the tribe of Reuben, first by birthright, and apparently one of the strongest, would take the lead in a movement to set aside the authority of Moses. We have also to keep in mind that though Moses had pressed the Kenizzites to join the march and relied on their fidelity, the presence in the camp of one like Hobab, who was an equal not a vassal of Moses, must have been a continual incentive to disaffection. He and his troops had their own notions, we may believe, as to the delay of forty years, and would very likely deny its necessity. They would also have their own cultus, and religiously, as well as in other ways, show an independence which encouraged revolt.
Once more, as to the Levites, it might seem unfair to them that Aaron and his two sons should have a position so much higher than theirs. They had to do many offices in connection with sacrifice, and other parts of the holy service. On them, indeed, fell the burden of the duties, and the ambitious might expect to force their way into the higher office of the priesthood, at a time when rebellion against authority was coming to a head. We may suppose that Korah and his company of Levites, acting partly for themselves, partly in concert with the two hundred and fifty who had already assumed the right to burn incense, agreed to make their demand in the first instance, that as Levites they should be admitted priests. This would prepare the way for the princes of the tribes to claim sacerdotal rights according to the old clan idea. And at the same time, the priority of Reuben would be another point, insistence upon which would strike at the power of Moses. If the princes of Reuben had gone so far as to erect a "tabernacle" or mishcan for their worship, that may have been, for the occasion, made the headquarters of revolt, perhaps because Reuben happened at the time to be nearest the encampment of the Levites.
A widespread rebellion, an organised rebellion, not homogeneous, but with many elements in it tending to utter confusion, is what we see. Suppose it to have succeeded, the unity of worship would have been destroyed completely. Each tribe with its own cultus would have gone its own way so far as religion was concerned. In a very short time there would have been as many debased cults as there were wandering companies. Then the claim of autonomy, if not of right to lead the tribes, made on behalf of Reuben, involved a further danger. Moses had not only the sagacity but the inspiration which ought to have commanded obedience. The princes of Reuben had neither. Whether all under the lead of Reuben or each tribe led by its own princes, the Israelites would have travelled to disaster. Futile attempts at conquest, strife or alliance with neighbouring peoples, internal dissension, would have worn the tribes piecemeal away. The dictatorship of Moses, the Aaronic priesthood, and the unity of worship stood or fell together. One of the three removed, the others would have given way. But the revolutionary spirit, springing out of ambition and a disaffection for which there was no excuse, was blind to consequences. And the stern suppression of this revolt, at whatever cost, was absolutely needful if there was to be any future for Israel.
It has been supposed that we have in this rebellion of Korah the first example of ecclesiastical dissension, and that the punishment is a warning to all who presumptuously intrude into the priestly office. Laymen take the censer; and the fire of the Lord burns them up. So, let not laymen, at any time in the Churchs history, venture to touch the sacred mysteries. If ritual and sacramentarian miracle were the heart of religion; if there could be no worship of God and no salvation for men now unless through a consecrated priesthood, this might be said. But the old covenant, with its symbols and shadows, has been superseded. We have another censer now, another tabernacle, another way which has been consecrated for ever by the sacrifice of Christ, a way into the holiest of all open to every believer. Our unity does not depend on the priesthood of men, but on the universal and eternal priesthood of Christ. The co-operation of Aaron as priest was needful to Moses, not that his power might be maintained for his own sake, but that he might have authority over the host for Israels sake. It was not the dignity of an order or of a man that was at stake, but the very existence of religion and of the nation. This bond snapped at any point, the tribes would have been scattered and lost.
A leader of men, standing above them for their temporal interests, can rarely take upon him to be the instrument of administering the penalty of their sins. What king, for instance, ever invoked an interdict on his own people, or in his own right of judging for God condemned them to pay a tax to the Church, because they had done what was morally wrong? Rulers generally have regarded disobedience to themselves as the only crime it was worth their while to punish. When Moses stood against the faithless spirit of the Israelites and issued orders by way of punishing that bad spirit, he certainly put his authority to a tremendous test. Without a sure ground of confidence in Divine support, he would have been foolhardy in the extreme. And we are not surprised that the coalition against him represented many causes of discontent. Under his administration the long sojourn in the desert had been decreed, and a whole generation deprived of what they held their right-a settlement in Canaan. He appeared to be tyrannising over the tribes; and proud Reubenites sought to put an end to his rule. The priesthood was his creation, and seemed to be made exclusive simply that through Aaron he might have a firmer hold of the peoples liberties. Why was the old prerogative of the headmen in religious-matters taken from them? They would reclaim their rights. Neither Levi nor Reuben should be denied its priestly autonomy any longer. In the whole rebellion there was one spirit, but there were also divided counsels; and Moses showed his wisdom by taking the revolt not as a single movement, but part by part.
First he met the Levites, with Korah at their head, professing great zeal for the principle that all the congregation were holy, every one of them. A claim made on that ground could not be disproved by argument, perhaps, although the holiness of the congregation was evidently an ideal, not a fact. Jehovah Himself would have to decide. Yet Moses remonstrated in a way that was fitted to move the Levites, and perhaps did touch some of them. They had been honoured by God in having a certain holy office assigned to them. Were they to renounce it in joining a revolt which would make the very priesthood they desired common to all the tribes? From Jehovah Himself the Levites had their commission. It was against Jehovah they were fighting; and how could they speed? They spoke of Aaron and his dignity. But what was Aaron? Only a servant of God and of the people, a man who personally assumed no great airs. By this appeal some would seem to have been detached from the rebellion, for in Num_26:9-11, when the judgment of Korah and his company is referred to, it is added, "Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not." From 1 Chronicles 6 we learn that in the line of Korahs descendants appeared certain makers and leaders of sacred song, Heman among them, one of Davids singers, to whom Psalms 88, is ascribed.
With the Reubenites Moses deals in the next place, taking their cause of discontent by itself. Already one of the three Reubenite chiefs had withdrawn, and Dathan and Abiram stood by themselves. Refusing to obey the call of Moses to a conference, they stated their grievance roughly by the mouth of a messenger; and Moses could only with indignation express before God his blamelessness in regard to them: "I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them." Neither for his own enrichment, nor in personal ambition had he acted. Could they maintain, did the people think, that the present revolt was equally disinterested? Under cover of opposition to tyranny, are they not desiring to play the part of tyrants and aggrandise themselves at the expense of the people?
It is singular that not a word is said in special condemnation of the two hundred and fifty because they were in possession of censers and incense. May it be the case that the complete reservation of the high-priestly duties to the house of Aaron had not as yet taken effect, that it was a purpose rather than a fact? May it not further be the case that the rebellion partly took form and ripened because an order had been given withdrawing the use of censers from the headmen of the tribes? If there had as yet been a certain temporary allowance of the tribal priesthood and ritual, we should not have to ask how incense and censers were in the hands of the two hundred and fifty, and why the brass of their vessels was held to be sacred and put to holy use.
The prayer of Moses in which he interceded for the people, Num_16:22 is marked by an expression of singular breadth, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh." The men, misled on the fleshly side by appetite (Num_16:13), and shrinking from pain, were against God. But their spirits were in His hand. Would He not move their spirits, redeem and save them? Would He not look on the hearts of all and distinguish the guilty from the innocent, the more rebellious from the less? One man had sinned, but would God burst out on the whole congregation? The form of the intercession is abrupt, crude. Even Moses with all his justice and all his pity could not be more just, more compassionate, than Jehovah. The purpose of destruction was not as. the leader thought it to be.
Regarding the judgments, that of the earthquake and that of the fire, we are too remote in time to form any proper conception of what they were, how they were inflicted. "Moses," says Lange, "appears as a man whose wonderful presentiment becomes a miraculous prophecy by the Spirit of revelation." But this is not sufficient. There was more than a presentiment. Moses knew what was coming, knew that where the rebels stood the earth would open, the consuming fire burn. The plague, on the other hand, which next day spread rapidly among the excited people and threatened to destroy them, was not foreseen. It came as if straight from the hand of Divine wrath. But it afforded an opportunity for Aaron to prove his power with God and his courage. Carrying the sacred fire into the midst of the infected people he became the means of their deliverance. As he waved his censer, and its fumes went up to heaven, faith in Jehovah and in Aaron as the true priest of Jehovah was revived in the hearts of men. Their spirits came again under the healing power of that symbolism which had lost its virtue in common use, and was now associated in a grave crisis with an appeal to Him who smites and heals, who kills and makes alive.
It has been maintained by some that the closing sentences of chapter 17 should follow chapter 16 with which they appear to be closely connected, the incident of the budding of Aarons rod seeming to call rather for a festal celebration than a lament. The theory of the Book of Numbers we have seen reason to adopt would account for the introduction of the fresh episode, simply because it relates to the priesthood and tends to confirm the Aaronites in exclusive dignity. The symbolic test of the claim raised by the tribes corresponds closely to the signs that were used by some of the prophets, such as the girdle laid up by the river Euphrates, and the basket of summer fruits. The rod on which Aarons name was written was of almond, a tree for which Syria was famous. Like the sloe it sends forth blossoms before the leaves; and the unique way in which this twig showed its living vigour as compared with the others was a token of the choice of Levi to serve and Aaron to minister in the holiest office before Jehovah.
The whole circumstances, and the closing cry of the people, leave the impression of a grave difficulty found in establishing the hierarchy and. centralising the worship. It was a necessity-shall we call it a sad necessity?-that the men of the tribes should be deprived of direct access to the sanctuary and the oracle. Earthly, disobedient, and far from trustful in God, they could not be allowed, even the hereditary chiefs among them, to offer sacrifices. The ideas of the Divine holiness embodied in the Mosaic law were so far in advance of the common thought of Israel, that the old order had to be superseded by one fitted to promote the spiritual education of the people, and prepare them for a time when there shall be "on the bells of the horses, HOLY UNTO THE LORD; and every pot in Judah shall be holy unto the Lord of hosts, and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and seethe therein." The institution of the Aaronic priesthood was a step of progress indispensable to the security of religion and the brotherhood of the tribes in that high sense for which they were made a nation. But it was at the same time a confession that Israel was not spiritual, was not the holy congregation Korah declared it to be. The greater was the pity that afterwards in the day of Israels opportunity, when Christ came to lead the whole.people into the spiritual liberty and grace for which prophets had longed, the priestly system was held tenaciously as the pride of the nation. When the law of ritual and sacrifice and priestly mediation should have been left behind as no longer necessary because the Messiah had come, the way of higher life was opened in vain. Sacerdotalism held its place with full consent of those who guided affairs. Israel as a nation was blinded, and its day shone in vain.
Of all priesthoods as corporate bodies, however estimable, zealous, and spiritually-minded individual members of them may be, must it not be said that their existence is a sad necessity? They may be educative. A sacerdotal system now may, like that of the Mosaic law, be a tutor to bring men to Christ. Realising that, those who hold office under it may bring help to men not yet fit for liberty. But priestly dominance is no perpetual rule in any church, certainly not in the Kingdom of God. The freedom with which Christ makes men free is the goal. The highest duty a priest can fulfil is to prepare men for that liberty; and as soon as he can he should discharge them for the enjoyment of it. To find in episodes like those of Korahs revolt and its suppression a rule applicable to modern religious affairs is too great an anachronism. For whatever right sacerdotalism now has is purely of the Churchs tolerance, in the measure not of Divine right, but of the need of uninstructed men. To the spiritual, to those who know, the priestly system with its symbols and authoritative claim is but an interference with privilege and duty.
Can any Aaron now make an atonement for a mass of people, or even in virtue of his office apply to them the atonement made by Christ? How does his absolution help a soul that knows Christ the Redeemer as every Christian soul ought to know Him? The great fault of priesthoods always is, that having once gained power, they endeavour to retain it and extend it, making greater claims the longer they exist. Affirming that they speak for the Church, they endeavour to control the voice of the Church. Affirming that they speak for Christ, they deny or minimise His great gift of liberty. Freedom of thought and reason was to Cardinal Newman, for example, the cause of all deplorable heresies and infidelities, of a divided Church and a ruined world. The candid priest of our day is found making his claim as largely as ever, and then virtually explaining it away. Should not the vain attempt to hold by Judaic institutions cease? And although the Church of Christ early made the mistake of harking back to Mosaism, should not confession now be made that priesthood of the exclusive kind is out of date, that every believer may perform the highest functions of the consecrated life?
The Divine choice of Aaron, his confirmation in high religious office by the budding of the almond twig as well as by the acceptance of his intercession, have their parallels now. The realities of one age become symbols for another.
Like the whole ritual of Israel, these particular incidents may be turned to Christian use by way of illustration. But not with regard to the prerogative of any arch-hierarch. The availing intercession is that of Christ, the sole headship, over the tribes of men is that which He has gained by Divine courage, love, and sacrifice. Among those who believe there is equal dependence on the work of Christ. When we come to intercession which they make for each other, it is of value in consideration not of office but of faith. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." It is as "righteous" men, humble men, not as priests they prevail. The sacraments are efficacious, "not from any virtue in them or in him that administers them," but through faith, by the energy of the omnipresent Spirit.
Yet there are men chosen to special duty, whose almond twigs bud and blossom and become their sceptres. Appointment and ordination are our expedients; grace is given by God in a higher line of calling and endowment. While there are blessings pronounced that fall upon the ear or gratify the sensibility, theirs reach the soul. For them the world has need to thank God. They keep religion alive, and make it bourgeon and yield the new fruits for which the generations hunger. They are new branches of the Living Vine. Of them it has often to be said, as of the Lord Himself, "The stone which the builders rejected the same has become head of the corner; this is the Lords doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 In this chapter we have the history of the…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
In this chapter we have the history of the rebellion of Korah and his company. The time and place of this event are not recorded. It is probable that it occurred in one of the early years of their penal wanderings.
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Num_16:1. Korah was a Kohathite, and cousin to Moses and Aaron (Exo_6:16-21). Dathan and Abiram.… and On were Reubenites; and were probably discontented because the rights of primogeniture were taken from their tribe, and the tribe of Judah placed before them. Moreover the camps of Reuben and of the Kohathites were pitched on the same side of the tabernacle (chaps. Num_2:10; Num_3:29); thus the two families were conveniently situated for conspiring together. On is not mentioned hereafter: he probably withdrew from the conspiracy, or took only a very subordinate part in it.
Took men. The word “men” is not in the original; and the verb “took” is in the singular number. But it is not uncommon in Hebrew when the verb begins the sentence (as it does here) for it to be in the singular, even when the nominative case which follows is plural. So Gesenius would translate, And Korah.… and Dathan and Abiram.… took and rose up against Moses &c. Keil and Del. follow Gesenius here. The Jerusalem Targum supplies “counsel” after “took.” If this be adopted the translation will be, And Korah.… took counsel apart with Dathan and Abiram, &c. The Hebrew literally translated is, “And Korah, son of Yizhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, took both Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On, son of Peleth, sons of Reuben; and they rose up,” &c. In this way Bp. Patrick, Drs. A. Clarke, Gill, and others construe the verse. It is suggested in the Speaker’s Comm. that “probably the whole difficulty is due to an after insertion of the mention of Dathan and Abiram, and of their insurrection against Moses, into the original narrative of the sedition of Korah. This narrative would run naturally as follows: ‘Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, took of the children of Israel two hundred and fifty,’ &c. In it, moreover, Korah and his company would be naturally represented as gathering themselves together against Aaron as well as against Moses (Num_16:3). But in the expansion of this narrative with a view of making it comprise the account of the proceedings of Dathan and Abiram, it became important to mark that the outcry of the latter was directed against Moses alone; hence the introduction of the opening words of Num_16:2.”
Num_16:2. Famous in the congregation. Keil and Del.: “ ‘Called men of the congregation,’ i.e., members of the council of the nation which administered the affairs of the congregation (cf. Num_1:16).”
Men of renown. Keil and Del.: “ ‘Men of name’ (see Gen_6:4). These two hundred and fifty men appear to have belonged to the other tribes; this is implied in Num_27:3.”
Num_16:3. Ye take too much upon you. Margin: “It is much for you.” Dr. A. Clarke: “The original is simply רַב לָכֶם, ‘too much for you.’ ”
Num_16:4. Comp. Num_14:5.
Num_16:7. Ye take too much upon you. Moses gives back to them their own words, רַב לָכֶם.
Num_16:9. Seemeth it but a small thing unto you. The words, “seemeth it but” are not in the original. Keil and Del. translate, “Is this too little for you?”
Num_16:11. “The words of Moses in his wrath are broken. Literally the verse runs: ‘Wherefore against the Lord (not against Aaron) thou and all thy company who are gathered together, and Aaron, what is he, that ye murmur against him?’ Cf. the parallel reproof of Ananias by St. Peter (Act_5:3-4).”—Speaker’s Comm.
Num_16:13. A land that floweth with milk and honey. Thus insolently they apply to Egypt the very words by which Moses had described the Promised Land.
Except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? Keil and Del.: “That thou wilt be always playing the lord over us?”
Num_16:14. Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men. Margin as in Heb.: “bore out,” or dig out; “i.e., ‘blind them to the fact that you keep none of your promises,’ equivalent to ‘throw dust in their eyes.’ ”—Speaker’s Comm.
Num_16:19. The glory of the Lord appeared, &c. Comp. Num_14:10.
Num_16:24. Tabernacle of Korah. Heb.: מִשְׁכַּן, dwelling of Korah.
Num_16:29. Die the common death of all men. Margin: “Die as every man dieth,” i.e., a natural death.
Num_16:30. Make a new thing. Margin: “Create a creature.” בָּרָאבְרִיאָה, create a creation; i.e., work an extraordinary miracle: do such a thing as was never done before. So Dr. A. Clarke, Keil and Del. et al.
Num_16:32. And all the men that appertained unto Korah. “Appertained,” is not in the original; when that is omitted the A. V. in a literal translation of the Hebrew. This does not mean his children; for it is written, “Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not” (Num_26:11); and the celebrated Korahite choir were descendants of his. Keil and Del. say that, “ ‘all the men belonging to Korah,’ were his servants.” The Speaker’s Comm.: “All belonging to him who associated themselves with him in this rebellion.”
It appears that Korah was not swallowed up with Dathan and Abiram. “Korah himself,” says Bishop A. C. Hervey, “was doubtless with the 250 men who bare censers nearer the tabernacle (Num_16:19), and perished with them by the ‘fire from Jehovah’ which accompanied the earthquake. It is nowhere said that he was one of those who ‘went down quick into the pit’ (comp. Psa_106:17-18), and it is natural that he should have been with the censer bearers. That he was so is indeed clearly implied by Num_16:16-19; Num_16:35; Num_16:40, compared with Num_26:9-10.” (See a somewhat full and carefully-compiled consideration of this question in Cobbin’s Evangelical Synopsis on this verse.)
Num_16:35. Comp. Lev_10:1-2.
Num_16:37. Out of the burning, i.e., from the midst of the men that were burned.
Scatter thou the fire yonder, i.e., scatter far away the burning coals in the censers.
They are hallowed. See the next ver.: “For they offered them before the Lord,” &c., and comp. Lev_27:28.
Num_16:38. Sinners against their own. souls, or lives. Because of their sin their lives had been suddenly cut off. Comp. Pro_20:2; Hab_2:10.
Num_16:45. And they fell upon their faces. Comp. Num_16:4; Num_16:22; and Num_14:5.
Num_16:46. A censer. “Rather ‘the censer;’ i.e., that of the High-priest which was used by him on the Great Day of Atonement; cf. Lev_16:12; Heb_9:4.”—Speaker’s Comm.
THE REBELLION OF KORAH AND HIS COMPANY
(Num_16:1-7)
“The former rebellions had been mere popular tumults; but this was a regular conspiracy, headed by persons of consequence, abetted by many of the princes, and favoured by most of the congregation.” In endeavouring to expound that portion of the narrative selected as our text, we take two main divisions.
I. The base rebellion of Korah and his company.
1. The leaders of the rebellion. “Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, took both Dathan,” &c. Korah was a Levite, engaged in sacred services in connection with the temple and worship of the Lord, and ought therefore to have set an example of loyalty to the rightful rulers. He was also cousin to Moses and Aaron, and he ought to have found in that an additional reason for rendering to them prompt and zealous support. Yet he seems to have been the instigator and leader of the rebellion. Dathan and Abiram were leading men in the tribe of Reuben, who joined Korah in the insurrection. And with them were two hundred and fifty of the most distinguished and influential men of the nation. “A very dangerous conspiracy,” says Trapp; “for as in a beast the body follows the head, so in that bellua multorum capitum, the multitude. Great men are the looking-glasses of the country, according to which most men dress themselves; their sins do as seldom go unattended as their persons; height of place ever adds two wings to sin, example and scandal, whereby it soars higher and flies much further.” It is ill with a nation when its leaders are misleaders.
2. The nature of the rebellion. It was an organized effort to depose Moses from his position as the head of the civil life, and Aaron from his position as the head of the religious life of the nation. It was “against both magistracy and ministry.” The rebels would have equal authority with Moses and Aaron; they would either ascend to the same level as that occupied by the two great chiefs, or they would drag the two chiefs down to their level. In its essential features this rebellion has had many successors. (a)
3. The cause of the rebellion.
(1) The ostensible cause. “They gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you,” &c. They alleged that Moses and Aaron had usurped the position which they now held and the authority which they wielded. An outrageous assertion when we consider how often the Lord God had manifested His presence with Moses, and used him as the instrument of His power. They also alleged that, as the worshippers of the Lord God, all the congregation were holy, and had, therefore, the right to officiate as priests, and to exercise equal authority with Moses in the government. Their position will not bear examination. It is true that “the whole congregation of Israel were holy in a sense, as being taken into covenant with God; but that which was a national privilege, shared by the meanest Israelite, gave no claim to the magistracy or the priesthood, which He had bestowed according to His pleasure.” There is a sense in which all men are equal before God, yet to some He gives greater abilities and position and authority than to others. But let us mark here two things. First: The tendency of man to seek to justify himself in evil conduct. Korah and his company tried to make their case appear just and good. Men try to justify their evil conduct partly with a view of securing the co-operation, or avoiding the condemnation of others. They do it also in order to quiet their own consciences, by persuading themselves that their course of conduct is reasonable and righteous. But this attempt to justify evil is to add sin to sin. Second: The best of men in this world are liable to reproach and slander. Very few, if indeed any, abler and holier men than Moses have ever lived. And his credentials, as to his being called of God to his high position, were of the clearest and most convincing character; yet he is accused of being a domineering usurper, &c. Count it not a strange thing if you are reviled, &c. Comp. Mat_10:25.
(2) The real cause. Envy and ambition seem to have been the root of the rebellion. Korah was envious of Aaron and the priests, Dathan and Abiram envied the tribe of Judah its first rank amongst the tribes, and the two hundred and fifty princes envied Moses because of his place and power. (b) All these men were ambitious of higher rank and wider authority. “Pride, envy, ambition,” says Babington, “was in their hearts, and that bred discontentment; discontentment, insurrection. If a man should call out all carpenters, none would come but such; but call for all that think themselves wise and able to govern, who will not come?” (c)
II. The noble conduct of Moses in the rebellion.
“And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face,” &c. (Num_16:4-7). Notice:
1. His all-sufficient resource in trouble. “When Moses heard it, he fell upon his face.” By prayer he endeavoured to compose his spirit, and sought help of God. The good man may ever seek and obtain direction and help from God by prayer. Comp. Heb_4:16; Jas_1:5.
2. His sublime confidence in God. This confidence is manifest in—
(1) His bold proposal for settling the question raised by the rebels. “This do, Take you censers, Korah, and all his company,” &c. (Num_16:6-7). Moses must have been directed to this expedient in answer to prayer: he would not have ventured on so daring a measure without the sanction of God.
(2) His assurance that God would vindicate both Aaron and himself. “He spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to-morrow the Lord will show who are His,” &c. (Num_16:6). Moses was convinced of the Divine authority of his own mission and the mission of Aaron, and that God would manifest to all in a manner not to be mistaken that He had chosen and called them to their respective offices.
3. His calm rebuke of the rebels. “Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.” The rebuke was deserved. They were leading a most wicked rebellion. The rebuke was appropriate. They were impugning the arrangements of the all-wise God: surely that was to take too much upon them.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Democracy, we are all well aware, what is called “self-government” of the multitude by the multitude, is in words the thing everywhere passionately clamoured for at present. Democracy makes rapid progress in these latter times, and ever more rapid, in a perilous accelerative ratio; towards democracy, and that only, the progress of things is every where tending as to the final goal and winning-post. So think, so clamour the multitudes everywhere. And yet all men may see, whose sight is good for much, that in democracy can He no finality; that with the completest winning of democracy there is nothing yet won,—except emptiness, and the free chance to win! Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-cancelling business; and gives in the long-run a net result of zero. When no government is wanted, save that of the parish constable, as in America with its boundless soil, every man being able to find work and recompense for himself, democracy may subsist; not elsewhere, except briefly, as a swift transition toward something other and farther. Democracy never yet, that we heard of, was able to accomplish much work, beyond that same cancelling of itself. Rome and Athens are themes for the schools; unexceptionable for that purpose. In Rome and Athens, as elsewhere, if we look practically, we shalt find that it was not by loud voting and debating of many, but by wise insight and ordering of a few, that the work was done. So is it ever, so will it ever be. The French Convention was a Parliament elected “by the five points,” with ballot boxes, universal-suffrages, and what not, as perfectly as Parliament can hope to be in this world; and had indeed a pretty spell of work to do, and did it. The French Convention had to cease from being a free Parliament, and become more arbitrary than any Sultan Bajazet, before it could so much as subsist. It had to purge out its argumentative Girondins, elect its Supreme Committee of Salut guillotine into silence and extinction all that gainsayed it, and rule and work literally by the sternest despotism ever seen in Europe, before it could rule at all. Napoleon was not President of a Republic; Cromwell tried hard to rule in that way, but found that he could not. These, “the armed soldiers of democracy,” had to chain democracy under their feet, and become despots over it, before they could work out the earnest obscure purpose of democracy itself! Democracy, take it where you will in our Europe, is found but as a regulated method of rebellion and abrogation; it abrogates the old arrangement of things; and leaves, as we say, Zero and vacuity for the institution of a new arrangement. It is the consummation of No-government and Laissez-faire. It may be natural for our Europe at present; but cannot be the ultimatum of it. Not towards the impossibility, “self-government” of a multitude by a multitude; but towards some possibility, government by the wisest, does be wildered Europe struggle. The blessedest possibility: not misgovernment, not Laissez-faire, but veritable government.—Thomas Carlyle.
(b) For Illustrations on Envy see pp. 206–208.
(c) Ambition, that high and glorious passion which makes such havoc among the sons of men, arises from a proud desire of honour and distinction; and when the splendid trappings in which it is usually caparisoned are removed, will be found to consist of the mean materials of envy, pride, and covetousness. It is described by different authors as a gallant madness, a pleasant poison, a hidden plague, a secret poison, a caustic of the soul, the moth of holiness, the mother of hypocrisy, and by crucifying and disquieting all it takes hold of, the cause of melancholy and madness.—R. Burton.
The same sun which gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine upon disappointed ambition. It is something that rays out of darkness, and inspires nothing but gloom and melancholy. Men in this deplorable state of mind find a comfort in spreading the contagion of their spleen. They find an advantage, too; for it is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be moat anxious for its welfare. If such persons can answer the ends of relief and profit to themselves, they are apt to be careless enough about either the means or the consequences.—E. Burke.
WICKED AMBITION FAITHFULLY REBUKED
(Num_16:8-11)
Moses now addresses Korah and the other rebellious Levites, probably with a view to convince them of their error and sin before the case should come on for the Divine adjudication. For Moses knew that if their audacious claims were put to the test on the morrow “before the Lord,” as he had proposed, it would be at their dread peril, and that a similar fate to that of Nadab and Abihu (Lev_10:1-2; Num_3:4) would probably befall them. By this remonstrance he seeks to prevent this.
In this appeal Moses makes it clear to Korah that he detected the real motives which actuated him in this movement. The enquiries, “Seek ye the priesthood also?” and “What is Aaron that ye murmur against him?” would leave no doubt on the mind of the leader of the rebels that Moses was cognisant of his real feeling and aims. Notice:—
I. The greatness of the privileges conferred upon the Levites.
“Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation,” &c. (Num_16:9-10). Matthew Henry’s notes are so excellent in themselves and in their arrangement that we cannot do better than quote them. “He reminds them how great the honour was to which they were preferred, as Levites.
“
1. They were separated from the congregation of Israel, distinguished from them, dignified above them; instead of complaining that Aaron’s family was advanced above theirs, they ought to have been thankful that their tribe was advanced above the rest of the tribes, though they had been in all respects upon the level with them. Note, It will help to keep us from envying those that are above us duly to consider how many there are below us. Instead of fretting that any are preferred before us in honour, power, estate, or interest, in gifts, graces, or usefulness, we have reason to bless God if we, who are less than the least, are not put among the very last. Many perhaps who deserve better are not preferred so well.
“
2. They were separated to very great and valuable honours.
(1) To draw near to God, nearer than the common Israelites, though they also were a people near unto Him: the nearer any are to God the greater is their honour.
(2) To do the service of the tabernacle. It is honour enough to bear the vessels of the sanctuary, and to be employed in any part of the service of the tabernacle. God’s service is not only perfect freedom, but high preferment.
(3) To stand before the congregation to minister unto them. Note, Those are truly great that serve the public, and it is the honour of God’s ministers to be the Church’s ministers; nay, which adds to the dignity put upon them.
“
3. It was the God of Israel Himself that separated them. It was His act and deed to put them into their place, and therefore they ought not to have been discontented; and He it was likewise that put Aaron into his place, and therefore they ought not to have envied him.”
II. The unrighteousness of the ambition cherished by them.
Their ambition involved—
1. The disparagement of their present privileges. Their privileges “seemed but a small thing unto them.” Great as they were, they did not satisfy them. “Ambition,” says Trapp, “is restless and unsatisfiable; for, like the crocodile, it grows as long as it lives.” And M. Henry: “Those who aspire after and usurp the honours forbidden them put a great contempt upon the honours allowed them.” (a)
2. Interference in the Divine arrangements. “Seek ye the priesthood also?” It was by the express arrangement and command of God that Aaron and his sons were separated to the duties and emoluments of the priesthood; and, therefore, in seeking the priesthood for themselves, Korah and the Levites who were united with him were endeavouring to set aside the arrangements of the Lord God. Their insatiable ambition had dethroned their judgment, and, for a time, mastered their conscience; it was both unreasonable and unrighteous.
III. The heinousness of the rebellion in which they engaged.
Moses points out to them concerning their rebellion that—
1. It was unreasonable. “What is Aaron that ye murmur against him?” The high-priest was merely an instrument in the hand of the Lord. Aaron was not self-appointed. He was a servant called of God to his office, with his duties and his privileges clearly apportioned unto him. How unreasonable, then, was it to murmur at him for being high-priest!
2. It was exceedingly sinful. “Thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord.” “Those resist the prince who resist those that are commissioned by him.” Comp. Mat_10:40; Joh_13:20; Act_9:4.
Conclusion.
1. Let us crush every rising of ambition which is not in harmony with wisdom and righteousness. It is of such that Shakespeare says, and says wisely—
“Fling away ambition: By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by’t?” (b)
2. Let us seek to give to our ambition a righteous and noble direction. (c)
“The true ambition there alone resides,
Where justice vindicates, and wisdom guides;
Where inward dignity joins outward state,
Our purpose good as our achievement great;
Where public blessings public praise attend,
Where glory is our motive, not our end.
Wouldst thou be famed? Have those high acts in view;
Brave men would act, though scandal would ensue.”—E. Young.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) There is a curtain, but it is lifting, it is lifting, it is lifting; and when it is lifted, what do I see? The spirit world! ’Tis death that lifts the curtain; and when it is lifted, these present things will vanish, for they are but shadows. The world of eternity and reality will then be seen. I would summon a jury of the spirits that have passed that curtain; and they would not be long debating about the question whether Christ is worth the winning. I care not where you select them from—whether from among the condemned in hell, or from among the beatified in heaven. Let them sit—let even those who are in hell sit, and judge upon the matter, and, if they could for once speak honestly, they would tell you that it is a dreadful thing to despise Christ; now that they have come to see things in a true light—now that they are lost for ever—now that they are crushed with knowledge and feeling which have come too late to be profitable—now they wish that they had listened to the ministrations of truth, to the proclamations of the Gospel. Ah! if they could have a sane mind back again, they would shriek, “Oh! for one more Sabbath. Oh! to listen once more to an honest preacher, though his words might be clumsy and uncouth. Oh! to hear a voice once more say, ‘Come to Jesus while the day of mercy lasts.’ Oh! to be once more pressed to come to the marriage feast—once more bidden to look to Jesus and to live!” I tell you, sirs, some of you who make so light of Sundays, and think preaching is but a pas-time, so that you come here to hear us as you would go to hear some fiddler on a week-night—I tell you, sirs, the lost in hell reckon these things at a very different rate, and so will you ere long, when another preacher, with skeleton fingers, shall talk to you upon your deathbed. Ah! then you will see that we were in earnest and you were the players, and you will comprehend that what we said to you demanded earnest, immediate attention, though, alas! you would not give it, and so played false to your own soul, and committed spiritual suicide, and went your way like a bullock to the slaughter, to be the murderers of your own spirits.—C. H. Spurgeon.
(b) How, like a mounting devil in the heart, Rules the unrein’d ambition! Let it once
But play the monarch, and its haughty brow
Glows with a beauty that bewilders thought
And un thrones peace for ever. Putting on
The very pomp of Lucifer, it turns
The heart to ashes, and with not a spring
Left in the bosom for the spirit’s lip
We look upon our splendour and forget
The thirst for which we perish.
N. P. Willis.
(c) There are few men who are not ambitions of distinguishing themselves in the nation or country where they live, and of growing considerable with those with whom they converse. There is a kind of grandeur and respect which the meanest and most insignificant part of mankind endeavour to procure in the little circle of their friends and acquaintance. The poorest mechanic, pay, the man who lives upon common alms, gets him his set of admirers, and delights in that superiority which he enjoys over those who are in some respects beneath him. This ambition which is natural to the soul of man, might, methinks, receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, contribute as much to a person’s advantage as it generally does to his uneasiness and disquiet.—J. Addison.
“Ambition is the vice of noble souls!”
If ’tis a vice, then let those souls beware.
Thrice noble though they be, and passing fair
In the world’s eye, and high upon the scrolls.
Her favour’d minions where the world enrolls.
Lest it conduct to shame! Be thine the care,
Soldier of Christ, that nobler strife to dare,
Which the rash spirit of the world controls,
And makes ambition virtue! Be it thine
To win thy bright unfading diadem
By works of love! Around his brows shall shine
In heaven from glory’s source the purest beam,
Whose aspect here, with beauty most divine,
Reflects the image of the GOOD SUPREME.
Bp. Mant.
THE SIN OF USURPING THE OFFICE OF THE PRIESTHOOD
(Num_16:10)
“Seek ye the priesthood also?”
The Papists say that Korah, Dathan and Abiram are like unto Protestants, and that as they perished for their rebellion against Moses and Aaron so Protestants for leaving “the Catholic Church,” as they call it, will perish for ever in hell. But High Church clergy and writers of like kind compare Korah and his company to the Dissenters; they say that like as Korah, Dathan and Abiram rebelled against Moses and Aaron, so Dissenters presuming to have preachers of their own establish a mock ministry different from that which has the apostolic commission. What a perverting of the truth! So far from it being true that Protestants or Dissenters are shadowed forth, it is not difficult to perceive rather that it shadows forth themselves. What was the crime of Korah, Dathan and Abiram? It was an attempt to put themselves in the place of Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron were mediators between God and Israel, and therefore types of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Moses as lawgiver and Aaron as priest were types of Jesus; their office was sacred and peculiar to themselves; no man could, with God’s permission, perform the duties of their office but themselves. No man on any consideration was to usurp the office of priest; no, not even Jesus Christ Himself, as you see in Heb_5:4-5. So sacred was the office of priest that not even Jesus Himself might take it until called to it by God Himself. This was the very crime of Korah and his company.… Now what is the conduct of the Papists and of High Church clergy? Is it more like the conduct of Korah and his company, or is that of Dissenters or Protestants more like it? Surely, it requires very little sense to see which are like unto Korah and his company. High Churchmen say that they are priests, that they offer sacrifices, that in the Supper of the Lord they really do present the body of Christ to God, that they are sacrificing priests between God and the people; this is the great point which they maintain. Whereas there is known in the Bible but one priest, in that sense, in the present dispensation, namely Jesus, the great High Priest, who has gone to appear in the presence of God to present His sacrifice and offer His intercession. He carries the blood and presents the incense on behalf of His Church.
The wickedness of claiming to be a priest is seen more plainly when we consider the effect of it; it is absolutely to set Jesus Christ aside, and shut a man out from salvation. This illustration very plainly shows this. Notice, first, that the priest offered the blood of the sacrifice; and what was that blood offered for? It was God’s chosen means whereby He would avert punishment and deliver from danger. If they had done wrong and provoked Him to punish them, or if they were brought in the providential dealings of God, into danger of enemies or other evil; if they shed the blood of the sacrifice and presented it before the mercy seat, or at the altar, it would be accepted, judgment averted, and evil removed. That was the national character of the Jewish religion; “without shedding of blood there was no remission;” and national mercies were given in consequence of their observing their national rites, and national evils were removed because of the offering of that blood. But, mark, the priest alone was to offer it; it would have been in vain if any other man had attempted to present the blood, God would not have accepted it, and the punishment would have been poured out. It was the priest who confessed the sins of the people and presented the sacrifice, and then mercy was vouchsafed. Now, what was done by the priest for Israel is what is now actually done by our High Priest for the Church. Observe how it is asserted that one was typical of the other (Heb_10:11-12). Thus you see Christ is both priest and victim, as it is again in Heb_9:11-12. How great then the office of Christ!.… How awful the iniquity for any miserable man calling himself a priest to thrust Christ aside, and take upon himself the very work which here we read in God’s holy Word Jesus is exalted to heaven to carry on!
Again observe, under the Old Testament law, the priest offered the incense also; it was not acceptable to God if offered by any other man. Christ’s intercession was typified by the burning incense going up in a cloud of smoke together with the prayers and praises of the people; and no man might offer that except the priest. In like manner it is Jesus, and Jesus alone, who intercedes in the presence of God for His people (Rom_8:34). Hence we offer prayer “through Jesus Christ our Lord,” “through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” Just as under the old law no man might offer incense himself but must give it to the priest, so in this dispensation no prayer is acceptable to God but by and through Jesus Christ. “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” How great then the wickedness of those who would presume to put themselves in the place of Christ, the great High Priest, and say that they are mediators through whom the prayers of the people are to be offered! What says the Holy Ghost again on this point of incense by the mouth of the beloved Apostle? 1Jn_2:1.… It may be well indeed that ministers should pray for their people, and people for their ministers; but it is not well that ministers should pretend to put themselves as mediators between God and the people, and represent themselves as successors of the Jewish High Priests; in a word, supplanting Jesus Christ Himself; this is not well.
Application.
Trust to the only Priest. Have confidence in that Man who because “He continueth ever hath an unchangeable priesthood.”—R. W. Dibdin, M.A.
AUDACITY IN WICKEDNESS
(Num_16:12-15)
Having finished his address to Korah and the Levites, Moses sent messengers to Dathan and Abiram, who during that address seems to have departed to their own tents, to call them to appear before him. With outrageous insolence they not only refused to obey his summons, but preferred the most unjust and impudent charges against him. Their audacity in wickedness is manifest—
I. In their defiance of the authority of the ruler appointed by God.
They absolutely and daringly refused to obey the summons of Moses. Twice they said, “We will not come up.” “They denied his power,” says Gill, “despised his authority, and would not obey his orders, and therefore refused to come up to the tabernacle, or to the tent of Moses, or to the Court of Judicature, wherever it was; perhaps the first is best.” “Sturdy rebels,” says Trapp, “ripe for destruction.” See Pro_29:1.
II. In their reviling the ruler appointed by God.
They proceed to charge Moses with—
1. Having injured them in their circumstances. “Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey?… Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards.” The statement concerning Egypt was not truthful. Moreover, as Bp. Patrick observes, “nothing could be more insolent and ungrateful than to describe Egypt in the very same language in which God had often spoken of the Land of Promise.” Their deliverance from Egypt, instead of being resented as an injury, should have been regarded by them as a priceless blessing. And whose fault was it that they were not in possession of the Promised Land? They charge Moses with that for which they alone were to blame.
2. Attempting to tyrannise over them. “Thou make thyself altogether a prince over us.” They speak as though Moses were in the habit of lording it over them as a usurping tyrant, when he was really devoting himself to their service.
3. Endeavouring to deceive them. “Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men?” They insinuate that Moses was trying to blind the congregation as to the true character of his doings and designs.
4. Aiming at their destruction. “Thou hast brought us.… to kill us in the wilderness.” Farther than this injustice and falsehood surely cannot go. If they were doomed to fall in the wilderness it was because of former rebellions of their own. As for Moses he had sought their good, and only their good. Is not the audacity of their wickedness terrible?
III. In the solemn appeal to God which their conduct called forth from the ruler which He had appointed.
“And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not Thou their offering,” &c. Notice:
1. His righteous anger. “Moses was very wroth.” Anger is not always sinful. “Be ye angry, and sin not.” There are times when it would be a sin not to be angry. There is a deep principle of wrath in the Divine nature. Our Lord looked upon the wicked Pharisees “with anger” (Mar_3:5). In proportion as we regard holiness with affection we must regard wickedness with indignation. There is much in this world at present to awaken wrath in godly souls. The anger of Moses was a righteous thing: it was the antagonism of his pure and noble soul against the base wickedness of Dathan and Abiram. (a)
2. His truthful self-vindication. “I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them.” “Moses was not one of them,” says Trapp, “that follow the administration of justice as a trade only, with an unquenchable and unconscionable desire of gain. This is but robbery with authority, and justifies the common resemblance of the courts of justice to the bush, whereto while the sheep flies for defence in weather, he is sure to lose part of his fleece.” Moses could truthfully appeal to the Lord that although he was their ruler he had taken no tribute whatever from them or oppressed them in any way or degree. Comp. 1Sa_12:3.
3. His solemn prayer. “Moses said unto the Lord, Respect not Thou their offering.” Comp. Gen_4:4-5. It may at first sight appear that in this request Moses manifests an unworthy spirit. But really “he craveth of God no more than to show and make manifest his own innocency and uprightness, which was to be decided by that offering.”
Lessons.
1. That man, having entered upon an evil course, unless arrested by some restraining force, proceeds to greater daring in and deeper depths of wickedness. So Dathan and Abiram grew bold and insolent in sin. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,” &c. Character is never stationary. It grows either towards perfection or towards perdition. In the case of the wicked their dread progress in wickedness is not difficult of explanation.
(1) The heart becomes hardened; less susceptible to good influences; less amenable to conscience, &c. (b)
(2) The propensity to evil increases in power. As the soul falls the momentum with which it falls increases.
(3) The circumstances into which they bring themselves by sin urge them onward. One sin seems to make other sins necessary. Shakespeare clearly expresses the idea in Macbeth—
“I am in blood Stept in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” (c)
Guard against entering on wicked, or even questionable, courses.
2. The best of men are liable to the vilest misrepresentations. There was not the shadow of reason for these charges against Moses. He was the last man to play the lord over any people. “Those often fall under the heaviest censures who have merited the highest applause.”
3. The good man when suffering from misrepresentation can carry his cause to the Great Vindicator. Moses appealed to God from the misrepresentations of Dathan and Abiram. So did Job from the false charges of his “miserable comforters.” So did David from the slanders of his enemies. Comp. Job_14:19; Job_23:10-12. So may we when falsely accused. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth Thy righteousness as the light, and Thy judgment as the noon-day.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) There is a great difference between the sin of one who is angry, and the cruelty of one who holds another in hatred. For even with our children are we angry; but who is ever found to hate his children? Among the very cattle, too, the cow, in a sort of weariness, will sometimes in anger drive away her suckling calf; bat anon she embraces it with all the affection of a mother. She is in a way disgusted with it when she butts it; yet, when she misses it, she will seek after it. Nor do we discipline our children otherwise than with a degree of anger and indignation; yet we should not discipline them at all but in love to them.
So far, then, is every one who is angry from hating, that sometimes one would be rather convicted of hating if he were not angry; for suppose a child wishes to play in some river’s stream, by whose force he would be like to perish. If you see this and patiently suffer it, this would be hating—your patient suffering him in his death. How far better is it to be angry and correct him, than by not being angry to suffer him to perish! Great is the difference, indeed, between one’s exceeding due limits in some words through anger, which he afterwards wipes off by repenting of it, and the keeping an insidious purpose shut up in the heart.—Augustine.
There is an anger that is damnable: it is the anger of selfishness. There is an anger that is majestic as the frown of Jehovah’s brow: it is the anger of truth and love. If man meets with injustice, it is not required that he shall not be roused to meet it; but if he is angry after he has had time to think upon it, that is sinful. The flame is not wrong, but the coals are.—H. W. Beecher.
High and gusty passions that sweep through the soul are sometimes like fierce summer storms that cleanse the air, and give the earth refreshment by strong winds and down-pelting rains. Men are better for knowing how to be angry, provided the sun does not go down on their wrath, and provided it is justified by the occasions of it.—Ibid.
(b) Wilful disobedience to God’s commands tends most powerfully to harden the heart; for after we have once disobeyed, it becomes more easy to repeat the disobedience. But this is not all. If you disobey, you must assign some excuse to justify your disobedience, or your conscience will reproach you, and render you uneasy; if no plausible excuse occurs, you will seek one; if none can readily be found, you will invent one. And when God proceeds to enforce His commands by frowns and threatenings, and to press you with motives and arguments, you must fortify your minds against their influence, and seek other arguments to assist you in doing it. This also tends most powerfully to harden the heart. A man who is frequently employed in seeking arguments and excuses to justify his neglect of religion, soon becomes expert in the work of self-justification. He is, if I may so express it, armed at all points against the truth; so that in a little time, nothing affects him, no arrow from the quiver of revelation can reach his conscience. Urge him to what duty you will, he has some plausible excuse in readiness to justify himself for neglecting to perform it. But if, as is sometimes the case, his excuses prove insufficient, and his understanding and conscience become convinced that he ought to hear God’s voice to-day, he can avoid compliance only by taking refuge in an obstinate refusal, or by resolutely diverting his attention to some other object, till God’s commands are forgotten, or by a vague kind of promise that he will become religious at some future period. Whichsoever of these methods he adopts, the present impression is effaced, and his heart is hardened. He has engaged in a warfare with his reason and conscience, and has gained a victory over them. He has resisted the force of truth, and thus rendered it more easy for him to resist it again. In a word, he has less religious sensibility; he has become more inaccessible to conviction, and less disposed to yield to it than before.—E. Payson, D.D.
(c) It is somewhere fabled in ancient literature that a certain stag and horse were at variance; they battled for some time fiercely with each other. At length the strength of the horse failed him, and he sought the help of a man. The man complies, gets on his back, and chases the stag to death. So far the noble steed overcame the difficulty of his position, and gained his point; but the very means he adopted placed him in a far worse position afterwards. With a bit in his mouth and saddle on his back, he continued to the end of his days the slave of the man whose assistance he obtained. It is thus with those who seek to overcome a difficulty or avoid a danger by recourse to immoral expedients. This, alas! is often done. In business a man contracts obligations. He finds that his credit, reputation, and position are in danger unless they are fully met. The hour comes when those obligations heavily press upon him. He struggles honourably with them for a time. At length he gives way, and has recourse to forgeries, falsehoods, or some other wicked device. For the moment he seems to succeed; but the immorality he called in to serve him for the hour becomes his master and his tyrant, uses him as the man did the horse in the fable—as a wretched beast of burden, the victim of the bit, the saddle, and the spur.—The Clerical Year Book.
THE REBELLION MAINTAINED IN THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD
(Num_16:16-22)
Consider:—
I. The test proposed by Moses to the rebels.
“And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before the Lord,” &c. (Num_16:16-17). Moses here repeats the challenge which he had previously made (Num_16:5-7), with this addition, he states that Aaron also shall be there, and submit to the test. The test includes three clauses, or articles.
1. That Korah and his company shall assemble at the tabernacle and burn incense. This was a function reserved to the priesthood: they had claimed equality with the priesthood: thus let their claim be put to proof.
2. That they should burn incense in sight of God. All things transpire beneath His eye (Pro_15:3; Heb_4:13); but Moses gives special prominence to the fact that the trial of their claims was to take place “before the Lord.” In this renewal of the challenge he twice mentions this solemn fact (Num_16:16-17). Will they dare the awful experiment in His holy presence?
3. That they should burn incense in the sight of God with a view to His interposition for the settlement of the question which they had raised. This was the great object which they had in view in this business, and was clearly stated by Moses when he first proposed this method of testing their claims. Truly a very serious, and indeed awful proposal. How will the rebels treat it?
II. The test accepted by the rebels.
On the morrow “they took every man his censer, and put fire in them,” &c. (Num_16:18-19). Notice:
1. The awful presumption involved in their conduct. It was but recently that they had witnessed Nadab and Abihu burnt to death by fire from the Lord, when they offered strange fire before the Lord, and yet they presume with unconsecrated hands and in a rebellious spirit to burn incense in the door of the tabernacle before the Lord. Terrible is their sinful hardihood! (a)
2. The infatuation of Korah in sin. He “gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” He seems entirely confident of success. Not a grain of prudence seems left to him. Quos Deus vult perdere dementat prius. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
III. The interposition of the Lord God.
“And the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation. And the Lord spake,” &c. (Num_16:19; Num_16:21). The interposition of the Lord was characterised by—
1. The manifestation of His glory. “The glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation.” (See notes on Num_14:10, p. 248.)
2. The declaration of His judgment. He called upon Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the congregation that He “may consume them in a moment.” By rallying to the tabernacle at the call of Korah the people had made common cause with the rebels and become sharers in their guilt, and God threatens to destroy them instantly.
3. His care for His faithful servants. He “spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation,” &c. Excellent are the notes of Trapp on this: “Good men are taken away from the evil to come. When God pulls away the pillars, what will become of the building? Lot was no sooner taken out of Sodom, but Sodom was taken out of the world.” Comp. Gen_19:22-25. (b)
IV. The intercession of Moses and Aaron for the congregation.
“And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God,” &c. (Num_16:22).
1. Its object. The aim of the intercession of Moses and Aaron was to avert the threatened destruction of all the congregation.
2. Its pleas. These are—
(1) The relationship of God to man. “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh.” God is the creator and sustainer of human life. “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” “The Father of spirits.” Will He not then have mercy upon these misguided spirits, of which He was the author and preserver? “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth,” &c. (Psa_103:13-18). “Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of Thine own hands.” Comp. Isa_64:8-9. (c).
(2) The justice of God. “Shall one man sin, and wilt Thou be wroth with all the congregation?” As compared with Korah, the author of the rebellion, the great multitude of the people were almost innocent. Would God sweep them all away in the same judgment? Comp. Gen_18:23; Gen_18:25.
Mark the magnanimity of Moses and Aaron in thus interceding for the people. The people were ever ready to join in any rebellion against their leaders, yet those leaders were ever ready to entreat God for them. “The good man,” says a Hindoo epigram, “goes not upon enmity, but rewards with kindness the very being who injures him. So the sandal-wood while it is felling, imparts to the edge of the axe its aromatic savour.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Every presumption is properly an encroachment, and all encroachment carriage in it still a farther and a farther invasion upon the person encroached upon. It enters into the soul as a gangrene does into the body, which spreads as well as infects, and with a running progress carries a venom and a contagion all over the members. Presumption never stops in its first attempt. If Cæsar comes once to pass the Rubicon, he will be sure to march farther on, even till he enters the very bowels of Rome, and breaks open the Capitol itself. He that wades so far as to wet and foul himself, cares not how much he trashes farther.—Robert South, D D.
(b) “No doubt,” said the Rev. J. Brown, of Haddington, “I have met with trials as well as others, yet so kind has God been to me, that I think if He were to give me as many years as I have already lived in the world, I should not desire one single circumstance in my lot changed except that I wish I had less sin. It might be written on my coffin, ‘Here lies one of the cares of Providence, who early wanted both father and mother and yet never missed them.’ ”—“The Sunday School Teacher.”
(c) The Creator is faithful. He abides by His creation, neither deserting, nor repudiating it. Though nature has become a madhouse of fierce passions and deadly strife, His devotion to it knows no abatement. He will not fail nor be discouraged until He has put down all evil, and established righteousness, even “everlasting righteousness.” “A faithful Creator” involves the idea of a tender Redeemer.—John Pulsford.
God never loses sight of any one thing. He has created, and no created thing can continue either to be, or to act independently of Him. His eye is upon every hour of my existence. His spirit is intimately present with every thought of my heart. His inspiration gives birth to every purpose within me. His hand impresses a direction on every footstep of my goings. Every breath I inhale is drawn by an energy which God deals out to me. This body, which, upon the slightest derangement, would become the prey of death, or of woful suffering, is now at ease, because He at this moment is warding off from me a thousand dangers, and upholding the thousand movements of its complex and delicate machinery. His presiding influence keeps by me through the whole current of my restless and ever-changing history. When I walk by the way-side, He is along with me. When I enter into company, amid all my forgetfulness of Him, He never forgets me. In the silent watches of the night, when my eyelids have closed and my spirit has sunk into unconsciousness, the observant eye of Him who never slumbers is upon me. I cannot fly from His presence. Go where I will, He tends me, and watches me, and cares for me; and the same Being who is now at work in the remotest domains of nature and of Providence, is also at my right hand to eke out to me every moment of my being, and to uphold me in the exercise of all my feelings and of all my faculties.—Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D.
THE SPIRIT AND THE SOVEREIGN OF MAN
(Num_16:22)
“The God of the spirits of all flesh.”
These words suggest three considerations.
I. The grand distinction of human nature.
The glory of human nature is not in anything physical, e.g., the upright form, the steady and penetrating glance of the eye, &c.; but in the fact of its spirituality. Man is a spirit in a vesture of flesh. “There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” (a). Concerning the human spirit consider—
1. Its attributes.
(1) Unity. The body is composed of an indefinite number of separate and separable parts. But the spirit is one and indivisible. We are conscious of our individuality as thinking, feeling, acting beings.
(2) Voluntary activity. Bodies have no power of spontaneous motion; being at rest, they will remain so for ever, unless acted upon by some power which is not inherent. But the spirit acts independently; man is gifted with volition, he chooses and rejects, &c.
(3) Thought. The body does not think; after the death of the body the brain may remain perfect, but it does not reflect. But the spirit thinks, reflects, compares, judges. How wonderful is this power! and how great and glorious are its achievements!
(4) Sensation. It is not the mere body which feels: when life has departed from it you may subject the body to any treatment whatsoever, but you will not discover in it any sign of sensation. But the spirit feels: it is capable of the deepest, intensest misery, and of the most exquisite and unspeakable joy.
(5) Religiousness. Bodies are incapable of admiration or veneration; but spirits have capabilities of worship and an instinct or instincts for worship. By his very nature man is a worshipper; his spirit wonders, admires, loves, adores. How great, then, are the capacities and faculties of the human spirit! Moreover the spirit acts without weariness. The bodily organs through which in our present state it acts are speedily tired, but the spirit seems untiring in its activities. And further, it appears to be capable of indefinite growth and progress. All the material forms of life with which we are acquainted advance and grow to a certain point, and then begin to decay. But the spirit seems to possess innate capabilities for never-ending growth. How wonderful and sacred are our spirits, possessing, as they do, such attributes as these!
2. Its relationships. It is related—
(1) To angels. With holy angels it has relations. “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” “He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” These holy and heavenly spirits minister to human spirits upon earth. The human spirit has relations with evil angels also. We are one with them in the fact that we are rebellious spirits. These evil angels act malignantly on human spirits; they tempt them to sin; they seek their utter and irretrievable ruin. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,” &c. (Eph_6:12). “The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
(2) To God. “God is a Spirit.” “The Lord formeth the spirit of man within him” (Zec_12:1). He is “the Father of spirits” (Heb_12:9). “We are also His offspring” (Act_17:28). He is “the God of the spirits of all flesh.” We were created in His image. His great redemptive purpose is to renew us into His image again. We may receive communications from Him; may commune with Him; may be “workers together with Him”; may participate in His joy, &c. We are called into this high fellowship through Jesus Christ. He restores the human spirit to those relations to God which sin had ruptured. “No man cometh unto the Father but by Him.” How exalted and august are these relations of the human spirit to God!
3. Its destiny. At death the body “shall return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” From the body the spirit passes into the presence of God as the great Judge; and from His presence it passes to its own place of retribution, either to the Paradise of God or to the prison of the lost. (b)
Here, then, is the grand distinction of man that he is spirit with such wondrous faculties, &c. Amongst all God’s works in this world he stands alone in this; for if we allow a spiritual principle to animals it is greatly and obviously inferior to the human spirit.
Man reverence thy spirit—reverence thyself!
II. The supreme Sovereign of human nature.
“The God of the spirits of all flesh.” God’s relations of Creator and Sustainer of man were most probably present to the mind of Moses in this appeal. We have already spoken of Him as the Creator of spirits. He is also their Sustainer. “In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind” (Job_12:10). “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Act_17:25). His sovereignty over human spirits rests upon these relations which He sustains to them, and it is manifest:—
1. In the claims which He makes upon the human spirit. He requires the sincere worship and the supreme affection of man: He claims the throne of our being. Comp. Deu_6:4-5; Deu_10:12; Eze_18:4; Luk_10:27.
2. In the power which He exercises over the human spirit. We have seen that He is its Creator; and its departure from this world is in His hands. He summons the spirit hence when He pleases. Comp. Job_14:5; Job_14:20; Ecc_8:8; Rev_1:18.
III. The inspiring hope of human nature.
Because God is “the God of the spirits of all flesh” Moses was encouraged to plead with Him that He would not destroy “all the congregation” because of the rebellion of Korab and his company. For the creatures whom He has created and whom He sustains He must have a kind regard. Towards the spirits of which He is the Father He must be gracious and merciful. “Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands” (Job_14:15). Comp. Psa_103:13-18; Psa_138:8; Isa_64:8-9.
From the relations which He sustains to our spirits we have a good hope that He will ever deal graciously with us. Comp. Lam_3:31-33.
Should we not leave the future destinies of men (about which so many minds are now much exercised) calmly and confidently to “the God of the spirits of all flesh”? It is absolutely certain that He will deal righteously and kindly with His creatures in this and in all things.
Conclusion.
Realise the greatness and dignity of your being. You are a spirit, created in the image of God, redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and destined for immortality. The time comes on apace when you will realise the unspeakable importance of your spirit. Let your great concern be to secure its well-being. (c)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) To say there is no such thing as matter would be a much less absurd inference, than to say there is no such thing as mind. The very act of inferring, as we do by reasoning, that the object which effects our senses exists apart from ourselves, is wholly incapable of giving us any knowledge of the object’s existence, without, at the same time, giving us a knowledge of our own that is, of the mind’s existence. An external necessarily implies an internal. That there may be anything beyond or without, there must necessarily be something beyond or without which it is said to exist. That there may be a body which we feel abiding separate from us, namely our own body, one part of which gives us sensations through another part, there must be a WE, an US, that is, A MIND. If we have a right to call spirit, or soul, or mind, a mere negation of the qualities of matter; surely this might just as well be retorted by saying that matter is only a negation of the qualities of mind. But in truth the materialists cannot stir one step without the aid of that mind whose existence they deny.… The truth is that we believe in the existence of matter because we cannot help it. The inferences of our reason from our sensations impel us to this conclusion; and the steps are few and short by which we reach it. But the steps are fewer and shorter, and of the self-same nature, which lead us to believe in the existence of mind: for of that we have the evidence within ourselves, and wholly independent of our senses. Nor can we ever draw the inference, in any one instance, of the existence of matter, without, at the same time, exhibiting a proof of the existence of mind; for we are, by the supposition, reasoning, inferring, drawing a conclusion, forming a belief: therefore, there exists somebody, something, to reason, to infer, to conclude, to believe; that is, WE, not any fraction of matter, but a reasoning, inferring, believing being; in other words, a Mind. If scepticism can have any place in our system, assuredly it relates to the existence of matter, far more than of mind.—Lord Brougham.
(b) Nothing is more difficult than to realise that every man has a distinct soul—that every one of all the millions who live or have lived, is as whole and independent a being in himself as if there were no one else in the whole world but he. To explain what I mean.… When we read history, we meet with accounts of great slaughters and massacres, great pestilences, famines, conflagrations, and so on; and we are accustomed to regard collections of people as single individuals. We cannot understand that a multitude is a collection of immortal souls. I say immortal souls. Each of those multitudes not only had, while he was upon earth, but has a soul, which did in its own sure but return to God who gave it, and not perish, and which now lives unto Him. All those millions upon millions of human beings who ever trod the earth, and saw the sun successively, are at this moment in existence all together. Every one of those souls still lives. They had their separate thoughts and feelings when on earth; they have them now. They had their likings and pursuits, they gained what they thought good, and enjoyed it; and they still somewhere or other live, and what they then did in the flesh surely has its influence upon their present destiny. They live, reserved for a day which is to come, when all nations shall stand before God.… All the names we see written on monuments in churches or churchyards; all the writers whose names and works we see in our libraries; all the workmen who raised the great buildings far and near, which are the wonder of the world, they are all in God’s remembrance—they all live.
Moreover, every one of all the souls which have ever been on earth, is in one of two spiritual states, so distinct from one another that one is the subject of God’s favour, and the other under His wrath; the one in the way to eternal happiness, the other to eternal misery. This is true of the dead, and is true of the living also. All are tending one way or the other; there is no middle or neutral state for any one, though as far as the sight of the external world goes, all men seem to be in a middle state common to one and all. Yet, much as men look the same, and impossible as it is for us to say where each man stands in God’s sight, there are two, and but two, classes of men, and these have characters and destinies as far apart in their tendencies as light and darkness. This is the case even of those who are in the body, and it is much more true of those who have passed into the unseen state.—J. H. Newman, D.D.
(c) Endeavour then, my brethren, to realize that you have souls, and pray God to enable you to do so. Endeavour to disengage your thoughts and opinions from the things that are seen; look at things as God looks at them, and judge them as He judges. Pass a very few years, and you will actually experience what as yet you are called on to believe. There will be no need of the effort of mind to which I invite you. When you have passed into the unseen state, there will be no need of shutting your eyes to this world, when this world has vanished from you, and you have nothing before you but the throne of God, and the slow but continual movements about it in preparation of the Judgment. In that interval, when you are in that vast receptacle of disembodied souls, what will be your thoughts about the world which you have left? How poor will then seem to you its highest aims, how faint its keenest pleasures, compared with the infinite aims, the infinite pleasures, of which you will at length feel your souls to be capable! O, my brethren! let the thought be upon you day by day, especially when you are tempted to sin. Avoid sin as a serpent; it looks and promises well; it bites afterwards. It is dreadful in memory, dreadful even on earth; but in that awful period, when the fever of life is over, and you are waiting in silence for the Judgment, with nothing to distract your thoughts, who can say how dreadful may be the memory of sins done in the body? Then the very apprehension of their punishment, when Christ shall suddenly visit, will doubtless outweigh a thousandfold their gratification, such as it was, which you felt in committing them; and if so, what will be the proportion between it and that punishment, if, after all, it be actually inflicted? Let us lay to heart our Saviour’s own most merciful words. “B, not afraid,” He says, “of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear Him which after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yes, I say unto you, fear Him.”—Ibid.
THE PREPARATION FOR JUDGMENT
(Num_16:23-30)
In this section of the narrative we have the final steps before the infliction of punishment upon the rebels.
I. The complete separation of the people from the rebels.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram,” &c. (Num_16:23-27). ln these instructions we have—
1. A manifestation of the justice of God. In his intercession Moses had pleaded the justice of God; and this is the Divine answer to his prayer. God will not consume all the congregation because of the sin of a portion of that congregation. “All His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.” “The just Lord will not do iniquity: every morning doth He bring His judgment to light, He faileth not” (a)
2. An illustration of the peril of evil associations. The people that were in the immediate neighbourhood of the rebels were in danger of sharing their dread fate. “Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men,” &c. (Num_16:26). Lot’s residence in Sodom well nigh ruined him. Jehoshaphat’s partnership with the wicked Ahaziah ended in disaster (2Ch_20:35-37). “The companion of fools shall be destroyed.” (b)
3. An illustration of the necessity of human effort in the attainment of salvation. If the people would avoid the doom of Dathan and Abiram they must hasten away from the tents of those wicked men. Lot had to make a speedy departure from Sodom. If the sinner would be saved from the punishment and power of sin, he must “flee for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before him.” (c)
The people obeyed the word of the Lord spoken by Moses: “They gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on every side.” The instinct of self-preservation would urge them to swift compliance with the Divine instructions. Thus the rebels and their families were separated from the rest of the people.
II. The final statement concerning the decision of the question which the rebels had raised.
“And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me,” &c. (Num_16:28-30). It has been well said by Dr. Kitto: “From the beginning of the world unto this day, no man ever made so bold and noble an assertion of Divine approval, or subjected his claims in the presence of a nation to a test so immediate and so infallible.” And Matthew Henry: “The judgment itself would have been proof enough of God’s displeasure against the rebels, and would have given all men to ‘understand that they had provoked the Lord’; but when it was thus solemnly foretold and appealed to by Moses beforehand, when there was not the least previous indication of it from without, the convincing evidence of it was much the stronger, and it was put beyond dispute that he was not only a servant but a favourite of Heaven, who was so intimately acquainted with the Divine counsels, and could obtain such extraordinary appearances of the Divine power in his vindication.” How extraordinary and sublime was the confidence of Moses in all this! Calmly he makes this remarkably bold declaration, and leaves the issue in the hands of the Lord God. He knew well that he was not seeking his own in any respect; that his great aim was to promote the glory of God in the service to which He had appointed him; and, therefore, he could confidently leave the issue with his great Lord.
III. The final opportunity afforded to the rebels of turning from their evil course.
The warning which was given to the people to separate themselves from the tents of the rebels, and the final statement of Moses as to the settlement of the question in dispute, afforded the rebels another opportunity of desisting from their rebellion, acknowledging the authority of their rightful leaders, &c. The Lord is slow to anger. He affords to the greatest sinners many opportunities of turning from their sin, before He smites them in wrath. The Divine mercy in this case is the more conspicuous, inasmuch as Dathan and Abiram having refused to go to Moses and the elders, Moses and the elders go to them. Dathan and Abiram may yet be saved if they will. How great is the longsuffering of God! (d)
IV. The persistent and terrible audacity of the rebels.
“Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children.” “As outfacing Moses,” says Trapp, “and scorning the judgment threatened. Hardened sinners make no more of God’s dreadful threatenings than Behemoth doth of iron weapons, which he esteemeth as straws.” “He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Here we open the Bible, in which we find that to whom much is given, from him shall much be required, and that it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for nations which enjoyed a fuller revelation of Divine purpose and requirements. The heathen are a law unto themselves. Five talents are expected to produce more then two. The Divine plan of judgment, therefore, is not arbitrary, but moral. If we lose hold of this principle, we shall see confusion where we might see the order of righteousness. First of all, and last of all, it must be our settled and unalterable conviction that God must do right or He is no longer God. Everything must perish which opposes this law. We are not, however, to look at incomplete cases, and regard them as final criteria by which to test the wisdom and righteousness of the Almighty. In many cases we shall have to repress our impatience, and calmly to wait until fuller light is granted.—Joseph Parker, D.D.
(b) Be cautious with whom you associate, and never give your company or your confidence to persons of whose good principles you are not certain. No person that is an enemy to God can be a friend to man. He that has already proved himself ungrateful to the Author of every blessing, will not scruple, when it will serve his turn, to shake off a fellow-worm like himself. He may render you instrumental to his own purposes, but he will never benefit you. A bad man is a curse to others; as he is secretly, notwithstanding all his boasting and affected gaiety, a burden to himself. Shun him as you would a serpent in your path. Be not seduced by his rank, his wealth, his wit, or his influence. Think of him as already in the grave; think of him as standing before the everlasting God in judgment. This awful reality will instantly strip off all that is now so imposing, and present him in his true light, the object rather of your compassion and of your prayers than of your wonder and imitation.—Bp. Coleridge.
(c) If a man knew that the ship in which he and his family were sailing, and which contained all his property, was leaking day and night, do you suppose he would be careless about it? Would he not be constantly baling out the water lest it should sink the vessel with its precious freight? If a man understood that a spark from the flue of the furnace had set fire to the timber of his dwelling, and that, smothered, it was creeping along and charring the wainscoting and partition, do you suppose he would content himself merely with saying, “I have no doubt that this house is on fire, and that it is dangerous?” Would he not do something? Many men read the Bible, and say, “My dear children, we are all sinful; we are sold in sin; may God lead us out of our sinfulness, and draw us toward Him!” and yet put forth no effort to reform their lives. Meanwhile their sinfulness increases, and envelops them and consumes them. Thousands and thousands of men have died in that way, and been utterly destroyed. If a man is wise, no sooner does he have the slightest intimation that there is fire threatening the destruction of his house and all that are in it, than he calls for men, and sets them to work to put an end to the mischief. And when a man is touched by the Spirit of God, and he is made conscious that the fires of hell are in him, with what earnestness does he enter upon a course of repentance! How does he say, “God have mercy on me. Help me; teach me; lead me!”—H. W. Beecher.
(d) He doth often give warning of judgments, that He might not pour out His wrath. He summons them to a surrender of themselves, and a return from their rebellion, that they might not feel the force of His arms, He offers peace before He shakes off the dust of His feet, that His despised peace might not return in vain to Him to solicit a revenge from His anger. He hath a right to punish the first commission of a crime, but He warns men of what they have deserved, of what His justice moves Him to inflict, that by having recourse to His mercy H, might not exercise the rights of His justice. God threatens Nineveh, by the prophet, with destruction, that Nineveh’s repentance might make’ void the prophecy. He fights with men by the sword of His mouth, that He might not pierce them by the sword of His wrath. He threatens, that men might prevent the execution of His threatening; He terrifies, that He might not destroy, but that men by humiliation might lie prostrate before Him, and move the bowels of His mercy to a louder sound than the voice of His anger. He takes time to whet His sword, that men may turn themselves from the edge of it. He roars like a lion, that men, by hearing His voice, may shelter themselves from being torn by His wrath. There is patience in the sharpest threatening, that we may avoid the scourge. Who can charge God with an eagerness to revenge, that sends so many heralds and so often before He strikes, that He might be prevented from striking? His threatenings have not so much of a black flag as of an olive branch. He lifts up His hand before He strikes that men might see it and avert the stroke (Isa_26:11).—Charnocke.
THE DUTY OF SEPARATION FROM THE WICKED
(Num_16:26)
The statement of this duty needs to be very guarded.
This duty is different from the self-righteousness of the Pharisee described by our Lord in Luk_18:11-12. Comp. Isa_65:5.
This duty is not binding as regards the legitimate transactions of business with wicked men. “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”
This duty does not preclude association with the wicked with a view to their spiritual good. As followers of Jesus Christ it is our duty to endeavour to turn the wicked from his wickedness.
But it is our duty to avoid all voluntary and friendly association with the openly and defiantly wicked, all such association as may appear to countenance their wickedness. The testimony of the Sacred Scriptures on this question is unmistakable. See Psa_1:1; Pro_1:10-16; Pro_4:14-15; Pro_9:6; Act_2:40; 2Co_6:17-18; Rev_18:4.
Moreover, our text insists on the thoroughness of this separation. “Touch nothing of theirs” We must separate ourselves from their
(1) society;
(2) friendship;
(3) pursuits;
(4) customs, &c. In enforcement of this duty consider, that by friendly association with such wicked persons—
I. We countenance them in their sins.
It is the duty of every man to discourage evil; to wage determined and incessant warfare against wickedness; to agree to no truce with the devil. If we would discourage wickedness, we must separate ourselves from notorious evil-doers; we must not allow them any reason to suppose that we consent even by silence to their sins. Comp. 1Co_5:11; Eph_5:11; 2Th_3:14. (a)
II. We are in peril of being drawn into their sins.
The contagion of their example may take hold upon us. Friendly association with the wicked is full of danger to our own spiritual health. Comp. Isa_52:11. Such association also makes us partakers of their sins. Comp. 2Jn_1:10-11 (b)
III. We are in peril of the judgment which will fall upon them for their sins.
This was the peril of the congregation about the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. They must speedily get away from those tents “lest they be consumed.” This was the peril of Lot in Sodom. “A companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Comp. Jer_51:6; Jer_51:45; Rev_18:4.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Every person is most sacredly bound, in times of prevailing degeneracy, to act an open, firm, and decided part in favour of virtue and religion; and resolutely endeavour, by his example, to discountenance vice and impiety in every shape. In an especial manner should he avoid the very appearance of those evils which are most prevalent around him, and practice with double care and diligence those virtues which are most generally neglected and despised.… It has been justly remarked, that when God confers on us the power to do good and repress evil, He lays us under an obligation to exert that power. Agreeably, the Apostle informs us, that to him who knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Hence it follows that we are accountable for all the good which we might, but have not done; and for all the evil which we might, but have not prevented. By conniving at the sins of others, therefore, we make them our own. If the name of God be profaned, if His holy day be dishonoured, if a fellow-creature by intemperance render his family wretched, spread a snare in the path of his children, destroy his health, and finally plunge himself into eternal ruin, when we, by proper exertions, might have prevented it, a righteous God will not hold us guiltless, nor will rivers of tears, shed in secret over these sins, wash out the guilt thus contracted.—E. Payson D D.
(b) There is but one resource for innocence among men or women, and that is, an embargo upon all commerce of bad men. Bar the window! bolt the door! nor answer their strain, if they charm never so wisely! In no other way can you be safe. So well am I assured of the power of bad men to seduce the erring purity of man, that I pronounce it next to impossible for man or woman to escape, if they permit bad men to approach and dally with them.—H. W. Beecher.
Let no young man or woman go into a social circle where the influences are vicious or hostile to the Christian religion. You will begin by reproving their faults, and end by copying them. Sin is contagious. You go among those who are profane, and you will become profane. You go among those who use impure language, and you will use impure language. Go among those who are given to strong drink, and you will inevitably become an inebriate. There is no exception to the rule. A man is no better than the company he continually keeps. It is always best to keep ourselves under Christian influences. It is not possible, if you mingle in associations positively Christian, not to be made better men or women. The Christian people with whom you associate may not be always talking their religion, but there is something in the moral atmosphere that will be life to your soul. You choose out for your most intimate associates eight or ten Christian people. You mingle in that association; you take their counsel; you are guided by their example, and you live a useful life and die a happy death, and go to a blessed eternity. There is no possibility of mistaking it; there is not an exception in all the universe or ages—not one.—T. de Witt Talmage, D.D.
CHRIST’S DEATH A PROOF OF HIS DIVINITY
(Num_16:29)
We wish simply to take the fact that an uncommon death, a “visitation, which is not after the visitation of all men,” was made a sign or evidence of the Divine mission of Moses. We wish to see whether a precisely similar sign or evidence may not be urged for the Divine mission of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We mean to assert that our blessed Saviour did not “die the common death of all men;” and from and by this very circumstance we strengthen our belief in His having been the Son of God; yea, God as well as man. We wish you to well examine whether there were not powerful indications in the mode in which our Lord and Saviour submitted to His last sufferings, that He did not die as an individual man, but as a sacrifice for the sins of this creation.
Three out of the four Evangelists make express mention of Christ’s crying with a loud voice, immediately before He gave up the ghost. And this loud cry preceding almost instantaneously His decease, produced in the centurion who stood by, the persuasion that Jesus was indeed the Son of God (Mar_15:39). Now let us see what it was which thus wrought on the centurion. There was before him a Being nailed to a cross, dying in a manner as lingering as it was painful. The thing to be expected was that the victim would gradually sink, growing weaker and weaker, until exhausted nature gave way and the soul escaped from the body. Since this mode of executing malefactors was ordinarily so tedious that the legs of the sufferers were broken in order to hasten their dissolution, we must conclude that no crucified person would have naturally died, unless through the slow process of exhaustion, life having ebbed away as though drop by drop, till there was nothing more for the torture to exact. It was therefore quite unnatural that our Lord should have had strength to utter a loud cry at the very moment of the separation of the soul from the body. He showed that there was nothing like an exhaustion of nature; and yet the mode of death was such, that it was only through exhaustion of nature that dissolution could take place. Indeed, we have additional testimony that Christ’s dying as He did might justly be called unnatural, for He died long before those who were crucified with Him—in a time so unusually short, that when Joseph of Arimathea applied for leave to take the body, Pilate marvelled if he were already dead, and would not believe it till he had called the centurion and obtained certain information. Our Lord, though crucified did not die in strict truth through the effects of crucifixion: He did not die, as the thieves did, through any necessity of nature, or because His enemies had been able to reach the citadel of life. And it was the manifest voluntariness of the death of Christ which overcame the centurion. He could not but perceive that, through some mysterious ordinance or prerogative, our Lord had His life entirely in His own keeping; so that in place of being subjected to death, He seemed to have literally the lordship over life. Comp. Joh_10:17-18. It may sound like a paradox, but it is nevertheless a truth, that death had no power over Christ even when He died. He breathed His last only because choosing to suspend that animation, of which, as Himself alone the author, Himself alone could be the destroyer. And if, then, Christ did not “die the common death of all men,” who can wonder that the centurion was confounded at the spectacle, or that he broke into an exclamation which showed that he felt the Sufferer was something more than a mere man? “Of a truth this Man was the Son of God.”
But now let us take a wider survey, and accompany our Redeemer through the scenes of His agony. We have on other occasions pointed out to you the striking and almost inexplicable contrast between the deportment of Christ, and that of numbers of His followers, as the hour drew nigh of departure from earth. It is a contrast which seems all in favour of the disciple rather than the Master; for whilst there has been tranquility, and even triumph, in those who have been dying in the faith of the Redeemer, there was perturbation and anguish in that Redeemer Himself. The bold defender of truth has gone up to the stake or the scaffold rejoicing in being thought worthy to suffer for his Lord, and cheered by bright glimpses which he caught of immortality. How different was the demeanour of Christ when anticipating death from the hands of His enemies! I see Him casting Himself on the ground, praying that “if it be possible the cup might pass from Him;” &c. I hear Him uttering the most touching and thrilling complaints, as though His spirit were sorely disquieted and actually deserted of God. Yes, Christ is evidently not dying “the common death of all” Christians.
But let us see whether on this very account there be not reason for concluding Him to be God’s own Son. For what are the causes which commonly make death terrible to men? In the first place, to a perfectly righteous individual nothing would make death so terrible as uncertainty with respect to the immortality of the soul. To the good man the thought of annihilation would be utterly insupportable.
But now let us view Christ as nothing more than an eminently righteous man who is about to submit to death to confirm the doctrines which he had taught. Died there ever the man so certified of the great truth of the soul’s immortality? Had He not been Himself the preacher of that truth? (2Ti_1:10).… But what are we to say when we behold Him literally overcome with terror, manifesting a perturbation which could not be exceeded if the future were all darkness, or there were even a knowledge that the soul perished with the body? Oh! we can only say that the agony of the Mediator proves Him less than man, or more than man. It is what no mere man, at least no mere Christian man, passing from one world to another, with just his own account to make up and his own pains to undergo, ever had, or could have, to sustain. We think ourselves warranted in calling upon you to apply the reasoning of our text; and to conclude that God had sent Christ as a propitiation for sin, forasmuch as He does not “die the common death of all men;” and is not “visited after the visitation of all men.”
We go on to observe, that however assured a man might be as to the soul’s immortality, he might be harrassed with doubts as to his acceptance with God; and this would necessarily produce a painful shrinking from the act of dissolution. In ordinary cases it is just herein that the distressing thing lies. This is true in the case of the righteous. We cannot be surprised if they are sometimes daunted as they view death at hand.
But now, can you think that there ever lived the man so persuaded of the favour of God, so secure of happiness at death, as Jesus of Nazareth? Had He not been pure in thought, and word, and deed; so that there could be no place for repentance, as there had been none for sin? And was He not thoroughly certain that He was about to enter on a recompense such as had never been awarded to any created being? (Heb_12:2). Who then shall meet death composedly—who triumphantly—if not Jesus Christ?.… But how is the expectation answered? That afflicted and agitated Man, prostrated on the ground, trembling and astonished and convulsed—is this the Being who has everything in His favour, and over whom we have felt it impossible that death could exert any terrifying power?.… What account do we give of this? This should make you feel that He must be sustaining some lofty and responsible character—that in the scene which is so counter to expectation. He has to bear some vast burden which that character entails. We contend that the doctrine of the atonement—the doctrine that Christ died as a sin-offering and propitiation for the offences of the world—furnishes the only explanation of the anguish and the horrors of the sufferer.
Blessed be His name! we may meet death with confidence, because He met it in terror; for “by His stripes we are healed.” He took away the sting of death, but it was by bearing that sting in His own soul; He scattered the darkness of the grave, but it was by Himself enduring the eclipse of the face of His Father.—Henry Melville, B.D.
THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENT
(Num_16:31-35)
These verses warrant the following observations:—
I. That God vindicates the character of His faithful servants from the misrepresentations by which they may be assailed.
By this stern judgment on the rebels, Jehovah fulfilled the word of His servant Moses, and splendidly vindicated the character and calling of both Moses and Aaron. By it He also honoured the extraordinary confidence which Moses had exercised in Him, in the calm and unshaken declaration which he made that God would manifest in a certain miraculous manner whether He had commissioned him or not. God always honours the faith of His servants; and they may confidently leave the vindication of their character and call to Him. Such vindication may be delayed, but it is certain. Comp. Psa_37:5-6.
II. That the Divine threatenings are certain of fulfilment.
“And it came to pass, as He had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder under them,” &c. The declarations of His judgment against sin are spoken not merely in terrorem. His threatenings are as true as His promises. If any soul will persist in rebellion against God he will find to his cost that the punishment denounced against sin will be inflicted, (a)
III. That everything in the universe may be employed by God as the instrument of His judgments.
In this history we find that the earth and the forces that are at work within it were the instruments of His judgment upon Dathan and Abiram, and the fire upon Korah and the two hundred and fifty who burnt incense. (b)
IV. That the wicked often involve those who are innocent of their sins in the consequences of such sins.
“The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods,” &c. (Num_16:32-33). Thus these rebels brought destruction upon others. Some of the penalties of sin seldom fall merely upon the sinner. One man sins, and others suffer by reason of his sins. (See notes on this point on pp. 34 and 264.) This fact—
1. Shows the heinousness of sin.
2. Should act as a restraint from sin.
V. That hardened rebels are prone to cry out when the judgment of God falls upon them.
When the judgment of God fell upon them the rebels cried out so lamentably that the people who were round about fled in alarm lest the same judgment should overtake them. A little while ago they were bold and defiant; now they are terror-stricken. “Who may stand in Thy sight when once Thou art angry?”
1. Their cries were selfish. They were the expression of terror, not of repentance.
2. Their cries were too late. They should have cried before, while mercy might have been obtained; but now their cries are utterly in vain. Comp. Pro_1:24-31. (c)
VI. That the judgments of God occasion alarm amongst men.
“And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.” “Others’ ruins should be our warnings.” Generally the alarm which is awakened by the Divine judgments speedily passes away (as it did in this case) and leaves no good result. “Law and terrors do but harden.”
Conclusion.
Here is very solemn warning to impenitent sinners. “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take these away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.” (d)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Is God all-mighty, all-mighty? Then do not imagine you can escape His judgments. His lightnings find us out. His sharp spear penetrates our secrecy. You have evaded Him now fifty years, and you think you can do it fifty more. Believe me as speaking the word of the Lord. you cannot. Has the ox that has been driven into the fat pasture escaped the knife? Look at the nob’e animal there. Look at the rich grass or clover, and see the sunshine falling upon the scene, and the ox says, “I am at rest, I have escaped the knife of the slayer,” not knowing that the pasture is on the way to the slaughter-house, and that next to its death stands the rich blessing of its life. There are many oxen that are being prepared for the slaughter when they little think.—Joseph Parker, D.D.
(b) Mark here, how all creatures obey their Creator, and are at His commandment: when God willeth the earth to open her mouth, it openeth: when He willeth it to swallow, it swalloweth up: when He willeth it to close again, it closeth: when He willeth the fire to come down, it cometh: and to consume, it consumeth. The sounding of the rams’ horns threw down the high walls of Jericho at His commandment. The waters of the Red Sea stood still, and Jordan fl d back at His word. The fire could not burn, nor the lions devour when it pleased the Almighty. Acknowledge therefore His infinite power for our instruction; and let us rest upon it in all dangers for our consolation.—Attersoll.
God is not confined to one method of punishment. He toucheth a man’s bones, and they melt; He breathes upon a man’s brain, and henceforth he is not able to think. He comes in at night-time, and shakes the foundations of man’s most trusted towers, and in the morning there is nought but a heap of ruins. He disorganizes men’s memories, and in an instant they confuse all the recollections of their life-time; He touches man’s tongue, and the fluent speaker becomes a stammerer. He breaks the staff in twain, and he who was relying upon it is thrown down in utter helplessness,—Joseph Parker, D.D.
For another illustration on this point see p. 252.
(c) Now these rebels begin to cry, but they cry out and howl when it is too late: they should have cried unto God for mercy and forgiveness while it was time and pardon was offered. Thus no doubt did many men of the old world cry out when they were in the water, but then the acceptable time was past; they should have watered their hearts with the tears of repentance when Noah preached unto them. The Sodomites no doubt cried out when fire and brimstone was come down upon them, but they should have cried to God when He cried to them by Lot whom He sent among them. But then was the time of judgment; the time of mercy was gone and past. So it was with Esau, when he had sold his birthright, and lost his blessing, he cried with a great cry and a bitter, but it was too late. Heb_12:17; Gen_27:38. So did the rich man, being in hell in torments, Luk_16:23; then he called for mercy, but; mercy was departed from him. Here is time and place for mercy, but there is no mercy to be had in hell. The earth is the school of instruction; hell is the house of correction. There the reprobate cry and yell, where is nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth, but it is without ease, without end, without profit. They that could shed never a tear to God in this life, shall be constrained to shed abundance of tears in the pit of destruction. The tears of repentance that we pour out ascend up unto heaven, and are kept in a bottle of remembrance; but the arstuat are wrung from the reprobate in hell, are never gathered up, nor regarded of God, and are utterly unprofitable to ourselves. Let it therefore be our wisdom to make use of the time of God’s mercy and patience, and know that there is no place of repentance after this life.—Attersoll.
(d) When the death-thirst is in your throat, what do you think you will do without God? To die in God’s presence, is simply to let life blossom into something better than life; but to die without God must be horrible! You will not want your boon companions then. The drink will not pacify you then. Music will have no charms for you then. The love of a tender and gentle wife can yield you but sorry comfort then. You may have your money bags at your side, but they will not calm your palpitating heart then. You will hear the booming of the waves of the great sea of eternity; you will feel your feet slipping into the dreadful quicksand; you will clutch about for help, but there will be none! Instead thereof invisible hands shall begin to pull you down and down through the dark sea you must descend to those darker depths, where dread despair will be your everlasting heritage.—C. H. Spurgeon.
THE JUDGMENT OF KORAH
(Num_16:31-33)
A reference to the words of Moses recorded in Num_16:29-30, will show that the death of these men was a supernatural event. Moses foretells the exact manner in which it should take place; he calls it “a new thing;” he stakes his Divine commission upon it—“Hereby shall ye know that Jehovah has sent me.” It was new as the dividing of the Red Sea had been new, or the standing still of the sun in after days in obedience to the command of Joshua, and was as miraculous as either of those events God alone could have given such an attestation to the mission of a man; the death of Korah was an emphatic and terrible answer to the charges which had been brought against Moses; and its following so immediately upon his words adds another supernatural element to the event. We may learn from it and from what led to it—
1. That the human character which most approaches perfection, and the most qualified leader of men, may be falsely accused by those to whom he is a blessing. Probably Moses never had a superior either in character or ability, yet to him it was said, “Ye take too much upon you” (Num_16:3).
2. It must depend upon the character and not upon the number of the people whether their voice is to be taken as the voice of God. Nearly all Israel, it appears (Num_16:21), were with Korah and his associates, yet Moses, although almost alone, had God and right on his side.
3. That God will, sooner or later, vindicate those of His servants who have been falsely accused. False charges have rested upon many for centuries, and at the end of that time the truth has come to light. There is to be a day which shall “declare it” (1Co_3:13). The Son of God lived and died under false accusation, but He was vindicated by His resurrection; and when He shall be revealed from heaven “with ten thousands of His saints” (Jud_1:14), He will bring to light men’s hidden motives, and make manifest the counsels of the heart.—From “Outlines of Sermons on the Miracles and Parables of the Old Testament.”
A MEMORIAL OF JUDGMENT
(Num_16:36-40)
These verses teach the following important truths:—
I. That things appropriated to religious uses should be reverently regarded.
“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; for they are hallowed … for they offered them before the Lord; therefore they are hallowed.” Comp. Lev_27:28. For notes and an illustration on this point, see pp. 56, 57. (a)
II. That the designs and doings of wicked men are overruled by God for the accomplishment of His purposes.
“The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar.” In this way “God’s altar was protected by the means which had been used to violate its sanctity.” “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee.” We have a striking illustration of this in the sins of Joseph’s brethren, and the way in which they were used by God for the carrying out of His gracious designs. Comp. Gen_1:20.
III. That he who Sins against God injures himself.
“These sinners against their own souls,” or, “against their own lives.” By sin man injures himself physically. When the laws of health are violated disease and misery follow. By sin man injures himself morally. Sin blunts the spiritual sensibilities, stifles the aspirations, and quenches the hopes of the soul, &c. “He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul.” “Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.” (b)
IV. That the judgments of God should be remembered and heeded.
These broad plates for a covering of the altar were to “be a sign unto the children of Israel.… 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.” Man is prone to think that he may sin, and escape the punishment of his sin, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence against such a notion; hence the importance of memorials such as this. The sternest judgments of God are speedily lost sight of by those who most need to keep them in mind; therefore this memorial was fitted to answer a useful end in reminding the people of this judgment, and so deterring them from sin. “All these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition.” “Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Conclusion:
Seeing that God is so concerned to guard us against sin, it surely behaves us to flee from it as from our worst foe.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The Christian dispensation, although it is a dispensation of universality, and bases all its promises and sanctions upon the fact of spiritual service, has not annulled the seemly and the sacred in connection with the worship of God. The false pride of Gerizim is humbled by its superior light. The haughtiness which would build an exclusive altar at Jerusalem is rebuked by every word of its inspired lips. It proclaims that everywhere where need compels, and where hearts prompt, and where the wealth of love constrains the offering, man may build a temple and look for acceptance and blessing. But it nowhere approves the idea that all places are equally sacred, or that God has ceased to visit Zion, and to dwell in its tabernacles with His manifestations of peculiar regard. There is a sentimental devotion that has become very fashionable now-a-days, a sort of spurious spirituality, minced out commonly from the lips of most unspiritual people—a kind of domestic pantheism, whose flame of devotion is too subtle to be kindled in houses made with hands. They tell us—and it is true—that the heart which God has touched will find Him every where, in every gracious prodigality of nature, and in every bounteous ministry of life; that to His tuned spirit the wild heatherbells sing Sabbath knells. Well, it is true; but it is true also—a profounder truth in theory and a commoner experience in fact—that God has special honour’s for the places that are devoted to His worship; and it is true, too, that the spirit tuned to the music of the sanctuary is the keenest in its recognition of those tremulous airs of worship-song which are floating all the universe around.—W. M. Punshon, LL.D.
(b) You have heard of the Spartan youth who concealed a stolen fox under his garment, and although it was eating into his bowels, he would not show it, and therefore died through the creature’s bites. You are of that sort, sinner; you are carrying sin in your bosom, and it is eating out your heart. God knows what it is, and you know what it is. Now, you cannot keep it there and be unbitten, undestroyed. Why keep it there? Oh, cry to God with a vehement cry, God save me from my sin! Oh, bring me, even me, to the foot of Thy Son’s cross, and forgive me, and then crucify my sin, for I see clearly now that sin must perish or I must.—C. H. Spurgeon.
THE COVERING OF THE ALTAR, AND ITS TEACHINGS
(Num_16:38)
Let us inquire what these plates on the altar would teach the people.
I. How futile it is for any one to oppose God, and how God can make the opposition of men helpful to His cause.
How easily God brings down the pride of man! No weapon that is formed against Him can prosper. (Job_9:4.) “He is wise”—man cannot outwit Him: “He is mighty in strength”—man cannot overcome Him. To oppose Him is only to place thorns and briers before a consuming fire: the attempt is foolish, fruitless, and destructive. Angels rebelled, and it was their ruin. Pharaoh opposed God, and he was destroyed. It was the same with the people in the Wilderness. These plates would be lasting witnesses of the madness and the futility of opposing God.
Further, they teach that God can make use of the very opposition, and turn whet was meant to be destructive to be helpful to His cause. These censers were designed to be rivals to those of Aaron; the avowed object of the rebels was to take the priesthood from the family of Aaron and to make the altar common property. What did God do? He caused these very censers to be made into plates for a covering of the altar, so as to preserve it from the action of the fire that was ever burning on it. God permits evil, but He ever controls it (Psa_76:10). We should never tremble for the success of God’s work. As a matter of fact no opposition has ever hurt His work. “The blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the Church.” In all history we see Him working out His own wise, great, and good purposes from the tangled web of human life.
II. That God wishes one age to learn from another.
His treatment of men is not only punitive, but educational. These plates were for a memorial; they were to “be a sign,” &c. God did not want the event to be forgotten. He teaches us through human life. The Bible to a great extent is made up of biography—brief records of human lives. God shows us how one prospers, and where another fails; and He means one age to learn from another. The wrecks we meet with in society, by drunkenness, gambling and other sins (as with these plates), God holds them up to “be a sign unto” us.
III. That sacred things must be treated reverently.
“They offered them before the Lord, therefore they are hallowed.” God was then teaching the people by practical illustrations, and not by the mere announcing of principles. Thus here He taught them and us the importance of dealing reverently with sacred things. There is need of this lesson in the present day; for there is a tendency to “pooh pooh” many things which our fathers held sacred. Human reason is enthroned: Divine things are brought to its bar, and are very freely and irreverently handled. It is so in respect of the Bible, the Lord’s day, the fundamental truths of Christianity, &c. “Hands off” these sacred things! they are hallowed to the Lord; let us not treat them as if they were ordinary things.
IV. That the sinner ever injures himself.
God speaks of these men as “sinners against their own souls,” or lives. They had brought ruin on themselves. These plates would teach the people that “the way of transgressors is hard,” and “the soul that sinneth it shall die,” and “he that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul.” Sin robs God, does harm to others, but it ruins none but the doer of it. Every sin of man is a wrong to his own nature: we see it so physically, mentally, and morally. Every sin is a transgression of some law, and the broken law insists on its penalty. Sin hardens the soul, deprives it of good, alienates it from God, defiles it, shuts it from heaven, makes it only fit for hell, and exposes it to the eternal curse. Through these plates God cries to the sinful, “Do thyself no harm.”
Conclusion:—
1. What folly is a life of sin! The Biblical definition of a sinner is—a Fool.
2. To obey God and to please Him is true wisdom. He ever seeks our good, knows what is best for us, so in obeying Him we do ourselves the greatest possible good.—David Lloyd.
THE AGGRAVATED REBELLION OF THE PEOPLE, THE EFFECTUAL INTERCESSION OF THE GOOD, AND THE JUSTICE AND MERCY OF GOD
(Num_16:41-50)
Consider:—
I. The aggravated rebellion of the people
“On the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” In this fresh outbreak of rebellion we have—
1. Terrible disregard of Divine warnings. These people had witnessed judgment after judgment because of rebellion; only yesterday they had seen Dathan and Abiram swallowed up by earthquake, and Korah and his company consumed by fire from the Lord, yet today they break out into rebellion again. Warnings seem to be utterly lost upon them. “He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck,” &c. (Pro_29:1).
2. Base ingratitude to Moses and Aaron. “They murmured against Moses and against Aaron,” &c. It seems as if the people believed “that Moses and Aaron had used some cunning in this business, and that the earthquake and fire were artificial; else, had they discerned the hand of God in this punishment, could they have dared the anger of the Lord in the very face of justice?” Their charge against Moses and Aaron was utterly unjust and basely ungrateful. It was owing to the intercession of these holy men (Num_16:22) that the whole congregation was not consumed; yet, &c.
3. Profane characterization of the wicked as the people of God They speak of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their confederates, as “the people of the Lord.” Thus they justify the ungodly; they canonise the most stout hearted rebels as saints of the Lord. This rebellion seems to us the worst which has arisen in the history of this rebellious people. The time of its occurrence—immediately after most awful judgments; the form which it assumed, this malicious charge against Moses and Aaron; and its reason, their sympathy with hardened rebels whom God had destroyed, render this rebellion one of fearful aggravations How powerless are the sternest judgments to change men’s sinful hearts, or effectually to restrain from sin! Only the grace of God can do this.
II. The speedy interposition of Jehovah.
“And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared,” &c. (Num_16:42-45). Thus God interposes by:—
1. The manifestation of His glory. “The cloud covered the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord appeared.” “As the cloud rested continually above the tabernacle during the time of encampment (Num_9:18 sqq.; Exo_40:38), we must suppose that at this time the cloud covered it in a fuller and much more conspicuous sense, just as it had done when the tabernacle was first erected (Num_9:15; Exo_40:34), and that at the same time the glory of God burst forth from the dark cloud in a miraculous splendour.”—Keil and Del. This was done for—
(1) A security to His servants.
(2) A check to the rebeis.
2. The declaration of the desert of the rebels. “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment.” Had they been so consumed, who could have questioned the righteousness of their doom?
III. The effectual intercession of Moses and Aaron.
When God spake to Moses about consuming the congregation, he and Aaron “fell upon their faces” in humble and earnest prayer to Him for the guilty people. Moses discovered that the plague had begun; he directed Aaron to “take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar,” &c. (Num_16:46-48). Notice here:—
1. The kindness of Moses and Aaron. The congregation had risen up in rebellion against them; this plague was the punishment inflicted by God because of the rebellion; yet Moses and Aaron entreated God to spare the rebellious people. Freely they forgive them. Their conduct reminds us of Him who prayed, “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (a)
2. The courage of Aaron. He feared neither the excited people who were embittered against him, nor the pestilence which was smiting down the people by thousands; but “ran into the midst of the congregation,” &c.
3. The zeal of Aaron. He was now an old man, yet he “ran into the midst,” &c. An example for Christian ministers.
4. The success of Aaron. “The plague was stayed.” His intercession was accepted by God, and it availed to arrest the advance of the pestilence. In this we have very striking confirmation of his priesthood. “Compare the censer of Aaron here with ‘the censers of those sinners against their own souls.’ Those provoked God’s anger, this pacified it; those destroyed men’s lives, this saved them; no room therefore is left to doubt of Aaron’s call to the priesthood.”
How great is the power of prayer! (Jas_5:16-18). (b)
If God thus respected the sacrifice and intercession of Aaron, how great must be the efficacy of the sacrifice and intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ!
IV. The exercise of the justice and mercy of God.
1. Here is an impressive display of Divine justice. “They that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred.” (c)
2. Here is an encouraging manifestation of Divine mercy. Notwithstanding the aggravated and oft-repeated provocations of the people, they were not all destroyed. It was of the Lord’s mercies that they were not all consumed. (d)
Conclusion. Learn—
1. The heinousness of sin.
2. The great value of a faithful ministry.
3. The readiness of God to forgive sin.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) A forgiving spirit is a noble, generous Christian virtue. It takes its rise in that love of God and man which is the fruit of the Spirit and the fulfilling of the law; it is made up of love and forbearance, united with the tenderness of compassion towards those who have injured us, and fortified by some just sense of our own sinfulness and need of forgiveness from God. In the full sense of the thing itself, it consists of the inward spirit of forgiveness and the outward act of reconciliation. It belongs to the heart, just as every other grace has its seat in the inner man. In this view of it, it is the opposite of revenge, which angrily seeks redress for injuries by inflicting injuries in return. It is the inward exercise of kindness and goodwill towards our enemies and those who have wronged us. It is an abhorrence of their wrong, yet a kind regard for the wrongdoer. It cannot be genuine unless it be accompanied by these benevolent emotions, and at a great remove from all bitterness and wrath. God requires that we forgive from the heart. This inward spirit ought to be always in exercise, whatsoever may be the character of those who have injured us, and whatever their present and future conduct. We may feel benevolently towards them, without at all committing ourselves in favour of their conduct or character. They may repeat the injury they have done us every day of their lives, but this does not warrant in us the spirit of malignity or unkindness. We should love them still, and do them good as we have opportunity.—Gardiner Spring, D.D.
(b) The conduct of the eminent and justly celebrated Francke, in the establishment of the hospital and school for the poor, at Halle, near Glaucha, in Saxony, is well known. Having no permanent funds to meet the expenses, it may be easily supposed that the good man would be frequently reduced to great difficulties; at such times the interpositions of the Providence of God were truly remarkable. About Easter, 1696, he knew not where to obtain money for the expenses of the ensuing week; but when their food was reduced to the very last morsel, one thousand crowns were contributed by some entirely unknown person. At another time, all their provisions were exhausted, and the good minister wisely presented his requests to the God of mercy, who careth even for the ravens when they cry. When prayer was over, just as he was taking his seat, a friend from a distance arrived with fifty crowns, which was shortly followed by twenty more. At another period, the workmen wanted thirty crowns, when he remarked that he had no money, but that he trusted in God; scarcely had he uttered the sentence, when, in this moment of necessity, the precise sum arrived. “Another time,” says Francke, “all our provision was spent; but in addressing myself to the Lord, I found myself deeply affected with the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Give us this day our daily bread;’ and my thoughts were fixed in a more special manner upon the words ‘this day,’ because on the very same day we had great occasion for it. While I was yet praying, a friend of mine came before my door in a coach, and brought the sum of four hundred crowns.”—R. Arvine, A M.
(c) Goodness may punish; nay, it must punish the ill-deserving. A good law punishes; a good judge punishes; and the more certainly because they are good. However inclined to forgive the Divine Lawgiver may be, and however strongly moved to acts of mercy by the tenderness of His own kind nature, justice has claims as well as clemency and compassion. And what shall countervail these righteous demands? Reason cannot; conscience dare not. The whole history of the Divine government is proof that sin cannot go unpunished. The nature of the Deity forbids it; because He is just and righteous as well as good and kind. His law forbids it, and stands forth a pledge to the universe that it knows no such thing as impunity for crime. It is essential to the character of God as Law-giver, that wherever the claims of the law are violated. His authority be enforced by the infliction of its penalty; otherwise it is no longer law, and He no longer Lawgiver.—Gardiner Spring. D D.
(d) The Scriptures everywhere magnify the mercy of God, and speak of it with all possible advantage, as if the Divine nature, which does in all perfections excel every other thing, did in this perfection excel itself. And of this we have a farther conviction, if we but lift up our eyes to God, and then, turning them upon ourselves, begin to consider how many evils and miseries that every day we are exposed to, by His preventing mercy are hindered, or, when they were coming upon us, stopped or turned another way. How oft our punishment has He deferred by His forbearing mercy; or, when it was necessary for our chastisement, mitigated and made light! How oft we have been supported in our afflictions by His comforting mercy, and visited with the light of His countenance, in the exigencies of our soul, and the gloominess of despair! How oft we have been supplied by His relieving mercy in our wants, and, when there was no hand to succour, and no soul to pity us, His arm has been stretched out to lift us from the mire and clay, and, by a providential train of events, brought about our sustenance and support! And, above all, how daily, how hourly, how minutely we offend against Him; and yet, by the power of His pardoning mercy, we are still alive! For, considering the multitude and heinousness of our provocations, “it is of His mercy alone that we are not consumed, and because His compassions fail not. Who so is wise will ponder these things, and He will understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.”—Archbishop Tillotson.
THE SIN OF MAN AND THE SALVATION OF GOD
(Num_16:46)
“Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Israel’s judgments were recorded for our warning; Israel’s mercies, for our encouragement. What Israel was, we are; what Israel suffered, we deserve; what Israel enjoyed, in the way of mercy, we may hope for.
The principle of all this is very plain. Human beings placed in the same circumstances act very much in the same manner. They have the same hopes and the same fears, they display the same obduracy and the same guilt; and they can only be saved in the same mysterious manner. And, accordingly, God’s methods of grace towards them are essentially the same in all ages. The censer and the incense and the atonement of Aaron may fitly remind us of the work and intercession of our great High Priest.
I. There is an awful controversy between a holy God and a rebellious world.
“There is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.” A sentence of death has been passed upon every soul of man. Many have already perished, &c. The world some of us deem so fair and happy, is nothing better than the camp of Israel;—a scene of mercy, it is true; but yet a scene of misery, terror, and death. Our sin resembles theirs in many aspects, and has the same aggravations.
1. As it directly strikes against the authority and the grace of God, whatever be the form it assumes. Israel professedly murmured against Moses and Aaron, but God viewed it as rebellion against Himself. How different often is sin from what sin appears. “Ye have killed the people of the Lord;” but it was not Moses that killed them, but God Himself.… God struck a blow which no human arm could have inflicted to punish them for their murmurings, and in a moment fourteen thousand and seven hundred die of the plague by His omnipotent hand.
Learn that all sin, whatever form it assumes, is in reality committed against God. When the undutiful child rises against his parent, he rebels against God. When we complain of our circumstances and lot in life, we rebel against God. When we refuse the messages of His mercy, and neglect the great salvation, we rebel against God If the office of Moses and Aaron were so much to be regarded, how much more the work and office of God’s beloved Son! Comp. Heb_12:25.
Often when we complain of second causes in our afflictions we sin against God. We must take heed how we push God out of His own world. He will be acknowledged in our afflictions as well as in our mercies. Comp. Job_36:24. Israel failed here. In reality they justified Korah and his companions in their rebellion, and secretly condemned the judgment of God against them as severe and harsh. But God will be justified when He speaks, and be clear when He judges. He will be acknowledged in the judgments that desolate our families and wring our souls with anguish, as in the mercies which yield unmixed gladness and delight.
2. As it is often committed in the face of frequent and awful warnings. Many deem it hard to believe this obduracy of Israel, and would think it almost too bad to be true. But the man who knows himself believes it all. Which of us has not despised His warnings, trembling one day at His judgments and making light of them the next? in the hour of sickness binding ourselves by solemn vows to His service, and upon the return of health rising to greater heights of iniquity than before?
3. As it is heightened by the experience of God’s preserving and upholding mercy.
II. There is at hand a prescribed and Divinely approved remedy.
When wrath was gone out from God, Moses was quick-sighted to discern it, and as prompt to apply the remedy. Yet observe, Moses does not take upon him this reconciliation; he calls upon Aaron to do so. I know not which to admire more, the courage or the mercy of Aaron.
1. That our only escape from threatened wrath is through the mediation and advocacy of our High Priest. As the trembling Israelites found in Aaron an interposer and deliverer, so may we find in Christ a Saviour.
2. That the plan of Salvation by Faith is as efficacious in reality as it is simple in its mode of application.
3. That an immediate application to it is our only protection against certain ruin. “Go quickly.”—The late Samuel Thodey.
AN AWFUL PLAGUE AND A SURPRISING REMEDY
(Num_16:46-48)
The solemn duties devolving upon the ministers of religion can never be too deeply contemplated by themselves, or too seriously considered by their hearers. It is of consequence to us, that we may clearly apprehend our duty; of consequence to them, that by estimating our responsibility they may judge of their own. If both speakers and hearers could see things now as they must see them very soon, when Death has done his office, when the trumpet shall sound, and the books be opened, and the retributions of eternity shall take place, what a change would be produced both in our ministrations and in your worship. (a)
A very noble spirit displayed by Moses and Aaron. They had been deeply injured, yet, &c.
I. An awful spectacle exhibited.
“There is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun.” It was awful in itself—awful in its causes—its concomitants—its issues; for after death, the judgment. Awful to see the thousands of Israel in high rebellion against God, to see the countenance maddened with rage, suddenly smitten with disease, then convulsed with anguish, then numbered with the dead.
It was the more awful, as it was not a cursory thing following in the ordinary course of events, but it was a direct judgment immediately following the sin—a fearful visitation tremendously signalising the most hardened and obdurate sinners. What a circle is here of sins and judgments! because the people rose up against Moses and Aaron, therefore God consumed them; and because God consumed them, therefore they rose up against Moses and Aaron; and now their third rebellion draws down a more awful visitation. “Though hand join in hand,” &c.
O what has sin done! It has turned angels into demons, man into an heir of wrath, Paradise into a wilderness, &c. Other evils are limited—the destructive forces of nature, the earthquake, the volcano, the deluge, the wide-wasting conflagration, know their bound; they have their period and their issue and their appointed range; but sin has none; it lays waste not here and there a country, but a world. The pestilence fastened only upon the body, and after that had no more that it could do; but sin destroys the soul, by separating it from the Source of Life—nay, it casts both soul and body into hell.
Mark one impressive circumstance. Moses marks the wrath in its very commencement, sees the beginnings of the pestilence, when no other man discerns or suspects it, even as the physician sees disease in what appears to be the ripe bloom of health, or the veteran sailor marks the prelude of the storm before the heavens have lost their brightness. Moses had heard the word of God in the Tabernacle, &c. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,” &c.
There are signs in the moral world of the commencement of evil, and the going forth of wrath, which the wise observer cannot mistake. “The plague is begun.” When the man first restrains prayer—when the spirit of the world creeps into the mind of Christians—when they begin to lessen their fear of sin, and to compromise principle, to seek a more accommodating system of religion, to lengthen the creed and shorten the Decalogue—when private prayer is a task, and the minor moralities of life begin to be disregarded—there are fearful symptoms of decay and declension. “The plague is begun.”
II. The surprising remedy found.
“Take a censer,” &c. Where is the physician who would have recommended this as a cure for the plague? Who would have thought that the appearance of a single priest amidst the dying and the dead should have stopped the progress of the pestilence? Yet the incense and the fire and the oblation accomplish that for Israel which all the wisdom of the Egyptians could never have achieved. Who does not, in like manner, rebel against God’s appointed method of pardon? or question the mysterious virtue of Christ’s atoning blood, and doubt the efficacy of faith, repentance, and prayer? Who does not say with Naaman, “Are not Abana and Pharpar” &c.?
Mark the promptitude and self-votion of Aaron. He does not pause, does not cavil at the insufficiency of the means, but thrusts himself into the post of danger. He stands boldly between the living and the dead, as one who will either die with them or have them live with him. Type of Him who on Calvary said, “Father forgive them.” How promptly He came!
Mark the principles illustrated. There is no cure for the evils which sin has introduced but by a sacrifice of atonement. “Without shedding of blood,” &c. And as a new offering could not be presented, he was to take the fire from the altar, the ashes of the morning sacrifice, and put incense upon that in the golden censer. If Aaron’s sacrifice be thus accepted, how much more the offering of the great High Priest? “If the blood of bulls and of goats,” &c. (Heb_9:13-14.)
But it is not enough that the sacrifice be presented, but prayer must be offered. Beautiful to see, wherever Aaron moved, Death retire and Hope revive. More so to see the spiritually dead quickened (Eph_2:4-6).
III. A practical application demanded.
1. What infinite solemnity attaches to all the offices of religion. Death and life are involved. The two hundred and fifty men that offered incense perished: their spirit was bad. What if we bring strange fire! Aaron’s offering saves life. If awful to preach, so also to hear.
2. How dreadful if the plague be in the heart, and we, unconscious of danger, neglect the remedy. “Examine yourselves.”
3. What need ministers have for the prayers and sympathies of their people. The whole camp looks to Moses and Aaron. We have all the infirmities of which you complain; we are exposed to the infection. &c.
4. Rejoice in the absolute sufficiency of salvation applied by the Spirit.—Samuel Thodey.
ILLUSTRATION
(a) I know not what others think of these concerns, but for my own part I am ashamed of my insensibility, and wonder at myself that I deal no more with my own and other men’s souls as becomes one who looks for the great day of the Lord. I seldom come out of the pulpit but my conscience smites me that I have not been more serious and fervent. It is no trifling matter to stand up in the face of a congregation and deliver a message of salvation or damnation as from the living God in the name of the Redeemer: it is no easy thing to speak so plainly that the most ignorant may understand; so seriously that the deadest heart may feel; and so convincingly that contradictory cavillers may be silenced and awakened.—Richard Baxter.
THE HIGH PRIEST STANDING BETWEEN THE DEAD AND THE LIVING
(Num_16:47-48)
I desire to use the picture before us as a great spiritual type of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for that erring multitude of the sons of man who “like sheep have gone astray, and have turned every one to his own way.”
I. Look at Aaron as the lover of the people.
In this case he was the aggrieved party. The clamour was made against Moses and against Aaron, yet it was Moses and Aaron who interceded and saved the people. The old man with generous love hastened into the midst of the people, &c. Is not this the very picture of our Lord Jesus? Had not sin dishonoured Him? &c. Yet He becomes the Saviour of His people.
“Down from the shining seats above, With joyful haste He fled,” &c.
Aaron in thus coming forward as the deliverer and lover of the people, must have remembered that he was abhorred by this very people. They were seeking his blood, &c. But into the midst of their crowd he boldly springs (comp. Joh_1:11). Jesus transcends Aaron; Aaron might have feared death at the hands of the people; Jesus Christ did actually meet it, and yet there He stood even in the hour of death, waving His censer, staying the plague, &c.
Again, Aaron might have said, “But the Lord will surely destroy me also with the people; if I go where shafts of death are flying they will reach me.” He exposes his own person in the very forefront of the destroying one.… The plague which Jesus kept from us slew Him. “The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.”
Aaron deserves much commendation from the fact that he ran into the host. That little fact of his running is highly significant, for it shows the greatness and swiftness of the divine impulse of love that was within. And was it not so with Christ?.… While I look with admiration upon Aaron, I must look with adoration upon Christ.
II. View Aaron as the great propitiator.
Wrath had gone out from God against the people on account of their sin, &c.
Aaron as the Propitiator is to be looked at as bearing in his censer that which was necessary for the propitiation. Even though God’s high priest, he must take the censer, &c. Behold the Great High Priest! His incense consists first of His positive obedience to the Divine law. Then mixed with this is His blood, &c. Our faith is fixed on perfect righteousness and complete atonement.
Besides that, Aaron must be the ordained priest; for mark, two hundred and fifty men fell in doing the act which Aaron did. Aaron’s act saved others; their act destroyed themselves. So Jesus, the propitiator, is to be looked upon as the ordained One, &c. Comp. Heb_5:4-10. None but Jesus; all other priests and offerings we disdain.
We must look upon Aaron as being ready for his work. The people were ready to perish, and he was ready to save. Oh, my hearer, Jesus Christ stands ready to save thee now. Trust Him.
III. View Aaron as the interposer.
The old Westminster Annotations say upon this passage, “The plague was moving among the people as the fire moveth along a field of corn.” Aaron wisely puts himself just in the pathway of the plague, interposing himself between the darts of death and the people. Just so was it with Christ. Wrath had gone out against us. “The stripes must fall on Me,” He cries. There is nothing between me and hell save Christ. But He is enough. There is nothing which can save the soul of man, save Jesus Christ standing between that soul and the just judgment of God.
IV. View Aaron as the saviour.
It was Aaron, Aaron’s censer, that saved the lives of that great multitude. Aaron, and especially the Lord Jesus, must be looked upon as a gracious Saviour. It was nothing but love that moved Aaron, &c. If Christ hath saved us He is a gracious Saviour indeed. There is nothing in any man to commend him to God, &c.
Aaron was an unaided saviour. He stands alone! And herein is he a great type of Christ, who could say, “I have trodden the winepress alone,” &c. “There is none other name under heaven,” &c.
Aaron as a saviour was all-sufficient. Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour, able to save; you cannot save yourself, but He can save you. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool,” &c.
V. Aaron as the divider.
Aaron the anointed one stands here; on that side is death, on this side life; the boundary between life and death is that one man.… The one great division between those who are God’s people and those who are not, is Christ. A man in Christ is a Christian: a man out of Christ is dead in trespasses and sins. On which side, then, art thou to-day?
As Christ is the great divider now, so will He be in the day of judgment. He shall divide them the one from the other, &c. Oh! on which side shall I be when all these transitory things are done away with? &c.—C. H. Spurgeon.
AARON STAYING THE PLAGUE
(Num_16:47-48)
Open with a brief account of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and the awful punishment which befel them from God. The people on the next day as rebellious as before. The plague begun. Aaron’s intercession;—
I. The willingness of Aaron to intercede.
He “ran into the midst,” &c., though at this time of great age, above one hundred years. And this willingness will be more manifest, if we observe that he was—
1. Regardless of the plague; he feared not the contagion.
2. Regardless of the people’s enmity; he dreaded not their malice; and forgave the injuries they had done him.
Show how in these respects Aaron was an eminent type of the Lord Jesus. The plague of sin had laid hold of our race; yet see the willingness of Jesus to come (Psa_40:7). “Lo, I come.”
1. He shrank not from us because of our pollution (Rom_8:3; Heb_2:14-17). Nay, He took upon Him our curse (Gal_3:13; Isaiah 53). Our guilt and perishing condition that which moved His compassion.
2. He did not abandon His work because of our enmity, but though continually despised, rejected, &c., endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself (Heb_12:2-3; Rom_15:3), and would not be turned from His purpose of love.
II. The nature of Aaron’s intercession.
He took fire from the altar of burnt offering, where the fire was always burning; and he put incense upon the fire, that a sweet savour of atonement might ascend to God. So Jesus offers the sacrifice of His own most precious blood, and perfumes it with the incense of His all-sufficient merit. The sacrifice of Jesus ever new; the fire always burning. Jesus interposes between the wrath of God and the perishing sinner. “Father forgive them,” &c. “He made intercession for the transgressors.” Enlarge upon the intercession of Jesus,—its constancy, its freeness—spontaneous.
III. The success of Aaron’s intercession.
Aaron’s incense more powerful to procure pardon, than the people’s guilt to call down punishment. The Lord smelled a sweet savour, and turned away His wrathful indignation.
Observe, the plague was stayed. Aaron did not give over interceding until the plague had ceased. So Jesus will never give over interceding for a penitent believer, until the plague of sin is perfectly done away. And will never give over interceding for His Church, until every member of it has entered glory.
Conclusion:—
1. Let us tremble at the wrath of an offended God. Address the sinner. “Who can stand before this HOLY LORD GOD?” What wilt thou do in the day of visitation? No intercessor then.
2. Let us rejoice in the intercession of our Great High Priest. What need we any other mediators besides Him? Look at Korah and his company; were their intercessions received? And why not? They were not the appointed mediators. Why, then, go to saints and angels—the Virgin Mary?—J. D. Lane, M.A.
THE PLAGUE STAYED
(Num_16:48)
Observe,—
I. The evil.
Murmuring against God. Dissatisfaction with God—His government, &c. Now this is the essence of all sin. Holiness is harmony—agreement with God. Sin, disagreement and murmuring. So it was with the first sin, and every sin since. This leads to irreverence, complaining, and audacious presumption. How these abound—
1. In profane swearing,—horrid imprecations.
2. In Sabbath profanation. Counted as no sin.
3. In gross intemperance.
4. In general profligacy.
5. In scepticism. Denying God’s government, &c.
6. In recklessness—amidst Divine judgments.
What a sight for a holy God to behold! I come back to the first idea:—All sin is contrariety to God—dissatisfaction with God; and hence, rebellion against His government.
II. The punishment.
It was,—
1. Divine. God did it. No magistrate. No human pain or penalty. God immediately did it. Often sin mediately is its own punishment; but sometimes direct, &c.
2. It was by the plague. We do not know precisely what it was. Some sudden disease, which swept all before it. It was, however, evidently—
(1) Fatal. Destroyed life.
(2) Speedily so. Like a blast of wind, &c.
(3) Invariably so. No one knew of a remedy.
How analogous is the nature and effect of sin!
(1) Sin is the disease of the soul.
(2) It is deadly in three senses—temporal, spiritual, and eternal.
(3) There is for it no human remedy. All human skill, &c. failed.
III. The remedy.
1. In itself, not apparently adapted. Doubtless, the air was charged with death. But the incense was not possibly adapted to decompose, and change, and purify.
2. It was connected with pious intercession. In which there was confession of sin, admission of the justice of God, and the Divine mercy was implored. It was a direct appeal to God.
3. It was intercession grounded on sacrifice. By the priest, in view of the victims presented to God.
4. It was efficient. Completely. At once.
Let us now turn to the great remedy for sin. It is,
(1) Not what human philosophy would have recommended.
(2) It is essentially connected with the priestly work of Christ. His obedience, sacrifice, resurrection, ascension, intercession.
(3) It is effectual. The curse removed, wrath averted, mercy published, life offered. None need now die, no, not one. The connecting link between a guilty world and the remedy is, on God’s part, the preaching of the Word; on our part, believing the Word so preached; by which repentance, humiliation of soul, and devotedness to God, are secured. Learn,—
1. The extreme evil of sin.
2. The riches of the grace of God.
3. The immediate duty of the sinner; to call earnestly on the Lord.—Jabes Burns, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. Strictly speaking, the tribe of Levi was not…
Num 16:3
I. Strictly speaking, the tribe of Levi was not more appointed or called by God than the tribe of Reuben or Judah. The family of Aaron was not more called by God than any Israelitish family. Each tribe was to occupy its own place in the host; each family had some work to do which God had fixed for it, and not for any other. But it would have been a most minute and mischievous legislation which attempted to define the tasks that should be performed by each family or person. The Mosaic legislation attempted nothing of the kind; it affirmed a principle of universal and individual application; it established an order which embodied that principle, and showed how all departures from it must necessarily lead to confusion; it enforced its own decrees against that order more solemnly, more tremendously, than against any other parts of the society.
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II. The Mosaic history is a continual witness to the tendency which there was in the Divinely appointed order to become a caste, a perpetual record of the ways in which God was counterworking that tendency. The Aaronic family was appointed to offer the sacrifices; it was to show that God Himself was the Inventor of them. Woe to it if it tried to persuade the people that it was the inventor of them or could make them more acceptable!
III. Korah and his company were the assertors of a popular maxim. But unhappily that popular maxim would have been destructive of the people, would have been fatal to their moral, political, spiritual, freedom. Korah would have asserted for himself and the other families of the tribe of Levi the privilege and right of offering sacrifices. Dathan and Abiram would have claimed that privilege and right for all the tribes. There was a lie in the words. They at once introduced the principle of which sacrifice is the renunciation, the principle against which the family of Aaron was the permanent protest.
IV. Since it is the tendency of a mere national organisation to become exclusive, to assert the dignity of birth or the sacredness of property above the dignity and sacredness of humanity, the business of the priest in each land will be especially to protect it against this danger. The priest presents Christ’s finished sacrifice for the whole human race—for rich and poor, high and low. He must expect to go down alive into a deeper pit than that which received Korah and his company if he shows that wealth, honours, distinctions of any kind, are the objects of his search, not remembering that "he that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
F. D. Maurice, The Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, p. 204.
Num 16:8-11
I. The sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram was this: they were discontented with the arrangement made for public worship by the choosing out of Aaron and his family to be priests. The argument they used was a very plausible one, because it depended upon the great truth of the Lord’s being with all His people, consecrating and sanctifying them all, making them all in a certain sense holy to the Lord, in a certain sense priests.
It also flattered the vanity of the people, and strengthened them in the notion that they were oppressed by their rulers.
II. The answer to this argument was that Moses and Aaron had not lifted themselves up at all; the Lord had lifted them up. This was the answer which was ultimately given, with very terrible emphasis, by the swallowing up of Korah and his company. Korah and his company had laid great stress on the fact that all the congregation of the Lord were holy. Moses and Aaron might very well have replied, that they for their part by no means questioned the fact. Moses had never represented the choice of Aaron and his family as a declaration that they only of the people were holy. Nothing could be a greater mistake on the part of the people than to take this view of the priestly consecration.
III. Between our own priesthood and that of the Israelites there is still the great common ground of ministry before God in behalf of others which must be at the basis of every religion. Hence both priest and people may learn a lesson. The priest may learn that his office does not imply that he is holier or better than his brethren, but that it does imply greater responsibility, greater opportunities of good, greater sin if he does evil. And the people may learn to be gentle and considerate to those who are over them in the Lord, not to be ready to find fault and condemn, but rather to be charitable, and forbearing, and gentle.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 5th series, p. 124.
References: Num 16:8.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 241, Num 16:10.—C. P. Reichel, The Lord’s Prayer, p. 271. Num 16:23, Num 16:24.—I. Williams, Characters of the Old Testament, p. 114. Num 16:32-35.—C. Kingsley, The Gospel of the Pentateuch, p. 191. Num 16:35.—Parker, vol. iv., p. 56. Num 16:38.—Ibid. Num 16:47, Num 16:48.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 341; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 209. Num 16:48.—F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 353; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p.-225; Parker, vol. iii., p. 249. Num 16, Num 17.—W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver, p. 339. Num 17:12, Num 17:13.—C. J. Vaughan, Sunday Magazine, 1866, p. 457. Num 17:13.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 154. Num 18:20.—Parker, vol. iv., p. 57. Num 18:27.—Ibid., p. 58. Num 19:2, Num 19:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., p. 527. Num 20:1-12.—J. Hamilton, Works, vol. v., p. 270. Num 20:1-14.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 205. Num 20:1-29.—W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver, p. 358.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Rebellion of Kokah, Dathan, Abibam, and On
The Rebellion of Kokah, Dathan, Abibam, and On
This incident is similar to that recorded in Numbers 12, and while it illustrates the difficulties Moses encountered in his leadership, owing to the jealousy of those under him, it served to confirm him (Num_16:28) and Aaron (a 17) in the position assigned to them. It is now generally agreed that this chapter is composed of two narratives interwoven with each other. The one describes a rebellion led by Dathan, Abiram, and On against the civil authority of Moses (Num_16:1-2, Num_16:12-15, Num_16:25-34); while the other describes a different sort of rebellion, headed by Korah and 250 princes of the congregation, against the ecclesiastical leadership of Moses and Aaron. This separation of the chapter into two distinct narratives reduces it to order and serves to explain, not only the literary inequalities, but also the differences of fact; such as e.g. in the one case the refusal to obey the summons of Moses, and in the other the compliance with it (cp. Num_16:12 with 18, 19); the difference in locality, in the one case the sanctuary, and in the other the tents of Dathan and Abiram (Num_16:18 and Num_16:25-26); and the different fate of the two companies, in the one case death by earthquake, and in the other by fire from the Lord (Num_16:31-34 and Num_16:35).
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4. The action may denote the dismay of Moses, but more probably his praying for guidance: cp. Num_16:22, Num_16:45, Num_20:6.
5. To Korah] not to Dathan and Abiram, whose rebellion is distinct from this: see above.
11. Against the Lord] not merely against Aaron, of whose privileges Koran and his company are envious.
13. Dathan and Abiram are envious of the position of Moses. They complain that, instead of bringing them into a land flowing with milk and honey, as he had led them to believe he would do, he was taking them away from it into a wilderness (Num_16:13-14). Except thou make thyself] RV 'But thou must needs make thyself also.' '
14. Put out the eyes of these men] blind them to the real state of matters. The English equivalent would be to 'throw dust in the eyes.'
19. All the congregation] This shows the serious nature of Korah's rebellion. The people were in sympathy with it. The claim put forward by Korah was plausible, and flattered the multitude: see Num_16:3.
22. The God of the spirits of all flesh must know the thoughts and intents of the heart and be able to judge the real instigator of the evil. The one man is Korah: cp. for the thought Gen_18:23.
28. Hath sent me] i.e. Moses. Dathan's rebellion is directed against Moses as that of Korah against Aaron. On the sending of Moses see Exodus 3. Not.. of mine Own mind] The mark of the true messenger or prophet of God is that he does not speak of his own initiative: cp. Num_24:13; 1Ki_22:13-14; Jer_1:5-10; Mat_10:19, Mat_10:20. The false prophet, on the other hand, runs where he is not sent and speaks 'out of his own heart': see Eze_13:2; Jer_14:14; Jer_23:25-32.
30. Quick] i.e. alive. The pit] Heb. Sheol, usually rendered 'the grave.'
32. Their houses] their households, as in Num_1:2; Gen_7:1. The sons of Korah, however, did not perish: see Num_26:11.
36-39. The censers used by Korah and his company are collected and made into a covering for the altar, as a memorial of their sin and punishment, and a warning to others against profaning holy things: cp. Jdg_1:11.
37. Eleazar is commanded to do this, not Aaron, who, as high priest, must not defile himself with contact with the dead: see Lev_21:11;
38. The altar] the altar of burnt offering, which was overlaid with brass: see on Exo_31:1-10.
41-50. The people now turn upon Moses and charge him with being the occasion of this calamity. Their unreasonable murmuring is punished with a plague, which is only stayed by means of the intervention of the high priest.
46. Incense was usually offered, not alone, but as an accompaniment of a sacrifice. On this occasion the plague had begun, and incense was the readiest sacrifice that could be offered. It is symbolical of prayer and intercession: see on Exo_30:1-10. Observe that the unauthorised offering of incense by the rebels was provocative of the divine indignation, while in the hands of Aaron, the appointed high priest, it was accepted as an atonement, and procured the grace of forgiveness.
48. A striking picture, illustrating the efficacy of believing prayer (cp. Jam_5:15-16) and the way in which Christ by the offering of Himself has stayed the plague of sin and death: cp. Eph_5:2.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 6. The Rebellion of Korah
6. The Rebellion of Korah
CHAPTER 16
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1. The rebellion of Korah (Num 16:1-19)
2. The punishment (Num 16:20-35)
3. Eleazar and his work (Num 16:36-40)
4. The murmuring of the whole congregation (Num 16:41-43)
5. The staying of the plague (Num 16:44-50)
The history is now resumed and we have the worst episode of Israel’s history in the wilderness before us. We have seen and followed the steps downward and toward this fearful rebellion and the terrible punishment which followed. It started with unbelief. This tragedy is mentioned in the New Testament. In the Epistle of Jude we read, “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsayings of Korah.” This little Epistle gives a prophetic picture of the apostasy of the professing people of God during our age. This apostasy began in the days of Jude and is now fully developed in the end of the age. Unbelief is given in Jude’s Epistle as the starting point of the departure from God (verse 5), and Israel’s unbelief is used as the picture of the unbelief of Christendom. Besides Cain (the one who rejects the sacrifice) Balaam and Korah are mentioned as types of the apostasy. The consummation of the apostasy is opposition to Christ, His blessed office-work and glory. And this seems to have been reached in our day. The opposition will continue and become more outspoken, more widespread, till the judgment by fire in the day of the Lord falls upon the apostates.
The leader of the rebellion was Korah, a Kohathite. It will be remembered that the Kohathites had the choicest service among the Levites; they carried the very best upon their shoulders, the sacred things of worship. The departure from God and rebellion against His Word often begins with those who claim the office of teachers and preachers. Such is the case in our times. Korah’s name means “hail; ice.” May not this indicate the coldness of his heart? Even so the apostate teachers of the last days, mere hirelings like Balaam, are only natural men, not having the Spirit (Jud 1:19). Their mouths may speak great swelling words, their hearts have never tasted the love of Christ; they know Him not, or they would not betray Him.
The sons of Reuben, Dathan and Abiram, and On, besides two hundred and fifty, joined the revolt. Their attempt was a complete overthrow of the constitution which had been given to Israel and the establishment of another order and other leaders. They themselves sought recognition and Korah aimed at the priesthood of Aaron and would have it himself. Verses 8-10 indicate this. Korah and his associates aimed at God’s appointed high priest. And Moses put this serious matter in the hands of the Lord.
Moses and Aaron could not deal with this rebellion. The glory of the Lord appeared. Divine judgment falls upon them. Dathan and Abiram, their wives, their sons and their little ones, besides the ringleader Korah, are swallowed up by the earth and went down alive into the pit. (It is also foreshadowing the judgment to come upon the apostates when the Lord appears the second time. See Rev 19:20.) The two hundred and fifty who had taken presumptuously censers with incense, thereby defying the priesthood, are consumed by fire. It must be noted that the sons of Korah did not perish. A careful reading of verses 27-33 will bring out this fact and chapter 26:11 settles it beyond a doubt, “notwithstanding the children of Korah died not.” Sovereign grace saved the sons of Korah from the awful fate of the father. They were saved from the pit. Mercy was remembered in wrath. What grace bestowed upon them may be learned by consulting the following passages: 1Ch 6:54-67; 1Ch 9:19-32; 1Ch 26:1-20; 2Ch 23:3-4; 2Ch 23:19; 2Ch 31:14-18. They had the cities of refuge, were keepers of the gates of the tabernacle; were over the chambers and treasuries of the house of the Lord; the instruments of the sanctuary, the wine, oil, etc., were in their charge; they were mighty men of valor; strong men; they were the royal guards. And more than that, the Holy Spirit inspired them to write some of the beautiful Psalms. Read Psalm 84, “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts.” What meaning this Psalm has when studied in the light of the story of Korah! They were faithful, devoted in their service because they knew that they had been saved from the pit. And we have the same deliverance and knowledge of it. Should we be less faithful and devoted?
Interesting is Eleazar’s priesthood and ministry. As the third son of Aaron and in his ministry here he typifies the priesthood of Christ. The censers are kept as a memorial and as a warning. This ministry of Eleazar and Aaron staying the plague with the censer of incense, when the whole congregation revolted, is a confirmation of the divinely appointed priesthood and its efficacy. The preservation of the sinning, murmuring people depended upon the exercise of the priesthood. Blessed be God for Him who has made atonement, and whose priesthood in the presence of God keeps His people.
What higher criticism has made of this may be learned by the following statement:
“From the plain account of the text it appears that Aaron separated the men and women suffering with the plague from those not yet attacked, and then he piled the censer with incense and swung it between the hosts, so that not a germ in the air could pass over from the plague-stricken to those not yet attacked by the disease.
“The disinfecting of the air and separating of the sick from the well was dictated by Moses, who had learned in Egypt all the science of his day, and the Egyptian priests were master of many secrets which we have to learn over again.” How absurd!
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Challenge of Korah and His Companions
The Challenge of Korah and His Companions
v. 1. Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, himself a member of the band of Levites whom the Lord had distinguished by entrusting to them the special service of the Sanctuary, Num 7:9, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, of the tribe of Reuben, Num 26:8, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men, organized a rebellion under the very eyes of Moses;
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v. 2. and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, for the conspiracy that had first brooded in secret now came out in open revolt, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, all of them leaders and influential men in their own tribes;
v. 3. and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, in a formal organization, with the intention of ousting the leaders instituted by God, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, you have had the leadership long enough, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore, then, lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? Their argument was that, since the entire nation had been called to be the holy people of Jehovah, Exo 19:5-6, therefore they all had an equal right to the priesthood and to the leadership, and any member might claim its rights and execute its duties. The rebels entirely overlooked the fact that God was responsible for the present arrangement, and that He had made the obedience of the children of Israel to the terms of the covenant His condition when He called them to be His people.
v. 4. And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face, in the attitude of a suppliant bringing his case to the attention of the Lord;
v. 5. and he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to-morrow the Lord will show who are His and who is holy, the reference being to the priestly office, for which Aaron had been consecrated by the special command of the Lord; and will cause him to come near unto Him, even him whom He hath chosen will He cause to come near unto Him. God Himself would indicate whom He had selected to offer the sacrifices before Him in the Sanctuary. Moses was willing to submit the entire matter to a test.
v. 6. This do: Take you censers, Korah and all his company, such vessels as were used for offering incense in the Holy Place, at the altar of incense,
v. 7. and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow; and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy, and therefore be accepted as the Lord’s priest. Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. That ought to be sufficient for them; that surely would be a fair test.
v. 8. And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi, he addresses them all by that name, because their leaders were Kohathites:
v. 9. Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to Himself to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? Surely these privileges, as here enumerated, should have been sufficient to satisfy the ambition of even the most ardent defender of the practical priesthood of all Israelites.
v. 10. And He hath brought thee (the tribe of Levi) near to Him, and all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, with thee; and seek ye the priesthood also? The Levites even now held a higher position in the congregation than the other tribes, and their desire to have all Israelites recognized as priests was nothing but sham and pretense, their real aim being the office of the priesthood for themselves.
v. 11. For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord, for that is what their rebellion amounted to. And what is Aaron that ye murmur against him? It was not a case of Aaron’s having placed himself into the office of high priest by deceitful or arbitrary measures; and so the murmuring of the rebels, ostensibly directed against Aaron, was in reality a rebellion against Jehovah. In the same manner today false teachers arise in the Church and try to push out those that have the rightful call of the Lord. There is always danger that such methods will be supported by dissatisfied spirits.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 See how you translated this man's name in Numbers…
Kohath
See how you translated this man's name in Numbers 3:17.
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rose up against Moses
Rebelling or criticizing someone in authority is spoken of as if they were standing up to fight. AT: "rebelled against Moses" (See: Metaphor)
two hundred and fifty
"250" (See: Numbers)
well-known members in the community
"famous members of the community" or "important men in the community"
You have gone too far
This represents doing more than one should. AT: "You have done more than you should" or "You assume to have more authority than you should" (See: Idiom)
Why do you lift up yourselves above the rest of Yahweh's community?
The men ask this question to rebuke Moses and Aaron. It can be translated as a statement. AT: "You are wrong to lift up yourselves above the rest of Yahweh's community." (See: Rhetorical Question)
lift up yourselves above the rest
Considering someone to be important is spoken of as lifting it up. AT: "consider yourselves more important than the rest" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Korah
son
Levi
descend
Reuben
raise
Moses
people group
Israel
member
Aaron
holy
Yahweh
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 16:1–17:13 Another rebellion called for a clear delineation of…
16:1–17:13 Another rebellion called for a clear delineation of the duties of priests and Levites. This power struggle was a more serious challenge than any of the previous rebellions against God’s authority (ch 11; 12:1-15; 14:1-45). As in all of these historical episodes, the coconspirators protested relatively minor issues and questioned the actions of their leaders, but Moses reminded them that they were really rebelling against God. Once again, the Israelites suffered the deadly consequences of their rebellion.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.