We begin Chapter 16 today and the account known as "Korah's Rebellion". Korah is a very close kinsman to Moses. They are both the grandsons of Kohath (the son of Levi, the son of Jacob), with Moses being a child of Kohath's son Amram and Korah being a child of Kohath's son Izhar.
Korah is going to lead a rebellion. You would think a strong rebellion would not arise at this particular time. In our previous chapter the death penalty was passed on a man for rebelling against the Lord and deliberately breaking the Sabbath laws in the sight of his fellow countrymen. In the chapter before that we found the Lord sending a plague on ten of the twelve men who were sent to spy out the promised land. Those ten men incited rebellion throughout the community to the point where the people contemplated stoning Moses and Aaron to death and selecting a man to lead them back to slavery. The deaths of eleven men in the two preceding chapters ought to have given anyone second thoughts about mounting a rebellion against the authority of Moses and Aaron and---by extension---mounting a rebellion against the Lord. But a batch of bad characters are going to rise up against the men the Lord has appointed to lead Israel (politically and spiritually) at this time because they feel their duties in the community and at the tabernacle are less prominent and exalted than they'd like them to be.
"Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites---Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth---became insolent and rose up against Moses. With him were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, 'You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly?'" (Numbers 16:1-3) Korah and his followers are saying, "Who do you think you are, Moses and Aaron? Why do you think you are better than the rest of us? We are all the Lord's people. He has delivered all of us from Egypt and He is in the midst of all of us. Why, then, do you feel He can only speak through you? Moses and Aaron, we are of the same family line, yet only Aaron and his sons are allowed to be priests even though many of the rest of us are also of the tribe of Levi. Why has the Kohathite division of the tribe of Levi been relegated to being doorkeepers and furniture transporters at the tabernacle? If we are all the Lord's people, why aren't we all equal in authority? Why must we have a leader like Moses over us? Why must we have a priest like Aaron over us? Why can't we all just do our own thing as seems best to us?"
Korah is preaching about equality but equality is not what he actually wants. These are just the words he's using to get other men of Israel on his side. He doesn't really want everyone in Israel to hold the same amount of authority. He wants to usurp Moses' authority, which becomes clear to us when we get to our next paragraph. Korah feels he is just as qualified as Moses to be a political leader. He feels his family line is just as qualified as Aaron's family line to be priests. After all, he's just as closely related to the patriarchs as Moses and Aaron. He is at the same level in the family tree as Moses and Aaron. He feels like he was cheated out of the opportunity to be a Moses or an Aaron and that his family line is just as deserving of holding high offices in the nation as the family line of Moses and Aaron.
Moses, just as he did when the people rebelled against going forward into the promised land, falls to his knees in prayer before he says or does anything in response to this current rebellion. "When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. Then he said to Korah and all his followers: 'In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to Him and who is holy, and He will have that person come near Him. The man He chooses He will cause to come near Him. You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers and tomorrow put burning coals and incense in them before the Lord. The man the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!'" (Numbers 16:4-7) Moses seeks the Lord's counsel before addressing the men, and in his address we clearly see that Korah wants to usurp Moses' authority because Moses tells him: "Tomorrow the Lord will choose who is to be leader of Israel. He will show us whether He still wants me to lead the people or whether He wants you to take my place." Korah doesn't want equality with Moses; he wants to take the place of Moses. Moses understands that and says, "Let's see who the Lord wants to lead Israel. He is the ultimate authority; let's allow Him to have the last word on this matter."
Moses echoes the words these rebels spoke to him by telling them they've gone too far. They said to him and to Aaron in verse 3, "You have gone too far!" In other words, "You have taken too much upon yourselves! You have appointed yourselves the political and religious leaders over us. You have assigned each tribe and the divisions of each tribe their duties in the community and in the tabernacle. Who made you guys the bosses of us all? Was it the Lord? Or did you appoint yourselves?" Moses reacts by saying, "You Levites have gone too far! You are rebelling against the Lord, for He is the one who assigned the duties of every tribe and division and man of Israel."
These men are unhappy with the plans the Lord has for their lives. They want something different for themselves than the Lord wants for them. "Moses also said to Korah, 'Now listen, you Levites! Isn't it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near Himself to do the work at the Lord's tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near Himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?" (Numbers 16:8-11) Moses says something like this: "The Lord called the tribe of Levi, out of all the tribes of Israel, to serve at the tabernacle. He assigned each of you very valuable duties there. You should feel honored by being called to work in the service of the Lord at the structure in which His glory comes down upon the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. To work in the tabernacle is to work in the place closest to the manifestation of God's presence. Yet this isn't good enough for you because you can't all be priests. If you were all priests, who would keep everything running smoothly at the tabernacle? Who would transport the tabernacle and its furnishings from place to place? If all of you were priests, who would assist the priests? If all of you were priests, who would minister to the congregation in all the other ways they need to be ministered to? Why are you grumbling against Aaron as if he chose to be high priest of Israel or as if he chose which roles each of you would play in the service of our Lord? The Lord appointed Aaron to be a priest. The Lord chose the duties each of you were assigned."
Korah and the men with him don't want to do any type of work that must be done behind the scenes. They don't want to play supporting roles. They want to play the lead roles---roles in which honor and glory comes to them. Instead of having a spirit of humility which says, "To God be the glory! May everything I do point others to Him", they have a spirit of pride which says, "Our jobs at the tabernacle aren't visible enough. We want to be in the public eye all the time. We want people to know our names and admire us and look up to us. We want people to bow their heads reverently when we walk by. To us be the glory!"
The Lord is going to make it clear to the entire congregation who He has chosen to be the political and religious leaders of the nation. If the Lord had wanted Korah in charge then He would have put Korah in charge. If the Lord wants Moses deposed and Korah installed in his place, the Lord is more than able to make this happen. Tomorrow, as Moses said, "the Lord will show who belongs to Him and who is holy, and He will have that person come near Him. The man He chooses He will cause to come near Him."
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