Numbers 16 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin
Similar to Miriam and Aaron’s rebellion against Moses, the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram was ultimately an attack upon the Lord’s sovereign choice of leadership. In both cases, all of these individuals held very privileged positions in the household of God, but they envied those who held even higher positions than they. Korah was not only a Levite but one of the privileged Kohathites, which were the division of the Levites who carried the articles of furniture in the holy place and the most holy place. Out of all the Levites, they were the most privileged, and when the census was taken in Israel, they were the first to be counted amongst the Levites. But they were not priests, and they could not serve as priests since they weren’t descendants of Aaron, and the thought of this exclusion was bitter to their souls.
Dathan and Abiram, on the other hand, were not Levites but Reubenites, the descendants of Jacob’s firstborn son. Again, out of all the fighting tribes, they were the first to be counted in the census in Israel, and they maintained a privileged position in the ordering of the tribes as well; however, they did not hold the most privileged position, for that went to Judah who led the nation of Israel through the wilderness and into battle. Technically, these were two separate rebellions, one having a beef primarily with Aaron and the other primarily with Moses, but both parties had a beef with God. What the parties had in common was this matter of pride of position.
In the ordering of the camp, both of these groups dwelt together on the south side of the Tent of Meeting, which was the second most privileged position in the camp of Israel. The most privileged position was held by Judah and the priests of Aaron on the east side of the tent who worked together in leading the nation of Israel forward whenever the glory cloud moved ahead of them. So the reason that the rebellion occurred simultaneously from the two separate tribes was because of their proximity to one another which provided the opportunity for their grumbling and later their plotting against Aaron and Moses.
Aaron, having turned against Moses himself not long before, was now getting a taste of what it is like to lead God’s people and to be wrongly accused of exalting himself in the sight of others. But Moses defended Aaron’s authority as a priest and challenged Korah and his rebellion to come with censers before the Lord so that the Lord could show whom He had chosen to serve as priests. All those who came with their censers other than Aaron were then burned alive with fire coming out from the altar of God.
Moses’ detractors, on the other hand, refused even to come out and talk with him, so he had to go to their tents on the south side of the tabernacle and warn all those dwelling near these grumblers to keep their distance for they would surely die in an unusual way from the judgment of the Lord. And as soon as he was speaking, the ground opened up and consumed the tents of these grumblers along with their families and even their little ones because of the evil spirit at work in these men to cast off not only Moses’ authority but even God’s righteous rule over them. Notice, in vv.13-14 that they give no credit to God at all in delivering them from the hand of the Egyptians, but instead accuse Moses of bringing them out of the “good land” of Egypt and bringing them into a wasteland in order to die as he reigns over them as an evil prince.
Clearly, it is a lack of faith in the Lord that has led to this proud and bitter spirit. Anytime one takes his eyes off of the Lord he cannot see his own self rightly, and anytime one does not give thanks for the goodness of the Lord, he cannot rightly interpret the providence of God but turns to bitterness when there are signs of God’s goodness and grace all around him. Instead of being content with what the Lord has given us, we think we deserve better, and so we tend to expect more. When that false thinking isn’t corrected by the Word because we haven’t submitted ourselves to the will of God, those grandiose expectations morph into bitter demands, into grumbling and complaining.
We know from the Word that even Christ came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Even though he is the firstborn son by right and title, and is even God himself, he did not count equality with God as something to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant being born in the likeness of men, humbling himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross. We also know that Christ died for sinners, even for grumblers and complainers, but only if they repent of their grumbling and complaining and by faith receive the free gift of God’s grace.
When a man or a woman understands the grace of God, although they may still act according to their old nature at times, there should come a point in which they see the evil of their way, the darkness in their thinking, and the bitterness in their own emotions, and humbly repent of their foolish pride and by faith accept their role as God’s privileged servant, not God’s counselor or confidant and certainly not His judge. But for those who do not repent of this unreasonable pride and appalling bitterness there remains only a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume all of God’s adversaries.