Numbers 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:
2 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:
3 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?
Numbers 16:41 But 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.
There are many places in the Bible we could go and read a similar situation as in Numbers 16. The first account of this type would be in Genesis 4. Cain chose to rebel against the Lord and he brought an offering that met his approval, but not God’s. God rejected his offering. He took great offence to that, and eventually murdered his brother in a fit of anger. God continued to reach out to him, but he stubbornly stuck to his plan and became a marked man. His rebellion was passed on to his children for several generations.
We need to understand the impact we have on those around us. We can either be a voice for good and truth, or we can be a voice of destruction.
In our text, we read of a man named Korah. It is not likely he wanted his name remembered as the leader of a rebellion. His life ended in destruction along with his family and many others.
Korah and his cohorts (250 princes of renown) were very influential among the children of Israel. They were not that long out of Egypt at this point, and they were not grasping the reason for their delay in entering the land of Canaan. They give us a very clear picture of lost humanity. Lost humanity is known for committing sin. However, lost humanity does not like the consequences of sin.
This week there was a report of a man in B.C. who was charged with a $750,000.00 fine for speaking up against the sodomite agenda that is plaguing our country. I do not know all the details, but I do know that this fine was designed to send a message to anyone else who would consider speaking out on this matter. The government does not want anyone to oppose their plans. In our province we have an organization known as CFS. They are be a taxpayer funded organization that is supposed to protect children from abusive family situations. They are a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. Children need to be protected, but not by ungodly organizations.
The current actions of governments regarding children is the worst child abuse we have seen. It is almost as bad as some of the pagans of Bible times who would sacrifice their children to Molech. The brainwashing that is taking place in the public schools and then the government sanctioned mutilation of children is wicked. There is no other way to describe it.
We are seeing the results of that brainwashing in what took place in Tumbler Ridge not that long ago, and also in the U.S. at a hockey game shortly after that.
The problem is that our governments are not interested in addressing the real problem, but rather, they want to silence anyone who would oppose the wickedness being promoted with taxpayer dollars.
In our text, the issue was with regard to God’s appointed leadership. Moses was appointed by God to be the top human leader of the children of Israel. Aaron was appointed by God to be the first high priest of the children of Israel. God instructed Moses in what was required, and Moses instructed Aaron with the things that pertained to his work as high priest.
Korah and his family were priests under Moses’ and Aaron’s authority. Moses and Aaron’s authority was from God. Korah and his men were ungodly men who assumed they were just as good as Moses and Aaron. They despised God’s choice of leaders. They were influential among the people and were able to stir up quite a problem in the nation.
We do not have the space here to record the entire chapter but it would be good for the readers to take the time to read Numbers 16. Korah and his group were defiant. They chose to challenge God’s leadership. In verse 3 they made the false assumption that the entire congregation were holy. By their very actions, they proved they were not holy. As we read through this chapter we find there were over fourteen thousand people among the children of Israel who were not holy. They were rebels who wanted to make waves.
The problem God recorded here is a warning to every generation. The fear of the LORD is essential to life. When a person rejects that, it creates problems for that person and for all who stoop to being influenced by that person.
The nation of Israel was at a standstill for a time as God had to deal with this mess. God was demonstrating His mercy to the rebels. The entire nation suffered because of Korah’s rebellion. A large number of the children of Israel lacked the discernment to say no to that rebellious attitude. They assumed they could overpower the God-appointed authority and get their own way.
In God’s economy He shows many times that human majority never rules. That was true in Israel, and it is also true in a true local church. The majority is God.
I John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
In the book of Isaiah God reminded the nation of Israel and the world, that He is the only true LORD and He does not share His glory with anyone else. It is important to lay hold on that truth in the short time we have on this earth.
There are thousands of people today who claim to be holy, but they do not have a clue what holiness looks like. They reject God’s authority and seek to establish their own form of authority. They claim to be under God’s authority, but their god is not the God of the Bible.
Sadly, there are places in Canada and in other parts of the world that do not have a true local church close at hand. I know a pastor who pastored a church at one time. During that pastor’s time there, the church grew in numbers, and on the surface, appeared to be growing spiritually.
In that same church there were women who chose to rebel against the Word of God and they were able to convince their husbands that their ideas were of greater significance than the Word of God. Those women were led by one older woman who had kicked her husband out years earlier and even after she professed to be saved, wanted nothing to do with the man she had chosen to marry. She was a manipulator and able to get the younger women on her side. Keep in mind, God’s design for the older women is to teach the younger women to love their husbands and to love their children and be keepers at home. You cannot love your husband, nor your children when you go against God’s Word.
The end result was that this pastor was asked to leave and that church has been without a pastor for ten years. A group that wants to be spiritual but cannot find a God-ordained pastor, is not a true church. They are spinning their wheels, and may look spiritual, but do not have the blessing of the Lord.
That is what happens when people lose respect for God. Moses was not that important on his own. He was a shepherd prior to God’s call. He knew how to look after sheep, but he was not skilled in working with people. He did not even know the LORD very well when God called him. However, God called him and gave him a place of prominence among the children of Israel, but also among the Egyptians. God began to train him in greater detail after He called him. God told Moses that He would make him as god to Pharaoh, and Aaron would be his prophet. Pharaoh did not want to know the true God and God would elevate Moses to a high position in his sight.
In our text, God made it clear that Moses was not the final authority. He was under God’s authority. The same was true for Aaron. Korah and his family had enough to do if they would have just humbled themselves before the LORD. They chose to follow the lies of the devil and they wanted greater authority. They proved they were not fit to have greater authority. They did enough damage in the nation as it was. If God had allowed them to have their way, the nation of Israel would have been destroyed.
Rebellion was a major problem among the people already. It still is today. The majority of the Jews still do not want to submit to God’s authority. As we noted in the book of Zechariah, the day is coming when the nation of Israel will bow before the Lord Jesus Christ and will repent and submit to His rule as their King. They will acknowledge Him as the one whom they have pierced.
In verse 41 we see that in spite of God’s judgment upon Korah and his family, there were still a number of Israelites who did not want to learn the lesson. They claimed those who had been killed were the people of the LORD. The children of Israel had two men of the LORD leading them, but they could not tell the difference between them and the rebels. They were deliberately blind. That is what happens when the fear of the Lord is missing. People lack discernment when they will not submit to God’s authority. They then choose people who do not fear God and they then decide to undermine God’s authority and they set themselves up as gods.
Today is the Lord’s Day. It is the day that the Lord Jesus Christ established as the day for New Testament saints to set aside the daily work schedule and go to a true local church to learn of Him. It is the day when lost people should also stop their self-centred lives and go to a true local church to hear the Word of God preached.
Life is not about man. Life is about knowing the true God and learning how to serve Him in truth.
Pastor Bartel