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This section could be titled, “The Three Stories of Rebellion”: of a man collecting firewood on Shabbat, of Korah, of two families of the tribe of Reuben. God dealt with each rebellion in a different way. All imprinted in the minds of the people over and again God was the one in charge, and it was God’s prerogative to choose Moses and Aaron.
God had already rejected the people from entering the land at this time. He still give instructions on what to do after the enter the land with the understanding that the fulfillment of His commands could not come about until 40 years later.
God also gives instructions on how to handle sins in ignorance vs. sins of “an exalted hand.” Right after the command, Moses then records an example of a sin of rebellion and how the case was handled.
The Spartans drew their line in the sand at Thermopylae, but God draws His lines in stone.
The instructions about how to tie ציצת tzitzit (Strong’s H6734) is given right after the judgement on the man who broke the Sabbath. The blue ribbon or “flower” was given to the people of Israel while they were in the wilderness as a reminder to them to remember the laws of God. It’s a commitment to remind yourself to be obedient.
God uses patterns over and over to make and reinforce a point He wants us to understand. The pattern in these chapters are repeated examples of the sin of rebellion and presumption. God’s word is not written in chronicle order, He writes in thematic order.
Korah, of the family of Kohath of Levi, had the duty to carry the contents of the holy of holies and Eliazar, son of Aaron was their leader. Eliazar would cover the items and then the Kohathes would go in and carry them.
The rebellion on the family of Kohath had infected the Reubenites as well because the Kohathites tabernacled in the south, which was also the area where the Reubenites were commanded to tabernacle.
Korah’s presumption to challenge Aaron’s status as High Priest, who was anointed as “Holy unto the Lord.” Korah said, “… for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst ….” That was a direct challenge to Aaron’s status.
Moses responded by telling Korah and his company of rebels that the Lord will show who is holy unto Him, who He has chosen as His high priest.
Korah’s rebellion and obstinance against Aaron’s authority was stopping Aaron from doing the job that God gave Him to do. Moses had to put a stop to Korah’s “grumbling” (לון lun, Strong’s H3885b) and rebellion as quickly as possible.
The Reubenite leaders snubbed Moses so Moses went to them. The Reubenites had a different complaint. They were rebelling against Moses, not Aaron. Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab accused Moses of taking them away from the “land of milk and honey” which was Egypt to them and that he failed to bring them into the new “land of milk and honey” which was Caanan.
The Korathites and Reubenites are conveniently ignored the fact that God had judged them for their insolence with the spies and they continue in their insolence. This generation still has not repented of their sin of insolence in regards to the incident with the spies and continue their insolence and rebellion by staging this rebellion against Aaron and Moses.
The rebellion of the Korathites and the rebellion of the Reubenites were dealt with differently. The families of Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab were swallowed up by the ground, but Korah’s family was spared.
Only Korah and the other Levite with the censers were killed by fire before the Lord for their presumption of bring incense to God. Korah’s wife and children survived. Some of Korah’s descendants wrote some of the Psalms.
God made a permanent remembrance of this rebellion when He commanded Aaron to have the 250 censers hammered out and made into a covering on the altar. Every time someone visited the altar to make a sacrifice, that cover was a reminder what God does to those who would presume to usurp Aaron’s position.
However, we see in the next chapter that the people still had not learned their lesson of rebellion against Moses and Aaron because the very next day, the people accused Aaron and Moses of murder. God responded by calling a plague on the people to kill them for their continued rebellion and presumption. Aaron and Moses shows their good hearts by sending Aaron himself into the midst of the congregation with his censer filled with incense and sending himself in the midst of the plague to stop the dying.
God decides to stop these rebellions once and for all. The people were still blaming Moses and Aaron for the deaths. God wants the people to understand once and for all to know who God has called “holy unto the LORD” so he commands all the elders of the people to come to the Tent with their rods along with Aaron. The rod that sprouted would be the rod of the priest called by God.
Aaron’s rod was the only rod that sprouted. All the rods had been dead but Aaron’s was brought back to life to make a point.
Once and for all, the elders really understood that God had truly chosen Aaron and Moses for the tasks of leading the people.
Yeshua is the Rod of Elohim. He was dead but brought back to life. He brought forth buds, then flowers and will ultimately bring forth fruit. Yeshua will end this era of death and bring forth eternal life.
Speaker: Richard Agee. Reader: Dave De Fever.