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Coveting the cohenim
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 action, and they rose up before Moses, together with some of the sons of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen in the assembly, men of renown.
Numbers 16:1–2 NASB
Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi took [himself to one side] along with Dathan and Abriram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, descendants of Reuben. They confronted Moses together with two hundred fifty men from the children of Israel, chieftains of the congregation, representative of the assembly, the men of repute.
Numbers 16:1–2 The Judaica Press English Translation
God Himself separated and distinguished the tribe of Levi from the other tribes, but they were to be mingled among all the tribes. The Levites were to be separate, yet equal. However, this was not Korach’s worldview. To Korach, all the people of all the tribes were equal, which reads well on paper but rarely translates into the real world.
In the real world, what happens when you combine people into teams and claim they are equal. Inevitably, only one or two people do all the work but the entire team takes credit and reaps the benefits.
The more work you are given by your boss, your parents, your teammates, etc., the more you are expected to do and then you’re given more to do. It’s like the hamster wheel and the result is burn out when it goes too far.
Humility: Sign of a selfless leader
Unlike Korach, Moses was the reluctant leader. He told God that the job was beyond his ability. He told God that He was asking to much of him. Moses told God to ask someone else. God was adamant that He chose the right man and Moses accepted God’s call to leadership and God gave him Aaron to assist him.
Moses repeatedly told the children of Israel that whatever miracles he was performing were actually the power of God. Moses never took credit for himself. Yet Korach didn’t understand that. To Korach and those who supported his rebellion, all the miracles they witnessed were by the hand of Moses and Moses alone. Korach’s word choice was to pin all the problems the children of Israel were going though on Moses, as though Moses was making sloppy mistakes because he had overextended himself by exercising power over the people.
Korach had an ulterior motive, just as Dathan and Abiram had ulterior motives. All of them believed that they could succeed in leadership where Moses and Aaron had “failed.”
It’s certainly true that Moses had lots of power, did he ever abuse it? Moses is called “the most humble man who ever lived” (Num. 12:3) and the reason he had that title is that he didn’t use his power to build up himself.
Why did the rebels’ families have to suffer their judgment?
Men are held accountable for their own sins, so how was it that the families of Korach, Dathan and Abiram died with them? We know that those who died were either ones who made conscious decisions to follow their patriarch or they were too young to make that decision for themselves. Just as everyone in the same house are effected if the electricity is turned off or if the water is cut off. The household are all effected if there’s a financial windfall as well. Everyone in the house is affected by good decisions or bad decisions of the parents.
Korah was a good populist politician, but this is not God’s worldview. God is not a populist. God separated the people of Israel from the rest of the world. Then out of the people of Israel, he separated the tribe of Levi and from the tribe of Levi, he separated the family of Aaron and each of those familial groups had separate duties. The closer you are to God, the more that is required of you.
In response to Korach’s rebellion, Moses didn’t rally the people to his cause. He didn’t go through the camp, making stump speeches. Moses never went on the campaign trail to rally the people to him.God didn’t tell Moses to persuade the people to follow along with his actions.
God told Moses what to do and Moses did it. Moses was not a politician, he was a leader. Moses did the job God told him to do. The children of Israel as a whole had a job to do, the tribe of Levi had a job to do and the family of Aaron had a job to do.
Each person has the responsibility to follow the path God has for us.
What did Yeshua do with haters?
When Messiah was confronted in a similar manner to how Moses was confronted by Korach, how did Messiah respond? History repeats itself because human nature doesn’t change.
In Luke 20:1–8, the Pharisees were upset at Messiah Yeshua because He was healing people in a way that they didn’t approve. They asked Yeshua by whose authority He was performing the miracles. Yet, they presumed to have the authority to question Him in the first place, even though they couldn’t perform miracles He could perform. They didn’t have the power of life and death He had yet they were telling Yeshua that He was going too far. That He was acting beyond the bounds of Torah, beyond His station.
It’s a dumb question with a simple answer. After all, how was Moses able to inflict the 10 plagues on the Egyptians? How did he split the Red Sea? Who really brought down the manna and the quail? Did Moses do those things without God’s help?
The simple answer is that both Yeshua and Moses were exercising supernatural authority over creation by God’s express permission, not by the permission of men. In both cases, the rebels didn’t like that answer so sought another explanation. Korach did what all good politicians do, he redirected the people’s attention to another topic.
Korach and his family was assigned to carry the holiest things of the tabernacle. This was not a bad job at all. This task was a blessing to be in close proximity with the holiest items in the Tabernacle. Korach’s argument was actually with God, not with Moses.
Revisionist revolutionary falls into the pride trap
Korach was spinning some serious revisionist historical propaganda when he said that Moses had taken them out of the land of milk and honey, referring to Egypt. This is the exact wording that God used to described the Promised Land He was bring them to inherit. Korach chose to describe Egypt like that on purpose, completely memory-holing the entire experience of slavery with the whippings, beatings, forced labor, starvation rations, and genocide.
We’ve seen the archaeological excavations in Egypt. The malnourished bodies of young people who died young because of lack of food, hard labor and the utter misery that went through. And yet Korach had the gall to compare Egypt using the same words. God promised land of Israel would be the land of milk and honey, the land of freedom and bounty and he took God’s words and threw them back at Moses. Korach and his men were playing a very dangerous propaganda game.
Pride blinds people, and it blinded Korach and his co-conspirators. They wanted the pride of life which is power, control, and influence. They were lifting themselves above their God-appointed station. This is only two years since the Exodus and yet they were already trying to rewrite history in the minds of the people.
These leaders, Korach, Dathan, Abiram and the 250 men were not the original tribal leaders that God had selected. They selected themselves, as politicians tend to do, trying to use a popularity campaign to usurp the selection of God. They thought they were smarter than Moses and thought they were even smarter than God.
Interceding for those around us who dabble with ‘strange fire’
The 250 men who brought their own version of “strange fire” (Lev. 10:1; Num. 3:4; 26:61) were burned up by God. They also got as close to God as they could get, which is what they wanted. These men, by trying to get closer to God than their station, they sinned against their own souls. They put their lives on the line to perform this act. They were trying to act in the role of the nazarite without actually taking the nazarite vow. They ended up being their own sin offering.
Their fire pans were gathered up and used in the holy Tabernacle. Why?
- The incense pans were offered to God.
- The fire pans were atoned for by the deaths of the false priests who brought them.
When God says to Moses or Aaron to separate themselves from the people so He can kill off the people and start over. God’s hand is not limited. He can do what He wants. Why would He tell Moses and Aaron to separate themselves. He can strike people dead individually. That’s what he did to the 10 spies who had brought the bad report. He was able to kill them on the spot without killing their immediate families.
Then why did God tell Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the people because He was going to wipe them all out and start over? How did Moses and Aaron react every time? Every time God says this, Moses and Aaron humbled themselves before God. They interceded and prayed to God that He would refrain from killing the children of Israel. They would intervene on behalf of the people to save them, even though most of them were rotten and blaming Moses and Aaron for all their problems.
What is the example for us? We are also supposed to follow the example of Moses and Aaron and intervene on behalf of people, even though they don’t deserve it.Yeshua interceded for those who conspired to kill Him.
That’s very hard to do. Intervene on the behalf of someone who deserves divine correction, but that is the example that Moses, Aaron and Messiah Yeshua give us.
When they first left Egypt and they sinned with the golden calf, Moses intervened on their behalf and told God that the Egyptians would blame Him if they don’t enter the Promised Land, but God warned Moses that the Israelites would blame Moses for their failure to enter the Promised Land. The people used the same words against him that Moses had used against God. Moses got to experience what he had warned God about as a learning experience.
God hears our words, whether we are speaking blessing or curses, He records it all. The Torah’s stories are recorded thematically and He remembers everything. The stories that are recorded and the themes that are repeated are for our instruction because that is how we learn, through repetition.
“But you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and inside the veil, and you are to perform service. I am giving you the priesthood as a bestowed service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”
Numbers 18:7 NASB
There were a couple of relics from this confrontation that God called the children of Israel to permanently preserve, including the incense pans and Aaron’s rod. Why? They were permanent reminders to all who visited the tabernacle that is God who installs leaders and remove them, not the mob.
Summary: Tammy