Jealousy vs. contentment. Covetousness vs. peace. Humility vs. pride. This continual battle against short-sighted self-will and trust in the LORD’s over-the-horizon view underlies the rebellion against Aharon (Aaron), God’s anointed, led by Korakh (Korah) in this week’s reading — קֹרַח Korakh, Numbers 16-18.
This foreshadows the rebellion against the ultimate of God’s Anointed, Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ).
The Torah reading קֹרַח Korakh/Korach (“Korah,” Numbers 16–18) presents us a difficult lesson in the dangers of democracy. As Americans, we pride ourselves on living in a country where all citizens who are age 18-plus are granted a vote in how our school boards, cities, counties, states and the nation itself are governed.
Korach and those following him wanted to rule God’s house itself in a similar manner. Ambassadors and disciples of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) should carefully and humbly take to heart how God’s judgment utterly humiliated and destroyed Korach and his rebels.
Korach and his merry band of insurrectionists used populist propaganda, revisionist history, blame shifting and faux humility to instigate a popular uprising against Moses and Aaron to return to Egypt to die there so they could avoid suffering God’s judgement that they would die in the wilderness over the course of 40 years.
The people followed along because they would rather blame Moses and Aaron for their lack of faith and their eventual death sentence than themselves for their failure to take what was promised to them.
Fast-forward about 1,500 years: Israel’s leaders who confronted Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) about His ministry repeated some of the same arguments and found themselves on the wrong side of history, just as Korach, Dathan and Abiram did.
But the real lesson of the Torah reading קֹרַח Korakh (Numbers 16–18) is how Moses, Aaron and Yeshua responded to the attacks on their authority. They didn’t ask God to take out their enemies, but interceded in prayer for them. God asks us to do the same.
The account of Korach/Korakh/Qorakh (Korah) and his rebellion within ancient Israel between the departure from slavery in Egypt and the entrance into the Promised Land is a classic study in political science. His message hinges on two talking points that politicians of all stripes use today to sway the masses:
* Pursue equity, not just equality.
* Cultural decline is caused by some other group.
We see in the Torah reading קֹרַח Korakh (Numbers 16–18) and in the account of the trial of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) lessons on how to discern the motivations of popular movements and those who aspire to leadership. Find out more through this Bible study.
The closer we are to God, the closer God looks at us. We may come to God as we are, but we shouldn’t stay as we were. A key lesson of the Torah reading שמיני Shemini (“eighth”; Leviticus 9–11) is the more understanding God gives us, the more God expects of us (Luke 12:48). This is also why the sacrifice of Yeshua (Jesus) was the only sacrifice that could take away our sins, transgressions and iniquities (Lev. 16:15, 18, 27; Heb. 9:13; 10:4).
There are no shortcuts to holding a position of authority in God’s kingdom. People who try to take shortcuts to greatness will not prosper in the end. Just as Aaron and Moses are examples of how God and Yeshua interact with each other, Korah is an example of the “spirit of antichrist” (1John 4:3).
Novelist Catherine Aird wrote, “If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.” This fits very well this week’s Torah reading, aptly named קֹרַח Korakh/Korach, after the leader of this merry band of rebels.
When we are not satisfied with the position God placed us and we covet someone else’s job or position, we are in grave spiritual danger. We may experience physical consequences for our rebellion, maybe not in the extreme manner recorded in Numbers 16–17, but God does not like complainers. Any insight we have about our condition comes from God.