Sin of Korah, Dathan & Abiram
Numbers 16-17
Sin of Korah, Dathan & Abiram, Numbers 16-17. Once again jealousy rears its ugly head among the children of God. Among the Levites, 250 men, headed by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, rose up against Moses.
1 Now Korah the son of Izhar,
son of Kohath 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 a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the
congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. 3 They assembled
themselves together against Moses and against Aaron . . .
25
Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel
followed him. 26 And he spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart,
please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs,
lest you be swept away with all their sins.” 27 So they got away from
the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Dathan and Abiram came
out and stood at the door of their tents, together with their wives,
their sons, and their little ones. 28 And Moses said, “Hereby you shall
know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and that it has
not been of my own accord. 29 If these men die as all men die, or if
they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent
me. 30 But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its
mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go
down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised
the Lord.”
31
And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground
under them split apart. 32 And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed
them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah
and all their goods.
Numbers 16:1-3 and 25-32 English Standard Version
Sin of Korah, Dathan, & Abiram
Numbers 16-17
Once again jealousy rears its ugly head among the children of God. Among the Levites, 250 men, headed by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, rose up against Moses. They were Levites, just as was Moses, so why did they need to obey every word he spoke?
Think
of what has just happened. Because of their rebellion against God
headed by 10 of the 12 spies who scoped out the promised land, the
Israelites are doomed to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. None
of those over 20 years of age will be allowed entrance into the promised
land.
The
people were not happy. It was not hard for the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram to rear its ugly head and for them to
convince a large group of people to rise up against Moses and Aaron.
How did Moses settle this disagreement?
Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these
works, and that it has not been of my own accord. 29 If these men die as all men
die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not
sent me. 30 But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its
mouth
and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down
alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the
Lord.”
What did God do?
31 And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground
under
them split apart. 32 And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them
up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and
all their
goods.
I was originally going to entitle this devotion, "Oh When Will They
Ever Learn?" Don't you sometimes get so impatient with the Israelites?
But, before we become too critical, we should think of our own lives! We
have the entire Word of God at our disposal, and yet how often do we
rail up against the things that God has put in our lives. We don't
complain when everything is going fine, but just wait until adversity
strikes. The sin of Korah, Dathan & Abiram reminds us how similar we are to these Levites.
We must remember that God is right there in the bad times as
well as the good. He even leads us when we walk through the valley of
the shadow of death.
As we think of the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, let us pray
for God's grace in your life, that you will not be filled with jealousy
over those in authority over you, and that you will continually be
filled with the peace that passes all understanding.
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