Have you ever protested or revolted against an authority, leader, organization, or government? There are times when civil unrest is used productively to get the attention of those who are in authority. When I was young, I protested a couple of times against decisions made by my government for precisely this purpose. Civil disobedience, when conducted properly, harms no one. A coup, however, is a violent attempt to overthrow or alter an existing government by a small group in an attempt to steal power away from them. We have come to a point in Israel’s history after God had sentenced the nation to wander in the wilderness until an entire generation dies off because of their rebellion and grumbling against him. The Israelite leaders revolted, but Moses and Aaron interceded for the nation. In Numbers 16, Moses recounts how Korah led a group of prominent Israelite Levites in an attempted coup against him and Aaron, accusing them of assuming too much authority and arguing that all the congregation is holy. Another group, led by Dathan and Abiram, refused to meet with Moses, accusing him of bringing them out of Egypt, a plentiful land, only to kill them in the wilderness. The glory of the Lord appeared, ready to consume the entire congregation. After Moses and Aaron entreated the Lord to spare the innocent, the earth opened up and swallowed Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, along with their households. Fire from the Lord also consumed 250 rebellious men. Numbers Chapters 16-19 offer a relevant illustration of the need to separate ourselves from sinful movements and trends, to intercede for those involved, and to delight in the miracle of Christ’s sacrifice that cleanses us for devotion to Him.
Disrespecting God’s Sovereign, Providential Plan
Korah “wanted…the priesthood…The second complaint, from Dathan and Abirm, was directed against Moses…arguing that Moses had deliberately deceived the people for his own ends. Danthan and Abirm were people who were disappointed in God. Their experience of his way had not lived up to their expectations, and so they took their disappointment out on the leaders of God’s people…[but] it was the Lord against whom they were really in rebellion…The reason their present circumstances were so dire was the result of their own sin, not the failure of Moses or of the Lord…Unlike Korah, Dathan and Abiram…made no reference to the Lord in their complaint. In fact, they assumed the non existence of the Lord, or at least his practical irrelevance. They assumed that Moses was…a magician who had made startling claims but then was unable to deliver the impressive trick he had promised…[none] of them understood Biblical leadership, which is about divine calling to service. Biblical leaders…serve because God has called them to that position and recognize that sometimes even those whom God has called may not see dramatic visible results…Pragmatic thinking will often find godly leadership unimpressive…[and] The Lord himself had said that anyone apart from Moses and the priestly tribe of Aaron who approached him would be put to death (3:38). Those who believed Korah’s words would inevitably find death instead of the freedom he claimed to bring. That is always the way it is with sin: it offers freedom to those who are ‘liberated’ from God’s law, but in the end all it delivers is death…Those who distanced themselves from this rebellious spirit would live, while those who identified themselves with the rebels would die, alone with their families…The covenantal nature of this separation between life and death is itself a small-scale reenactment of the grand covenantal separation that will take place on the last day. There will be only two family groups in that final judgment—those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ. Those in Adam…are destined for death because of Adam’s rebellion, which they themselves have reenacted in their own lives from the moment of birth onward. However, those who have been born a second time by the Spirit of God are in Christ [and live]” (1)
God’s Sweet Mercy
“In the mercy of God…not all of Korah’s descendants perished. In Numbers 26, when the second census is taken, it becomes clear that even though Dathan and Abiram were completely cut off and left without descendants, this was not the case for the line of Korah. How can this be? The only explanation for this phenomenon is that some of Korah’s family broke out of their natural covenant loyalty to their father and crossed over to the other side…so they lived when the rest of their kinfolk died. It is the same way with you: even if you do not have believing parents of family members…The grace of God is extended to you too, summoning you to come out from those who are condemned to eternal death. The doorway of life is open to you too in Christ: come into his family, receive his righteousness, and you too will live…At the cross, Jesus purchased us to be his servants, giving him the absolute prerogative toorssign us our places in his kingdom, be they small or great…It is our glory to be found obediently doing what God called us to do. The cross is also the answer to our doubts about the Lord’s presence and effectiveness in our lives…in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, God is nether dead nor absent.” (2) “The ruin of others should be our warning…Love will do what fear cannot.” (3) We, who have the love of Christ, should willingly and eagerly separate ourselves from sinful movements, intercede for those involved, and delight in the miracle of Christ’s sacrifice that cleans us for devotion to Him.
More Grumbling!
“But on the next day all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, ‘You have killed the people of the Lord’…and the glory of the Lord appeared…and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.’ And they fell on their faces. And Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.’ So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah.” (Numbers 16:41, 43, 45-50) “Aaron took up a position between the living and the dead, and by means of the incense that he offered, he drew a line of separation between the two groups. By his faithful ministry, he prevented those who remained alive from joining those already dead. Once again we see the covenantal dimension of salvation. The faithful acts of the one man carrying out the task appointed by God had a life-giving impact on the fate of many.” (4) “‘The wicked man will see and be vexed.’ The wicked cast off all regard to piety, and banish from their minds all thoughts of human affairs being under the superintending providence of God…[and will be] disappointed of their desires. They are never content, but are continually thirsting after something…And hence, in their foolish expectations, they do not hesitate at grasping at the whole world. But…God will snatch from them what they imagined was already in their possession, so that they shall always depart destitute and famishing.” (5) This is why it is so important to separate ourselves from sinful movements, taking delight in God’s providential order and intercession for the good of his chosen body in Christ, who stands between the living and the dead.
A Sign of God’s Continued Grace
“What Israel needed was someone or something that would bring to an end the grumbling and rebellious spirit of the people once and for all…John Piper has rightly argued that God is most glorified when his people are most satisfied in him…When God’s people grumble, they miss out on their chief end in life…neither glorifying God nor enjoying him. In addition, grumbling believers give non-Christians little reason to want to join them. When we grumble against the order that God has set in place, we are robbing him, and distracting others from seeing his greatness. That is why grumbling is such a serious sin.” (6) So, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel, and get from them staffs, one for each fathers’ house…twelve staffs. Write each man’s name on his staff, and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi…And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you’…On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds…And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die'” (Numbers 17:1-3, 5, 8, 10) “In Jeremiah 1:11 the Lord used an almond branch as a visible symbol of the Lord’s watching over his word…and bringing it to imminent fulfillment. So too the lampstand [fashioned] as an almond tree was a marker of the certain fulfillment of a great blessing that was yet to come. The Lord was watching over his people for blessing, both now and in greater measure in the future…The Lord took Aaron’s dead stick and turned it into a miniature lampstand in the midst of the other twelve sticks, a sign of life and future blessing in the midst of the community. This blooming almond branch was a symbol of the certainty that the Lord would fulfill his promise of a greater blessing for his people through the gift of the priesthood. That is why the sign should have put an end to the grumbling of the rebellious. It should have reminded them that the Aaronic priesthood was God’s chosen channel of blessing and life for the community in the present and a sign of an even greater blessing to come.” (7) Christ, our High Priest, is our supernatural means of eternal blessing and should cause us to put away all grumbling about the Lord’s sovereign providence as we journey through this worldly wilderness.
A Big Solution for a Big Problem
God gave Aaron and his sons the responsibility for any offenses connected with the sanctuary and priesthood, like their grumbling and complaining. The Levites were assigned to assist the priests but couldn’t approach sacred furnishings or the altar. Just as Aaron and the Levites were entrusted with sacred responsibilities and rewarded accordingly, so too are we, as believers, called to fulfill our duties with diligence and integrity. “So the Lord said to Aaron, ‘You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi…And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel.'” (Numbers 18:1-3) “The priests and the Levites, like the lampstand of the tabernacle, were a sign of the Lord’s favor and determination to bless this people. The goal of their ministry was that the people should not die…This is the central theme in these chapters of the book of Numbers: the Lord himself chooses those who come close to him and serve him…The Lord could legitimately have closed off access for Israel into his presence forever, but he chose not to do so. In the Aaronic priesthood, the doorway to Heaven was still open. The one whom he had chosen could still approach him and serve him safely…The calling of the Aaronic priesthood by the Lord was thus a sign that his plan for his people is life and fellowship with him.” (8)
The Uncleanness of Death
“Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean…Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean.” (Numbers 19:11-13) “Why did the law make a corpse a defiling thing? Because death is the wages of sin…The law could not conquer death, nor abolish it, as the gospel does, by bringing life and immortality to light, and so introducing a better hope.” (9) God, in his mercy, provided instructions for Israel’s cleansing and devotion, pointing to a superior and ultimately permanent solution of the miracle of Christ’s sacrifice that cleanses believers eternally. “The constant shedding of blood and burning of flesh kept the reality of the consequences of sin very much in front of the people…This is why our ministry must constantly be centered around the cross of Jesus Christ, which is the culmination of all those Old Testament sacrifices.” (10) “There is an infection of sin in the world, which only the cross and intercession of Jesus Christ can stay and remove…Greatly indeed hath God commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Romans 5:8.” (11) Having Perfection on our side, we have nothing to protest! “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. [Christ] has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.” (Hebrews 7:26-28)
Related Scripture: Genesis 19:15-26; Exodus 2:11-12; 40:13-15; Leviticus 10:3; Deuteronomy 18:1-5; 2 Samuel 24:25; 1 Kings 8:53; Ezra 10:11; Nehemiah 9:2; 10:35-39; 13:3; Psalms 55:12-16; 65:4; 73:1-19; 106:16-18, 28-31; Haggai 2:10-19; Matthew 14:39; 25:32; 2 Corinthians 7:2-4; Revelation 18:4-5.
Notes:
1. Duguid, Iain M., Numbers—God’s Presence in the Wilderness, Numbers 16, Crossway Books, 2006.
2. Duguid, Ibid.
3. Henry, Matthew, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible, Numbers 16, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/mhn/numbers-16.html.
4. Duguid, Numbers 16:41-17:13, Ibid.
5. Henry, Psalm 112:9, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/mhn/psalms-112.html.
6. Duguid, Numbers 17, Ibid.
7. Duguid, Ibid.
8. Duguid, Numbers 18, Ibid.
9. Henry, Numbers 19, Ibid, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/mhn/numbers-18.html.
10.Duguid, Ibid.
11. Matthew Henry, Ibid.
October 26, 2023
Divine Wisdom for Daily Living by Joanne Colvin 