Numbers 16:1-50
Doing God's Will
1 Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent 2 and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. 3 They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”
4 When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. 5 Then he said to Korah and all his followers: “In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him. 6 You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers 7 and tomorrow put fire and incense in them before the Lord. The man the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!”
8 Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you Levites! 9 Isn't it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the Lord’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? 10 He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too.11 It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”
12 Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But they said, “We will not come! 13 Isn't it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert? And now you also want to lord it over us? 14 Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!”
15 Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, “Do not accept their offering. I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them.”
16 Moses said to Korah, “You and all your followers are to appear before the Lord tomorrow—you and they and Aaron. 17 Each man is to take his censer and put incense in it—250 censers in all—and present it before the Lord. You and Aaron are to present your censers also.” 18 So each man took his censer, put fire and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 19 When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly. 20 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 21 “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.”
22 But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”
23 Then the Lord said to Moses, 24 “Say to the assembly, ‘Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’”
25 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. 26 He warned the assembly, “Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.” 27 So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents.
28 Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: 29 If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the Lord has not sent me. 30 But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.”
31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions.33 They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. 34 At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!”
35 And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
36 The Lord said to Moses, 37 “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, to take the censers out of the smoldering remains and scatter the coals some distance away, for the censers are holy— 38 the censers of the men who sinned at the cost of their lives. Hammer the censers into sheets to overlay the altar, for they were presented before the Lord and have become holy. Let them be a sign to the Israelites.”
39 So Eleazar the priest collected the bronze censers brought by those who had been burned up, and he had them hammered out to overlay the altar, 40 as the Lord directed him through Moses. This was to remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before the Lord, or he would become like Korah and his followers.
41 The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the Lord’s people,” they said.
42 But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tent of Meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. 43 Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Tent of Meeting, 44 and the Lord said to Moses, 45 “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” And they fell facedown.
46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” 47 So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. 48 He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. 49 But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. 50 Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, for the plague had stopped.
Numbers 26:8-11
Korah's Sons Did Not Follow Their Father
8 The son of Pallu was Eliab, 9 and the sons of Eliab were Nemuel, Dathan and Abiram. The same Dathan and Abiram were the community officials who rebelled against Moses and Aaron and were among Korah’s followers when they rebelled against the Lord. 10 The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them along with Korah, whose followers died when the fire devoured the 250 men. And they served as a warning sign. 11 The line of Korah, however, did not die out.
Mark 10:18
Only God is Good
18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.
John 10:30
Jesus and His Father are One
30 I and the Father are one
John 5:19
Jesus Does the Will of His Father
19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
John 6:38
Jesus Does the Will of God
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
For centuries God was constantly teaching His people...He taught them with Moses, the Prophets, and other wise men...He taught them about morality, being good, helping others, about humility, about who He is, and many-many other righteous things...God would one day send the Greatest Teacher to His people...C. S. Lewis says this about the Great Teacher and God's teaching of His people, "Then comes the real shock...Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a Man who goes about talking as if He was God...He claims to forgive sins...He says He has always existed...He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time...Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would nothing very odd about it...But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God...God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world, who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else...And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this Man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips...
Korah, Dathan and Abiram seem to believe in God, or did they...They do not follow His will, or at least they would not or did not want to follow Moses -who was the leader of God's people...God would teach His people a lesson...And as I have read this it seems like a sad lesson...But, if we are to learn morality, and about conduct, discipline, and being good -God knows best...These verses where Korah, Dathan, and Abiram oppose Moses, I have difficulty with understanding...As I said, they seem to believe in God, but they just do not want to follow Moses, or maybe have him as their own leader, or do not want Moses to be above the whole assembly, maybe they were tired of not reaching the Promised Land yet...But, regardless of their reasons, a lesson would be learned...One that would, no doubt, remain with the people for years...God would open the earth and the followers of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram would swallow them and their followers and the any others who believed as they did...And one thing we learn later is that Korah's sons did not follow their father, because we are told the line of Korah did not die out...So maybe the sons knew the unjust reasons for their father challenging Moses...
Again after I read C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity it helped understand the Old Testament better...Lewis said God was always trying to teach His people about conduct and right and wrong and about who He was and what He is like..."He selected one people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was—that there was only One of Him and that He cared about right conduct...Those people were the Jews and the Old Testament is an account of the hammering process."...We sin and we must learn from it...The Bible does not sweep our sins and mistakes we make under a rug...We are to confess our sins...And we are to trust in the LORD...
So can we believe in God and not follow His Will?...Or did they just turn away from Him?...It seems that they did believe that God appointed Moses to lead them specifically...Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had their chance to present their case to the others when Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab...But they said, “We will not come!...Isn't it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert?...And now you also want to lord it over us?...Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards...Will you gouge out the eyes of these men?...No, we will not come!”...Maybe pride and their wanting to be the leaders got in their way...They were not doing God's will...They were doing their own will...Man makes mistakes and we sin...God had Moses include these stories of disobedience in our Bible for a reason...The three men turned away from God, when His Presence was as near as anytime in the history of man...God still gives us free choice, even when He is close, very close to us...
Jesus was one of the Teacher's later from God...Jesus teaches us that only God is good...Yet, we know that Jesus too is good...However, in His statement He does not deny that He is not good...He just says that only God is good...And when He says I and the Father are One, then this statement makes perfect sense...Jesus is talking as if He were God...Both Jesus and the Father are good...He and the Father are One...
Jesus, in His teachings, often talked about doing the will of His Father...He probably is the only One who can do God's will consistently and always...It is best when we do the will of God...But man seems to like being in control...We still have trouble following God and doing everything that He and His Son teaches...This would mean, we are not in control...Man sometimes gets prideful ambition, and wants control...I do not think this has changed much since the beginning of mankind...