16 – Moses Dealing with Criticism Part II - Korah's Rebellion (also known as, “A
Dissection of a Rebellion”) Numbers16-20 February 9
When our fellowship of churches went through an upheaval early on in the 21st century, it
became clear that, amidst our many strengths, one of our glaring weaknesses was that we,
as a collective body and also as individuals, had very little idea on how to deal with
conflict and differences. Because of the book of Numbers’ emphasis on dealing with
conflict, I decided to devote two entries in a row to that topic, and I am examining
Numbers 16-20 with a fine tooth comb, in one day’s worth of bible reading (if you are
following my “read the bible through in a year” scheme.)
Numbers 16
Rebellion against (notice that I didn’t say “disagreeing with”) leadership is sinful. Yes, I
know that I am on the staff so it's easy for me to say, but forget about that for now
<smile> and read aloud these scriptures from the word of God (Numbers 16:1-14) to see
what I mean….
NOW FOR THE DISSECTION:
The bible says that Korah and Co became “insolent”, which Merriam-Webster defines
as, “insultingly contemptuous in speech or conduct, overbearing. Also, exhibiting
boldness or effrontery. Synonyms: impudent and proud.” While it is true that some
leaders would use the “Proud” card in the past when they didn't know what to do or how
to answer someone (or when someone had an original thought), it doesn't follow that now
we should never identify someone as being “proud”. Korah was insolent/proud, and God
wasn't ashamed to label him as such.
First let's examine the facts:
1) Moses did not choose to be the leader - God choose him. He tried to argue his way out
of it (remember entry six). (In our current set-up, no one has the “power” to set anyone
up as a leader – they have to be chosen by a local leadership group, right?)
2) Moses had worked so hard leading that it hurt his family life and his father-in-law had
to correct him. (Ex 18)
3) God had wanted to destroy the Israelites several times, and start over with Moses, but
Moses had lovingly intervened.
4) The same leaders who were siding with Korah were leaders back when no one wanted
to go into Canaan except for Joshua and Caleb, and look where that had got them!!
5) Those men were Levites and had already been chosen to serve in the Tabernacle - they
were already leading in some capacity, they just weren't satisfied.
Korah's EMOTIONAL appeal - v3 “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?"
Notice what tricks he is using:
a) “The LORD is with them.” - Who said the LORD wasn't with them???
b) “Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?" - Did Moses set
himself above anybody? NOOOOOO!!
c) “The whole community is holy, every one of them.” - There is a difference between
being loved by God, holy by virtue of God allowing the blood sacrifices to cleanse one's
sins and being handpicked by God to be the leader!!
These are common tactics of disgruntled, rebellious, insolent, bad-mouthing
troublemakers a- they bring up a non-issue and make it seem like the leaders had been against it.
b- they blame leaders for things that were ok unless it is “spun” in a distrustful way.
c- they try to come across as an advocate for the little man, the voice of the people, and
standing up for the weak.
However, the bottom line issue is that these people can't stand it when someone else is
over them. They don't like to “not be first!!” There have always been people like this and
there always will be.
In the New Testament, we see an example of this in 3 John v9 where John wrote, “I
wrote to the church but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with
us.”
One has only to study the scriptures on unity, plus on dissensions and factions, etc, to see
the problems involved. No leader is perfect, but tearing him down is not usually helpful!!
I have very strong feelings about this having seen how the ICOC was torn apart over the
past few years, and some of the damage was done because of this exact kind of
behaviour!! Many wonderful things came out of the changes, but some of the churches I
have visited over the past few years were absolutely left desolate, with many hurting
people, many who may never know God again…very sad. In the past, when I was
struggling at times under leaders who I thought were not exactly “righteous”, I would
read the book A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. Keeping the focus off of the
leader and on God is sometimes the only way to keep our sanity and spirituality. Let's
keep reading….
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.
Wow! Moses was humble enough to let God settle it for him. He didn't draw his own
sword. When you have lived righteously as a leader, you can be confident in your
leadership, but you can never claim innocence. (See Paul’s attitude in I Corinthians
4…just because he thought he had a clear conscience didn’t mean he was innocent.)
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?"
Here is yet another example of Moses pleading for the lives of the very people who are
against him. He is so humble and compassionate and gracious. Lord, help me to be even
HALF the leader that Moses was.
In verses 23-30, Moses made a prediction about how those about to face God’s wrath
would die, thinking that this would help the Israelites see who was following God. We
cannot make this kind of prediction today, but we can “prophecy” that people who sow
discord and divide churches and leaders will end up having a big mess to deal with on
their own at a later time! That has been proven by history.
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.
HOW SAD that people who had started out as leaders ended up dying a horrible death
and even bringing death on their families because of their pride! No wonder Solomon
later wrote in Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a
fall.” In 36-40, we see that God commanded Moses to build a monument of gold just to
remind everyone not to repeat this mistake - an everlasting reminder not to be divisive!!!
You may be asking, “What is the solution if you disagree with your leader, think he is in
sin, or have an issue with him? Practice Matthew 18!!! Matthew 18:15 "If your brother
sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to
you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others
along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three
witnesses.' 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to
listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” And, if you
still don't feel satisfied (as in, if you think the process got stuck in the second step), then
keep bringing things up to the right people in a respectful way. But don't sin yourself!!
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.
When I read the section above, I cried, because I couldn't believe that the people could be
so hard hearted that they could still grumble against Moses after Korah and his coconspirtators were swallowed up! I am scared that my heart or the hearts of people I love
may get hard like this. No wonder we are admonished in the scriptures to guard our
hearts! (Hebrews 3:12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart
that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is
called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness! And Proverbs
4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.)
Numbers 17:1-10 God says that the budding staff kept for the future will “put an end to
their grumbling against me”. This signals to me that when we grumble against leaders,
we are grumbling against God. Now, it is not exactly the same today, because leaders
aren’t necessarily “hand-picked” by God. We (since I am on staff, I will include myself)
might be frauds, doing the ministry for some weird motive. Over the past 26 years of my
life as a Christian, I can sadly say that I have seen many liars and rip-off artists in the
ministry, both from our church and from other denominations. What I have also seen,
however, is our very powerful God taking people out when they had no business being
there. Sometimes he took longer than I wanted him to, sometimes it was after many had
spoken up and sometimes it was when no one even knew that there was a problem, but
God is no fool - you cannot claim to live and work for him and be a fake and hope to get
away with it for long - God will out!!!!! (And sometimes a perfectly good leader needs to
step aside for new blood, which is different than sinning your way out. I will discuss this
later when Moses hands over the baton to Joshua.) How do I know that someone isn’t
hoping that I am one of the ones God wants to remove? I don’t! That’s why it is so
important for leaders to get input and have people around them who will tell them the
truth. Hopefully that is happening in my life…(I think it is – ok, friends, you know who
you are – are you telling me the truth?)
Num 18 When reading the passage below, I couldn't help but think - God has very
specific ways that he wants to be worshipped. We are not to be cavalier or flippant in our
attitude toward him. I also felt that he really made sure that the Levites and priests were
cared for very well.
Unfortunately, in the next passage we read about even MORE GRUMBLING !!!
NUM 20 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in
opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had
died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! 4 Why did you bring the LORD's
community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you
bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or
pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!"
Notice that there is this common theme about going back to Egypt. The modern day
equivalent is threatening to fall away. I have even had people say to me, after a small
“slight” from a fellow Christian, “I have better friends in the world!” Baloney! (as my
mom would say…) But you know, now that we have a better understanding of many
things, I would say to a person, “please feel free to worship and live in the body of Christ
where ever you think you can practice biblical Christianity and be Christ-like. But don’t
leave behind unresolved relationships and fester in bitterness, which will ruin you and
everyone in your path.”
6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and
fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. 7 The LORD said to Moses,
8 "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to
that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the
rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink." 9 So Moses took the staff
from the LORD's presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the
assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must
we bring you water out of this rock?"
Moses had been so patient with these people for Years! But he was finally fed up!!
11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out,
and the community and their livestock drank. 12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
"Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites,
you will not bring this community into the land I give them." 13 These were the waters of
Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD and where he showed himself
holy among them.
The challenge of leadership is that, even when the people are in sin, you are not supposed
to sin as well….a hard lesson to learn and Moses had gone beyond the call of duty for
years, considering what he had been up against. But another one of my mom’s standards
is, “Two wrongs don't make a right.” I think it is almost impossible to not feel sorry for
Moses, but I think that God had to teach Joshua that you are not to sin next time, no
matter what, and he didn't want Joshua to use Moses' sin as an excuse. That's just my
opinion, by the way!
The argument can also be made that when God gives specific direction, it is for a reason.
The first time that God told Moses to get water from a rock, back in chapter he told him
to hit the rock. This time God said, “Speak to it”. So, one more example of how we
should pay attention to God's word! (More to come Feb 10th)
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