| | Numbers 16
Ok, so here we have this group of people, leaders, who Korah, Dathan, and Abiram have gotten all riled up. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram lead the people in questioning Moses and Aaron's place as the leaders of the people. I don't know if these guys just weren't paying attention, or if their hunger for power had just so blinded them that they didn't care, but it should have been obvious to the people by now that Moses was God's chosen man to lead the people. In fact, it was not log before this that God has tried speaking directly to the people of Israel, and it was such a terrifying experience that the people themselves asked Moses to be their mediator. But here, Korah, Dathan and Abiram accuse Moses and Aaron of taking positions that were not theirs to take. The primary complaint was about Aaron and His descendants being entrusted with the priesthood.
People often get confused about the difference between a Levite and a priest in this period in Jewish history. Originally God intended for the first born of families to serve God. But following the golden calf incident of Exodus 32, and initially only the Levites repenting of their action, God replaced this system of the first born with the tribe of Levi. This is why we see the Levites caring for the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle. However, it was Aaron, and his descendants that would be the actual priests. Since Aaron himself was a Levite, often the term "Levitical Priesthood" is used, which is technically correct, because all of the priests where Levites, however, not all Levites were priests. Those who were not priests served God, the Tabernacle, and the priests in other capacities.
Now, its important to understand that Korah had a different specific
complaint than Dathan and Abiram. Korah, who was a Levite, was
complaining that Moses had placed the priesthood in the branch of the
Levite family that was headed by Aaron. Dathan and Abiram were more concerned with the fact that Moses had taken the decision to make the line of of Aaron priests, along with other decisions, upon himself. Their's was a challenge directly to the leadership of Moses.
Moses decides to deal with Korah first. Moses tells Korah, if he wishes, that he and all of those who would like to claim priesthood for themselves should come the following morning with their firepans to offer the burnt incense offering at the Tabernacle. Of course, the law was clear that only a priest could do this, and God himself would judge any who transgressed this law, but if these men thought that they should be priests, then they should have nothing to fear, right?
When Moses sends for Dathan and Abiram to discuss their complaints, they refuse to come to see him, which exacerbates the longsuffering Moses.
The following morning Korah and his followers, 250 in all, showed up and the Tabernacle. Apparently not only did those who claimed priesthood show up but a large group of spectators and followers of Korah came to watch the spectacle. God, seeing this group of rebellious and contentious people, God tells Moses and Aaron to back up so that he can strike all the people down without hurting them. The ever benevolent Moses and Aaron plead on behalf of the larger group. So God lets Moses and Aaron warn all the people to get away from the leaders of the rebellion, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and God then opens the earth and swallows them and their families and all their possessions into the ground. Then God rains down fire on the 250 men that showed up with claims of priesthood.
You'd think that would be the end of the story, but not with these people. The next day, the people were upset that some of their leaders had been killed can accused Moses of killing them. Now, giving Moses credit for swallowing up people in the earth and raining fire down from heaven seems to be absurd, and we're only talking the next day that these people complain to Moses. So God then starts a plague among the people.
This is where the heroics starts. Moses and Aaron again plead for mercy for the people, but God had already began the plague, and people were already dying. So Aaron takes his firepan, run the to alter, gets some of the hly fire from it, runs to the midst of the people, and makes atonement for the people there sins. I love what verse 48 says,
"He took his stand between the dead and the living, and so that the plague was checked."
So the current judgment seceded, but only after 14,700 people were dead, not including those that were lost the previous day.
The story continues in the next chapter.
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| | Posted 8/9/2007 6:38 PM - 25 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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