The Rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
By J. W. Westphal
Upon the “horror of great darkness” the morning was breaking. The long years of Egyptian slavery were closing. The Lord had sent his chosen servant to bring to Israel the message of their deliverance. “By temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors” it was demonstrated to them “that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him.” Happy in the thought of their Canaan possession, and with confidence established in Moses as their visible leader, chosen of and directed by God, they were ready on that eventful passover midnight to bid Egypt a final good-by. As yet they realized but little the meaning of their exodus. Before the Lord could entrust them with the promised inheritance, they must be tested. They must learn to know God, to trust him, to obey him, and to be led by him. This was the purpose of their wilderness experience. “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” Deut. 8: 2, 3. At the Red Sea the people feared and murmured against Moses. In their inexperience the Lord did not chide them. Their murmurs were met with, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” Their complaints at Marah only called forth a prayer from Moses, “and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.” In response to their bitter accusations in the wilderness of Sin, where they had no food, the Lord said, “I will rain bread from heaven for you.” When some went out to gather manna on the Sabbath day, the Lord for the first time reproved their unbelief and disobedience, saying, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” At Rephidim, where they questioned the leadership of Moses, and said, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” the Lord patiently directed Moses to smite the rock and give the people water to drink. Thus did the Lord deal with them like a tender father, demonstrating his love for them, his presence among them, and recognizing before all the people Moses as his chosen instrument and leader of Israel. Then followed the greatest of all wonders. “Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?” The Lord would give every possible evidence of his presence with the people of his choice and remove every occasion for unbelief. From the midst of a cloud on a burning mountain and a quaking earth, surrounded with “thunderings, and lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking,” a grandeur more than earthly, the Lord spoke his holy law in the hearing of all the people. There could be no doubting the meaning of this. The Spirit of God wrought upon their hearts, they felt his presence, and conviction seized upon them. They were obliged to confess that it was God; that Moses was his mouthpiece to Israel, and promised thus to receive him. “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” They were prepared to enter into a solemn covenant with God, repeatedly promising to obey him. “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” In this way the Lord proposed to prepare the people to receive whatever further instruction he might see fit to give them through the medium of Moses, and through the same means to lead them through the perils of the wilderness into the promised land. There10would be continual evidence of the Lord’s guidance in the pillar of cloud and of fire; there would be special providences revealing his presence to confirm their faith, but the foundation of it all had been laid in the experience up to and at Sinai. Israel had received greater light. With light came greater responsibility. Sin became more sinful. There was left no excuse for unbelief and disobedience. The time of ignorance God winked at, but now he requires sincere repentance. The Lord would not love them less; he would still pardon their sins; but he could not overlook wilful disobedience and stubbornness and selfish unbelief. Henceforth he will call them to account. Moses is with the Lord in the mountain forty days. Becoming weary of awaiting his return, and forgetting their promises and recent experiences, they make a calf and worship it. To it they ascribe the honor of their deliverance from Egypt. Never did Moses love them more than then. His interests were so wrapped up with theirs that if they could not be saved, he was willing to have his name blotted from the Lord’s book. However, disobedience so flagrant could not be overlooked. “He said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.” When Nadab and Abihu “offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not,” they were devoured by fire which went out from him. When an Israelitish woman’s son “blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed,” he was stoned. When they lusted for flesh and murmured against God and Moses and endeavored to carry out their unholy greed, “the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.” Miriam was smitten with leprosy when she and Aaron spoke against Moses. The Lord commanded with reference to the man found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day: “All the people shall stone him with stones without the camp.” A most determined and wicked disobedience occurred when Israel was on the verge of the promised land. The Lord had told them by the mouth of Moses that they should go up and possess the land. The spies they had sent at their own request to search the land brought back a report which discouraged them. They now murmured not only against Moses, but also against Aaron. They wished they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness. They threatened to make a captain and return to Egypt. It was an open case of rebellion against the Lord. But for the timely appearance of the glory of the Lord, they would have stoned Caleb and Joshua for their defense of his command to move forward. The whole people took part in this stubborn, and (in the light of all their past experience) unreasonable uprising. As a result all that generation must die in the wilderness. The Lord declared: “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not harkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it.” Of those who were leaders in it, it is written that they “died by the plague before the Lord.” When immediately afterward some of the people went up against the enemy contrary to the word of the Lord, they were discomfited and smitten, and the sentence against them began to be fulfilled. What was the effect of all these experiences upon them? It would not be natural for all humbly to submit, and their subsequent history shows that they did not. “The people mourned greatly,” but it was not over their sins, but over their future wilderness prospects. This is shown by the fact that they again immediately transgressed the Lord’s instruction not to go up because the Lord was not with them. Only because “the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel” did they yield, for this they could not for the moment withstand. God’s overpowering presence awed them into silence, and caused them to cease their evil purposes against the faithful servants of God. Being only smothered, their discontent must erelong seek an opportunity to reveal itself. This time soon came.