Numbers 16:11, commentary and pictures

To complain against Aaron was empty because he had taken nothing for himself, for God Himself had put him in the priesthood and its authority belonged to God. The gathering was therefore not against mere men but against the Lord, since to reject His appointed servants was to reject God as leader and to insult His Spirit. That defiance was driven by pride and ambition for position and honor, by envy, discontent and distrust, working out on a narrow stage the same rebellion Satan began in heaven against God's government. God vindicated His appointment by terrible judgment on Korah and his company, and their history stands written as a warning especially for those living near the close of time not to follow their murmuring. The same course is repeated whenever professed believers distrust and accuse those God has set to lead His work, resist the testimony He sends, and gather sympathy to themselves, and it can be escaped only by humbling pride, confession and repentance.

Words and Historical Setting

The question what is Aaron means that there was nothing in Aaron himself to murmur against, for he had not taken the priesthood upon himself but God had placed him in it. His office and its authority came from God, so to murmur against the priesthood God had given him was to be gathered against the Lord and not merely against a man. The Levites had already been set apart for service at the tabernacle and ministry to the congregation, and to seek the priesthood besides was to challenge God's choice and show discontent with the service He had already given. Moses had been established as chief governor and Aaron and his sons had been given the priesthood, so Korah's effort to force a change that he himself might become priest was opposition to God's order.

The Lord conferred the priesthood upon Aaron's family and honored Aaron by consecration as high priest, and God sustained him in that holy office. Aaron had been made mouthpiece for Moses, and because Aaron and Miriam were honored with a part in the work they thought themselves equal to Moses. They regarded themselves as indeed a very essential part of the great whole, feeling that credit should be given to them and that Moses should not have all the honor.

The gathering against the Lord was extended and not limited to a few men. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rose with two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous men of renown. The revolt involved two hundred and fifty leaders, and its record stands as a warning to God's people.

Rebellion Against the Lord

To murmur against Aaron was to be gathered together against the Lord Himself, not merely against a human leader, because Aaron's role and service represented God's appointed work. Aaron had not taken the priesthood for himself; God had placed him in it and had given him that office. Opposing the leader God had appointed and complaining against Aaron was therefore ultimately a complaint against God and opposition to the Lord. Challenging the authority He had given to Moses and Aaron made the company gathered against the Lord when they murmured against Aaron. The chapter so warns that evil workers should be separated from the Lord's work, that those who resist God's warnings and refuse a decisive change of heart dishonor Him, and that work rooted and mixed with self will not endure while work done in God will stand.

In rebelling against Moses and Aaron the company blasphemed God and rejected God as their leader by rejecting the men of His appointment. They thought they were challenging only a human leader, a man like themselves, and disputing merely with human authority. In rejecting God's chosen instruments they rejected Christ, their invisible leader, and insulted the Spirit of God. Complaining against the leaders God had appointed and rejecting the plain reproof they delivered was rebellion against God. Judgments followed close upon that sin, yet they were deceived by Satan only by their own consent because they placed themselves in his power under a wizard-like moral infatuation that steels hearts against the influence of the Holy Spirit when men do not implicitly trust and obey God.

It is not the human messenger who is despised but the messengers and the message God sends. Murmuring against God's appointed servant was contempt for God and His word, and resisting the testimony He sends in unsanctified independence is contempt for the word of the Lord and an offense against the Spirit of God. Rejecting messenger and message, showing contempt for God's word, and resisting the Spirit are acts of opposition to God Himself. That rebellion was acted over again at Minneapolis in firm self-complacency, pride, prejudice, backsliding, and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge heaven-sent light and truth, with blinded eyes, perverted judgment, mockery, and refusal to seek God and hearken to testimony. Those who cherish that spirit will have no clear light to discern the preciousness of truth and will walk in darkness and come under judgment unless they humble pride, confess, repent, and be converted that God may come near, bless, and heal them.

Spirit and Methods of Rebellion

The murmuring was driven by pride and ambition, envy and discontent, distrust and rebellion, and desire for self-exaltation. Satan worked these minds to infuse the same spirit of envy and discontent and the same ambition for position and honor that prompted Lucifer to complain of the government of God and seek to overthrow the order established in heaven, so that Korah's rebellion works out upon a narrower stage the rebellion of Satan in heaven. It was unbelief worked by satanic agencies while called the Holy Spirit, working secretly and in darkness with falsehoods and enmity and evil-surmisings and satanic representations to gain sympathy as Satan did with the angels under him, instead of going openly to the one offended. Christ came not to aid that rebellion but to put it down.

The rebels first gained the sympathy and confidence of the people, then told a deceptive story that they were abused men, insinuated against established authority, and sowed seeds of doubt in regard to those in whom God would have the people have confidence, and in this way they gathered many sympathizers. The same course is followed by unsanctified men who explain the Scriptures to souls perishing for truth, win their confidence in a new field, and then use that influence to turn them against God's appointed workers. Those who separate from the body accuse fellow believers and use others' errors to promote their own ideas and methods. Thinking oneself misused, bearing false witness against brethren, leavening the minds of others with distrust, and weakening faith in God's instrumentalities repeats that spirit and brings a similar experience, for questioning and doubting the men God is teaching, guiding, and leading creates lack of confidence in them and plants a seed of doubt that is hard to uproot, giving Satan advantage to create distrust, envy, and evil-surmising.

While thus blaspheming God they were so deluded as to think themselves righteous and to regard those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan. Satan leads persons to imitate their example by rising in insurrection and in opposition to the plain testimony God sends to rebuke wrongs among His people, including hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco. Those who oppose that testimony become self-deceived, thinking that those on whom God laid the burden of His work have exalted themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for. They can become so self-deceived that they call light darkness and reject truth as error, so that opposing those who seek to do God's will is opposing God Himself.

Satan deluded them with a wizard-like moral infatuation over all who do not implicitly trust and obey God, which steels hearts against the influence of the Holy Spirit, yet they were deceived by Satan only by their own consent because they placed themselves in his power. As soon as a man separates from God so that his heart is no longer under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, the attributes of Satan are revealed and he begins to oppress his fellow men, sending forth an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness. To murmur against God's servants when they correct wrong is to murmur against God. Those who judge by human feeling, sympathize with the wrongdoer, and stand between the offender and God repeat this rebellion, and faithful dealing with wrongdoers and refusing to interfere with God's appointed correction keeps this spirit from developing.

Warning and Divine Judgment

The whole history with all its objectionable features was faithfully chronicled to pass into history for the instruction and admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come. The record of Korah through the whole chapter, from the rising of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram with two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous men of renown, stands as a warning to God's people, especially those living near the close of time, not to follow that example of murmuring against Aaron as murmuring against God.

God sustained Aaron in his holy office, conferred upon Aaron's family with consecration as high priest, by terrible manifestation of divine judgment in the destruction of Korah and his company. Their rebellion gathered against the Lord ended when they died by plague before the Lord, and through Aaron's intercession the plague that followed was stayed.

Even after a marked judgment destroyed the leaders, survivors remained deceived and accused Moses of killing the Lord's people. The later thirsting congregation at Kadesh still called those destroyed men their brethren and wished they had died with them when they themselves murmured against Moses and Aaron for lack of water.

Israel later recognized that they had sinned against the Lord by opposing Moses and Aaron, and that Korah and those who perished with him had justly suffered the Lord's wrath. By gathering together against the Lord in great claims of light and special exaltation while not obeying the light, mingling men's devisings and selfishness with the work, hurting God's servants, and sustaining men whom God could not favor, the rebels forfeited all right to claim that their voice should be respected as the voice of God.

Work rooted and mixed with self will not endure, while work done in God will stand and survive, and evil workers should be separated from the Lord's work. Those who refuse God's warnings and refuse a decisive change of heart dishonor Him. All who refuse His testimonies and labor to make them of none effect, being deceived and deceiving others, gather a company against the Lord, strengthen the hands and minds of others, and cause a vast number to follow and quote them, and both their own course and the result of their influence upon other minds are charged against them in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts unless the sin is confessed beforehand and blotted out.

Those who gather against God's appointed work act by another spirit, not the Spirit of God, and are in greatest danger of being left as were Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Having light they will not see it and having evidence they will not acknowledge it, and both they and those who believe they must see as they see and believe as they believe will fall into the ditch and imperil their souls. Whoever joins them walks not in the Lord's light but in sparks of their own kindling and will lie down in darkness, with escape only by falling on the Rock and being broken.

Repeating the Rebellion Today

To gather against the Lord today is to resist the leadership and counsel He has appointed while insisting that one's own judgment is better, for complaint against His chosen servant is rebellion against Himself who placed him in the work. That same rebellion is repeated in ambitious projects and pride, in relying on selfish narrow plans, and in acting with self-importance and self-sufficiency to seek control over other institutions, as at Battle Creek. Even after marked judgment destroyed the leaders, survivors can remain deceived and accuse God's servants of killing the Lord's people, showing how deep the deception runs.

The pattern is followed when men lead others to distrust and reject God's work by accusing its leaders of dishonesty, and when they accuse and condemn those on whom God has laid the burden of His work. Criticizing and accusing God's appointed servants weakens confidence in those He is leading and brings disastrous results after the order of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The experience is repeated when people who themselves need converting criticize management and talk so as to make it appear there are mistakes where the Lord has been guiding. People can be deceived into joining those who betray a sacred trust, so those who know the truth must choose whom they will serve and stand firmly on the Lord's side, speaking truth plainly without halfheartedness or softening yet without harshness or a denunciatory spirit, and murmurers must change thoughts and attitude in every way to work in Christ's lines.

A company is gathered against the Lord by refusing His testimonies and laboring to make them of none effect, being deceived and deceiving others. This includes rising in opposition to the plain testimony God sends to rebuke wrongs among His people, including hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco, while thinking those burdened with His work have exalted themselves and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for. It includes twisting Scripture and God's warnings to support one's own theories and create confusion, especially near the close of time. All who do this work strengthen the hands and minds of others and cause a vast number to follow and quote them, and both their own course and the result of their influence upon other minds are charged against them in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts unless the sin is confessed beforehand and blotted out.

The same rebellious course is followed in threatening to sever all connection with brethren and demanding consent to one's own terms, while going year after year according to one's own mind and judgment and refusing to hear the Lord's voice in the face of all warnings. Such threatenings and propositions dishonor God and must be met with firm rectitude and determination rather than consent or fear. The rebellion was acted over again at Minneapolis in firm self-complacency, pride, prejudice, backsliding, and unwillingness to accept heaven-sent light and truth, with blinded eyes, perverted judgment, mockery, and refusal to seek God and hearken to testimony. There it is not the human messenger who is despised but the messengers and the message God sends, showing contempt for the word of the Lord and insulting the Spirit of God by unsanctified independence, and those who cherish that spirit walk in darkness with no clear light to discern the preciousness of truth unless they humble pride, confess, repent and be converted that God may come near, bless and heal.

That same course is taken by quite a number in New York who cling to a corrupt and rebellious influence, sympathize with one whose heart is at war with the work of the third angel and at war with the visions, and are drawn into darkness with him. It warns those having knowledge of the truth who are separated from their great Leader against taking the great leader of apostasy and naming him Christ our Righteousness, because they have not sunk the shaft deep into truth and cannot distinguish precious ore from base material, the false from the genuine, and the true Shepherd's voice from a stranger's, despite abundant cautions about false prophets who would if possible deceive the very elect. Genuine rebellion must be called rebellion and apostasy by their right names, and whether it is ever curable is raised as a solemn question, while the ancient record with all its objectionable features, extended beyond two men to two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, men of renown, was faithfully chronicled for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come. Opposition in institutions manifests the same gathering against the Lord both in workers oppressing one another and in the desire of one institution to control all others, revealing Satan's attributes when the heart is no longer under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit and sending forth an influence contrary to truth, justice and righteousness while doing despite to the Holy Spirit, rejecting warnings from God again and again and venturing on in the same course.

Meeting Rebellion Faithfully

To murmur against those God has appointed to do His work and to assail fellow workers by holding them up in a ridiculous light is to be gathered together against the Lord Himself, for such work arising in the very midst of God's people resembles the work of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and is an offense to God. It creates dissension, false sympathy, and false impressions that cut off influence and endanger souls, and it must not be passed over in silence that leaves misled people to think that brethren and sisters in whom they have had confidence are no longer worthy of love and fellowship. It should instead be met directly, with every charge carefully investigated and not left in any uncertain way.

On every point the accusers should be called upon to bring their proof, so the people are not left to think that it may be or it may not be. Every unsubstantiated reproach is to be lifted, the people undeceived, and the guiltless servant cleared. To murmur against God's servants when they correct wrong is to murmur against God, and those who judge by human feeling, sympathize with the wrongdoer, and stand between the offender and God repeat this rebellion of gathering against Moses and Aaron as gathering against the Lord. Faithful dealing with wrongdoers and refusing to interfere with God's appointed correction keeps this spirit from developing. Threatenings and propositions to sever all connection with brethren unless consent is given to one's own terms follow that same rebellious course of going on year after year according to one's own mind and judgment while refusing to hear the voice of the Lord in the face of all warnings, and such threatenings are dishonoring to God and warned against as ground to keep off, to be met by brethren with firm rectitude and determination rather than consent, fear, or being made afraid.

Genuine rebellion must be called rebellion and apostasy by their right names, raising the question whether it is ever curable, for the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram was extended beyond a few men to two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown, and the experience of ancient Israel with all its objectionable features was faithfully chronicled to pass into history for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come. The church thus misled needs to humble itself before God and sincerely repent for being so easily led astray, and to test by their fruits those who claim to undeceive the whole church and declare God's servant a fraud. The same danger can recur when people who themselves need converting criticize and find mistakes in management and talk so as to make it appear there are mistakes where the Lord has been guiding, and those who know the truth must choose whom they will serve and stand firmly on the Lord's side. Those who murmur must change their thoughts and attitude in every way in order to work successfully in Christ's lines, speaking the truth plainly without halfheartedness or softening it, yet without harshness or a denunciatory spirit.