Numbers 16:15, commentary and pictures

Moses spoke these words when stung by the unjust charges of Dathan and Abiram, turning to God as his judge and asking Him to reject the rebels' offering while declaring that he had taken nothing from the people, not even a single animal, and had harmed no one of them. The plea belonged to the uprising of Korah, Dathan and Abiram with two hundred and fifty princes of renown, whose accusation that Moses acted arbitrarily for his own gain was in truth rebellion against Jehovah Himself. On a narrower stage it worked out the same prideful, ambitious spirit as Satan's rebellion in heaven, deluding men into thinking they opposed only a human leader while in rejecting God's chosen instrument they rejected God and Christ their invisible leader. The account was faithfully chronicled as an example for admonition upon those living near the close of time, to be prayerfully studied so that God's people do not judge by human feeling or follow those who oppose His appointed work. It therefore warns against stirring distrust of God's entrusted leaders by accusations of dishonesty, a wrong that must not be left silent but be openly answered and brought to proof until the guiltless are cleared and the people undeceived.

Rebellion Setting and Judgment

The verse belongs to the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram against Moses and Aaron, which was rebellion against Jehovah Himself. That rebellion was genuine rebellion and apostasy to be called by its right name, extending beyond two men and led by two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown.

The rebels accused Moses of seeking power for himself, acting arbitrarily, harming Israel, and using leadership for personal gain. Their confidence in their own judgment led them to make these charges though he had acted faithfully, and the people in general were disaffected and influenced by Korah's misrepresentations. Moses' anger arose from their unjust rebellion against the authority God had entrusted to him.

Judgment followed close upon the sin. The wrongdoers were swallowed up when God stretched forth His hand, and those brethren died before the Lord by plague. By that terrible manifestation of divine judgment in the destruction of Korah and his company, God thereby sustained Aaron in the priesthood conferred on his family and in his sacred consecration as high priest.

Even under judgment the disaffection was not cured. The morning after the destruction, though the people had fled to their tents in horror, they came to Moses and Aaron charging them with killing the people of the Lord. For that false charge against the servants of God, thousands more were killed because of sin, exultation, and presumptuous wickedness. Yet they later admitted that Moses and Aaron were right and that they had sinned against the Lord by rebelling against their authority, even while others continued to accuse and refused to accept that they were right.

After forty years of wandering, when Israel encamped at Kadesh in the desert of Zin and found no water, the thirsting multitude murmured against Moses and Aaron and wished they had died with those brethren.

Meaning of Moses' Appeal

Moses was very wroth and greatly moved by the unjust accusations of Dathan and Abiram. His anger arose from their unjust rebellion against the authority God had entrusted to him, after he was accused of seeking power for himself. Before the people, and while the people in general were disaffected and influenced by Korah's misrepresentations, he turned to God while facing their reproach. There he appealed to God to be his judge whether he had ever acted arbitrarily, asking God not to respect or accept the rebels' offering.

He declared his blameless conduct and integrity with God as witness. He had taken nothing from them, not even one ass or animal, had wronged and hurt not one of them, had exploited no one, and had not used leadership for personal gain. This denial answered the charge that he had acted faithfully yet was accused of harming Israel and injuring them. His appeal to reject their offering shows work done in self will not stand, while work done in God will endure.

He stood in his proper position where God had placed him. His testimony that he had taken not one ass and hurt not one stands as the measure of innocent leadership. By contrast, leaders entrenched behind sacredness of office forfeit all right to be respected as God's voice when they claim great light and special exaltation while not obeying the light, mingle selfish human devising in the work, sustain men God cannot favor, and hurt God's servants, and then God is asked not to respect their offering.

Nature of the Rebellion

On a narrower stage the rebellion worked out the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven, prompted by pride and ambition for position and honor. Envy, discontent, distrust, desire for self-exaltation and rebellion were infused into their minds by Satan after his own fall. It came from moral infatuation worked by Satan upon all who do not implicitly trust and obey God, steeling the heart against the Holy Spirit. They were deceived by Satan by their own consent, because they placed themselves in his power.

They were so deluded as to think they opposed only a human leader, a man like themselves, and to think themselves righteous while regarding those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan. They thought they were opposing only a human leader and believed they were serving God. In treating light as darkness and truth as error they were self-deceived. In rejecting God's chosen instrument they rejected God as leader and blasphemed God. In rejecting God's chosen instrument they rejected Christ their invisible leader and insulted the Spirit of God.

Those who rise in opposition to plain testimony become self-deceived, thinking those upon whom God has laid the burden of His work have exalted themselves and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for. They oppose the testimony God gives His servants to rebuke wrongs among His people. Those honored with a part in the work thought they were equal to Moses and a very essential part of the great whole. They felt that credit should be given to them and that Moses should not have all the honour.

Korah, Dathan, and Abiram falsely presented themselves as abused men when the abuse and imposition was on their side. They first gained the sympathy and confidence of people hungry for truth and then insinuated against and sowed seeds of doubt about the leaders God would have the people trust, and by that deception gathered many sympathizers. Their rebellion was refusal of God's testimonies given through Moses and labor to make them of none effect. It shows people resisting evidence and rejecting God's messengers and message.

Work arising from self will not endure, while work done in God will endure. Their disaffection illustrates opposition that cannot destroy a work that is of God. Their wickedness serves as an example of selfish rebellion whose wrongdoing may be hidden from people, but God sees it and will reward them according to their deeds.

Warning Written for Last Days

The record to which this appeal belongs happened as examples of tempting Christ and murmuring, and was faithfully chronicled to pass into history for instruction and admonition upon those on whom the ends of the world are come. It is a warning to God's people especially to those living upon the earth near the close of time, and it must be studied carefully and prayerfully with heed not to follow its example of unbelief. Failure to dig deep into truth to distinguish precious ore from base material leaves a church unable to distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd from a stranger's, taking the great leader of apostasy for Christ our Righteousness, ignoring cautions about false prophets who would deceive even the elect, and then it must humble itself, sincerely repent for being easily led astray, review this chapter in its own experience, and test claimants by fruits.

It warns those who claim to believe the truth not to be deceived into following those who oppose God, but to take a clear stand on the Lord's side rather than support the rebels. They must not judge from human feelings as Israel did, not sympathize with the wrongdoer against God's servant called to correct the erring, and not stand between offender and God. If they cannot see matters in the light presented they should hold their peace and let the arrows of the Almighty fall where He directs to pierce souls with little sense of sin.

Satan leads persons to imitate Korah, Dathan, and Abiram by raising insurrection among God's people in opposition to plain testimony. Those who rise in that opposition become self-deceived, thinking those upon whom God has laid the burden of His work have exalted themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for. Ambitious opposition to God's appointed work could bring about a similar crisis again, and similar confusion and distortion of God's words and warnings will recur.

The same rebellion appears when irritation against testimonies condemning hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff, and tobacco leaves many undecided between conviction of truth and self-indulgence until appetite prevails. The sense of sacred things is then perverted by slow poisons, self is refused denial, and a wall of separation rises between them and those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. The disaffected then war against straight testimony, call it untrue, say the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble, and when rebellion unfurls its banner all the disaffected and all the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind rally around the standard to scatter and sow discord.

The same rebellion is acted over when God's people manifest firm self-complacency, pride, prejudice, and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light, refuse to heed testimony, and practice mockery, disgust at God's word, lightness, trifling, jesting and joking. It is despising not man but God's messengers and heaven-sent message and showing contempt for the word of the Lord, walking in darkness in the sparks of their own kindling in unsanctified independence that insults the Spirit of God, with eyes blinded, judgment perverted, and spiritual eyesight obscured so they do not set their hearts to seek God. Unless they humble pride, confess they were not actuated by the Spirit of God, and repent and be converted, they shall lie down in sorrow and have the candlestick removed out of its place.

The rebellion is repeated when ministers speak hasty, unadvised words that close the heart to divine influence, foster self-esteem, and counteract practical godliness and allegiance to the law of God. It is repeated when those who think they have been misused bear false witness against brethren, leaven minds with distrust, weaken faith in God's instrumentalities, and question and doubt men whom God is teaching, guiding, and leading, planting a seed of doubt hard to uproot and bringing upon themselves an experience similar to theirs. Distrust, envy, evil-surmising, and lack of confidence in ministering brethren give Satan advantage, and listening to his suggestions makes men fitful, impulsive, rash, reckless, and unsafe in trust.

A person's course becomes like theirs by threatening to sever all connection with brethren in order to force consent to one's terms, making dishonoring propositions, and going on year after year according to one's own mind and judgment while refusing to hear the voice of the Lord in spite of all warnings. It is better to let the separation take place than to consent to such terms. The same spirit of separation from God, with the heart no longer under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, reveals Satan's attributes in beginning to oppress fellow men and in sending forth an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness. This same spirit is manifested in institutions in workers' relations to one another and in the desire of one institution to control all others, by men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God and do despite to the Holy Spirit, casting aside warnings from God again and again to venture on in the same course.

The spirit of rebellion and oppression is repeated by leaders who reject God's warnings and resist the Holy Spirit. That rebellious course means inward corruption and war against the work of the third angel and contempt for the visions, covered by a mild, devoted, religious garb, with an influence that draws clinging sympathizers into darkness. Those who reject the light God has given and turn others against it are left as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were left, and both leaders and those who join them will fall into the ditch, for whoever walks not in the light of the Lord but in the sparks of his own kindling will lie down in darkness. They stand as gainsayers and as an example of opposition to rightful authority, warning against joining opposition to God's work.

Duty Toward Accusations and Leaders

The rebellion stands as a warning against accusing and condemning those entrusted with the work, showing the disastrous result of stirring people to distrust their leaders with accusations of dishonesty. In that setting the appeal not to respect the offering is joined to a denial of exploitation or harm, that nothing had been taken and no one had been mistreated. Criticism and false accusation against God's servants can bring grave consequences.

The work of false accusation against those appointed to do the work, clothing the servant with filthy garments and turning people from confidence, love, and fellowship, is an offense that must be met and not left in silence, lest people be left to believe a lie. Justice to both accusers and those misled requires open answer on every point. Every charge must be brought to proof, carefully investigated, made certain, and left in no uncertainty, so people are not left thinking it may be true or may not be true. Unsubstantiated reproach must be lifted so the guiltless are cleared, false sympathy is broken, and the people are undeceived.

Those who claim to believe the truth must not judge from human feelings as Israel did, must not sympathize with the wrongdoer against the servant called to the disagreeable duty of correcting the erring, and must not stand between the offender and God. If they cannot see matters in the light presented they should hold their peace and let the arrows fall just where directed to pierce souls that have little sense of sin. The depth of disaffection appeared even under judgment, for after the wrongdoers were swallowed up and the people fled to their tents in horror, on the morning after the destruction the people charged the servants with killing the people of the Lord, and for that false charge thousands more were killed because of sin, exultation, and presumptuous wickedness. Those who follow that course of refusing the testimonies given and laboring to make them of none effect are deceived and deceiving others, strengthen the hands and minds of evildoers, and draw a vast number after them through that influence. Their own course with the result of their influence upon other minds is charged against them in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts. The same rebellion warns about people who separate from the church, accuse fellow believers, and use others' errors to promote themselves.

That experience is repeated when, while God is guiding the management of His work, unconverted elements who do not harmonize with it criticize and find fault and talk so as to make it appear there are mistakes. Those critics need converting and need to change their thoughts and attitude in every way in order to work successfully in Christ's lines. The prayer not to respect the offering also applies when leaders entrenched behind the sacredness of office have forfeited all right to be respected as the voice of God. That forfeiture comes by claiming great light and special exaltation while not obeying the light, mingling selfish human devising in the work, sustaining men who cannot be favored, and hurting God's servants, while the testimony of having taken not one ass and hurt not one stands as the measure of innocent leadership. The danger is being separated from the great Leader and taking the great leader of apostasy for Christ our Righteousness through failure to dig deep into truth to distinguish precious ore from base material, ignoring cautions about false prophets with heresies who would deceive even the elect, and being unable to distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd from a stranger's. A church thus misled must humble itself, sincerely repent for being easily led astray, review this chapter in its own experience, and test claimants by their fruits rather than letting a few undeceive the whole church.