Numbers 16:17, commentary and pictures

The verse sets a public test before the Lord in which two hundred and fifty men with Moses and Aaron each bring a censer with incense to show whom God has chosen for the priesthood. Those tested were renowned princes of the assembly who joined Korah in claiming that sacred authority belonged to the whole congregation. To rise in that way against leaders God had appointed was to rebel against God Himself and His invisible leadership. True service must therefore be offered with fire kindled by God and by His Spirit, not with self-kindled fire and human schemes. The record stands as a warning for those on whom the ends of the world are come not to imitate that insurrection against God's work and messengers.

The Censer Test Stated

The verse commands a public trial before the Lord at the tabernacle, in which every man of Korah's company was to take his censer, put incense in it, and bring it before the Lord. The number required was two hundred and fifty censers from the company, besides the censers of Moses and Aaron, each of whom was also to bring his own. That bringing of censers with incense was the appointed confrontation over Korah's rebellion and claim to priestly authority. Its purpose was to settle who had authority to serve as priests and to show that the Lord Himself, and not Moses acting on his own authority, would decide whom He had chosen. The rebels entered that test in self-confidence and rebellion.

Those tried by it were two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous men and men of renown, so that the rising of Korah, Dathan and Abiram reached far beyond two or three leaders. Their charge was that Moses and Aaron were taking to themselves an authority that ought to be shared by the whole congregation. In presenting their censers before the Lord they were laying claim to sacred authority. By rebellion they forfeited all right to the claim they made.

Holy Fire and True Service

The test of bringing censers with incense before the Lord belongs to the account of men presenting themselves for worship and service, and it shows that worship and service must use the holy fire that God provides and kindles, not what comes from self. Only the holy fire kindled by God is safe, and the chapter's call for each of the two hundred and fifty men, as well as Moses and Aaron, to bring a censer exposes the danger of service mixed with self. Work done in self will not endure, while work done in God will stand.

God's service applies that same contrast between sacred and common fire, for His work must be carried out by His Spirit and according to His plans, not by selfishness, conceit, or human schemes. The emergency described in Numbers 16 called for decisive action, and separating evil workers from the Lord's work would have honored God.

By the destruction of those who brought the two hundred and fifty censers, God sustained and upheld Aaron in the holy office of high priest which He had conferred on him and his family. That terrible divine judgment upon Korah and his company ended the sinful challenge to Moses, Aaron, and the Lord, and God later confirmed Aaron's priesthood by making his rod bud, ending the people's challenge to his authority. After seeing the judgment, the Israelites admitted that they had sinned and that Korah and those who died with him had justly suffered the Lord's wrath. Yet their brethren died before the Lord when destroyed by plague in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and the thirsting congregation at Kadesh wished they had died with that company rather than die of thirst in the wilderness.

Rebellion Against God Himself

To rise against the leaders God had charged with His work was rebellion against Jehovah Himself. To reject God's appointed leaders and His chosen instrument was to reject God and Christ, their invisible Leader, and to insult the Holy Spirit. This was done while the rebels counted themselves righteous and treated faithful correction as evil.

The test of censers exposes open rebellion and unbelief against God-appointed leadership, worked by satanic agencies while it is called the Holy Spirit. Hearts were steeled against the Holy Spirit by Satan's wizard-like power, which holds sway over all who do not implicitly trust and obey God. Satan deluded them into supposing they opposed only a human leader, a man like themselves. They were deceived by Satan, but by their own consent, because they placed themselves in his power.

The challenge sprang from stubborn confidence that their own judgment was better than Moses'. In self-confidence the two hundred and fifty men with Korah brought their censers with incense before the Lord to contest who had authority to serve as priests, believing themselves and the congregation righteous. They treated Moses' reminders of their sins as tyranny.

Genuine rebellion is incurable and must be called rebellion and apostasy by their right names. The experience of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, extended beyond two men and led by two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown, was faithfully chronicled to pass into history for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come. It exposes failure to sink the shaft deep into truth, and inability to distinguish precious ore from base material, the false from the genuine, and the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger. It exposes even taking the great leader of apostasy and naming him Christ our Righteousness, and being easily led astray by false prophets who would deceive the very elect. It calls the misled to humble themselves, repent, review the chapter in their own experience, and test those who would undeceive the whole church by their fruits.

Unreasonable provocation and unwise action can lead people to work against God, and the rebellion with censers is given as a warning to be read carefully and prayerfully. That rebellion comes when the heart is no longer under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit and is separated from God. It then reveals Satan's attributes in beginning to oppress fellow men with an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness. The same spirit is seen when workers oppress one another and when one institution desires to control all others. It is seen when men entrusted with weighty responsibilities have no living connection with God and do despite to the Holy Spirit, casting aside repeated warnings and venturing on in the same course.

Those who persist in that rebellion against God's appointed work and light will be left by God and will fall into the ditch, and whoever joins with them will share their end. They walk not in the light of the Lord but in the sparks of their own kindling, and they will lie down in darkness. Their course, in laboring to make God's testimonies of none effect and refusing them, strengthens the hands and minds of others, drawing a vast number after them who quote and follow them and spread unbelief, deceiving and being deceived. Such rebellion and its influence on other minds is charged in the books of heaven, and in the day of final accounts the rebel must meet both his own course of action and the result of his influence upon others.

Warning for the Last Days

The record of Korah, Dathan and Abiram is preserved as lesson, ensample, warning and admonition for those upon whom the ends of the world are come, to be read carefully and prayerfully and kept before the flock so they are not fed errors that cause them to go astray. It stands as a warning to God's people especially near the close of time, because Satan leads persons to imitate that example by raising insurrection among God's people. That pattern of blindness and deception in choosing to follow rebels can recur through the close of time. It will be repeated when people create confusion by misinterpreting and misapplying God's words and warnings to defend their own theories.

The same spirit was acted over at Minneapolis in firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light sent from heaven. There was pride that must be humbled and confessed as not actuated by God's Spirit, with minds and hearts filled with prejudice, and backslidings refusing the Lord coming near to bless and heal. There was rejection of the proper position God had given His servant and refusal to heed testimony, contempt for the word of the Lord, blinded eyes and perverted judgment, with a spirit of mockery and disgust at God's word, lightness, trifling, jesting and joking, and walking in the sparks of their own kindling. It was not the servant they despised but the messengers and the message God sends. Unless every soul repents of unsanctified independence insulting the Spirit of God and is converted to be healed, they will walk in darkness, have the candlestick removed out of its place, and lie down in sorrow, while God is with and sustains the one who stands at the post of duty.

To be found among them at such a time means strengthening the gainsayer, unsettling minds and shaking faith in the testimonies, sowing impressions of unbelief in other minds that cannot be removed even if faith is later recovered, and laboring hard to do Satan's own work, as was done at Minneapolis where Satan triumphed. The same rebellion is repeated when people rise in opposition to plain testimony that rebukes wrongs among God's people. They become self-deceived, thinking those upon whom God has laid the burden of His work exalt themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for. To oppose that plain testimony God would have His servants bear is to resist God's messengers and reject the testimony and message God sends, which is contempt for God's word, and such self-deception and opposition to truth bring disaster. Positions taken against God's work must be answered for to Him.

To turn aside the counsel of God to suit self and to lessen the confidence of God's people in the testimonies He has sent them is rebellion against God as certainly as theirs was. A later effort to discredit those God appointed to lead is compared to their challenge to appointed leaders and warns that those influenced by it would meet disaster. This is seen when testimonies against hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco irritate those who will not destroy their idols. Torn between conviction of truth and self-indulgence they occupy an unsettled position, grow weak, let appetite prevail, have their sense of sacred things perverted by slow poisons, and by final refusal to deny self raise a wall of separation between themselves and those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.

Uneasy under straight testimony, they find relief in warring against it, striving to make themselves and others believe it untrue, saying the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble. When rebellion unfurls its banner all the disaffected and the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt and the blind rally around the standard to scatter and sow discord. The account warns people in the last days against self-exaltation and the belief that sharing in a work makes a person equal to the one God appointed to lead it, as Aaron and Miriam's honored roles led them to resent Moses receiving the greater honor. People who draw away from the church, accuse fellow believers, and use others' errors to advance themselves follow the pattern of that rebellious party.

Criticism, false accusations and distrust directed against people God is leading can bring a similar destructive outcome within the community. Ambitious projects and resistance to correction could bring about a similar challenge to authority. The rebellion is recorded as a warning not to accuse and condemn those on whom God has placed responsibility for His work. Those who claim to believe the truth are warned not to judge by human feeling and not to stand between God's servants when they correct the erring, but to hold peace and let God's correction pierce the soul. Dathan and Abiram's conduct stands as an example of a rebellious course.

Tactics and Judgment of Rebellion

Those who repeat the censer rebellion work secretly and in darkness, never going directly to those they oppose but spreading falsehoods and enmity and evil-surmisings and satanic representations to gain sympathy, just as Satan did to gain the angels under him. Their course is to win sympathy and confidence, then to claim to be abused when the abuse and imposition is on their own side, and having found their words received, to sow doubt against rightful authority and destroy confidence in those God wants the people to trust. The same course is followed when unsanctified men take advantage of souls perishing for truth and able to explain the Scriptures, entering a new field to gain the people and then insinuating against their leaders with a deceptive story.

They complain and influence the people to stand with them in rebellion, and hasty unadvised words with self-esteem and bearing false witness against brethren repeat that sin. By leavening minds with distrust, weakening faith in men whom God is teaching and guiding and leading, and questioning and doubting God's instrumentalities, those who yield to that spirit and spread doubt and envy and evil-surmising will bring upon themselves an experience similar to theirs. People who themselves need converting and need to change their thoughts and attitude in every way repeat the Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rising against management that the Lord is guiding by criticizing and finding fault, talking and making it appear that there are mistakes where God is leading, instead of working successfully in Christ's lines.

In the very midst of God's people a work arises in which men assail their fellow workers, unjustly charge fellow laborers, present God's appointed workers in a ridiculous light, and hold them up to ridicule. They mislead others to think that brethren and sisters in whom they had confidence are no longer worthy of love and fellowship, creating false impressions and false sympathy, cutting off influence, causing dissension in the church, leading others into the same error, and endangering souls. At the same time they labor to make God's testimonies of none effect and refuse them, deceiving and being deceived.

To do this accusing work while claiming to be led by the Holy Spirit is Satan clothing himself with heavenly garments of purity while still working out his own attributes. Such a course strengthens the hands and minds of others, drawing a vast number after them who quote and follow them and spread unbelief. Their example represents the selfish, fraudulent conduct that God sees and will judge according to deeds, and their spirit is the pattern of oppression and resistance to God's warnings displayed by people who lack a living connection with God. Such rebellion and its influence on other minds is charged in the books of heaven, and in the day of final accounts the rebel must meet both his own course of action and the result of his influence upon others.

Such a work is an offense to God and must not be met with silence but must be met openly. The accusers must be called on every point to bring proof and every charge must be carefully investigated, so the people are not left uncertain whether the charges may be true or not. In this way the people must not be left to believe a lie but must be undeceived, and the filthy garments of unsubstantiated reproach must be removed from God's servant.

Even after God's marked judgments destroyed the leaders and princes involved, the surviving rebels were so set in their opinions that the next morning they came and charged Moses and Aaron with killing the people of the Lord. This shows what fearful deception comes upon the human mind and how hard it is to convince souls that have become imbued with a spirit which is not of God. Their rebellion was not cured, and thousands more were killed for sin and exultation and presumptuous wickedness. Yet such opposition does not prevent God's work from surviving, and separation is preferable to yielding to dishonoring demands.