And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him.
Moses rose and went in person to Dathan and Abiram as God's messenger, and the seventy elders of Israel followed him, placing the acknowledged leaders openly on God's side. He went in obedience to God's command to separate the congregation from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram so they would not be consumed, after he had interceded when God said He would consume the congregation in a moment. On arriving he publicly charged the people to depart from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest they share their sins and be consumed in their judgment. Their rebellion against Moses and Aaron's God-given authority was in truth rebellion against God and Christ as leader, working out the same pride, ambition, and desire for self-exaltation that prompted Satan's rebellion in heaven. The history is written for admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come, so that accusing work from within against those God appointed must be met openly and not left in silence.
Setting and Action
The verse belongs to the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram with two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, who were rulers in Israel. The rebels became dissatisfied, wanted to be commanders and sought the priesthood, forgot that God had placed them where they were, and publicly accused Moses and Aaron of taking too much upon themselves and claiming a shared authority. That accusation was opposition not only to Moses and Aaron but to Jehovah over their God-given authority.
Moses acted in obedience to God's command to have the congregation get up and separate from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram so they would not be consumed. He and Aaron had fallen on their faces and interceded when God said He would consume the congregation in a moment. Moses rose up and went in person to Dathan and Abiram as God's messenger, and the elders of Israel followed him. Those elders were numbered as seventy, and their following put the acknowledged leaders on God's side.
On arriving, Moses publicly charged the congregation to depart from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest they be consumed in all their sins for sharing in their judgment. The people followed and obeyed by leaving the rebels' tents. Dathan and Abiram stood with their families at their tent doors in defiance.
The encounter led directly to Moses' test that if the earth opened and swallowed the rebels it would prove the Lord sent him and that they had provoked the Lord. God vindicated Aaron by making his rod bud, blossom, and yield almonds in one night, settling the priesthood upon him. The Lord had conferred the office of the priesthood upon the family of Aaron and honored Aaron with sacred consecration as high priest, and the destruction of Korah and his company vindicated and upheld him in that office. After the vindication Israel was fully convinced of its wrong, saw its rebellion in its true light, acknowledged Moses and Aaron were right, confessed its sin, and was terrified at dying in the wilderness and not entering the promised land. Yet the next morning the survivors falsely accused Moses and Aaron of killing the people of the Lord, bringing further judgment by plague. Years later at Kadesh the thirsting congregation with no water wished they had died with those destroyed in that rebellion.
Nature of Rebellion
To rise against Moses' authority was to oppose God's chosen instrument, and in rejecting that instrument to reject God as leader. It was to reject Christ as the invisible leader and to insult the Spirit of God. In murmuring against Moses and Aaron the rebels blasphemed God, yet they were so deluded as to think themselves righteous and to regard those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan.
On a narrower stage their rebellion worked out the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven. Pride and ambition prompted Lucifer to complain of the government of God and to seek the overthrow of the order established in heaven, and since his fall Satan has sought to infuse the same envy and discontent and the same ambition for position and honor into men. He worked on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram to arouse desire for self-exaltation and to excite envy, distrust, and rebellion. To grasp for credit and honor, to think oneself equal to God's appointed worker and a very essential part of the whole, is that self-exaltation of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.
Satan still leads persons to imitate Korah, Dathan, and Abiram by raising insurrection among God's people in opposition to plain testimony. Those who so rise become self-deceived, thinking that 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. They oppose the plain testimony God would have His servants bear in rebuking wrongs among His people, including hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff, and tobacco, because it would destroy their idols. Many waver between conviction and appetite until appetite prevails, the sense of sacred things perverted by slow poisons, and at last decide at any cost not to deny self. They separate themselves from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, war against the straight testimonies as untrue, claim the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble, and when they unfurl their banner all the disaffected and spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind rally to scatter and sow discord.
Their rebellion was worked secretly and in darkness by falsehoods and enmity and evil-surmisings and satanic representations to gain sympathy, instead of going openly to the ones against whom anything is held. Its course was first to gain the sympathy and confidence of the people, then to insinuate against God's appointed leaders with a deceptive story of having been abused when the abuse was on the other side. Then, finding words received, it kept sowing seeds of doubt about those in whom God would have the people have confidence.
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were wicked men whose heart is selfish seeking of personal advantage without bearing burdens or responsibility. They were guilty of selfishness and even fraud in dealing with brethren, giving no religious strength to the cause though present among God's people, yet ready to follow open rebellion when opportunity offered. Within they were corrupt and rebellious while without they wore a very religious, mild, devoted garb, at war with the work of the third angel and at war with the visions. They showed the oppressive, defiant spirit of those who reject God's warnings and resist His authority, and as soon as a man separates from God so his heart is not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit the attributes of Satan are revealed and he begins to oppress his fellow men. He sends forth an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness, as manifested in the desire of one institution to control all others and in men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God.
The rebels stubbornly trusted their own judgment above Moses, and clung firmly to error and resisted God's counsel even after judgment destroyed the leaders and princes. The survivors remained so deceived as to blame Moses for deaths brought by God's judgment. Satan deluded them with moral infatuation that steels the heart against the influence of the Holy Spirit, exerting a wizard-like power upon minds that do not implicitly trust and obey God, yet they were deceived by their own consent because they placed themselves in his power. That rebellion means threatening to sever all connection with brethren, demanding submission to one's own terms, doing according to one's own mind and judgment year after year in the face of all warnings, and refusing to hear the voice of the Lord.
Judgment and Mercy
The judgment did not fall at once upon the whole congregation, for time was given to repent and forgiveness was offered to all who would return in humility. Even when judgment had come very near forgiveness was still lingering, and the warning and call to flee was a special, irresistible interference from heaven to arrest the rebellion. It was Christ, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, seeking to save them from destruction, so that if they had responded to the interposition of God's providence they might have been saved.
What took place around Moses' going gave Israel evidence that the rebels were sinners and that Moses was right, with opportunity to reflect and repent. God distinguished between the instigators of the rebellion and those deceived by them, showing both justice and mercy. Those who had been deceived were given time to repent, while the leaders remained stubborn after clear evidence had shown they were wrong and Moses was right.
Their flight from the judgments through fear of destruction did not cure their rebellion. They returned to their tents that night terrified but not repentant. Their failure to seek pardon proved fatal.
The rebellion stands as a fearful example of how the Lord will punish the rebellious. Korah and those who perished with him were sinners against the Lord and justly suffered His wrath, with judgments following close upon sin. Those who have light and evidence but will not see or acknowledge it, and who walk not in the light of the Lord but in the sparks of their own kindling, are left by God to fall into the ditch and lie down in darkness, and whoever joins that course and follows it imperils the soul and shares the same fall.
By claiming great light and special exaltation from God while not obeying all the light, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram forfeited all right to entrench themselves behind sacred power and to claim respect as the voice of God. The same forfeiture belongs to those who mingle men's devisings and selfishness with God's work, hurt God's servants, and sustain men God cannot favor.
The setting recalls opposition that cannot destroy a work that is truly of God. Work done from self will not stand, while work done in God will endure.
Warning for Last Days
Numbers 16:25 belongs to the rising of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, and the chapter where it stands is written for instruction and admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come, to take heed and not follow their example of unbelief. It is to be read carefully and prayerfully and studied by those living in the last days, especially those who live upon the earth near the close of time, so that the whole flock will not be fed with errors that cause them to go astray. Their rebellion was worked by satanic agencies while called the Holy Spirit, carried on secretly and in darkness by falsehoods and enmity and evil-surmisings and satanic representations to gain sympathy, instead of going openly to the ones against whom anything is held, and Christ came to this world not to aid such rebellion but to put down rebellion. The account is given as a warning against unreasonable provocation and unwise conduct, and its lesson calls for genuine repentance. The facts are kept as a warning because Satan leads persons to imitate Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in raising insurrection among the people of God in opposition to plain testimony.
Those who so rise become self-deceived, thinking that 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. They oppose the plain testimony God would have His servants bear in rebuking wrongs among God's people, including hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco, because it would destroy their idols. Undecided between conviction and appetite, weakened and with the sense of sacred things perverted by slow poisons, they at last decide at any cost not to deny self, separate themselves from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, war against the straight testimonies as untrue, claim the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble, and rally all the disaffected and the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind to scatter and sow discord. The rebellion is an example of apostasy, and the record of it serves as a warning to God's people.
Genuine rebellion is hardly ever curable and must be called rebellion by its right name and apostasy by its right name. The experience of the ancient people of God 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. It warns the last-day church against being separated from their great Leader, taking the great leader of apostasy and naming him Christ our Righteousness, failing to sink the shaft deep into the mines of truth and to distinguish precious ore from base material, the false from the genuine, and the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger. Those thus misled by false prophets with heresies need to humble themselves before God and sincerely repent because they were so easily led astray.
The history warns that people may distort and misapply God's words and warnings to defend ideas that have no basis in truth. The claim of two men and their wives to undeceive the whole church after more than half a century of light through the testimonies of His Spirit is to be tested by the rule that by their fruits they shall be known.
The same spirit of firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light sent from heaven, pride that must be humbled and confessed, prejudice filling mind and heart instead of the Spirit of God, backsliding needing healing, contempt for the word of the Lord and for His messengers and message, blindness of eyes and perversion of judgment, unsanctified independence insulting the Spirit of God, obscured spiritual eyesight, mockery and disgust, lightness and trifling, and walking in darkness in sparks of their own kindling to lie down in sorrow, was acted over again at Minneapolis where the proper position of God's messenger was not acknowledged and her testimony was not heeded. Resisting the message God sends, rejecting evidence, and drawing others into opposition brings spiritual blindness and darkness. Unless every soul repents and is converted to be healed, that contempt for God's word with pride and unsanctified independence ends in darkness.
The experience warns that criticism, distrust, and resistance to God's appointed leaders and to straight testimony can bring grave consequences. Pride, ambition, and resistance to straight testimony, if left unchanged, could bring about a similar rebellion again and be realized among God's people. Their actions are a warning against accusing and condemning those God has entrusted with the work, and against separating from the leaders and fellow workers God is using. The warning covers drawing away from the church body, accusing fellow believers, and using others' errors to build self up.
Following people who oppose God's truth repeats the danger, for those who support a betrayer and lead others astray repeat the rebellion, while God's people must take a clear stand for the Lord and not follow those who oppose His truth. The Korah, Dathan, and Abiram experience of rebellion against the Lord's guiding in the management of His work is repeated when people whose whole previous experience runs contrary to God's way remain unconverted and instead criticize, find fault, and talk so as to make it appear that mistakes have been made where the Lord has been guiding, and those who do this need themselves to change their thoughts and attitude in every way in order to work successfully in Christ's lines. The experience comes when ministers speak hasty, unadvised words, 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. That spirit closes the heart to divine influence, fosters self-esteem and counteracts practical godliness, plants seed of doubt that is hard to uproot, gives Satan advantage to create distrust, envy, and evil-surmising, and makes men fitful in feeling, impulsive, rash, reckless, and unsafe in positions of trust. It is like rising up as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram did when people who did not toil to bring out precious points of truth but received them all prepared to their hand and took the Sabbath show ingratitude for truth that cost them nothing but cost others much by reproaching those upon whom God has laid the burden of His work.
Duty to Confront Evil
Moses rising up and going directly to Dathan and Abiram with the elders of Israel following him, instead of keeping silent, means that work resembling that of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram must be met and not left in silence. When fellow laborers assail those God has appointed to do His work, hold them up to ridicule and present them in a ridiculous light so the people are misled to think trusted brethren are no longer worthy of love and fellowship, the accusing work arising from within is an offense to God and must be met openly. When they unjustly charge them with guilt, create dissension and false sympathy, cut off their influence by false impressions, and endanger souls by leading others into the same error, justice to the accusers and to those misled requires confronting the charges and undeceiving the people so they are not left to believe a lie or to think the charges may or may not be true. On every point the accusers must be called upon to bring their proof, and every charge must be carefully investigated and made certain, leaving nothing uncertain. Every unsubstantiated reproach must be lifted and the filthy garments put upon the servant of God removed, especially when a long-accepted appointed worker is publicly opposed with untrue declarations by one who is offended by messages of warning and walks no more with Christ.
The chapter is an example of Moses taking decisive action in the crisis caused by rebellion, and of the need to separate persistent evil workers from the Lord's work, for delaying that action dishonors God. The resistance of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram means refusing God's testimonies and laboring to make them of none effect, and aligning with such gainsayers means spreading unbelief and weakening others' faith. That course is charged in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts, when a man meets not only his own course of action but the result of his influence upon other minds. It strengthens the hands and minds of others who then quote the leader, pleases the enemy of righteousness, and spreads a tide of unbelief and deception.
Turning people against those leading God's work is compared with rejecting the testimonies and accusing the leaders of dishonesty, and its result is disastrous. A self-righteous person should instead identify plainly where others have sinned. The account of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram's rebellion, led beyond two men by two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown, is given as a warning against unreasonable provocation and unwise conduct and is to be read carefully and prayerfully, and its lesson calls for genuine repentance, humbling before God, and conversion. Genuine rebellion is hardly ever curable and must be called rebellion by its right name and apostasy by its right name.
Escape requires thorough work and belief of God's words, confession of wrongs, and letting sin go beforehand to judgment so it may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come and God shall send Jesus. The rebellion means firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light sent from heaven, pride that must be humbled and confessed, prejudice filling mind and heart instead of the Spirit of God, backsliding needing healing, contempt for the word of the Lord and for His messengers and message, blindness of eyes and perversion of judgment, unsanctified independence insulting the Spirit of God, obscured spiritual eyesight, mockery and lightness, and walking in darkness in sparks of their own kindling to lie down in sorrow unless every soul repents and is converted to be healed. Persisting in threatening to sever all connection with brethren, demanding submission to one's own terms, doing according to one's own mind and judgment year after year in the face of all warnings, and refusing to hear the voice of the Lord makes a person's course like theirs, on dangerous ground God warns to keep off, which brethren with firm rectitude must not fear and must not yield to. Those thus misled by false prophets with heresies need to humble themselves before God and sincerely repent because they were so easily led astray, to sink the shaft deep into the mines of truth and distinguish precious ore from base material, the false from the genuine, and the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger, tested by the rule that by their fruits they shall be known.
Moses rose and went in person to Dathan and Abiram as God's messenger, and the seventy elders of Israel followed him, placing the acknowledged leaders openly on God's side. He went in obedience to God's command to separate the congregation from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram so they would not be consumed, after he had interceded when God said He would consume the congregation in a moment. On arriving he publicly charged the people to depart from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest they share their sins and be consumed in their judgment. Their rebellion against Moses and Aaron's God-given authority was in truth rebellion against God and Christ as leader, working out the same pride, ambition, and desire for self-exaltation that prompted Satan's rebellion in heaven. The history is written for admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come, so that accusing work from within against those God appointed must be met openly and not left in silence.
Setting and Action
The verse belongs to the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram with two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, who were rulers in Israel.
The rebels became dissatisfied, wanted to be commanders and sought the priesthood, forgot that God had placed them where they were, and publicly accused Moses and Aaron of taking too much upon themselves and claiming a shared authority. That accusation was opposition not only to Moses and Aaron but to Jehovah over their God-given authority.
Moses acted in obedience to God's command to have the congregation get up and separate from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram so they would not be consumed. He and Aaron had fallen on their faces and interceded when God said He would consume the congregation in a moment. Moses rose up and went in person to Dathan and Abiram as God's messenger, and the elders of Israel followed him. Those elders were numbered as seventy, and their following put the acknowledged leaders on God's side.
On arriving, Moses publicly charged the congregation to depart from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest they be consumed in all their sins for sharing in their judgment. The people followed and obeyed by leaving the rebels' tents. Dathan and Abiram stood with their families at their tent doors in defiance.
The encounter led directly to Moses' test that if the earth opened and swallowed the rebels it would prove the Lord sent him and that they had provoked the Lord. God vindicated Aaron by making his rod bud, blossom, and yield almonds in one night, settling the priesthood upon him. The Lord had conferred the office of the priesthood upon the family of Aaron and honored Aaron with sacred consecration as high priest, and the destruction of Korah and his company vindicated and upheld him in that office.
After the vindication Israel was fully convinced of its wrong, saw its rebellion in its true light, acknowledged Moses and Aaron were right, confessed its sin, and was terrified at dying in the wilderness and not entering the promised land. Yet the next morning the survivors falsely accused Moses and Aaron of killing the people of the Lord, bringing further judgment by plague. Years later at Kadesh the thirsting congregation with no water wished they had died with those destroyed in that rebellion.
Nature of Rebellion
To rise against Moses' authority was to oppose God's chosen instrument, and in rejecting that instrument to reject God as leader. It was to reject Christ as the invisible leader and to insult the Spirit of God. In murmuring against Moses and Aaron the rebels blasphemed God, yet they were so deluded as to think themselves righteous and to regard those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan.
On a narrower stage their rebellion worked out the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven. Pride and ambition prompted Lucifer to complain of the government of God and to seek the overthrow of the order established in heaven, and since his fall Satan has sought to infuse the same envy and discontent and the same ambition for position and honor into men. He worked on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram to arouse desire for self-exaltation and to excite envy, distrust, and rebellion. To grasp for credit and honor, to think oneself equal to God's appointed worker and a very essential part of the whole, is that self-exaltation of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.
Satan still leads persons to imitate Korah, Dathan, and Abiram by raising insurrection among God's people in opposition to plain testimony. Those who so rise become self-deceived, thinking that 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. They oppose the plain testimony God would have His servants bear in rebuking wrongs among His people, including hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff, and tobacco, because it would destroy their idols. Many waver between conviction and appetite until appetite prevails, the sense of sacred things perverted by slow poisons, and at last decide at any cost not to deny self. They separate themselves from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, war against the straight testimonies as untrue, claim the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble, and when they unfurl their banner all the disaffected and spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind rally to scatter and sow discord.
Their rebellion was worked secretly and in darkness by falsehoods and enmity and evil-surmisings and satanic representations to gain sympathy, instead of going openly to the ones against whom anything is held. Its course was first to gain the sympathy and confidence of the people, then to insinuate against God's appointed leaders with a deceptive story of having been abused when the abuse was on the other side. Then, finding words received, it kept sowing seeds of doubt about those in whom God would have the people have confidence.
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were wicked men whose heart is selfish seeking of personal advantage without bearing burdens or responsibility. They were guilty of selfishness and even fraud in dealing with brethren, giving no religious strength to the cause though present among God's people, yet ready to follow open rebellion when opportunity offered. Within they were corrupt and rebellious while without they wore a very religious, mild, devoted garb, at war with the work of the third angel and at war with the visions. They showed the oppressive, defiant spirit of those who reject God's warnings and resist His authority, and as soon as a man separates from God so his heart is not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit the attributes of Satan are revealed and he begins to oppress his fellow men. He sends forth an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness, as manifested in the desire of one institution to control all others and in men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God.
The rebels stubbornly trusted their own judgment above Moses, and clung firmly to error and resisted God's counsel even after judgment destroyed the leaders and princes. The survivors remained so deceived as to blame Moses for deaths brought by God's judgment. Satan deluded them with moral infatuation that steels the heart against the influence of the Holy Spirit, exerting a wizard-like power upon minds that do not implicitly trust and obey God, yet they were deceived by their own consent because they placed themselves in his power. That rebellion means threatening to sever all connection with brethren, demanding submission to one's own terms, doing according to one's own mind and judgment year after year in the face of all warnings, and refusing to hear the voice of the Lord.
Judgment and Mercy
The judgment did not fall at once upon the whole congregation, for time was given to repent and forgiveness was offered to all who would return in humility. Even when judgment had come very near forgiveness was still lingering, and the warning and call to flee was a special, irresistible interference from heaven to arrest the rebellion. It was Christ, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, seeking to save them from destruction, so that if they had responded to the interposition of God's providence they might have been saved.
What took place around Moses' going gave Israel evidence that the rebels were sinners and that Moses was right, with opportunity to reflect and repent. God distinguished between the instigators of the rebellion and those deceived by them, showing both justice and mercy. Those who had been deceived were given time to repent, while the leaders remained stubborn after clear evidence had shown they were wrong and Moses was right.
Their flight from the judgments through fear of destruction did not cure their rebellion. They returned to their tents that night terrified but not repentant. Their failure to seek pardon proved fatal.
The rebellion stands as a fearful example of how the Lord will punish the rebellious. Korah and those who perished with him were sinners against the Lord and justly suffered His wrath, with judgments following close upon sin. Those who have light and evidence but will not see or acknowledge it, and who walk not in the light of the Lord but in the sparks of their own kindling, are left by God to fall into the ditch and lie down in darkness, and whoever joins that course and follows it imperils the soul and shares the same fall.
By claiming great light and special exaltation from God while not obeying all the light, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram forfeited all right to entrench themselves behind sacred power and to claim respect as the voice of God. The same forfeiture belongs to those who mingle men's devisings and selfishness with God's work, hurt God's servants, and sustain men God cannot favor.
The setting recalls opposition that cannot destroy a work that is truly of God. Work done from self will not stand, while work done in God will endure.
Warning for Last Days
Numbers 16:25 belongs to the rising of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, and the chapter where it stands is written for instruction and admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come, to take heed and not follow their example of unbelief. It is to be read carefully and prayerfully and studied by those living in the last days, especially those who live upon the earth near the close of time, so that the whole flock will not be fed with errors that cause them to go astray. Their rebellion was worked by satanic agencies while called the Holy Spirit, carried on secretly and in darkness by falsehoods and enmity and evil-surmisings and satanic representations to gain sympathy, instead of going openly to the ones against whom anything is held, and Christ came to this world not to aid such rebellion but to put down rebellion. The account is given as a warning against unreasonable provocation and unwise conduct, and its lesson calls for genuine repentance. The facts are kept as a warning because Satan leads persons to imitate Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in raising insurrection among the people of God in opposition to plain testimony.
Those who so rise become self-deceived, thinking that 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. They oppose the plain testimony God would have His servants bear in rebuking wrongs among God's people, including hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco, because it would destroy their idols. Undecided between conviction and appetite, weakened and with the sense of sacred things perverted by slow poisons, they at last decide at any cost not to deny self, separate themselves from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, war against the straight testimonies as untrue, claim the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble, and rally all the disaffected and the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind to scatter and sow discord. The rebellion is an example of apostasy, and the record of it serves as a warning to God's people.
Genuine rebellion is hardly ever curable and must be called rebellion by its right name and apostasy by its right name. The experience of the ancient people of God 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. It warns the last-day church against being separated from their great Leader, taking the great leader of apostasy and naming him Christ our Righteousness, failing to sink the shaft deep into the mines of truth and to distinguish precious ore from base material, the false from the genuine, and the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger. Those thus misled by false prophets with heresies need to humble themselves before God and sincerely repent because they were so easily led astray.
The history warns that people may distort and misapply God's words and warnings to defend ideas that have no basis in truth. The claim of two men and their wives to undeceive the whole church after more than half a century of light through the testimonies of His Spirit is to be tested by the rule that by their fruits they shall be known.
The same spirit of firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light sent from heaven, pride that must be humbled and confessed, prejudice filling mind and heart instead of the Spirit of God, backsliding needing healing, contempt for the word of the Lord and for His messengers and message, blindness of eyes and perversion of judgment, unsanctified independence insulting the Spirit of God, obscured spiritual eyesight, mockery and disgust, lightness and trifling, and walking in darkness in sparks of their own kindling to lie down in sorrow, was acted over again at Minneapolis where the proper position of God's messenger was not acknowledged and her testimony was not heeded. Resisting the message God sends, rejecting evidence, and drawing others into opposition brings spiritual blindness and darkness. Unless every soul repents and is converted to be healed, that contempt for God's word with pride and unsanctified independence ends in darkness.
The experience warns that criticism, distrust, and resistance to God's appointed leaders and to straight testimony can bring grave consequences. Pride, ambition, and resistance to straight testimony, if left unchanged, could bring about a similar rebellion again and be realized among God's people. Their actions are a warning against accusing and condemning those God has entrusted with the work, and against separating from the leaders and fellow workers God is using. The warning covers drawing away from the church body, accusing fellow believers, and using others' errors to build self up.
Following people who oppose God's truth repeats the danger, for those who support a betrayer and lead others astray repeat the rebellion, while God's people must take a clear stand for the Lord and not follow those who oppose His truth. The Korah, Dathan, and Abiram experience of rebellion against the Lord's guiding in the management of His work is repeated when people whose whole previous experience runs contrary to God's way remain unconverted and instead criticize, find fault, and talk so as to make it appear that mistakes have been made where the Lord has been guiding, and those who do this need themselves to change their thoughts and attitude in every way in order to work successfully in Christ's lines. The experience comes when ministers speak hasty, unadvised words, 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. That spirit closes the heart to divine influence, fosters self-esteem and counteracts practical godliness, plants seed of doubt that is hard to uproot, gives Satan advantage to create distrust, envy, and evil-surmising, and makes men fitful in feeling, impulsive, rash, reckless, and unsafe in positions of trust. It is like rising up as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram did when people who did not toil to bring out precious points of truth but received them all prepared to their hand and took the Sabbath show ingratitude for truth that cost them nothing but cost others much by reproaching those upon whom God has laid the burden of His work.
Duty to Confront Evil
Moses rising up and going directly to Dathan and Abiram with the elders of Israel following him, instead of keeping silent, means that work resembling that of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram must be met and not left in silence. When fellow laborers assail those God has appointed to do His work, hold them up to ridicule and present them in a ridiculous light so the people are misled to think trusted brethren are no longer worthy of love and fellowship, the accusing work arising from within is an offense to God and must be met openly. When they unjustly charge them with guilt, create dissension and false sympathy, cut off their influence by false impressions, and endanger souls by leading others into the same error, justice to the accusers and to those misled requires confronting the charges and undeceiving the people so they are not left to believe a lie or to think the charges may or may not be true. On every point the accusers must be called upon to bring their proof, and every charge must be carefully investigated and made certain, leaving nothing uncertain. Every unsubstantiated reproach must be lifted and the filthy garments put upon the servant of God removed, especially when a long-accepted appointed worker is publicly opposed with untrue declarations by one who is offended by messages of warning and walks no more with Christ.
The chapter is an example of Moses taking decisive action in the crisis caused by rebellion, and of the need to separate persistent evil workers from the Lord's work, for delaying that action dishonors God. The resistance of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram means refusing God's testimonies and laboring to make them of none effect, and aligning with such gainsayers means spreading unbelief and weakening others' faith. That course is charged in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts, when a man meets not only his own course of action but the result of his influence upon other minds. It strengthens the hands and minds of others who then quote the leader, pleases the enemy of righteousness, and spreads a tide of unbelief and deception.
Turning people against those leading God's work is compared with rejecting the testimonies and accusing the leaders of dishonesty, and its result is disastrous. A self-righteous person should instead identify plainly where others have sinned. The account of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram's rebellion, led beyond two men by two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown, is given as a warning against unreasonable provocation and unwise conduct and is to be read carefully and prayerfully, and its lesson calls for genuine repentance, humbling before God, and conversion. Genuine rebellion is hardly ever curable and must be called rebellion by its right name and apostasy by its right name.
Escape requires thorough work and belief of God's words, confession of wrongs, and letting sin go beforehand to judgment so it may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come and God shall send Jesus. The rebellion means firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light sent from heaven, pride that must be humbled and confessed, prejudice filling mind and heart instead of the Spirit of God, backsliding needing healing, contempt for the word of the Lord and for His messengers and message, blindness of eyes and perversion of judgment, unsanctified independence insulting the Spirit of God, obscured spiritual eyesight, mockery and lightness, and walking in darkness in sparks of their own kindling to lie down in sorrow unless every soul repents and is converted to be healed. Persisting in threatening to sever all connection with brethren, demanding submission to one's own terms, doing according to one's own mind and judgment year after year in the face of all warnings, and refusing to hear the voice of the Lord makes a person's course like theirs, on dangerous ground God warns to keep off, which brethren with firm rectitude must not fear and must not yield to. Those thus misled by false prophets with heresies need to humble themselves before God and sincerely repent because they were so easily led astray, to sink the shaft deep into the mines of truth and distinguish precious ore from base material, the false from the genuine, and the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger, tested by the rule that by their fruits they shall be known.