Numbers 16:27, commentary and pictures

After the warning to separate from the rebels and touch nothing of theirs, the congregation moved away from their tents, while Dathan and Abiram came out and stood defiantly at their tent doors with their wives, sons and little children as judgment approached. Their stand was not merely against Moses and Aaron as men, but against God who had appointed them, repeating in narrower form Satan's rebellion in heaven through pride, ambition, envy and desire for self-exaltation. Their stubborn persistence sealed their doom when the earth swallowed them, yet forgiveness was still lingering and Jesus was seeking to save those who had been led astray if they would repent. The record stands written for the admonition of God's people to the close of time, warning later generations not to imitate their unbelief, murmuring and opposition to God's appointed testimony and leadership.

Setting and Immediate Details

The moment is after the warning to depart from the tents of the rebels and to touch nothing belonging to them, lest the people share in their sins and be consumed in their punishment, and the congregation obeys by moving away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram come out and stand at the entrances of their tents with their wives and their sons and their little children, defiantly refusing to separate themselves as judgment approaches. Their households as well as the leaders are thus involved and present at the moment of judgment, standing together at the tent doors after the people have been warned to leave.

The rebellion began with a public accusation that Moses and Aaron had taken to themselves authority that all the congregation was entitled to share, arguing that the whole congregation was holy and that the Lord was among them. It extended far beyond two men, drawing many sympathizers and families and being led by two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown in the tribes of Israel who made as firm a stand as the chief rebels. Their course was first to gain the sympathy and confidence of the people and then to insinuate against those in whom God would have the people have confidence.

Judgment falls when the earth swallows the rebels and all that belongs to them, while others who rebelled die before the Lord by plague, a destruction justly suffered as sinners against the Lord and against His appointed authority. The event displays God's vengeance against rebellion, yet the congregation's terrified flight to their tents does not cure the rebellion or bring true repentance. Nearly forty years later, when brought again to the same wilderness place of testing and thirsty with no water to be found, the congregation murmurs against Moses and Aaron, calls those destroyed rebels their brethren, and wishes they had died with them rather than die with their cattle in the wilderness.

The terrible manifestation of divine judgment in the destruction of Korah and his company sustains Aaron in the holy office of the priesthood as sacredly consecrated high priest. By that destruction it is confirmed that the Lord had conferred the office of the priesthood upon the family of Aaron.

Nature of the Rebellion

On a narrower stage the standing of Dathan and Abiram at their tent doors with wives, sons, and little children repeats the rebellion of Satan in heaven, driven by pride and ambition for position and honor, with envy, discontent, distrust, desire for self-exaltation, and rebellion stirred in their minds by Satan. Their opposition was not merely against a human leader like themselves but against Jehovah, for by rejecting Moses and Aaron as men of God's appointment and God's chosen instruments they rejected God as their leader. In rejecting God's chosen instrument they rejected Christ their invisible leader and insulted the Spirit of God, and in murmuring against Moses and Aaron they blasphemed God, while believing they were serving God.

They were so deluded that they thought themselves righteous and regarded those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan. Their hearts were steeled against the Holy Spirit by moral infatuation, a wizard-like power exerted upon the minds of all who do not implicitly trust and obey God. They were deceived by Satan but by their own consent, because they placed themselves in his power, and their self-deception led them to reject truth and treat error as truth.

They were wicked men whose character was selfishness and fraud, coming to God's cause for their own advantage to secure its benefits without bearing burdens or responsibilities and giving no religious strength to it. Their course was first to gain the sympathy and confidence of the people and then to insinuate against those in whom God would have the people have confidence, telling a deceptive story that they were abused men when the abuse and imposition was on their own side, and continuing to sow seeds of doubt once their words were received. By setting things before the people in a perverted light they strengthened the hands and minds of evildoers and spread unbelief, so that many honestly thought the rebels were right and Moses and Aaron were all wrong.

The standing there means firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light sent from heaven. It means refusal to hearken to God, actuated not by the Spirit of God but by pride and prejudice, despising not the human instrument but the messengers and the message God sends and showing contempt for the word of the Lord. It means unsanctified independence that insults the Spirit of God, with eyes blinded and judgment perverted and spiritual eyesight obscured, unwillingness for God to manifest His Spirit and power, a spirit of mockery and disgust at His word, lightness, trifling, jesting and joking, and hearts not set to seek Him, leaving no clear light to discern the preciousness of truth until pride is humbled and confessed as not actuated by the Spirit of God. The rebellion was an unjust accusation against Moses and Aaron and a sin against the Lord and against their authority, and Korah and those who perished with him were sinners against the Lord whose punishment by wrath was just, a truth Israel afterward confessed when convinced of its own wrong.

Judgment and Divine Mercy

The verse records the separation of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and their households from the congregation before God's judgment, calling for decisive action against evil workers, for to tolerate persistent wrongdoing in the Lord's work dishonors God. Work rooted in self and opposed to God will not stand, while work done in God will endure, and only the holy fire kindled by God is safe. Dathan and Abiram are seen standing at the entrances of their tents with their wives and children during the rebellion against Moses and Aaron.

The leaders' stubborn persistence sealed their doom, while those they had led, though sharing in the congregation's guilt, were still given an opportunity to repent. Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, was seeking to save them from destruction when they moved away from the tents, forgiveness was still lingering for them, and the nearness of God's judgment was an appeal for them to repent. A special, irresistible interference from heaven had arrested their rebellion, and if they had responded to that interposition of God's providence they might have been saved.

Their moving away was flight from judgment through fear of destruction, not cure of rebellion, and they returned to their tents that night terrified but not repentant. The people fled to their tents in horror after God judged and destroyed the wrongdoers, but the rebellion was not cured. God nevertheless showed mercy by giving the people time to turn back.

Dathan and Abiram stubbornly trusted their own judgment over Moses' and over God's appointed leadership. Even after the leaders and princes were destroyed, those who had joined them remained convinced that Moses had wronged them and accused him of killing the Lord's people. Resisting God's counsel is rebellion against God, and such resistance can bring fearful deception and harden people against clear evidence.

The event displayed God's vengeance against rebellion and the disastrous consequences of leading people into it. Those who rebelled died before the Lord, and by plague, and their punishment was just because they had sinned against the Lord. Their fate warns that those who reject the light of the Lord and follow their own course may be left in darkness. Both their own course and 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.

Warning for Later Generations

The record of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram was faithfully chronicled to pass into history because these things were written for the instruction and admonition of God's people upon whom the ends of the world are come, serving as a warning against unbelief and rebellion not to follow their example. It is to be read carefully and prayerfully, showing that rebellion and unwise conduct call for genuine repentance. Their tempting of Christ and their murmuring, which brought destruction by serpents and by the destroyer, happened for examples and were written for admonition upon those on whom the ends of the world are come.

The record stands especially as a warning to God's people living near the close of time and in the last days, presenting a pattern of following rebellion against God in blindness and deception that can recur throughout history even to the close. It gives instruction appropriate for the present time, to keep the whole flock from being fed with errors that will cause them to go astray.

Satan leads persons to imitate their example by raising insurrection among the people of God and rising in opposition to the plain testimony God gives through His servants to rebuke wrongs among His people, and to the burden laid on His workers for counsel and reproof. Those who do so become self-deceived, thinking those on whom God has laid the burden of the work exalt themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for.

That imitation includes refusing to sacrifice hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff, and tobacco, remaining undecided between conviction and appetite until appetite prevails, and perverting the sense of sacred things by slow poisons. It means deciding at any consequence not to deny self, separating from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, warring against straight testimonies, claiming the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble, and unfurling a banner around which all the disaffected and the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt and the blind rally to scatter discord.

The account warns against self-exaltation, when those honored with a part in God's work thought they were equal to Moses and resented that he received the honor, seeking credit and supremacy instead of trusting God. It warns against self-importance and self-sufficiency, as when managers acted as though they could take control of other institutions and carry every struggling institution themselves. A spirit of criticism, faultfinding, and distrust can repeat the experience of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram among God's people, and yielding to hasty unadvised words, self-esteem, false witness against brethren, and leavening other minds with distrust repeats that rebellion. Questioning and doubting the men God is teaching, guiding, and leading weakens faith in God's instrumentalities, and those who indulge that spirit will bring upon themselves an experience similar to theirs.

It warns against resisting evidence and refusing God's message through His appointed messengers, linked with contempt for the Lord's word and with the danger of continuing in defiance until judgment comes. Their tempting of Christ and murmuring brought destruction by serpents and by the destroyer as examples.

The rebellion was extended and included far more than two men, being led by two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown, with their families involved, showing genuine rebellion and apostasy that is hardly ever curable, so that rebellion must be called by its right name and apostasy by its right name. The church is warned not to follow apostate leaders, not to take the great leader of apostasy and name him Christ our Righteousness, and not to be easily led astray after more than half a century of light by two men and their wives seeking to undeceive the whole church. Such failure comes from not sinking the shaft deep into the mines of truth and not being able to distinguish precious ore from base material, the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger, and the false from the genuine despite abundant cautions about false prophets with heresies, and a church thus misled needs to review this chapter in its experience, humble itself before God, and sincerely repent for being so easily led astray.

Lessons for Church Life

The standing of Dathan and Abiram at their tent doors with their households after the congregation moved away is open defiance in accusing and condemning those God has entrusted with the work, and such opposition to men of God's appointment is an offense to God. Charges against appointed workers must be supported by proof and carefully investigated, with accusers called to bring proof on every point and every charge met openly rather than with silence or uncertainty. Every unsubstantiated reproach must be lifted and the false, filthy garments of accusation removed from God's servant, so the people are not left to believe a lie.

To assail fellow workers whom God appointed, hold them up in a ridiculous light, and charge them unjustly with the guilt of many sins creates a sentiment that cuts off their influence, makes false impressions, and causes dissension in the church. That same work creates false sympathy, leads others into the same error, endangers their souls, and can arise even in the very midst of God's people. The verse warns about people who separate from the church body, imagine that their own ideas and methods will produce a more correct church, and use the errors of others to accuse fellow believers and build themselves up, and such people should be watched. It is going on year after year doing one's own mind and judgment and refusing to hear the voice of the Lord in the face of all warnings, threatening to sever all connection with the brethren and pressing dishonoring terms to make them afraid, so the brethren must stand with firm rectitude and determination and let separation take place rather than consent, for the Lord warns to keep off that ground.

The rebellion can be repeated when men in responsible positions pursue ambitious projects, have their pride hurt by straight testimony against them, and have little faith in God's messages, so that it would not take a strong movement to bring them to the open stand of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The Korah, Dathan, and Abiram spirit is also seen when people who themselves need converting refuse to change their thoughts and attitude, and instead of being changed to work in Christ's lines criticize and find fault and talk against God's appointed management and make it appear mistaken when the Lord is guiding it. That same rebellious spirit appears as soon as one separates from God so the heart is not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, revealing the attributes of Satan and beginning to oppress fellow men with an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness. It is seen in institutions both in workers oppressing one another and in one institution desiring to control all others, by men entrusted with weighty responsibilities yet having no living connection with God who do despite to the Holy Spirit and, though warnings from God come again and again, cast them aside and venture on in the same course. The opposition bound up with their names shows rebellion against God that oppresses others, acts against truth, justice, and righteousness, and casts aside repeated warnings.

The verse means rising up to reproach those upon whom God has laid the burden of His work, not toiling to bring out precious points of truth but coming up afterward and receiving those points all prepared to hand. It means taking the Sabbath at no cost to oneself while it cost others much, and then showing gratitude by opposing and accusing the workers God appointed. It means laboring to make the testimonies God gave through His messenger of none effect by setting things before the people in a perverted light, deceiving and being deceived, strengthening the hands and minds of evildoers and spreading unbelief, so that many honestly thought the rebels were right and Moses and Aaron were all wrong, and drawing a large following including two hundred and fifty princes, men of renown, who made as firm a stand as they did. It means claiming great light and special exaltation by God while not obeying all the light, mingling the work with human devisings and selfishness, hurting God's servants, and sustaining men God cannot favor, thereby forfeiting all right to claim sacred power or to have one's voice respected as the voice of God. Both one's own course and the result of one's influence upon other minds is charged in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts.

The standing of Dathan and Abiram in open rebellion with wives, sons, and little children is repeated when church members cling to a corrupt leader who wears a mild, devoted, religious garb while inwardly full of corruption and rebellion. Following such an influence draws followers into darkness every time, sets the heart at war with the work of the third angel and with the visions, despises them, and gathers many sympathizers in opposition to God's appointed work. Their self-deception in standing against God's appointed leadership led them to reject truth and treat error as truth, warning against resisting God's work and opposing those seeking to do His will and against strengthening those who resist truth. Yet such rebellion and disaffection cannot destroy a work that is of God. Their rebellion against God's appointed order, seen when the people moved away from the tents while Dathan and Abiram stood at their entrances with their families, became an example of confusion and resistance that would be repeated when people distort God's words and warnings to support their own theories.