Numbers 16:28, commentary and pictures

In the uprising of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram with 250 princes, famous men of renown, who charged Moses and Aaron with seizing authority and claimed equal right to it, Moses answered with this declaration. He affirmed that the Lord had sent him to do all these works and that he had acted not from his own mind, judgment, will, choice, ambition, or plans, staking his divine commission publicly on what God was about to do after bidding the congregation separate from the rebels' tents. If the rebels died the common death then the Lord had not sent him, but if the Lord made a new thing and the earth opened to swallow them alive, Israel would know they had provoked the Lord, and as soon as he finished speaking the ground split, swallowed them with all belonging to them, and closed over them, vindicating Moses and proving the rebellion wrong. To reject Moses and Aaron as men of God's appointment was to reject God and Christ their invisible leader, blaspheming God and insulting His Spirit, while the rebels, worked by satanic agencies that infused the pride and ambition of Satan's own rebellion in heaven, thought they opposed only a human leader like themselves. The whole account is written for instruction and admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come, a fearful example warning that opposing the work God has appointed and joining those who reject His light leads to destruction.

Rebellion Setting and Test

The verse belongs to the uprising 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, who rose up in rebellion and accused Moses and Aaron of taking authority for themselves and claimed they were equally entitled to it. In meeting that rebellion Moses appealed to divine commission, declaring hereby it would be known that the Lord had sent him to do all these works. The rebellion was extended beyond two men and was genuine rebellion and apostasy that must be called by its right name.

By the verse Moses declared that his works were sent and directed by the Lord and appointed by Him, chosen by God to do a certain work, and that he had not done them of his own mind, judgment, will, choice, ambition, initiative, ideas, or plans. His authority, actions, works, and leadership came from the Lord, not from his own choice or personal ambition. The coming events would make God's sending of Moses clear.

After commanding the congregation to depart from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram lest they be consumed in their sins and to touch nothing of theirs, with Dathan and Abiram standing in their tent doors with wives, sons, and little children, Moses publicly staked his divine commission on a supernatural, miraculous proof. He declared that God had sent him to do all these works and he had not done them of his own mind or acted on his own authority. The proposed test was that if the rebels died the common death of all men then the Lord had not sent Moses, but if the Lord made a new thing and the earth opened her mouth to swallow them alive with all pertaining to them and they went down alive into the pit, Israel would know they had provoked the Lord.

As soon as Moses finished speaking the ground clave asunder and opened, swallowed their tents and all belonging to them, closed over them, and they perished alive. That extraordinary, overwhelming display of divine power vindicated Moses, confirmed he had been sent by God, showed the rebels had provoked the Lord, removed uncertainty, and showed Moses was right and the rebellion was wrong. That special, irresistible intervention from heaven was carried out by Jesus as the Angel who went before the Hebrews and upheld the authority of the work given to Moses. It brought God's judgment very near as an appeal to repent, with forgiveness still lingering and salvation still possible if they responded to God's providence, but their flight from destruction was from fear and their rebellion was not cured, for they returned to their tents that night terrified but not repentant, and later recalled a plague destruction wishing they had died with the rebels.

The same commission included settling the priesthood on Aaron, and the accusations and murmurings against Moses and Aaron were unjust, with rebellion against their authority being sin against the Lord. By the miracle of Aaron's rod budding, blooming, and yielding almonds in one night, God positively distinguished Aaron from the rest of Israel to silence complaint and settle the priesthood beyond question. Afterward Israel was fully convinced of its wrong, saw its past rebellion in its true light with terror, acknowledged that Moses and Aaron were right, confessed its sin, admitted that it had rebelled against the Lord and that Korah and those who perished with him were sinners against the Lord who had justly suffered His wrath and judgment, and believed the unwelcome truth that it was indeed the Lord who had said they would not enter the promised land but would die in the wilderness.

Divine Authority and Rejection

To turn against Moses and Aaron as men of God's appointment was to turn against God as leader, to rebel against Jehovah, and to blaspheme God by murmuring against them. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram imagined they were opposing only a human leader like themselves, yet in rejecting God's chosen instrument they were rejecting Christ their invisible leader and insulting the Spirit of God. Their hearts were steeled against the Holy Spirit, and the claim that Moses acted not of his own mind but because the Lord had sent him to do all these works makes their course a warning against resisting God's messengers and sowing unbelief.

To reject Moses's God-given direction and the work entrusted to him was rebellion against God, for to reject a messenger and message appointed by God is resistance to God. Moses staked his divine commission on the events to follow as proof that he was not acting on his own authority, and the setting of that claim is the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The unmistakable display of divine power confirming Moses's commission and the holy calling of Moses and Aaron left the congregation without excuse and gave opportunity to recognize rebellion and repent. Even after the leaders were judged, the survivors still accused Moses of killing the Lord's people, exposing how stubborn self-confidence can bring fearful deception.

A work done in self-will and devised by self will not stand or endure, but a work done in God will endure and stand. Moses's works were evidence that the Lord had sent him and that he acted by God's direction and commission rather than by his own will, ideas, or plans. God, not self, must be the true worker, and those serving Him must not try to replace His plans with narrow, selfish ideas.

Moses's declaration that the Lord sent him to do all these works and that he did not act from his own mind belongs only to one who obeys the light and works by the Holy Spirit. It does not belong to leaders whose work for years is mingled with men's devisings and selfishness while claiming to be especially exalted of God and entrenching behind the sacredness of office as the voice of God to be respected. To claim great light while not obeying the light, hurting God's servants, the oil and the wine, and sustaining men God cannot favor, forfeits all right to Moses's claim as verily as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram forfeited it. The same proof that marked Moses, that his divine commission was to be known by the proof he gave that he acted on God's sending and not on his own ideas, marks God's messenger at Minneapolis, where God placed His messenger in the proper position.

Satanic Spirit and Deception

The uprising reenacts on a narrower stage the same spirit that drove rebellion in heaven, pride and ambition complaining against divine government and seeking to overthrow the established order. That envy, discontent, and hunger for position and honor was infused into human minds, working upon them to stir desire for self-exaltation and to excite envy, distrust, and rebellion. Those seized by it were operated upon by satanic agencies while calling the influence the Holy Spirit. Delusion settled upon them as moral infatuation because they failed to trust and obey God, until their hearts were steeled against the Holy Spirit. Though deceived by Satan, it was by their own consent because they placed themselves in his power, and judgment followed close upon their sin.

Their method was to work secretly and in darkness by falsehoods, enmity, evil surmisings, and satanic misrepresentations in order to gain sympathy, instead of going directly to those against whom they held grievance, just as Satan did with the angels under his influence. As wicked men they took advantage of souls perishing for lack of truth who will accept almost anyone able to explain the Scriptures. They first won sympathy and confidence in a new field, then insinuated against God's appointed leaders. They spread a deceptive story that they were abused men when the abuse and imposition lay on their own side, and by sowing seeds of doubt about those in whom God would have the people place confidence they gathered many sympathizers.

At the same time they were so deluded as to think themselves righteous. They concluded that those on whom God had laid the burden of His work had exalted themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs were uncalled for. Those who faithfully reproved their sins they regarded as actuated by Satan.

That opposite spirit to the one that moved Moses appears as soon as a person separates from God so that the heart is no longer under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, and then the attributes of Satan are revealed. It begins to oppress fellow men and sends forth an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness. It appears as the desire of one institution to control all others, and does despite to the Holy Spirit through men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God. It casts aside warnings from God again and again while venturing on in the same course.

Warning Example for Last Days

The entire history to which this declaration belongs is preserved as instruction and admonition for those upon whom the ends of the world are come, to be studied carefully and prayerfully for its lessons, so that God's people take heed and do not follow the same example of unbelief. Its teaching is appropriate for the present time and must be set before the people just as it stands, together with the lesson of the twelve spies, the spies first and Korah's rebellion second, lest the whole flock be fed errors that cause them to go astray. In that uprising Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rose with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, declaring that Moses acted only because the Lord sent him to do all these works and that he did not do them of his own mind. They were worked by satanic agencies while calling it the Holy Spirit, working secretly and in darkness by falsehoods and enmity and evil-surmisings and satanic representations to gain sympathy, as Satan did with the fellow angels under him, instead of going to the ones they had aught against, yet Christ came to this world not to aid such rebellion but to put it down. Moses had been chosen by God to do a certain work and sent by God to do it, with Aaron made his mouthpiece, and because Aaron and Miriam were honored with a part in the work they thought themselves equal to Moses and a very essential part of the great whole, feeling credit should be given to them and that Moses should not have all the honor.

The experience was faithfully chronicled to pass into history for admonition, and the same test applies now, for after God has given His people light for more than half a century it is not left to two men and their wives to undeceive the whole church and declare God's servant a fraud and deceiver. Those who follow the great leader of apostasy while naming him Christ our Righteousness show they have not dug deep into truth and cannot distinguish precious ore from base material, cannot distinguish false from genuine, and cannot distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd from a stranger. With abundant cautions about false prophets coming with heresies to deceive if possible the very elect, a misled church must humble itself before God and sincerely repent for being so easily led astray, and false claimants are known by their fruits.

Its immediate fulfillment makes the rebellion a fearful example of how the Lord will punish the rebellious, for Moses publicly staked his divine commission on a supernatural proof after commanding the congregation to depart from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram lest they be consumed in their sins, proposing that if the rebels died a common death then the Lord had not sent him, but if the Lord made a new thing and the earth opened to swallow them alive then they had provoked the Lord, and when the ground clave asunder and swallowed them judgment followed close upon sin. Their concealed wrongdoing remains known to God, who will reward them according to their works. Their fate warns that opposing the work God has appointed and joining those who reject His light leads to destruction and darkness.

The rebellion was genuine rebellion and apostasy and must be called by its right name, and genuine rebellion is hardly ever curable. Even after the leaders were judged the destruction did not persuade the survivors, who still accused Moses of killing the Lord's people, though his works were commanded by the Lord and not done on his own authority and though rejecting the work entrusted to him was rebellion against God, revealing how stubborn self-confidence can bring fearful deception. Opposition to God's appointed work does not prevent that work from living and surviving disaffection and attack. The account also warns that people may distort God's words and warnings to support their own theories, while the events Moses foretold would demonstrate that the Lord had sent him and that he had not acted on his own authority.

Application to Church Life

Korah, Dathan, and Abiram stand as the example of rising up to reproach and oppose the burden-bearers of the work God entrusted to them, accusing and condemning them and pursuing an independent course instead of receiving correction. Their course is insurrection among God's people in opposition to the plain testimony God gives His servants to bear in rebuking wrongs among them. Those who rise against that testimony become self-deceived, thinking those on whom God has laid the burden of His work have exalted themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for.

This appears when straight testimonies against hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff, and tobacco irritate those who will not sacrifice their idols of appetite. Wavering between conviction of truth and self-indulgence until appetite prevails, the sense of sacred things is perverted by slow poisons. They at last refuse to deny self whatever the consequence and raise a wall of separation between themselves and those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. They find relief in warring against the testimonies and striving to make them appear untrue, saying the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble. When rebellion unfurls its banner they rally around it all the disaffected and the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind, to scatter and sow discord.

To despise the messenger is not to despise a person but to despise the messengers and the message God sends and to show contempt for the word of the Lord. Contempt for one God has placed in a position of duty and for the testimony sent by God is contempt for God's word. To call light darkness and to mistake truth for error repeats their danger in rejecting God's servants. Satan blinds the eyes and perverts the judgment of such opposers, they obscure spiritual eyesight and walk in darkness and in sparks of their own kindling. Unless they humble pride, confess, repent, and be converted to be healed, they shall lie down in sorrow and have the candlestick removed out of its place.

Those who repeat the course of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram refuse messages given from the Lord and labor to make the divine commission of none effect. They are deceived and deceiving others, opposing the work of the One God sent under commission not of His own mind. They must meet in the day of final accounts not only their own course of action but the result of their influence upon other minds. Their work is charged against them in the books of heaven, they strengthen the hands and minds of other opposers who quote them, and the enemy of righteousness looks on pleased. Only thorough work and confession lets the sin go beforehand to judgment that it may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come.

The same test returns when men placed in responsible positions who knew not Joseph cherish ambitious projects, have their pride hurt when straight testimonies head off those projects, and have but little faith in the messages the Lord has given through His messenger. It would not take a very strong movement for that distrust and wounded pride to become open rebellion. The verse also stands against doing according to one's own mind and judgment year after year in the face of all warnings while refusing to hear the voice of the Lord. That self-willed course includes threatening to sever all connection with brethren, seeking by threatenings to make them afraid and to force consent to dishonoring terms, and persisting in one's own plans and methods. Brethren should meet it with firm rectitude rather than yield, since separation is better than consent to such terms, for to continue so is to take the dangerous course of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

To question and doubt those whom God is teaching, guiding, and leading by the Holy Spirit as His instrumentalities, to think they have misused others, to bear false witness against them, to leaven minds with distrust and weaken faith and confidence in them, and to sow the seed of doubt against them repeats the spirit and brings the experience of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. To assail and ridicule such appointed workers and turn confidence and fellowship from them is an offense to God. The same rebellious course is taken by those who separate from the church, accuse fellow believers, and use others' errors to advance themselves. It is also taken by those who hang on and cling to a corrupt leader who throws around himself a mild, devoted, religious garb while corruption and rebellion are within, whose dark and deadly influence draws followers into the dark, whose heart is at war with the work of the third angel and with the visions which he despises, yet who keeps many sympathizers.

Such accusing work must not be met with silence but must be met openly, with accusers called to bring proof, every charge carefully investigated, and every unsubstantiated reproach lifted, so the people are not left uncertain or led to believe a lie. The challenge to Moses's appointed work shows why accusations against God's servants should be answered and their claims required to provide proof. The rebellion illustrates the danger of opposing God's appointed work by persuading people to distrust its leaders, and the judgment showed the danger of rejecting God's appointed servants and their correction. Criticism claiming mistakes when the Lord is guiding the management of His work does not prove error in leadership but repeats the rebellion and reveals the critics' own need of converting and changing their thoughts and attitude in every way to work successfully in Christ's lines.

The chapter is preserved as a warning against rebellion and apostasy that can recur. It invokes their spirit as resisting God's authority and rejecting His repeated warnings. Acting over this rebellion from pride, prejudice, self-complacency, mockery, lightness, and unsanctified independence is being actuated by the same spirit that inspired them. People must choose whether they are on the Lord's side.