Numbers 16:33, commentary and pictures

They and all that belonged to them went down alive beneath the closing earth and perished from among the congregation when God made the ground open and swallow the tents and households of the leading rebels. This unprecedented swallowing was the sign that the Lord had sent Moses and that the rebels had provoked the Lord by accusing His appointed leaders. Their murmuring against Moses and Aaron was rejection of God and Christ as leader and insult to the Spirit of God. Their end works out on a narrower stage the same pride and ambition that caused Satan's rebellion in heaven, infused into them by him after his fall. Their destruction stands recorded as a warning to God's people to the close of time against rebellion, unbelief and refusal of God's warnings.

Rebellion and Its Setting

The verse belongs to the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram against Moses, and to the example of unbelief that warns against following rebellion. In that rebellion Korah and his associates publicly accused Moses and Aaron of taking authority that they themselves claimed to share.

The chief rebels were rulers in Israel honored and placed in positions of trust in the service of the tabernacle, but they became dissatisfied, wanted to be commanders, and sought the priesthood also. They forgot that God and not Moses had placed them where they were, yet they charged Moses with taking too much upon himself. In this they drew two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly to their side. They were wicked, unsanctified men who take advantage of souls perishing for truth who will accept almost anyone who can explain the Scriptures. First gaining the sympathy and confidence of the people in a new field, they then insinuated against God's appointed leaders with a deceptive story that they had been abused men, when the abuse and imposition was on their own side. By this they sowed seeds of doubt against those in whom God would have the people have confidence, and gathered many sympathizers.

Nearly forty years later Israel was brought again into the wilderness to Kadesh, to the very place where they had been proved after leaving Egypt, and the living stream from the rock ceased and they found no water. The thirsting multitude forgot the power of God that had supplied them with water from the rock for many years, nearly forty years before. Instead of trusting their Almighty Leader and God, they became impatient and rebellious against Moses and Aaron. They complained that Moses and Aaron had brought the congregation and their cattle out of Egypt into that evil place with no seed or figs or vines or pomegranates and no water to drink. In that complaint they said they wished they had died when their brethren died before the Lord, meaning they wished they had been among those destroyed in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.

Earth Swallows the Rebels

The congregation was told to get up from around their dwellings and to separate from the tents of these wicked men and to touch nothing belonging to them, lest they be consumed in their sins, while Dathan and Abiram stood in the door of their tents with their wives and sons and little children. Moses set forth the sign by which the matter would be decided, that if these men died the common death of all men then the Lord had not sent him to do all these works, but if the Lord made a new and unprecedented thing and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them alive with all that belonged to them, it would prove the Lord had sent him and that these men had provoked the Lord.

As soon as Moses ceased speaking the earth opened, their tents and all that pertained to them were swallowed up, and they and all that appertained to them went down alive beneath the closed earth when the earth closed upon them. They went down alive into the pit and perished from among the congregation, removed from Israel and cut off by sudden divine judgment for rebellion against God. They went down crying out as they perished, and the cry was heard by the children of Israel, who fled a great distance because they knew they were in a measure guilty for receiving the accusations against Moses and Aaron and were afraid they would also perish with them.

This going down alive with all that belonged to them as the earth closed over them was a first judgment of God that was not yet finished. It was distinct from the fire from the cloud of glory that afterward consumed the two hundred and fifty princes who offered incense. Those princes did not perish with the first rebels because they were not first in rebellion but were given opportunity to see the end of the leaders and repent before wrath destroyed them for remaining unreconciled to the destruction of those wicked men.

God in a miraculous manner caused the earth to open and take them alive beneath with all that belonged to them. This shows that He controls the fire and water under the surface of the earth and calls them into action as His instruments to do His will. These fiery forces beneath have been and will be His agents to blot out very wicked cities from the earth in the same way, when the heated elements cannot vent and the earth is convulsed and trembles and heaves, so that villages, cities and burning mountains are carried down together alive. Such swallowings are evidences of His power that strike terror and awe.

Vindication Mercy and Aftermath

The sudden swallowing alive and perishing from among the congregation proved that the rebels had provoked the Lord and that Moses had done all his works by the Lord's authority and not on his own. It was God's just wrath upon the sin of rebelling against Moses and Aaron and unjustly accusing them. The sight of that judgment should have ended all suspicion and distrust toward Moses and led to repentance for abusing him.

The destruction confirmed and sustained Aaron in the sacred office of high priest. Even so, the judgment did not at first convince rebellious Israel that they were wrong and Moses and Aaron were right, for the people still insisted Moses and Aaron were wrong and had killed the people of the Lord. The rebellion was not cured until fourteen thousand and seven hundred who had joined it were slain, after which God in mercy performed the remarkable miracle upon Aaron's rod to settle forever the question of the priesthood and settle minds forever in regard to it. After that miracle Israel was convinced of its own wrong, saw the rebellion in its true light, was terrified at dying in the wilderness, and confessed that Korah and those who perished with him had justly suffered God's wrath.

This display of God's vengeance arrested the congregation's rebellion and gave the people opportunity to repent, showing both the seriousness of their sin and God's long-suffering mercy in not destroying the whole congregation. Though the entire congregation shared guilt because all had sympathized to a greater or less degree, God in great mercy made a distinction between the leaders in rebellion and those whom they had led. After overwhelming evidence had removed all uncertainty that they were wrong and Moses was right, He still granted space for repentance to the people who had permitted themselves to be deceived, with the signal manifestation of His power confirming the truth.

Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, was seeking to save Korah and his company when forgiveness was still lingering and judgment came very near. The special irresistible interference from heaven while Moses entreated Israel to flee was an appeal for them to repent, and the judgment could even then have been stayed if they had responded to the interposition of providence and sought forgiveness. Their flight was only fear of destruction, their rebellion was not cured, and they returned to their tents that night terrified but not repentant, so stubborn persistence sealed their doom.

Even after witnessing this marked judgment the survivors remained so deceived by pious pretensions that they blamed Moses for the deaths and accused him of killing the people of the Lord. They regarded the rebels as martyrs in effect, because their judgment had been shaped to sympathize with rebellion, their stubborn confidence in their own judgment leading to blindness and presumption against clear evidence of God's power. The sight that should have ended suspicion and distrust and led to repentance for abuse of Moses did not cure the rebellion until fourteen thousand and seven hundred who had joined it were slain the next morning for presumptuous rebellion.

Doctrinal and Prophetic Meaning

Murmuring against Moses and Aaron was rejection of God as leader and blasphemy against God. Though the rebels believed they were serving God, in rejecting God's chosen instrument and leader they rejected Christ, their invisible leader, and insulted the Spirit of God. Their hearts were steeled against the Holy Spirit by moral infatuation because they did not implicitly trust and obey. Satan deluded them with the idea that they were opposing only a human leader, a man like themselves, and they were deceived by Satan by their own consent because they placed themselves in his power.

The end of those swallowed alive shows the end of the same pride and ambition that caused Satan's rebellion in heaven, worked out on a narrower stage. As Lucifer complained against the government of God and sought to overthrow the order established in heaven, after his fall he infused that same envy and discontent and ambition for position and honor into Korah, Dathan and Abiram, arousing self-exaltation, envy, distrust and rebellion. Yet they were so deluded that they thought themselves righteous and regarded those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan. The judgment illustrates that work done in self will not stand while work done in God will endure, and that opposing God's appointed work brings destruction.

Their destruction stands recorded for a warning to God's people, especially those living near the close of time and at the end of the world, for their instruction. By claiming great light while not obeying it all, mingling men's devisings and selfishness with God's work, exalting self as especially favored of God, hurting God's servants and sustaining men whom God could not favor, they forfeited all right to claim sacred power and authority. The same forfeiture falls on church leaders who entrench themselves as president and associates behind the sacredness of General Conference power as the voice of God to be respected while following that same course.

Warning for Later Generations

The history is to be read carefully and prayerfully as a recorded example of unbelief and apostasy that admonishes later readers against rebellion and foolish conduct and calls for genuine repentance. It shows the deadly end of rebellion against God's appointed leadership, and warns that refusing the Lord's warnings and persisting in one's own judgment can lead to a similar end. It gives instruction needed at the present time to keep the whole flock from being fed errors that cause them to go astray. God calls for decisive action against evil workers in order to protect His work, for those who resist His correction and persist in sin and undermine faith face judgment and ruin. Their work ended in disastrous judgment as a warning that those influenced to join a similar rebellion will also suffer disastrous consequences and share in its judgment. Resisting God's appointed messengers and rejecting the word He sends brings divine judgment, persisting in a rebellious, critical spirit risks repeating that experience, and their rebellion serves as a comparison for people taking a rebellious course.

Satan leads persons to imitate their example by raising insurrection among God's people in opposition to plain testimony, thinking those on whom God laid the burden of His work exalt themselves and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for. Irritated by straight testimonies against hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco because those testimonies would destroy their idols, they stand undecided between conviction of truth and self-indulgence until appetite prevails and the sense of sacred things is perverted by slow poisons. Then they decide at any consequence not to deny self, raise a wall of separation from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in fear of the Lord, war against the testimonies saying the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble, and when rebellion unfurls its banner all the disaffected and the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt and the blind rally around it to scatter and sow discord. Their end is the punishment for refusing God's testimonies and laboring to make them of no effect, being deceived and deceiving others. 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, their evil spreads by strengthening the hands and minds of others who quote them while the enemy of righteousness looks on pleased.

The same kind of disaffection that unites to make God's testimonies of none effect and tear faith from hearts is the work of the devil and a satanic dragon-spirit that does not make people more zealous or circumspect and does not prevail, for if the work is of God it will live and survive all such disaffections. Their fate is preserved as a warning against accusing and condemning those God has entrusted with the work, for accusing and undermining God's appointed servants is conduct that offends God, brings grave consequences, and must be answered by demanding proof and carefully investigating every charge. Their rebellion warns against separating from the body while claiming one's own ideas and methods will produce a purer church, and against accusing fellow believers and using their faults for self-advancement. It means rebellion against God's appointed workers is ingratitude toward God ending in destruction from among the congregation, and it applies to those who have not toiled to bring out precious points of truth but receive the Sabbath all prepared at no cost while it cost others much toil and sacrifice, then rise up like them to reproach the workers God is using.

Their end was God's punishment for selfishness and fraud, for seeking advantage without bearing burdens or responsibilities and being no religious strength to God's cause, with a fraudulent course concealed from brethren but marked by God so that they perished according to their works. The same heart remains in those who seek benefits without responsibility and would follow the same example and receive the same reward if given opportunity. Seeking credit and honor for a part in God's work and thinking oneself equal to God's chosen leader and an essential part that must be recognized leads to destruction, so the lesson is to put entire confidence in God, learn human weakness from the revelation of God's character, and let all self-exaltation go. Those who yield to hasty, unadvised speech, self-esteem, false witness against brethren and distrust toward God's instrumentalities, who think they have been misused and then leaven others' minds with distrust, weaken faith in the men God is teaching and leading, and plant seeds of questioning and doubt, will bring upon themselves an experience similar to perishing from among the congregation. Their example warns against self-deception that treats truth as error and error as truth and against resisting those who seek to do God's will.

Their rebellion and its consequences will be repeated in people who distort Scripture and God's warnings to support their own theories. That repetition appears in rebelling against management the Lord is guiding by criticizing and finding mistakes and talking to make it appear there are mistakes where God is leading because the way is contrary to all previous experience, which requires converting and changing thoughts and attitude to work successfully in Christ's lines. It appears also in men in responsible positions who pursue ambitious projects, have little faith in God's messages, and have pride hurt by straight testimonies that head off their plans, so that only a small further movement would bring them to open revolt. The spirit of Korah comes as soon as a man separates from God so his heart is not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, revealing Satan's attributes in oppressing fellow men with influence contrary to truth, justice and righteousness, manifested in one institution desiring to control all others and in men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God doing despite to the Holy Spirit and casting aside warnings again and again.

Their rebellion was firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept light from heaven, pride needing humbling, prejudice, backsliding, minds not actuated by God's Spirit, unsanctified independence insulting God's Spirit, contempt for God's word, despising His messengers and message, eyes blinded and judgment perverted by Satan, mockery and disgust at God's word, and daily lightness, trifling, jesting and joking instead of seeking God, acted over at Minneapolis by those who would not hearken or have God manifest His Spirit and power, so that unless every soul repents and is converted to be healed they will walk in darkness, have the candlestick removed, walk in sparks of their own kindling, and lie down in sorrow. Rebellion against God's order brought judgment warning that self-exalting, selfish plans in God's service cannot replace what God appoints. Leaders' rebellion and self-importance warns against presuming to take control of other institutions and carry every struggling organization, and rebellion against God's appointed leadership warns against following those who betray a sacred trust, with the same kind of rebellion and deception recurring until the close of time. Those who have light and evidence but will not see or acknowledge it, who oppose the testimony of God's Spirit and lead others in a path where God is not leading, will be left to perish from among the congregation going down alive into the pit, and both such leaders and all who join them and walk not in the Lord's light will fall together into the ditch and lie down in darkness.