And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.
All Israel round about the rebels fled in terror at the cry of those going down alive into the pit, fearing the earth would swallow them up also. The earth swallowed Korah, Dathan and Abiram with their sympathizers alive while fire from the cloud consumed the two hundred and fifty princes who offered incense, so the judgment was not yet finished when the people fled. The whole congregation shared guilt because all had sympathized with the rebels and received their accusations against Moses and Aaron, yet God in mercy distinguished between the leaders in rebellion and those they had led and granted the deceived people further space for repentance. Their flight from the judgment did not cure rebellion or bring lasting repentance, for they returned to their tents terrified but not repentant and on the next day defiantly accused Moses and Aaron of killing the people of the Lord. Faithfully chronicled, their flight stands as a warning against unbelief and following the rebels' example, to be studied by those upon whom the ends of the world are come.
The Flight and Its Setting
All Israel round about the rebels fled in terror at the cry of those going down alive into the pit, fearing the earth would swallow them up also. They fled in alarm when they heard the doomed rebels cry out, and their flight followed the destruction and displayed the immediate terror of God's judgment. Their flight the day before contrasts with their defiant accusation the next day, for fear came after God's judgment yet did not bring repentance or cure rebellion. The rebels were Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, joined by more than two men, including two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown. Their rebellion was against Moses and Aaron and against Jehovah, and it is preserved as a warning to be read carefully and prayerfully.
The judgment was that the earth swallowed the rebels alive while fire from the cloud consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense, showing the judgment was not yet finished when the people fled. All Israel fled a great distance because they knew they were guilty in part for listening to and receiving the accusations, and they were afraid the earth would swallow them up also. Even after witnessing God's miraculous power and destruction of Dathan, Abiram, and those who joined them, the people remained so blinded and deceived by pious claims that the lesson was not yet complete. Moses entreated Israel to flee from the coming destruction, leaving the door open so that divine judgment might even then have been stayed if Korah and his company had repented and sought forgiveness, but stubborn persistence sealed their doom.
The flight was sought by Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, to save the people from destruction while forgiveness was still lingering for them. The judgment of God had come very near and appealed to them to repent, and a special, irresistible interference from heaven had arrested their rebellion so that if they responded to the interposition of God's providence they might be saved. Their fleeing from the judgments did not cure their rebellion, and they returned to their tents that night terrified but not repentant.
Shared Guilt and Merciful Vindication
All who fled round about at the cry of those going down alive into the pit knew themselves guilty in part, for the entire congregation were sharers in the guilt to a greater or less degree because all had sympathized with the rebels and had listened to and received their accusations against Moses and Aaron. That sympathy had been won deliberately, for Korah, Dathan and Abiram first gained the sympathy and confidence of the people and then used it to insinuate against rightful leaders, telling a deceptive story that they were abused men when the abuse and imposition was on their own side, and sowing seeds of doubt about those in whom God would have the people have confidence. Their judgment had been so shaped to sympathize with wrongdoers and to call those whom God reproved holy that even a terrible display of judgment did not correct their view, and the next morning they blamed Moses for the rebels' deaths and regarded the swallowed men as martyrs defending Israel, so that the display strengthened their mistaken accusation.
Yet God in great mercy made a distinction between the leaders in rebellion and those they had led, granting the deceived people still further space for repentance after overwhelming evidence and a signal manifestation of His power had proved them wrong and Moses right and had removed all uncertainty. The call to flee from coming destruction left the door open, so that divine judgment might even then have been stayed if Korah and his company had repented and sought forgiveness, but their stubborn persistence sealed their doom. The flight itself was sought by Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, to save them from destruction while forgiveness was still lingering for them, for judgment had come very near and appealed to them to repent, and a special, irresistible interference from heaven had arrested their rebellion so that if they responded to the interposition of providence they might be saved.
The destruction fully established that Moses and Aaron had spoken by divine authority and compelled the people to believe the unwelcome truth that they were to die in the wilderness without entering the promised land. The terror of hearing the cry and fearing the earth would swallow them also grew in some into full conviction that they had wrongly accused Moses and Aaron and had sinned against the Lord in rebelling against their authority. That conviction became confession that they had sinned in rebelling against their leaders, with acknowledgment that Korah and those who perished with him were sinners against the Lord who justly suffered His wrath, and with fear that they themselves would die in the wilderness for their own rebellion.
Terror Without Lasting Repentance
The cry of those going down alive into the pit sent all Israel round about fleeing in horror lest the earth swallow them too, yet that fear of the judgment and its consequences did not cure their rebellion or bring them to repentance. They went back to their tents that night terrified but not repentant, though judgment had come very near to appeal to them and a special, irresistible interference had arrested their rebellion so that they might still be saved by responding while forgiveness lingered. The clear destruction of the leaders should have led them to repent for wronging Moses, but seeing it did not remove their suspicion and distrust. Their terror did not bring lasting humility nor free them from prejudice.
Though they had fled a great distance in alarm, on the very next day the same congregation defiantly charged Moses and Aaron with killing the people of the Lord. That accusation hardened into intent to do violence to their faithful, self-sacrificing leaders, showing the survivors could remain deceived while stubbornly trusting their own judgment over God's counsel. Even after witnessing God's miraculous power they stayed so blinded and deceived by pious claims that their judgment sympathized with wrongdoers and called holy those God had reproved. They regarded the swallowed men as martyrs defending Israel, and the terrible display, instead of correcting them, only strengthened their mistaken accusation against Moses.
Warning Preserved for Later Generations
The rebellion and its outcome were faithfully chronicled to pass into history as a warning against unbelief and against following the rebels' example. That history is to be read carefully and prayerfully for its lessons about rebellion and repentance. It is for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come, to be studied by God's people especially while living near the close of time.
The chapter warns that work rooted in self will not stand, while work done in God will endure. God's own holy fire is safe, but no other fire is safe. Evil workers must be separated from the Lord's work, with decisive action in an emergency.
Genuine rebellion is apostasy and is hardly ever curable. The church must therefore call rebellion by its right name and apostasy by its right name. It must sink deep into the mines of truth to distinguish precious ore from base material and the false from the genuine, must distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger, and must know leaders by their fruits. When easily led astray by men claiming to undeceive the whole body of believers, it must humble itself before God and sincerely repent.
The rebellion worked out on a narrower stage 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 upon Korah, Dathan, and Abiram to arouse desire for self-exaltation and to excite envy, distrust, and rebellion, causing them to reject God as their leader by rejecting the men of God's appointment.
Korah's company were so deluded as to think themselves righteous while in murmuring against Moses and Aaron they blasphemed God, even regarding those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan. Satan deluded them by moral infatuation upon minds that do not implicitly trust and obey God, steeling the heart against the influence of the Holy Spirit. That delusion led them to think they were opposing only a human leader, a man like themselves, but in rejecting God's chosen instrument by their own consent they rejected Christ their invisible leader and insulted the Spirit of God. They were deceived by Satan because they placed themselves in his power.
Resisting the Lord's warnings and insisting on one's own course can bring divine judgment that strikes fear into those nearby, as when the people around fled lest they too be swallowed up. Those who reject the light and join the rebels are in danger of being lost.
The Same Rebellion Repeated Today
The rebellion is repeated when Satan leads persons to imitate Korah in raising insurrection among God's people by rising in opposition to plain testimony. Those who do so become self-deceived, thinking those on whom God has laid the burden of His work are exalted above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for, opposing the testimony God would have His servants bear in rebuking wrongs. Instead of denying self and cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, they war against straight testimonies and try to make themselves and others believe they are untrue. They say the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble, and the course itself with the result of its influence upon other minds is charged in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts.
That opposition is irritated by testimonies against hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco, whose idols they would destroy. Many are left undecided between entire sacrifice and rejecting plain testimony to yield to appetite, weakened through conflict between conviction and self-indulgence until appetite prevails and the sense of sacred things is perverted by slow poisons, deciding not to deny self whatever the consequence. That decision raises a wall of separation between them and those cleansing themselves, the straight testimonies cause them uneasiness, and when the rebellious unfurl their banner all the disaffected rally around the standard and all the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind, unite to scatter and sow discord.
It is reenacted in unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light, refusal to hearken though the Lord desires to come near to bless and heal backslidings, contempt for the word of the Lord, and despising testimony. It is actuated not by the Spirit of God but by pride, firm self-complacency, prejudice, unsanctified independence, mockery, disgust, lightness, trifling, jesting and joking, with eyes blinded and judgment perverted by Satan and refusal to have God manifest His Spirit and power. Despising the messenger is despising God, who sustains His faithful messenger with grace and power and does not leave nor forsake him. Not one who cherishes that spirit will again have clear light to discern the preciousness of truth until pride is humbled and confession is made that mind and heart were filled with prejudice, and unless every soul repents of the sin and insult to the Spirit of God and is converted to be healed, spiritual eyesight is obscured, they walk in darkness and in the sparks of their own kindling and lie down in sorrow, and the candlestick is removed out of its place.
The same course appears in selfishness and fraud seeking personal advantage and benefits without bearing burdens or responsibility and giving no religious strength, ready to rebel when a favorable opportunity appears, with God marking the concealed transactions to reward finally according to works. It accuses and condemns those on whom God has placed the burden of His work, dishonoring God's appointed workers, which is an offense to God requiring proof and careful investigation of every charge. It labors to make God's testimonies of none effect, strengthening the hands and minds of many who quote and follow the deceived and deceiving workers. It claims great light while not obeying it all, mingles work with men's devisings and selfishness, claims to be especially exalted of God, hurts God's servants, the oil and the wine, and sustains men whom God cannot favor, thereby forfeiting all right to claim sacred power, to present voice as the voice of God, to entrench behind sacredness of office, or to demand respect as speaking for God.
It is also repeated by first gaining the sympathy and confidence of the people and then using it to insinuate against rightful leaders, telling a deceptive story of being abused men when the abuse and imposition is on their own side, and sowing seeds of doubt about those in whom God would have the people have confidence. Unsanctified men repeat this by taking advantage of souls perishing for truth who will accept almost anyone who can explain the Scriptures, and by taking precious points of truth all prepared to hand and taking the Sabbath at no cost to self, when it cost others much toil to bring it out, then manifesting gratitude by rising up against those workers and reproaching them. The same state of things can be created again with only a small movement when men in responsible positions pursue ambitious projects, have little faith in God's messages, and have their pride hurt by straight testimonies sent to head off their plans. That separation from God, with heart not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, reveals the attributes of Satan in beginning to oppress fellow men, with influence going forth contrary to truth and justice and righteousness, manifested in one institution desiring to control all others and in men entrusted with weighty responsibilities but having no living connection with God doing despite to the Holy Spirit, casting aside warnings that come again and again while venturing on in the same course. It is repeated when people who need converting refuse to change thoughts and attitude in every way, criticize and find mistakes in management the Lord is guiding, and talk to make it appear mistaken, instead of working successfully in Christ's lines.
The history gives instruction appropriate at the present time to keep the whole flock from being fed with errors that cause them to go astray. It warns that rebellion against God and distortion of His word and warnings can be repeated, that the experience of Korah and his companions could be repeated among those who persist in a destructive spirit, and that rebellion against God and attacks on His appointed servants bring danger and should not be treated lightly. Opposition to God's work cannot ultimately make that work fail. Hasty, unadvised words, self-esteem, bearing false witness against brethren, leavening minds with distrust, weakening faith in men whom God is teaching and leading, and questioning and doubting God's instrumentalities, with envy, evil-surmising, and listening to Satan's suggestions, leads to the same destructive experience and fearful end that came upon Korah, Dathan and Abiram when surrounding Israel fled lest the earth swallow them also.
The rebellious course of Dathan and Abiram is corruption and rebellion hidden under a mild, devoted, religious garb, at war with the work of the third angel and with the visions, despising them, and drawing those who hang on and sympathize into darkness every time, and this same course was taken by quite a number in New York who clung to such an influence. Nearly forty years later, when Israel was thirsty and could find no water in the wilderness, the impatient people complained against Moses and Aaron and wished they had been of that number who died before the Lord in Korah's destruction, rather than dying with their cattle in the wilderness. That destruction showed the seriousness of rebellion against God, sustained Aaron in his sacred office, and his intercession brought the plague that followed to a halt.
All Israel round about the rebels fled in terror at the cry of those going down alive into the pit, fearing the earth would swallow them up also. The earth swallowed Korah, Dathan and Abiram with their sympathizers alive while fire from the cloud consumed the two hundred and fifty princes who offered incense, so the judgment was not yet finished when the people fled. The whole congregation shared guilt because all had sympathized with the rebels and received their accusations against Moses and Aaron, yet God in mercy distinguished between the leaders in rebellion and those they had led and granted the deceived people further space for repentance. Their flight from the judgment did not cure rebellion or bring lasting repentance, for they returned to their tents terrified but not repentant and on the next day defiantly accused Moses and Aaron of killing the people of the Lord. Faithfully chronicled, their flight stands as a warning against unbelief and following the rebels' example, to be studied by those upon whom the ends of the world are come.
The Flight and Its Setting
All Israel round about the rebels fled in terror at the cry of those going down alive into the pit, fearing the earth would swallow them up also. They fled in alarm when they heard the doomed rebels cry out, and their flight followed the destruction and displayed the immediate terror of God's judgment. Their flight the day before contrasts with their defiant accusation the next day, for fear came after God's judgment yet did not bring repentance or cure rebellion. The rebels were Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, joined by more than two men, including two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown. Their rebellion was against Moses and Aaron and against Jehovah, and it is preserved as a warning to be read carefully and prayerfully.
The judgment was that the earth swallowed the rebels alive while fire from the cloud consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense, showing the judgment was not yet finished when the people fled. All Israel fled a great distance because they knew they were guilty in part for listening to and receiving the accusations, and they were afraid the earth would swallow them up also. Even after witnessing God's miraculous power and destruction of Dathan, Abiram, and those who joined them, the people remained so blinded and deceived by pious claims that the lesson was not yet complete. Moses entreated Israel to flee from the coming destruction, leaving the door open so that divine judgment might even then have been stayed if Korah and his company had repented and sought forgiveness, but stubborn persistence sealed their doom.
The flight was sought by Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, to save the people from destruction while forgiveness was still lingering for them. The judgment of God had come very near and appealed to them to repent, and a special, irresistible interference from heaven had arrested their rebellion so that if they responded to the interposition of God's providence they might be saved. Their fleeing from the judgments did not cure their rebellion, and they returned to their tents that night terrified but not repentant.
Shared Guilt and Merciful Vindication
All who fled round about at the cry of those going down alive into the pit knew themselves guilty in part, for the entire congregation were sharers in the guilt to a greater or less degree because all had sympathized with the rebels and had listened to and received their accusations against Moses and Aaron. That sympathy had been won deliberately, for Korah, Dathan and Abiram first gained the sympathy and confidence of the people and then used it to insinuate against rightful leaders, telling a deceptive story that they were abused men when the abuse and imposition was on their own side, and sowing seeds of doubt about those in whom God would have the people have confidence. Their judgment had been so shaped to sympathize with wrongdoers and to call those whom God reproved holy that even a terrible display of judgment did not correct their view, and the next morning they blamed Moses for the rebels' deaths and regarded the swallowed men as martyrs defending Israel, so that the display strengthened their mistaken accusation.
Yet God in great mercy made a distinction between the leaders in rebellion and those they had led, granting the deceived people still further space for repentance after overwhelming evidence and a signal manifestation of His power had proved them wrong and Moses right and had removed all uncertainty. The call to flee from coming destruction left the door open, so that divine judgment might even then have been stayed if Korah and his company had repented and sought forgiveness, but their stubborn persistence sealed their doom. The flight itself was sought by Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, to save them from destruction while forgiveness was still lingering for them, for judgment had come very near and appealed to them to repent, and a special, irresistible interference from heaven had arrested their rebellion so that if they responded to the interposition of providence they might be saved.
The destruction fully established that Moses and Aaron had spoken by divine authority and compelled the people to believe the unwelcome truth that they were to die in the wilderness without entering the promised land. The terror of hearing the cry and fearing the earth would swallow them also grew in some into full conviction that they had wrongly accused Moses and Aaron and had sinned against the Lord in rebelling against their authority. That conviction became confession that they had sinned in rebelling against their leaders, with acknowledgment that Korah and those who perished with him were sinners against the Lord who justly suffered His wrath, and with fear that they themselves would die in the wilderness for their own rebellion.
Terror Without Lasting Repentance
The cry of those going down alive into the pit sent all Israel round about fleeing in horror lest the earth swallow them too, yet that fear of the judgment and its consequences did not cure their rebellion or bring them to repentance. They went back to their tents that night terrified but not repentant, though judgment had come very near to appeal to them and a special, irresistible interference had arrested their rebellion so that they might still be saved by responding while forgiveness lingered. The clear destruction of the leaders should have led them to repent for wronging Moses, but seeing it did not remove their suspicion and distrust. Their terror did not bring lasting humility nor free them from prejudice.
Though they had fled a great distance in alarm, on the very next day the same congregation defiantly charged Moses and Aaron with killing the people of the Lord. That accusation hardened into intent to do violence to their faithful, self-sacrificing leaders, showing the survivors could remain deceived while stubbornly trusting their own judgment over God's counsel. Even after witnessing God's miraculous power they stayed so blinded and deceived by pious claims that their judgment sympathized with wrongdoers and called holy those God had reproved. They regarded the swallowed men as martyrs defending Israel, and the terrible display, instead of correcting them, only strengthened their mistaken accusation against Moses.
Warning Preserved for Later Generations
The rebellion and its outcome were faithfully chronicled to pass into history as a warning against unbelief and against following the rebels' example. That history is to be read carefully and prayerfully for its lessons about rebellion and repentance. It is for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come, to be studied by God's people especially while living near the close of time.
The chapter warns that work rooted in self will not stand, while work done in God will endure. God's own holy fire is safe, but no other fire is safe. Evil workers must be separated from the Lord's work, with decisive action in an emergency.
Genuine rebellion is apostasy and is hardly ever curable. The church must therefore call rebellion by its right name and apostasy by its right name. It must sink deep into the mines of truth to distinguish precious ore from base material and the false from the genuine, must distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger, and must know leaders by their fruits. When easily led astray by men claiming to undeceive the whole body of believers, it must humble itself before God and sincerely repent.
The rebellion worked out on a narrower stage 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 upon Korah, Dathan, and Abiram to arouse desire for self-exaltation and to excite envy, distrust, and rebellion, causing them to reject God as their leader by rejecting the men of God's appointment.
Korah's company were so deluded as to think themselves righteous while in murmuring against Moses and Aaron they blasphemed God, even regarding those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan. Satan deluded them by moral infatuation upon minds that do not implicitly trust and obey God, steeling the heart against the influence of the Holy Spirit. That delusion led them to think they were opposing only a human leader, a man like themselves, but in rejecting God's chosen instrument by their own consent they rejected Christ their invisible leader and insulted the Spirit of God. They were deceived by Satan because they placed themselves in his power.
Resisting the Lord's warnings and insisting on one's own course can bring divine judgment that strikes fear into those nearby, as when the people around fled lest they too be swallowed up. Those who reject the light and join the rebels are in danger of being lost.
The Same Rebellion Repeated Today
The rebellion is repeated when Satan leads persons to imitate Korah in raising insurrection among God's people by rising in opposition to plain testimony. Those who do so become self-deceived, thinking those on whom God has laid the burden of His work are exalted above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for, opposing the testimony God would have His servants bear in rebuking wrongs. Instead of denying self and cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, they war against straight testimonies and try to make themselves and others believe they are untrue. They say the people are all right and the reproving testimonies make the trouble, and the course itself with the result of its influence upon other minds is charged in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts.
That opposition is irritated by testimonies against hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco, whose idols they would destroy. Many are left undecided between entire sacrifice and rejecting plain testimony to yield to appetite, weakened through conflict between conviction and self-indulgence until appetite prevails and the sense of sacred things is perverted by slow poisons, deciding not to deny self whatever the consequence. That decision raises a wall of separation between them and those cleansing themselves, the straight testimonies cause them uneasiness, and when the rebellious unfurl their banner all the disaffected rally around the standard and all the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind, unite to scatter and sow discord.
It is reenacted in unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light, refusal to hearken though the Lord desires to come near to bless and heal backslidings, contempt for the word of the Lord, and despising testimony. It is actuated not by the Spirit of God but by pride, firm self-complacency, prejudice, unsanctified independence, mockery, disgust, lightness, trifling, jesting and joking, with eyes blinded and judgment perverted by Satan and refusal to have God manifest His Spirit and power. Despising the messenger is despising God, who sustains His faithful messenger with grace and power and does not leave nor forsake him. Not one who cherishes that spirit will again have clear light to discern the preciousness of truth until pride is humbled and confession is made that mind and heart were filled with prejudice, and unless every soul repents of the sin and insult to the Spirit of God and is converted to be healed, spiritual eyesight is obscured, they walk in darkness and in the sparks of their own kindling and lie down in sorrow, and the candlestick is removed out of its place.
The same course appears in selfishness and fraud seeking personal advantage and benefits without bearing burdens or responsibility and giving no religious strength, ready to rebel when a favorable opportunity appears, with God marking the concealed transactions to reward finally according to works. It accuses and condemns those on whom God has placed the burden of His work, dishonoring God's appointed workers, which is an offense to God requiring proof and careful investigation of every charge. It labors to make God's testimonies of none effect, strengthening the hands and minds of many who quote and follow the deceived and deceiving workers. It claims great light while not obeying it all, mingles work with men's devisings and selfishness, claims to be especially exalted of God, hurts God's servants, the oil and the wine, and sustains men whom God cannot favor, thereby forfeiting all right to claim sacred power, to present voice as the voice of God, to entrench behind sacredness of office, or to demand respect as speaking for God.
It is also repeated by first gaining the sympathy and confidence of the people and then using it to insinuate against rightful leaders, telling a deceptive story of being abused men when the abuse and imposition is on their own side, and sowing seeds of doubt about those in whom God would have the people have confidence. Unsanctified men repeat this by taking advantage of souls perishing for truth who will accept almost anyone who can explain the Scriptures, and by taking precious points of truth all prepared to hand and taking the Sabbath at no cost to self, when it cost others much toil to bring it out, then manifesting gratitude by rising up against those workers and reproaching them. The same state of things can be created again with only a small movement when men in responsible positions pursue ambitious projects, have little faith in God's messages, and have their pride hurt by straight testimonies sent to head off their plans. That separation from God, with heart not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, reveals the attributes of Satan in beginning to oppress fellow men, with influence going forth contrary to truth and justice and righteousness, manifested in one institution desiring to control all others and in men entrusted with weighty responsibilities but having no living connection with God doing despite to the Holy Spirit, casting aside warnings that come again and again while venturing on in the same course. It is repeated when people who need converting refuse to change thoughts and attitude in every way, criticize and find mistakes in management the Lord is guiding, and talk to make it appear mistaken, instead of working successfully in Christ's lines.
The history gives instruction appropriate at the present time to keep the whole flock from being fed with errors that cause them to go astray. It warns that rebellion against God and distortion of His word and warnings can be repeated, that the experience of Korah and his companions could be repeated among those who persist in a destructive spirit, and that rebellion against God and attacks on His appointed servants bring danger and should not be treated lightly. Opposition to God's work cannot ultimately make that work fail. Hasty, unadvised words, self-esteem, bearing false witness against brethren, leavening minds with distrust, weakening faith in men whom God is teaching and leading, and questioning and doubting God's instrumentalities, with envy, evil-surmising, and listening to Satan's suggestions, leads to the same destructive experience and fearful end that came upon Korah, Dathan and Abiram when surrounding Israel fled lest the earth swallow them also.
The rebellious course of Dathan and Abiram is corruption and rebellion hidden under a mild, devoted, religious garb, at war with the work of the third angel and with the visions, despising them, and drawing those who hang on and sympathize into darkness every time, and this same course was taken by quite a number in New York who clung to such an influence. Nearly forty years later, when Israel was thirsty and could find no water in the wilderness, the impatient people complained against Moses and Aaron and wished they had been of that number who died before the Lord in Korah's destruction, rather than dying with their cattle in the wilderness. That destruction showed the seriousness of rebellion against God, sustained Aaron in his sacred office, and his intercession brought the plague that followed to a halt.