And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.
Fire came out from the Lord in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram and consumed the two hundred and fifty men while they offered incense. Those men were princes and renowned leaders of the congregation, men of influence and good judgment who presumptuously took the priests' office with their censers. Their rising against Moses and Aaron was rebellion against Jehovah Himself, the working on a narrower stage of the pride and ambition that prompted Satan's rebellion in heaven. Even as judgment drew near mercy still lingered, for the two hundred and fifty were not destroyed at first but lived to see the end of the chief rebels and would have been spared if they had repented and sought forgiveness. The terrible judgment sustained Aaron in the priesthood and established that Moses and Aaron spoke by divine authority, and it is preserved as a warning for later generations not to follow that example of unbelief, rebellion and opposition to God's appointed instrumentalities.
The Fire and Those Consumed
Fire came out from the Lord in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and consumed the two hundred and fifty men as they offered incense. That destruction was a signal manifestation of God's power against the rebellion, yet the people remained deceived and accused Moses of killing God's people. Their destruction did not end the rebellion, for the next day the people falsely accused Moses and Aaron, and thousands more died under further judgment. Their fate warns God's people not to follow their example of unbelief and rebellion, since rebellion against those appointed to serve God is an offense to Him.
The two hundred and fifty were princes and renowned leaders of the congregation, men generally of good judgment, influence, and renown, highly esteemed and often sought for counsel in difficult matters. A wrong influence made them envious, jealous, and rebellious. They did not perish at first with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram because they were not first in the rebellion; they lived to see the end of the leaders in rebellion and had time and opportunity to recognize that end and repent of their crime. Because they remained unreconciled to that destruction and sympathized with the rebels, the wrath of God came upon them and destroyed them also, a terrible warning against rebellion and accusations against those God had chosen that still did not bring the congregation to repentance.
Korah and his followers had publicly accused Moses and Aaron of claiming authority that belonged equally to the whole congregation. With their censers the two hundred and fifty presumptuously exercised the priests' office, affronting God's authority. The people soon became so deceived by admiration for Korah and his company that they blamed Moses and Aaron for the deaths God had brought about.
Later at Kadesh, when the people murmured for water, they wished they had died with those brethren rather than face thirst in the wilderness. They are recalled as brethren destroyed before the Lord in that rebellion, including the two hundred and fifty consumed by fire for offering incense, though one recollection speaks of them as destroyed by plague. Their wish showed impatience, forgetfulness of God's former power to give water from the rock, and distrust and complaint against Moses and Aaron.
Mercy Before Judgment Fell
Even in the act of judgment Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, was seeking to save the people from destruction, and forgiveness still lingered for them. The coming of the fire was God's judgment drawn very near as a call to repent, a special irresistible intervention from heaven to arrest the rebellion, and responding to that interposition could have brought salvation. Though the congregation fled from the judgment through fear of destruction, their rebellion was not cured, and they returned to their tents that night terrified yet not repentant.
The fire that destroyed the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense could still have been stopped while Moses was urging Israel to flee from the coming destruction. If Korah and his company had then repented and sought forgiveness, the divine judgment would have been stayed, but their stubborn persistence sealed their doom. The entire congregation shared guilt because all had sympathized with the rebels to a greater or less degree, yet God in great mercy distinguished between the leaders in rebellion and those they had led. The deceived people were still granted space for repentance after overwhelming evidence that they were wrong and Moses was right, and the signal manifestation of God's power had removed all uncertainty.
Unlike the chief conspirators, the two hundred and fifty were not destroyed at first; they lived to see the end of the leaders in rebellion and had time to recognize their end and opportunity to repent of their crime. Because they remained unreconciled to that destruction and sympathized with the rebels, the wrath of God came upon them and destroyed them also, so that they shared their fate. The judgment warned the surviving congregation and gave them opportunity to repent, yet they failed to recognize their guilt. The episode thus shows both God's vengeance against rebellion and His long-suffering mercy in warning the congregation and allowing sinners time to seek forgiveness.
Rebellion Against God Himself
To oppose Moses and Aaron was to oppose Jehovah Himself, for in rejecting God's chosen instrument the rebels rejected Christ, their invisible leader, and insulted the Spirit of God. The 250 who offered incense were sinners against the Lord who justly suffered His wrath, and their fate confirmed that rebellion against Moses and Aaron was rebellion against God. Judgment followed close upon that sin, yet even while under it they believed they were serving God. They thought themselves righteous while insulting the Spirit they claimed to honor.
The uprising was the working out on a narrower stage of the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven. Pride and ambition had prompted Lucifer to complain of the government of God and to seek the overthrow of the order established in heaven, and since his fall it has been his object to infuse the same envy and discontent and the same ambition for position and honor into men. He thus worked upon Korah, Dathan, and Abiram to arouse the desire for self-exaltation and to excite envy, distrust, and rebellion. By rejecting Moses and Aaron as men of God's appointment they rejected God as their leader, and while in murmuring against Moses and Aaron they blasphemed God. So deluded were they as to think themselves righteous and to regard those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan.
Their rebellion came from a wizard-like moral infatuation from Satan that steels hearts against the influence of the Holy Spirit. Satan deluded them with the idea that they were opposing only a human leader, a man like themselves. They were deceived by Satan but by their own consent, because they placed themselves in his power.
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were wicked unsanctified men who took advantage of souls perishing for truth who will accept almost anyone who can explain the Scriptures. They first gained the sympathy and confidence of the people, then insinuated against God's appointed leaders with a deceptive story that they had been abused men. In this way they sowed seeds of doubt in regard to those in whom God would have the people have confidence, and they had many sympathizers. To rise up with them to reproach those God had burdened with His work is an act of rebellion against God and an offense to Him, and the fire from the Lord that consumed the 250 who offered incense was God's judgment upon that offense.
Warning After Plain Evidence
The record of the fire that consumed the 250 is preserved as a warning and lesson for later generations, to be read carefully and prayerfully. It is to be studied especially by those living near the close of time, upon whom the ends of the world are come, because the rebellion involved not only its two principal leaders but 250 prominent, renowned princes of the congregation who joined in offering incense and perished. With the account of the twelve spies it gives instruction appropriate for the present time, so that the whole flock will not be fed with errors that cause them to go astray. Their fate as rebels and apostates warns God's people not to follow their example of unbelief and rebellion.
Their destruction was plain evidence against the rebellion and a terrible warning against rebellion and accusations against those God had chosen. It was a marked, signal act of God's power and judgment upon the leaders and princes of the rebellion, yet seeing it did not remove the congregation's suspicion and distrust or bring them to repentance for their abuse of Moses. The survivors remained deceived, failed to recognize their own guilt, and treated the rebels as martyrs. The next morning they falsely accused Moses and Aaron of killing the Lord's people, showing how stubborn rebellion can blind and deceive people even after a clear judgment.
Their continued charges led to further judgment in which thousands more died, for the destruction did not end the people's rebellion. Only after the overnight miracle of Aaron's rod did Israel see their rebellion in its true light. Then they acknowledged that Moses and Aaron were right, confessed that those destroyed had sinned and had justly suffered as sinners against the Lord for rebelling against their authority and unjustly accusing them, and were terrified that they themselves were to die in the wilderness and not enter the promised land.
Vindication of Appointed Leaders
The fire that consumed the 250 men offering incense was a terrible judgment that sustained Aaron in the sacred office of priesthood. That destruction was God's just judgment for sin in rebelling against leaders, and it fully established that Moses and Aaron had spoken by divine authority, compelling the people to believe the unwelcome truth that they were to die in the wilderness until they cried out that they perished and confessed their rebellion.
The event stands as an example of the disastrous result of leading people to reject God's guidance by stirring distrust against those entrusted with leadership. It warns against accusing and condemning those God has entrusted with the work, and against drawing away from the people and agents God is leading. Selfish, fraudulent people are likened to Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, whose conduct God sees and will reward according to their deeds. The same rebellion warns against drawing away from the church, accusing fellow believers, and using their errors to build up self.
Leaders who entrench themselves behind the sacredness of office while disobeying given light forfeit all right to claim sacred power to be respected as the voice of God. Claiming great light and giving the impression of believing and respecting it while not obeying it fully, mingling the work with men's devisings and selfishness, claiming to be especially exalted, hurting God's servants, and sustaining men God cannot favor, forfeits authority just as verily as that rebellion did. Efforts to discredit God's appointed servants through unsubstantiated accusations are to be answered by requiring proof and carefully investigating every claim.
The chapter is a warning that evil workers should be separated from the Lord's work, and that decisive action in an emergency honors God. Siding with those who betray a sacred trust and oppose God can bring others into deception, so the history is a warning that will be repeated and God's people must take a clear stand on the Lord's side. Disaffection of that kind represents opposition that cannot destroy a work that is of God.
Rebellion strengthens the hands and minds of evildoers, leads a vast number to quote and follow the opposer while the enemy of righteousness looks on pleased, and ends in divine vindication that testifies who was right and who was wrong. That work of refusing, resisting, and nullifying divine testimony by opposing appointed messengers is charged in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts, not only for a person's own course but for the result of influence upon other minds. The only escape from that judgment is thorough work and confession that lets sin go beforehand to judgment so it may be blotted out when the time of refreshing comes and God sends Jesus.
Their fate warns that distrust and opposition to God's instrumentalities can lead to an experience like theirs. Those who join rebellion against God and refuse the light He gives face destruction and darkness. To be counted among them is a warning against opposing divine light and strengthening those who resist it. The rebellion warns against becoming self-deceived, rejecting God's truth, and treating light as darkness.
Repeating the Rebellion Today
The fire that consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense shows that service to God must burn with the holy fire He Himself provides and kindles, not with another kind that is common and self-made. Work done in and from self will not endure or stand, while work done in God will endure. The sacred fire God kindles is to consume commonness, intemperance, selfishness, and lust.
The same rebellion is repeated when Satan leads persons to imitate Korah, Dathan, and Abiram by raising insurrection among God's people and rising in opposition to plain testimony. Those who do so become self-deceived, thinking that those on whom God has laid the burden of His work exalt themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for. They oppose straight testimony rebuking wrongs among God's people, including hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff, and tobacco, because it would destroy their idols. Undecided between conviction and appetite, with the sense of sacred things perverted, they at last refuse to deny self and separate themselves from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. They war against the testimonies, declare the people all right and the reproofs the source of trouble, and, unfurling a banner of rebellion, gather all the disaffected and spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind around their standard to scatter and sow discord.
Men placed in responsible positions who pursue ambitious projects, whose pride is hurt when straight testimonies head off their plans, and who have little faith in the messages the Lord has given will come to the same point of open rebellion, and it would not take a very strong movement to create that state of things. The rebellion at Minneapolis repeated that pattern of resisting God's messengers and rejecting the message He sends. Criticism and resistance to God's discipline could repeat the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and people will create confusion by twisting and misapplying God's words and warnings to defend ideas with no basis in truth. Those who themselves need converting repeat that experience against management the Lord was guiding when they refuse to change their thoughts and attitude in every way and instead criticize and find mistakes and make it appear there are mistakes where the Lord has been guiding, whereas working successfully in Christ's lines requires that change of thought and attitude.
The same spirit is indulged by men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God and do despite to the Holy Spirit, seen in institutions in the relation of workers to one another and in the desire of one institution to control all others, persisting in the same course after warnings from God have come again and again and been cast aside. It is repeated by people who reject repeated warnings, oppose the Holy Spirit, and oppress others while exercising authority. When God honors men with a part in His work, the desire for credit and honor leads to self-exaltation, to claiming equality with the leader God chose, and to insisting that honor must not go to one man alone. Some Battle Creek managers acted in the manner of those who opposed God's order. Quite a number in New York took the rebellious course of Dathan and Abiram by clinging to a corrupt leader despite his dark and deadly influence, hiding corruption and rebellion within a mild, devoted, religious garb, sowing seeds of unbelief, and setting their hearts at war with the work of the third angel and with the visions, despising them.
The account identifies the spirit of pride and resistance to God's messengers and message. Their rebellion and resistance serve as a warning against contempt for God's word and unsanctified independence that insults the Spirit of God. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram thus stand as an example of the danger of persisting in a course of defiance and refusing the Lord's warnings.
Fire came out from the Lord in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram and consumed the two hundred and fifty men while they offered incense. Those men were princes and renowned leaders of the congregation, men of influence and good judgment who presumptuously took the priests' office with their censers. Their rising against Moses and Aaron was rebellion against Jehovah Himself, the working on a narrower stage of the pride and ambition that prompted Satan's rebellion in heaven. Even as judgment drew near mercy still lingered, for the two hundred and fifty were not destroyed at first but lived to see the end of the chief rebels and would have been spared if they had repented and sought forgiveness. The terrible judgment sustained Aaron in the priesthood and established that Moses and Aaron spoke by divine authority, and it is preserved as a warning for later generations not to follow that example of unbelief, rebellion and opposition to God's appointed instrumentalities.
The Fire and Those Consumed
Fire came out from the Lord in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and consumed the two hundred and fifty men as they offered incense. That destruction was a signal manifestation of God's power against the rebellion, yet the people remained deceived and accused Moses of killing God's people. Their destruction did not end the rebellion, for the next day the people falsely accused Moses and Aaron, and thousands more died under further judgment. Their fate warns God's people not to follow their example of unbelief and rebellion, since rebellion against those appointed to serve God is an offense to Him.
The two hundred and fifty were princes and renowned leaders of the congregation, men generally of good judgment, influence, and renown, highly esteemed and often sought for counsel in difficult matters. A wrong influence made them envious, jealous, and rebellious. They did not perish at first with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram because they were not first in the rebellion; they lived to see the end of the leaders in rebellion and had time and opportunity to recognize that end and repent of their crime. Because they remained unreconciled to that destruction and sympathized with the rebels, the wrath of God came upon them and destroyed them also, a terrible warning against rebellion and accusations against those God had chosen that still did not bring the congregation to repentance.
Korah and his followers had publicly accused Moses and Aaron of claiming authority that belonged equally to the whole congregation. With their censers the two hundred and fifty presumptuously exercised the priests' office, affronting God's authority. The people soon became so deceived by admiration for Korah and his company that they blamed Moses and Aaron for the deaths God had brought about.
Later at Kadesh, when the people murmured for water, they wished they had died with those brethren rather than face thirst in the wilderness. They are recalled as brethren destroyed before the Lord in that rebellion, including the two hundred and fifty consumed by fire for offering incense, though one recollection speaks of them as destroyed by plague. Their wish showed impatience, forgetfulness of God's former power to give water from the rock, and distrust and complaint against Moses and Aaron.
Mercy Before Judgment Fell
Even in the act of judgment Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, was seeking to save the people from destruction, and forgiveness still lingered for them. The coming of the fire was God's judgment drawn very near as a call to repent, a special irresistible intervention from heaven to arrest the rebellion, and responding to that interposition could have brought salvation. Though the congregation fled from the judgment through fear of destruction, their rebellion was not cured, and they returned to their tents that night terrified yet not repentant.
The fire that destroyed the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense could still have been stopped while Moses was urging Israel to flee from the coming destruction. If Korah and his company had then repented and sought forgiveness, the divine judgment would have been stayed, but their stubborn persistence sealed their doom. The entire congregation shared guilt because all had sympathized with the rebels to a greater or less degree, yet God in great mercy distinguished between the leaders in rebellion and those they had led. The deceived people were still granted space for repentance after overwhelming evidence that they were wrong and Moses was right, and the signal manifestation of God's power had removed all uncertainty.
Unlike the chief conspirators, the two hundred and fifty were not destroyed at first; they lived to see the end of the leaders in rebellion and had time to recognize their end and opportunity to repent of their crime. Because they remained unreconciled to that destruction and sympathized with the rebels, the wrath of God came upon them and destroyed them also, so that they shared their fate. The judgment warned the surviving congregation and gave them opportunity to repent, yet they failed to recognize their guilt. The episode thus shows both God's vengeance against rebellion and His long-suffering mercy in warning the congregation and allowing sinners time to seek forgiveness.
Rebellion Against God Himself
To oppose Moses and Aaron was to oppose Jehovah Himself, for in rejecting God's chosen instrument the rebels rejected Christ, their invisible leader, and insulted the Spirit of God. The 250 who offered incense were sinners against the Lord who justly suffered His wrath, and their fate confirmed that rebellion against Moses and Aaron was rebellion against God. Judgment followed close upon that sin, yet even while under it they believed they were serving God. They thought themselves righteous while insulting the Spirit they claimed to honor.
The uprising was the working out on a narrower stage of the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven. Pride and ambition had prompted Lucifer to complain of the government of God and to seek the overthrow of the order established in heaven, and since his fall it has been his object to infuse the same envy and discontent and the same ambition for position and honor into men. He thus worked upon Korah, Dathan, and Abiram to arouse the desire for self-exaltation and to excite envy, distrust, and rebellion. By rejecting Moses and Aaron as men of God's appointment they rejected God as their leader, and while in murmuring against Moses and Aaron they blasphemed God. So deluded were they as to think themselves righteous and to regard those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan.
Their rebellion came from a wizard-like moral infatuation from Satan that steels hearts against the influence of the Holy Spirit. Satan deluded them with the idea that they were opposing only a human leader, a man like themselves. They were deceived by Satan but by their own consent, because they placed themselves in his power.
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were wicked unsanctified men who took advantage of souls perishing for truth who will accept almost anyone who can explain the Scriptures. They first gained the sympathy and confidence of the people, then insinuated against God's appointed leaders with a deceptive story that they had been abused men. In this way they sowed seeds of doubt in regard to those in whom God would have the people have confidence, and they had many sympathizers. To rise up with them to reproach those God had burdened with His work is an act of rebellion against God and an offense to Him, and the fire from the Lord that consumed the 250 who offered incense was God's judgment upon that offense.
Warning After Plain Evidence
The record of the fire that consumed the 250 is preserved as a warning and lesson for later generations, to be read carefully and prayerfully. It is to be studied especially by those living near the close of time, upon whom the ends of the world are come, because the rebellion involved not only its two principal leaders but 250 prominent, renowned princes of the congregation who joined in offering incense and perished. With the account of the twelve spies it gives instruction appropriate for the present time, so that the whole flock will not be fed with errors that cause them to go astray. Their fate as rebels and apostates warns God's people not to follow their example of unbelief and rebellion.
Their destruction was plain evidence against the rebellion and a terrible warning against rebellion and accusations against those God had chosen. It was a marked, signal act of God's power and judgment upon the leaders and princes of the rebellion, yet seeing it did not remove the congregation's suspicion and distrust or bring them to repentance for their abuse of Moses. The survivors remained deceived, failed to recognize their own guilt, and treated the rebels as martyrs. The next morning they falsely accused Moses and Aaron of killing the Lord's people, showing how stubborn rebellion can blind and deceive people even after a clear judgment.
Their continued charges led to further judgment in which thousands more died, for the destruction did not end the people's rebellion. Only after the overnight miracle of Aaron's rod did Israel see their rebellion in its true light. Then they acknowledged that Moses and Aaron were right, confessed that those destroyed had sinned and had justly suffered as sinners against the Lord for rebelling against their authority and unjustly accusing them, and were terrified that they themselves were to die in the wilderness and not enter the promised land.
Vindication of Appointed Leaders
The fire that consumed the 250 men offering incense was a terrible judgment that sustained Aaron in the sacred office of priesthood. That destruction was God's just judgment for sin in rebelling against leaders, and it fully established that Moses and Aaron had spoken by divine authority, compelling the people to believe the unwelcome truth that they were to die in the wilderness until they cried out that they perished and confessed their rebellion.
The event stands as an example of the disastrous result of leading people to reject God's guidance by stirring distrust against those entrusted with leadership. It warns against accusing and condemning those God has entrusted with the work, and against drawing away from the people and agents God is leading. Selfish, fraudulent people are likened to Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, whose conduct God sees and will reward according to their deeds. The same rebellion warns against drawing away from the church, accusing fellow believers, and using their errors to build up self.
Leaders who entrench themselves behind the sacredness of office while disobeying given light forfeit all right to claim sacred power to be respected as the voice of God. Claiming great light and giving the impression of believing and respecting it while not obeying it fully, mingling the work with men's devisings and selfishness, claiming to be especially exalted, hurting God's servants, and sustaining men God cannot favor, forfeits authority just as verily as that rebellion did. Efforts to discredit God's appointed servants through unsubstantiated accusations are to be answered by requiring proof and carefully investigating every claim.
The chapter is a warning that evil workers should be separated from the Lord's work, and that decisive action in an emergency honors God. Siding with those who betray a sacred trust and oppose God can bring others into deception, so the history is a warning that will be repeated and God's people must take a clear stand on the Lord's side. Disaffection of that kind represents opposition that cannot destroy a work that is of God.
Rebellion strengthens the hands and minds of evildoers, leads a vast number to quote and follow the opposer while the enemy of righteousness looks on pleased, and ends in divine vindication that testifies who was right and who was wrong. That work of refusing, resisting, and nullifying divine testimony by opposing appointed messengers is charged in the books of heaven to be met in the day of final accounts, not only for a person's own course but for the result of influence upon other minds. The only escape from that judgment is thorough work and confession that lets sin go beforehand to judgment so it may be blotted out when the time of refreshing comes and God sends Jesus.
Their fate warns that distrust and opposition to God's instrumentalities can lead to an experience like theirs. Those who join rebellion against God and refuse the light He gives face destruction and darkness. To be counted among them is a warning against opposing divine light and strengthening those who resist it. The rebellion warns against becoming self-deceived, rejecting God's truth, and treating light as darkness.
Repeating the Rebellion Today
The fire that consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense shows that service to God must burn with the holy fire He Himself provides and kindles, not with another kind that is common and self-made. Work done in and from self will not endure or stand, while work done in God will endure. The sacred fire God kindles is to consume commonness, intemperance, selfishness, and lust.
The same rebellion is repeated when Satan leads persons to imitate Korah, Dathan, and Abiram by raising insurrection among God's people and rising in opposition to plain testimony. Those who do so become self-deceived, thinking that those on whom God has laid the burden of His work exalt themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for. They oppose straight testimony rebuking wrongs among God's people, including hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff, and tobacco, because it would destroy their idols. Undecided between conviction and appetite, with the sense of sacred things perverted, they at last refuse to deny self and separate themselves from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. They war against the testimonies, declare the people all right and the reproofs the source of trouble, and, unfurling a banner of rebellion, gather all the disaffected and spiritually defective, the lame, the halt, and the blind around their standard to scatter and sow discord.
Men placed in responsible positions who pursue ambitious projects, whose pride is hurt when straight testimonies head off their plans, and who have little faith in the messages the Lord has given will come to the same point of open rebellion, and it would not take a very strong movement to create that state of things. The rebellion at Minneapolis repeated that pattern of resisting God's messengers and rejecting the message He sends. Criticism and resistance to God's discipline could repeat the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and people will create confusion by twisting and misapplying God's words and warnings to defend ideas with no basis in truth. Those who themselves need converting repeat that experience against management the Lord was guiding when they refuse to change their thoughts and attitude in every way and instead criticize and find mistakes and make it appear there are mistakes where the Lord has been guiding, whereas working successfully in Christ's lines requires that change of thought and attitude.
The same spirit is indulged by men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God and do despite to the Holy Spirit, seen in institutions in the relation of workers to one another and in the desire of one institution to control all others, persisting in the same course after warnings from God have come again and again and been cast aside. It is repeated by people who reject repeated warnings, oppose the Holy Spirit, and oppress others while exercising authority. When God honors men with a part in His work, the desire for credit and honor leads to self-exaltation, to claiming equality with the leader God chose, and to insisting that honor must not go to one man alone. Some Battle Creek managers acted in the manner of those who opposed God's order. Quite a number in New York took the rebellious course of Dathan and Abiram by clinging to a corrupt leader despite his dark and deadly influence, hiding corruption and rebellion within a mild, devoted, religious garb, sowing seeds of unbelief, and setting their hearts at war with the work of the third angel and with the visions, despising them.
The account identifies the spirit of pride and resistance to God's messengers and message. Their rebellion and resistance serve as a warning against contempt for God's word and unsanctified independence that insults the Spirit of God. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram thus stand as an example of the danger of persisting in a course of defiance and refusing the Lord's warnings.