Numbers 16:49, commentary and pictures

Fourteen thousand and seven hundred died in the plague, besides those who had already died in the judgment upon Korah and his company. The plague broke out the day after Korah's destruction, because the congregation renewed its murmuring, accused Moses and Aaron of killing the Lord's people, and remained unhumbled and prejudiced against its appointed leaders. When God would have consumed the congregation in a moment, Moses lingered to plead for the people, and at his direction Aaron hastened with censer and incense to stand between the dead and the living, and with his prayers the plague was stayed. Rebellion so blinds the heart that even miraculous judgment does not undeceive until judgment is fully executed, and by rejecting light and calling God's judgments satanic the murmurers hardened themselves beyond Heaven's reach. The account stands as instruction and warning not to follow that unbelief, murmuring, envy and self-willed service, for work done in self-will does not endure.

Context and Meaning

The count is fourteen thousand and seven hundred dead in the plague, beside those who died about the matter of Korah. The destruction is also reckoned in round number as fourteen thousand of Israel lying dead in the plague.

The plague came the day after the destruction of Korah and his company and their followers. The congregation renewed murmuring and falsely charged Moses and Aaron with killing the people of the Lord. They persisted in the mistaken view that the rebels had defended Israel, remained unhumbled, continued to believe Korah's followers and blame Moses, and kept their rebellious prejudice against him despite fear of punishment and overwhelming evidence that God was leading Israel. After God told Moses and Aaron to get up from among the congregation that He might consume them in a moment, the minister of wrath went forth with the plague doing its work of death.

Moses did not fear or flee because guilt of sin did not rest upon him, but lingered as a true shepherd and pleaded that wrath would not utterly destroy the chosen people, and by his intercession stayed the arm of vengeance from making a full end of disobedient Israel. By his direction Aaron took a censer with incense, hastened into the midst of the congregation to make atonement for them, and stood between the dead and the living. As the smoke of the incense ascended with the prayers of Moses in the tabernacle, the plague was stopped, but not until the fourteen thousand were dead. The people were not cured of rebellion until these sharers in it were slain, and only then God in mercy performed the miracle upon Aaron's rod to settle forever the question of the priesthood and settle their minds in regard to it.

Rebellion so blinds that miraculous judgment does not undeceive rebels until judgment is fully executed. By rejecting light they had become so blinded that the most striking manifestations of power were not sufficient to convince them. They attributed His judgments to human or satanic agency, declaring that through the power of the evil one Moses and Aaron had caused the death of good and holy men. That declaring of God's judgments to be of Satan sealed their doom, for it was the sin against the Holy Spirit, by which the heart is effectually hardened against the influence of divine grace, since it is through the agency of the Holy Spirit that God communicates with man and those who deliberately reject this agency as satanic cut off the channel of communication between the soul and Heaven. The rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram works out on a narrower stage the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven, with pride and ambition prompting complaint against God's government and seeking overthrow of established order, and with Satan since his fall infusing the same envy and discontent and ambition for position and honor into men by working on their minds to arouse desire for self-exaltation and to excite envy, distrust, and rebellion. In rejecting Moses and Aaron as men of God's appointment they rejected God as their leader and blasphemed God while murmuring against them, yet were so deluded as to think themselves righteous and to regard those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan.

Warning and Application

The history to which the number belongs is set down as instruction and warning for God's people, that they should not follow the example of unbelief, murmuring and rebellion seen in Korah, Dathan and Abiram. It is to be studied carefully and prayerfully as a lesson and warning, for Israel's murmuring is recorded to admonish later generations. That instruction is fitting for the present time to keep the whole flock from being fed with errors that would cause them to go astray.

Fourteen thousand and seven hundred died in the plague besides those who died about the matter of Korah, and fourteen thousand are described as lying dead as the visible evidence of the guilt of murmuring and rebellion. Their deaths came from envy and jealousy. Wrath went forth with the plague doing its work of death after the command to get up from among the congregation to consume them in a moment, and it was stayed only by intercession and atonement, when incense was carried hastily into the midst of the congregation and its smoke ascended with prayer between the dead and the living.

The judgment proves that work done in self-will does not stand or endure, while work done in God endures, and it warns against self-directed service. It warns against treating God's appointed work as a common thing and against mingling self with service, tainting and corrupting it with emotional intensity and with seeking praise and exaltation. Only service done with the holy fire of God's own kindling is safe and yields solid, earnest, abiding results. The chapter therefore calls for decisive action to separate evil workers from God's work, and failure to separate them dishonors God.