This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company;
Moses fell on his face in anguish and appointed a test for the morrow in which the Lord himself would show who are his and who is holy and would cause the one he has chosen to come near to him. Korah and all his company were told to take censers and put fire and incense in them and present themselves with them before the Lord at the tabernacle before the congregation. The test would expose whether they had any right to the priesthood, since only those ordained to sacred service could minister in the sanctuary, and their gathering was against the Lord and not against Aaron, for Aaron assumed no office of himself but God placed him in the sacred office. It works out on a narrower stage the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven, with pride and ambition prompting envy, discontent, desire for self-exaltation, and seeking the overthrow of the order God had established, rejecting God's appointed leadership and the servants God had charged with his work. The account was faithfully chronicled and is recorded to instruct and warn God's people not to follow their example, standing as a warning especially to those living near the close of time and upon whom the ends of the world are come.
The Censer Test
Moses heard the challenge in anguish and fell on his face before appointing a test for the morrow, leaving it to the Lord himself to show who are his and who is holy and to cause the one he has chosen to come near to him. Korah and all his company were to take censers, put fire and incense in them, and present themselves with them before the Lord at the tabernacle before the congregation, with the man whom the Lord should choose to be proved holy.
The test would expose whether Korah and his followers had any right to the priesthood, for only those ordained to sacred service could minister in the sanctuary, and to challenge that rule risked divine judgment. The command at the same time rebuked the sons of Levi for taking too much upon themselves, since the God of Israel had already separated them from the congregation to bring them near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle and to stand before the congregation to minister, yet they sought the priesthood also. Their gathering was therefore against the Lord and not against Aaron, for Aaron had assumed no office of himself but God had placed him in the sacred office.
Nature Of Rebellion
The uprising centered on Korah, Dathan and Abiram was not the work of two men alone but was extended to embrace two hundred and fifty prominent leaders, princes of the congregation and men of renown. It was rebellion against Moses and Aaron and against Jehovah himself, a rejection of God's appointed leadership, order and authority and of the servants God had charged with His work. On a narrower stage it worked out the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven, with pride and ambition prompting envy, discontent, distrust, desire for self-exaltation and honor, and seeking the overthrow of the order God had established. The rebels became so deluded as to think themselves righteous and to regard those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan.
They were deceived into thinking they opposed only a human leader, but Moses was God's chosen instrument and Christ was their invisible leader, so in rejecting that authority they rejected Christ and insulted the Spirit of God. Their taking of the censers to exercise the priest's office was a daring affront to God, though the people admired them and failed to recognize the offense. They were sinners who justly suffered God's wrath when God stretched forth His hand and swallowed up the wrongdoers, and those who joined them died before the Lord by plague.
The rebellion was not cured even by judgment, for the morning after the destruction the people charged Moses and Aaron with killing the people of the Lord, and for that false charge and their exultation and presumptuous wickedness thousands more were killed. Nearly forty years later at Kadesh, when no water was found in the wilderness where water had once come from the rock, the congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron in the same spirit. They wished they had died with their brethren before the Lord rather than be brought into a waterless wilderness with no seed, figs, vines or pomegranates.
God Vindicates His Choice
The command to take censers set a test for the morrow in which the Lord himself would show whom he had chosen, who is holy, and whom he permits to come near to him. Korah and all his company were to bring censers with fire and incense in them and present themselves with them before the Lord, and the one God chose would be declared holy and brought near. That appointment exposed their demand for the priesthood as without right, for sacred office rests on God's choice and appointment and not on human claiming. The calling to take censers was God's way of settling who should hold the priesthood. By a terrible manifestation of divine judgment in the destruction of the rebels, God sustained Aaron in the holy office and upheld his sacred consecration as high priest over the family of Aaron.
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram thereby forfeited all right to claim sacred power and to entrench themselves behind its sacredness. The same test exposes leaders who claim great light and to be especially exalted of God while not obeying all the light, whose work for years is mingled with human devisings and selfishness. Such leaders hurt God's servants, the oil and the wine, and sustain men whom God cannot favor. The account of Korah's rebellion shows that opposition and disaffection against God's work cannot destroy it if it is truly of God, like later assaults and resistance and apostasy.
The chapter warns against acting in self rather than following God's direction, for the direction to take censers exposed rebellion against God's appointed order. Service tainted and mixed with self will not endure, while work done in God will stand. Only work done in God, using what God provides, will stand, for only the holy fire kindled by God is safe.
Warning Preserved For End
The account of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, joined by 250 prominent leaders, was faithfully chronicled with all its objectionable features and is recorded to instruct and warn God's people not to follow their example. It is to be studied and to be read carefully and prayerfully. The record stands as a warning to God's people, especially to those living near the close of time and upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Genuine rebellion is hardly ever curable and must be called by its right name as rebellion and apostasy. It warns against being easily led astray by false leaders, failing to distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger, and following men who claim to undeceive the whole church instead of sinking the shaft deep into the mines of truth to distinguish precious ore from base material. The history warns those who claim to believe the truth not to judge from human feelings as Israel did, not to sympathize with the wrongdoer, and not to stand between the offender and God when God's servants do the disagreeable duty of correcting the erring. If they cannot see matters in the light presented, they are to hold their peace and let the arrows of the Almighty fall just where He directs to pierce souls that have little sense of sin.
The rebellion warns that those who reject light and join others in opposition to God may share the rebels' fate and lie down in darkness, so people must choose whether they will stand on the Lord's side. The same kind of history can be repeated. People will repeat its spirit by creating confusion and twisting God's words and warnings to support their own theories, for resisting God's order and authority brings serious consequences.
Opposing Appointed Leadership
Trusting private judgment above God's appointed counsel is rebellion against God, and those who joined Korah, Dathan and Abiram held to their own judgment against Moses and remained stubborn even after judgment fell on their leaders and princes, persisting to accuse Moses and showing how stubborn resistance brings severe deception. Their course is the disastrous work of turning the people against their leaders by portraying them as dishonest and deceptive and sowing doubt about those God appointed to lead. It unjustly charges those God appointed to do His work, presents them in a ridiculous light, creates a sentiment that cuts off their influence, causes dissension, creates false sympathy, and leads others into the same error and endangers their souls.
Such assailing work that causes the people to lose confidence in fellow workers as worthy of love and fellowship is an offense to God that must not be left in silence or uncertainty. It must be met openly by calling the accusers on every point to bring proof and by carefully investigating every charge, so the people are undeceived and not left to think it may be true or may not be true or to believe a lie, and so the false reproach is removed from God's servant. The same warning watches those who draw away from the church body, promote their own ideas and methods as a purer alternative, accuse fellow believers, and use the errors of church members to build themselves up. It forbids accusing and condemning those on whom God has placed responsibility for His work and drawing away from the people He is leading.
It also forbids receiving the Sabbath and other truths without sharing the labor that brought them to light and then reproaching those who bore that burden, as Korah, Dathan and Abiram rose against those God had charged with His work. In a crisis those entrusted with God's work must act decisively after this example of separating evil workers from the Lord's work and must not leave evil workers in place, for to do so fails to honor God and allows men following this example to develop. The rebels complained and influenced the people to stand with them against God's servants until God stretched forth His hand and swallowed up the wrongdoers and the people fled to their tents in horror, yet their rebellion was not cured. The depth of disaffection appeared even under judgment, for the morning after the destruction the people charged Moses and Aaron with killing the people of the Lord, and for that false charge and their sin, exultation and presumptuous wickedness thousands more were killed.
If ministers and workers had been faithful to deal with wrongdoers and guard the interests of God's cause and lift the truth from stigma and reproach, men following that example would not have developed. Those who claim to believe the truth must therefore not judge from human feelings as Israel did, nor sympathize with the wrongdoer, nor stand between the offender and God when God's servants do the disagreeable duty of correcting the erring, but if they cannot see matters in the light presented they are to hold their peace and let the arrows of the Almighty fall just where He directs to pierce souls that have little sense of sin. The rebellion stands as the example of wicked men, connected with selfish and fraudulent conduct and with refusing responsibility while seeking personal advantage. It remains a mere example of a rebellious course against Moses.
Self-Will And Self-Exaltation
The censer command stands as a warning against self-seeking, conceited resistance to God's order and grasping, narrow human attempts to improve on His plans. It exposes the danger of self-exaltation when those honored with a share in the work come to think themselves equal to God's appointed leader and a very essential part of the whole, feeling that credit and honor should be given to them and should not all go to the leader. This history was written for the admonition of those living in the last days and is to be studied.
The experience of Korah and all his company shows the result of yielding to distrust of God's instrumentalities, where feeling misused, speaking hasty unadvised words, fostering self-esteem, bearing false witness against brethren, leavening others' minds with distrust, weakening faith in men whom God is teaching, guiding and leading, and questioning and doubting God's appointed workers plants a seed of doubt that is hard to uproot and brings a like experience. It describes the self-willed rebellious course of threatening to sever all connection with brethren, pressing dishonoring terms and propositions, and going on year after year according to one's own mind and judgment while refusing to hear the voice of the Lord in the face of all warnings. That is dangerous ground the Lord warns to keep off, and brethren of firm rectitude should not yield to its threatenings but allow separation rather than consent to its terms.
The rebellion is presented as the pattern for leaders who oppress others, resist God, and reject repeated warnings from Him. That spirit is at work when a man separates from God so his heart is not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, revealing the attributes of Satan in oppressing fellow men with an influence contrary to truth, justice and righteousness. It is manifested in the desire of one institution to control all others by men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God, doing despite to the Holy Spirit as did the Jews in the days of Christ, casting aside warnings from God again and again and venturing on in the same course, and it describes leaders acting with self-importance and self-sufficiency in seeking such control. The same rebellion is repeated when people criticize and find fault with management the Lord is guiding, talking to make it appear that mistakes have been made, a course developed by those who have unconverted traits of character and need converting, who need to change their thoughts and attitude in every way in order to work successfully in Christ's lines.
Refusing the testimonies God gives and laboring to make them of none effect while deceived and deceiving others and strengthening the hands and minds of opposers is charged in the books of heaven, so that in the day of final accounts the guilty must meet not only his own course but the result of his influence upon other minds. That open rebellion against God's appointed workers was driven by ambitious projects, wounded pride when checked by straight testimonies, and little faith in the messages God has given, and the same state of things can be created again when men placed in responsible positions who knew not the former workers act with that same spirit. Satan leads persons to imitate that example by raising insurrection among God's people through opposition to plain testimony. Those who rise against the testimony God gives through His servants to rebuke wrongs become self-deceived, thinking those bearing the burden of the work exalt themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for.
Undecided between conviction and appetite, many choose self-indulgence and refuse to sacrifice appetite, warring against the straight testimonies against hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco. They separate themselves from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, then gather the disaffected, the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt and the blind to scatter and sow discord. Their fate justly suffered under God's wrath stands as a warning against opposing plain testimony and the servants God has entrusted with correcting wrong among His people. The rebellion against God's messengers and message was acted over again at Minneapolis when heaven-sent truth was met with firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light.
That renewal meant pride that will not humble itself and confess prejudice, minds and hearts filled with prejudice instead of the Spirit of God, contempt for the word of the Lord, despising not man but the messengers and the message God sends, and unsanctified independence that insults the Spirit of God. It showed itself in a spirit of mockery and disgust toward God's word in lightness, trifling, jesting and joking. Those who cherish this spirit lose clear light to discern the preciousness of truth, have blinded eyes and perverted judgment and obscured spiritual eyesight, walk in darkness in the sparks of their own kindling, and will lie down in sorrow and have the candlestick removed out of its place unless every soul repents, is converted and is healed of backsliding, for without repentance they remain in darkness.
The censer test by which Korah, Dathan and Abiram forfeited all right to claim sacred power and to entrench themselves behind its sacredness exposes leaders who claim great light and to be especially exalted of God while not obeying all the light, whose work for years is mingled with human devisings and selfishness, who hurt God's servants, the oil and the wine, and who sustain men whom God cannot favor. It shows how people can become so self-deceived that they oppose God's work, call light darkness and darkness light, and reject truth as error. Korah, Dathan and Abiram thus stand as examples of resisting the truth and opposing the work of God's Spirit, and the account is invoked as a warning against joining them in resisting divine light and undermining faith.
Moses fell on his face in anguish and appointed a test for the morrow in which the Lord himself would show who are his and who is holy and would cause the one he has chosen to come near to him. Korah and all his company were told to take censers and put fire and incense in them and present themselves with them before the Lord at the tabernacle before the congregation. The test would expose whether they had any right to the priesthood, since only those ordained to sacred service could minister in the sanctuary, and their gathering was against the Lord and not against Aaron, for Aaron assumed no office of himself but God placed him in the sacred office. It works out on a narrower stage the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven, with pride and ambition prompting envy, discontent, desire for self-exaltation, and seeking the overthrow of the order God had established, rejecting God's appointed leadership and the servants God had charged with his work. The account was faithfully chronicled and is recorded to instruct and warn God's people not to follow their example, standing as a warning especially to those living near the close of time and upon whom the ends of the world are come.
The Censer Test
Moses heard the challenge in anguish and fell on his face before appointing a test for the morrow, leaving it to the Lord himself to show who are his and who is holy and to cause the one he has chosen to come near to him. Korah and all his company were to take censers, put fire and incense in them, and present themselves with them before the Lord at the tabernacle before the congregation, with the man whom the Lord should choose to be proved holy.
The test would expose whether Korah and his followers had any right to the priesthood, for only those ordained to sacred service could minister in the sanctuary, and to challenge that rule risked divine judgment. The command at the same time rebuked the sons of Levi for taking too much upon themselves, since the God of Israel had already separated them from the congregation to bring them near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle and to stand before the congregation to minister, yet they sought the priesthood also. Their gathering was therefore against the Lord and not against Aaron, for Aaron had assumed no office of himself but God had placed him in the sacred office.
Nature Of Rebellion
The uprising centered on Korah, Dathan and Abiram was not the work of two men alone but was extended to embrace two hundred and fifty prominent leaders, princes of the congregation and men of renown. It was rebellion against Moses and Aaron and against Jehovah himself, a rejection of God's appointed leadership, order and authority and of the servants God had charged with His work. On a narrower stage it worked out the same spirit that led to Satan's rebellion in heaven, with pride and ambition prompting envy, discontent, distrust, desire for self-exaltation and honor, and seeking the overthrow of the order God had established. The rebels became so deluded as to think themselves righteous and to regard those who faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan.
They were deceived into thinking they opposed only a human leader, but Moses was God's chosen instrument and Christ was their invisible leader, so in rejecting that authority they rejected Christ and insulted the Spirit of God. Their taking of the censers to exercise the priest's office was a daring affront to God, though the people admired them and failed to recognize the offense. They were sinners who justly suffered God's wrath when God stretched forth His hand and swallowed up the wrongdoers, and those who joined them died before the Lord by plague.
The rebellion was not cured even by judgment, for the morning after the destruction the people charged Moses and Aaron with killing the people of the Lord, and for that false charge and their exultation and presumptuous wickedness thousands more were killed. Nearly forty years later at Kadesh, when no water was found in the wilderness where water had once come from the rock, the congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron in the same spirit. They wished they had died with their brethren before the Lord rather than be brought into a waterless wilderness with no seed, figs, vines or pomegranates.
God Vindicates His Choice
The command to take censers set a test for the morrow in which the Lord himself would show whom he had chosen, who is holy, and whom he permits to come near to him. Korah and all his company were to bring censers with fire and incense in them and present themselves with them before the Lord, and the one God chose would be declared holy and brought near. That appointment exposed their demand for the priesthood as without right, for sacred office rests on God's choice and appointment and not on human claiming. The calling to take censers was God's way of settling who should hold the priesthood. By a terrible manifestation of divine judgment in the destruction of the rebels, God sustained Aaron in the holy office and upheld his sacred consecration as high priest over the family of Aaron.
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram thereby forfeited all right to claim sacred power and to entrench themselves behind its sacredness. The same test exposes leaders who claim great light and to be especially exalted of God while not obeying all the light, whose work for years is mingled with human devisings and selfishness. Such leaders hurt God's servants, the oil and the wine, and sustain men whom God cannot favor. The account of Korah's rebellion shows that opposition and disaffection against God's work cannot destroy it if it is truly of God, like later assaults and resistance and apostasy.
The chapter warns against acting in self rather than following God's direction, for the direction to take censers exposed rebellion against God's appointed order. Service tainted and mixed with self will not endure, while work done in God will stand. Only work done in God, using what God provides, will stand, for only the holy fire kindled by God is safe.
Warning Preserved For End
The account of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, joined by 250 prominent leaders, was faithfully chronicled with all its objectionable features and is recorded to instruct and warn God's people not to follow their example. It is to be studied and to be read carefully and prayerfully. The record stands as a warning to God's people, especially to those living near the close of time and upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Genuine rebellion is hardly ever curable and must be called by its right name as rebellion and apostasy. It warns against being easily led astray by false leaders, failing to distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd from that of a stranger, and following men who claim to undeceive the whole church instead of sinking the shaft deep into the mines of truth to distinguish precious ore from base material. The history warns those who claim to believe the truth not to judge from human feelings as Israel did, not to sympathize with the wrongdoer, and not to stand between the offender and God when God's servants do the disagreeable duty of correcting the erring. If they cannot see matters in the light presented, they are to hold their peace and let the arrows of the Almighty fall just where He directs to pierce souls that have little sense of sin.
The rebellion warns that those who reject light and join others in opposition to God may share the rebels' fate and lie down in darkness, so people must choose whether they will stand on the Lord's side. The same kind of history can be repeated. People will repeat its spirit by creating confusion and twisting God's words and warnings to support their own theories, for resisting God's order and authority brings serious consequences.
Opposing Appointed Leadership
Trusting private judgment above God's appointed counsel is rebellion against God, and those who joined Korah, Dathan and Abiram held to their own judgment against Moses and remained stubborn even after judgment fell on their leaders and princes, persisting to accuse Moses and showing how stubborn resistance brings severe deception. Their course is the disastrous work of turning the people against their leaders by portraying them as dishonest and deceptive and sowing doubt about those God appointed to lead. It unjustly charges those God appointed to do His work, presents them in a ridiculous light, creates a sentiment that cuts off their influence, causes dissension, creates false sympathy, and leads others into the same error and endangers their souls.
Such assailing work that causes the people to lose confidence in fellow workers as worthy of love and fellowship is an offense to God that must not be left in silence or uncertainty. It must be met openly by calling the accusers on every point to bring proof and by carefully investigating every charge, so the people are undeceived and not left to think it may be true or may not be true or to believe a lie, and so the false reproach is removed from God's servant. The same warning watches those who draw away from the church body, promote their own ideas and methods as a purer alternative, accuse fellow believers, and use the errors of church members to build themselves up. It forbids accusing and condemning those on whom God has placed responsibility for His work and drawing away from the people He is leading.
It also forbids receiving the Sabbath and other truths without sharing the labor that brought them to light and then reproaching those who bore that burden, as Korah, Dathan and Abiram rose against those God had charged with His work. In a crisis those entrusted with God's work must act decisively after this example of separating evil workers from the Lord's work and must not leave evil workers in place, for to do so fails to honor God and allows men following this example to develop. The rebels complained and influenced the people to stand with them against God's servants until God stretched forth His hand and swallowed up the wrongdoers and the people fled to their tents in horror, yet their rebellion was not cured. The depth of disaffection appeared even under judgment, for the morning after the destruction the people charged Moses and Aaron with killing the people of the Lord, and for that false charge and their sin, exultation and presumptuous wickedness thousands more were killed.
If ministers and workers had been faithful to deal with wrongdoers and guard the interests of God's cause and lift the truth from stigma and reproach, men following that example would not have developed. Those who claim to believe the truth must therefore not judge from human feelings as Israel did, nor sympathize with the wrongdoer, nor stand between the offender and God when God's servants do the disagreeable duty of correcting the erring, but if they cannot see matters in the light presented they are to hold their peace and let the arrows of the Almighty fall just where He directs to pierce souls that have little sense of sin. The rebellion stands as the example of wicked men, connected with selfish and fraudulent conduct and with refusing responsibility while seeking personal advantage. It remains a mere example of a rebellious course against Moses.
Self-Will And Self-Exaltation
The censer command stands as a warning against self-seeking, conceited resistance to God's order and grasping, narrow human attempts to improve on His plans. It exposes the danger of self-exaltation when those honored with a share in the work come to think themselves equal to God's appointed leader and a very essential part of the whole, feeling that credit and honor should be given to them and should not all go to the leader. This history was written for the admonition of those living in the last days and is to be studied.
The experience of Korah and all his company shows the result of yielding to distrust of God's instrumentalities, where feeling misused, speaking hasty unadvised words, fostering self-esteem, bearing false witness against brethren, leavening others' minds with distrust, weakening faith in men whom God is teaching, guiding and leading, and questioning and doubting God's appointed workers plants a seed of doubt that is hard to uproot and brings a like experience. It describes the self-willed rebellious course of threatening to sever all connection with brethren, pressing dishonoring terms and propositions, and going on year after year according to one's own mind and judgment while refusing to hear the voice of the Lord in the face of all warnings. That is dangerous ground the Lord warns to keep off, and brethren of firm rectitude should not yield to its threatenings but allow separation rather than consent to its terms.
The rebellion is presented as the pattern for leaders who oppress others, resist God, and reject repeated warnings from Him. That spirit is at work when a man separates from God so his heart is not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, revealing the attributes of Satan in oppressing fellow men with an influence contrary to truth, justice and righteousness. It is manifested in the desire of one institution to control all others by men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God, doing despite to the Holy Spirit as did the Jews in the days of Christ, casting aside warnings from God again and again and venturing on in the same course, and it describes leaders acting with self-importance and self-sufficiency in seeking such control. The same rebellion is repeated when people criticize and find fault with management the Lord is guiding, talking to make it appear that mistakes have been made, a course developed by those who have unconverted traits of character and need converting, who need to change their thoughts and attitude in every way in order to work successfully in Christ's lines.
Refusing the testimonies God gives and laboring to make them of none effect while deceived and deceiving others and strengthening the hands and minds of opposers is charged in the books of heaven, so that in the day of final accounts the guilty must meet not only his own course but the result of his influence upon other minds. That open rebellion against God's appointed workers was driven by ambitious projects, wounded pride when checked by straight testimonies, and little faith in the messages God has given, and the same state of things can be created again when men placed in responsible positions who knew not the former workers act with that same spirit. Satan leads persons to imitate that example by raising insurrection among God's people through opposition to plain testimony. Those who rise against the testimony God gives through His servants to rebuke wrongs become self-deceived, thinking those bearing the burden of the work exalt themselves above the people and that their counsels and reproofs are uncalled for.
Undecided between conviction and appetite, many choose self-indulgence and refuse to sacrifice appetite, warring against the straight testimonies against hurtful indulgences such as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco. They separate themselves from those cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, then gather the disaffected, the spiritually defective, the lame, the halt and the blind to scatter and sow discord. Their fate justly suffered under God's wrath stands as a warning against opposing plain testimony and the servants God has entrusted with correcting wrong among His people. The rebellion against God's messengers and message was acted over again at Minneapolis when heaven-sent truth was met with firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light.
That renewal meant pride that will not humble itself and confess prejudice, minds and hearts filled with prejudice instead of the Spirit of God, contempt for the word of the Lord, despising not man but the messengers and the message God sends, and unsanctified independence that insults the Spirit of God. It showed itself in a spirit of mockery and disgust toward God's word in lightness, trifling, jesting and joking. Those who cherish this spirit lose clear light to discern the preciousness of truth, have blinded eyes and perverted judgment and obscured spiritual eyesight, walk in darkness in the sparks of their own kindling, and will lie down in sorrow and have the candlestick removed out of its place unless every soul repents, is converted and is healed of backsliding, for without repentance they remain in darkness.
The censer test by which Korah, Dathan and Abiram forfeited all right to claim sacred power and to entrench themselves behind its sacredness exposes leaders who claim great light and to be especially exalted of God while not obeying all the light, whose work for years is mingled with human devisings and selfishness, who hurt God's servants, the oil and the wine, and who sustain men whom God cannot favor. It shows how people can become so self-deceived that they oppose God's work, call light darkness and darkness light, and reject truth as error. Korah, Dathan and Abiram thus stand as examples of resisting the truth and opposing the work of God's Spirit, and the account is invoked as a warning against joining them in resisting divine light and undermining faith.