The Rebellion of Korah
Lord, there is no portion of Torah which I have wrestled with more than Numbers 16. Over the past five decades I have at various times been terrified by the story, taken offense at Your judgments, received Your consolation and grieved for your sake. I am thankful for your patience as my heart matures and I come to know You better. The passage begins this way -
1 Now Korah son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, descendants of Reuben took 2 two hundred and fifty Israelite men, leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men, and they confronted Moses. 3 They assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, ‘You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?’ 4 When Moses heard it, he fell on his face.
and it ends twice.
25 Then Moses arose and went to Dathan and Abiram, with the elders of Israel following him, 26 and he spoke to the congregation, saying, “Get away now from the tents of these wicked men,…….31 Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. 33 So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly.
One would think that such an awful display of Your power would have frightened the Israelites into submission, but no! They complained all the more against Moses, saying that he had “killed the people of the LORD.” So Your anger broke out again, this time in disease.
46 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun.” 47 Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. 48 And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped. 49 Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident. 50 So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague had stopped.
The first time I heard this story, I was a child. I found it almost impossible to reconcile Your judgement, Father, with the Sunday school version of love I had been taught. There were several parts of the story that mystified me. For starters, I did not understand the cause of Your anger. I knew that it had something to do with complaining which I, like most children, engaged in daily. That was scary. There was also a bit about Korah wanting to be equal with Moses, which seemed fair to me as a child. Taking turns is a cardinal value of American elementary education. So is equality. On those points, I could sympathize with Korah - but clearly You did not.
Not understanding the cause of Your wrath made me nervous to say the least. I tried to comfort myself by thinking that this story happened a long time ago. I had never heard of the ground swallowing anyone since then. I was probably safe,since no one else seemed worried about the ground opening up out of the blue. All the same, the story clearly taught that You could be angered. I filed that truth away to deal with later.
When I was in college, my pride came into full bloom. I took out all my doubts and turned them into accusations against Your goodness. Like Peter, I could never bring myself to leave Jesus. But I was offended by the thought of hell. Your anger towards Korah’s rebellion seemed disporportionate to the offense, in my eyes. How could You sweep away so many people for the sin of complaining? Did whining really deserve the death penalty? I remember wrestling over the passage one day when You gently whispered in my ear, “The text doesn’t say that I sent those people to hell. It simply says that the ground swallowed them up.”
I was taken aback at the gentleness of Your answer to a question I did not have the humility to ask directly. You assured me that temporal judgment is not the same as eternal judgment. Death is in no way the same as damnation! Every man must die - but You, Father, see beyond our death. What feels like the end to us is simply a door into Your reality. I do not believe Korah was lost on the day of his rebellion; but he was ushered before Your Throne. He was judged for eternity after his death, not through his death, and Your judgments are always right. Your anger last for a moment, but Your mercy endures forever.
In recent years, since You opened my eyes to the wonder of the Exodus, I have found myself angry on Your behalf! How could Your people complain when You were living in their midst? How could they doubt Your favor when You led them as a cloud, shielded them from the heat of the desert? How could they fail to comprehend Your love when You guarded them with fire by night? How could they question Your intentions when You fed them the bread of heaven each morning? You had chosen them from among all the peoples of the earth, yet their flesh craved the comforts of slavery. I understand why their lust offended You.
You punished Your people so they would return to You. This was a pattern You had to repeat time and again in Israel’s history. Your desire was always to comfort and console - but Your people would not abide in Your holiness. Your holiness is the glory of Your people! Your presence is the greatest comfort and joy imaginable. But we are bound up in the lusts of our flesh. We are slaves to our pride. We cannot enjoy Your presence in the current state of our flesh. We need a Savior. We need Your law written upon our hearts.
Thus I have come to see the story of Korah’s sin in a new light. In quelling this rebellion, You were exalting Moses. You intended Moses to serve as a type of Your Son. Moses gave the Law. Jesus would fulfill it. Moses made the bronze serpent to stop a plague. Jesus was lifted up on the cross to “draw all men” to salvation. Moses led the people to Canaan. Jesus will lead us to home to You.
There is no one like Jesus. He alone will be our King. He is our Healer, and the Lover of our Souls. But He is also our Judge. He is the one who will meet us in death, when our bodies descend into the ground. Like Korah, we will not escape death. It is the right consequence of our sin. But death is not our end! Our Judge is also our Savior. We will bow to Him, or we will be cut off from the assembly of the holy. There is no other way.