A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 16 (Part 2)

Numbers 16:15-19—15 Then Moses was very angry, and said to the LORD, "Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, nor have I hurt one of them." 16 And Moses said to Korah, "Tomorrow, you and all your company be present before the LORD—you and they, as well as Aaron. 17 Let each take his censer and put incense in it, and each of you bring his censer before the LORD, two hundred and fifty censers; both you and Aaron, each with his censer." 18 So every man took his censer, put fire in it, laid incense on it, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of meeting with Moses and Aaron. 19 And Korah gathered all the congregation against them at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation." We see so many times in the Pentateuch God making a distinction, a separation, a sanctifying of His people from sinners. The commandments about foods? To establish distinction. The commandments about fabrics? To establish distinction. Everything in the Law was to either show what God thought to be sin or to establish the people as distinct and unlike the neighboring nations. This is another place where God wants to show that He will decide who does what, how His people are to be led and by whom, and that, in the end, He is the Sovereign who will make the ultimate decisions. 

Moses understood this. He understood and obeyed what God had commanded. He was the one with whom God spoke face to face. "Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, nor have I hurt one of them." He took nothing from these, and thus was under no obligation to favor them in the slightest. He has also done them no harm, showing that they could bring no charge against him. Moses was only devoted to one thing, and that was the glory of God. “Do not respect their offering.” Do not accept their incense, for it is as that of Nadab and Abihu. It is polluted by their pride and arrogance in their thinking that they know how to perform worship better than God does. It would not be a sweet aroma to YHVH, but rather a foul stench which would come up into His nostrils. As the works of man’s hands in exchange for salvation cannot appease the wrath of God, Moses cried out to God that He not accept the offerings given by these men who rebelled against God. As Paul would say in Acts 20:33—I have coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. Paul accepted no money as a gift for himself from anyone, just as Moses accepted nothing from these men of Korah. 

So every man took his censer, put fire in it, laid incense on it, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of meeting with Moses and Aaron. Korah and company still had a chance to end this, to admit that Moses and Aaron were the ones chosen by God, and God would have passed over their temporary ignorance. But no—they pressed on, they took up a censer, put hot coals in it, and then the holy frankincense which God commanded, and went to the Tabernacle, to see which group God would choose. Korah and company did not even think that what happened to Nadab and Abihu would happen to them. At this point, the die was cast, and Korah and company were about to cross their Rubicon. The battle lines were drawn, each side was arrayed for the fight, and they were about to see whom God had chosen. And as it says in verse 17, it was 250 against 2. Again, God doesn’t care about the numbers. It could have been all 600,000 against 2, and God wouldn’t care. As Robert Hawker once said, “It is really astonishing, considering the badness of their cause, that Korah and his party should have been willing to put things to such an issue. But, Reader! When our hearts are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, what judgments of GOD do we not brave? How often hath my stubborn unsubdued nature gone about to establish my own righteousness, instead of seeking the righteousness of GOD my Saviour?” Korah and company had seen the many miracles God had wrought, and still decided to fight against Him. They were as the men of Sodom groping at Lot’s door. 

Numbers 16:19-27—20 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 21 "Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment." 22 Then they fell on their faces, and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and You be angry with all the congregation?" 23 So the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the congregation, saying, 'Get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.'” 25 Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. 26 And he spoke to the congregation, saying, "Depart now from the tents of these wicked men! Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins." 27 So they got away from around the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents, with their wives, their sons, and their little children. Think of what went through Moses’ mind when God said this. He knows from these words that things are not going to end well for Korah and Dathan and Abiram and the other 245 men with them. “Separate yourselves”. “Get away from them. I’m getting ready to do something to them that will not be pleasant, and I don’t want you to be caught up in it.” He told Moses that He would consume them in a moment. It was going to happen quickly, and there would not be time for anyone nearby to get out of the way of it. And what was Moses’ and Aaron’s reaction? Did they say, “Yes! Can’t wait for this!”? Did they say “Good, they’ve got it coming!”? Did they say, “Come on God, I hope you punish them severely!”? No. They fell on their faces. Do we sometimes laugh, or at least snicker, when an unbeliever meets their demise, knowing that at the next moment they will be face to face with Almighty God, having to give an account for their lives and knowing they will be naked before Him, with nary a plea? Moses knew, from hearing what God said, that this would be the case for these men. It doesn’t say so in the text, but God may have given Moses a vision of what was going to happen. 

And he did not want this burning wrath of God to fall on the entirety of the camp. "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and You be angry with all the congregation?" Would He be right to be angry with the whole of the people? Wouldn’t be the first time, and would not be on the biggest scale. Romans 5:12—Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin. Did you or I receive a direct command from God Himself? Were you or I commanded not to eat the fruit of one particular tree? No. But Adam was. He heard from God Himself that he was not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of God and Evil. But when Eve succumbed to the first lie (“Hath God indeed said?”), she gave to Adam to eat. But rather than correcting her and instructing her that they should not eat of that tree, he ate anyway. And what happened? One man sinned, and God was angry with all of humanity. “Shall one man sin, and You be angry with all the congregation?” Moses here echoes Abram’s prayer to God in Genesis 18:23—“Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” Would He have been right and just to do so? Of course. Would He have been right and just to not do so? Of course. What was the final verdict? He destroyed the entire city, after Lot and his family were escaped from there. Moses and Abram, the men with whom God spoke most closely and as friends, were devout men of God, who sought always, with few exceptions, to live the way He wanted them to. And when they failed, they asked for forgiveness and repented of their sins. They were righteous men, who sought to please God. And what do we know about the prayers of a righteous man? James 5:16—The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Phillip Schaff wrote, “Prayer, in order to prevail, must proceed from an earnest heart, and be made by a righteous man; that is, by a good, sincere, true-hearted man.” Moses was such a righteous, good, sincere, true hearted man. 

“Speak to the congregation, saying, 'Get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.'” Words that are echoed, to a degree, in the New Testament. These sinful men in our text represented sin, and Moses pled with the people to flee from them, lest they be caught up with them. We are encouraged as believers in Christ to avoid sin, to not look long at sin, and even, in one verse, to flee from sin (1st Corinthians 6:18). A man who is considered to be a faithful man of God has recently been found to be in an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman who is not his wife. We don’t know everything this entails (God knows), but one thing can be assumed: he was near to sin, he saw sin, and did not remove himself from the situation until it was too late. He was near to the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and instead of fleeing he kept himself nearby and got caught up in their sin. Much like Solomon, the wisest man ever, whose wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David (1st Kings 11:4). I call this “The Solomon Paradox”™: how the wisest man ever did some of the dumbest things. David, the man after God’s own heart, was not immune from the desires of the flesh. 2nd Samuel 11:1-4—1 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her.  David could have had any number of wives and concubines. But instead, he took his friend’s little ewe lamb, and killed him for it. And in all three of these cases, the consequences were visited on the men. David’s son Absalom laid with his concubines; Solomon’s son Jeroboam led all Israel to sin; and Steve Lawson has lost his ministry. Because they did not flee from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. 

Unlike the members of the people of Israel who did get away. So they got away from around the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. What instruction do we read in Revelation 18:4—And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” These people removed themselves from the tents of Korah and company, and the angel in Revelation 18 warns the people to come out of Babylon the Great. Why? “Lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” Do not be near to unbelievers when they are doing what is contrary to God, lest you be caught up in their malicious deeds. 1st Corinthians 15:33—Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits." There is no clearer example of this than in Proverbs 1:10-18—10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11 If they say, "Come with us, Let us lie in wait to shed blood; let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; 12 let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the Pit; 13 we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil; 14 cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse"—15 my son, do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path; 16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 17 Surely, in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird; 18 but they lie in wait for their own blood, they lurk secretly for their own lives. Remember being in high school, maybe hanging around with an unsavory bunch? They liked to do things and go places they shouldn’t be? You decide to tag along one day. And they start breaking windows at an old, abandoned business. Suddenly the police arrive. And whether you were sharing in their hooliganism or not, guess who gets scooped up and put in the back of a cruiser? Then you had to call mom and dad to explain. If mom and dad were good parents, you got punished. Is God a good parent? When those who despise Him do something abhorrent to Him, they may think they are being crafty and secretive, but God sees all, and they lie in wait for their own blood, they lurk secretly for their own lives. They are heaping up wrath for themselves. 

Numbers 16:28-35—28 And Moses said: "By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will. 29 If these men die naturally like all men, or if they are visited by the common fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. 30 But if the LORD creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the LORD." 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. 34 Then all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, "Lest the earth swallow us up also!" 35 And a fire came out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense. The moment of truth. The moment when two men of God would stand against 250 prideful men of their father the devil, to see which one God would choose. And it is clearly shown here that it is God, in His will, not man nor the will of man, who chooses prophets and priests. These men, who thought of themselves as something, were brought down into the depths of the earth to make this very thing known. 

There are many today who reckon themselves to be prophets, who speak great swelling words that are contrary to what God has said. They tell people that they will be rich and prosperous, that they will never be sick, that if they just believe enough, they can have more health, wealth and prosperity than they could ever imagine. And of course they draw big crowds, because they tell people what they want to hear. These are the ones that Paul warned us about in his second letter to Timothy. After all, who wouldn’t want to hear smooth words of flattery, that everything that comes into our lives will be good and smooth? 2nd Timothy 4:3-4—3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. It is no different today than it was then, and has been no different at any point in between. How many times in Israel’s history did the people turn away from God to worship Ba'al or Asherah or Molech? And today, how many times do people turn away from God to follow a god of their own choosing? In both instances, these were nothing more than worshipping the flesh. People don’t want to hear hard truths, when the lies are so much easier to hear and to tolerate. And these are the things these modern-day “prophets” are spewing to the people that follow them. 

But what will happen to these “prophets”? What will be their destination once their flesh fails and they go down to the grave? It will be as these, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. And will they be alone in their torment? No, they will be joined by all those who followed them, who came to them with itching ears, who followed their Godless teachings, and who did not follow the ways of righteousness; who saw Jesus as an ATM to give them all they wanted, and who gave God no glory, but served and worshipped their faith in themselves and sought to create for themselves a life of luxury and ease. All those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly. John Piper said rightly about this ungodly health, wealth and prosperity “gospel”—

 

“I don’t know what you feel about the prosperity gospel—the health, wealth and prosperity gospel—but I’ll tell you what I feel about it—Hatred. It is not the gospel, and it’s being exported from this country to Africa and Asia, selling a bill of goods to the poorest of the poor: ‘Believe this message and your pigs won’t die and your wife won’t have miscarriages, and you’ll have rings on your fingers and coats on your back.’ That’s coming out of America—the people that ought to be giving our money and our time and our lives, instead selling them a bunch of crap called ‘gospel.’”

 Instead of telling people the truth—that we are all sinners in the eyes of God and we need the righteousness of Christ to be acceptable to the eternally holy and righteous God—they are telling people that Jesus only came to make their lives more comfortable, to give them material riches and not that He came to give them eternal riches in Heaven. What good will their material wealth be to them once they are standing before Almighty God, who will ask them why He should let them into His Kingdom? Instead of thinking that our faith will make us rich in this life, let us consider the eternal riches that Christ can give us if we repent of our sins and turn to God and ask forgiveness for our sins! And let us see Christ as the one who will lead us through pain and heartache, when our faith is not enough to prevent calamity from befalling our family.

 

“I’ll tell you what makes Jesus look beautiful,” Piper told them. “It’s when you smash your car, and your little girl goes flying through the windshield, and lands dead on the street . . . and you say through the deepest possible pain, ‘God is enough.’” 

1st Timothy 6:7, 10—7 We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out…10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 

Those who prop themselves up falsely as prophets will meet an eternal fate that will be unimaginable. Not only will they die, as all men do, but they will be judged more harshly than any sinner, since he (or she) took upon himself (or herself) a mantle reserved for those whom God actually called. God is not slack, and He will punish them in due time when He is ready. And God is not to be mocked, as He will visit on all who mock Him a punishment beyond anything one could imagine. Jesus had stern words for such. Matthew 7:21-23—21 “Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” Even those who do “good things” will not be forgiven of their sins by the “good works” that they have done, but only by faith in Christ and love for God and neighbor. 

And those who support and prop up these false prophets, there end will be the same. And a fire came out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense. Not only were Korah and Dathan and Abiram pulled down into the earth, but those supporting them were burned up with fire. Another warning to not be caught up with those who are rebelling against God. Even after seeing the wonders that God had done among them and for them, they still kept groping at the door. We are warned about men like these in Titus 3:10-11—10 Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned. The Apostle John would not even suffer his disciples to be under the same roof as a known heretic. In his work “Against Heresies”, Irenaeus wrote—

 

There are also those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, "Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within." And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who met him on one occasion, and said, "Dost thou know me?" "I do know thee, the first-born of Satan." Such was the horror which the apostles and their disciples had against holding even verbal communication with any corrupters of the truth. 

Let us always flee from those who preach heresy, and run to Christ, the only one who has words of eternal life! (John 6:68). 2nd Peter 2:1-3—1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. Those who flatter you with smooth words easy to hear and to digest will bring you down into judgment with them!

Part 2 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Tedstament Law--Numbers 16 (Part 1)

Numbers 16:1-3—1 Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men; 2 and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. 3 They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" 

Ever see the movie “The Ten Commandments”? Used to watch it every Easter when it would come on ABC. And every Easter, Charlton Heston led me to the Lord. Haha. Well, when I started studying the Bible, I realized the movie wasn’t really true to the Scriptures in some areas. This is one of those areas. Dathan was played by Edward G. Robinson, and in the movie this episode we are looking at took place right after the Golden Calf episode. So the writers kinda mixed up and muddled up the sequence of events for dramatic license. Just wanted to get that out of the way. Here we see again a murmuring against what God has commanded. He put Moses in charge, and Aaron as the High Priest. But this band of rebels was not happy with that. They looked at Moses and Aaron as taking these mantles upon themselves. "You take too much upon yourselves…Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" And they were not happy at how Moses and Aaron were running things, and this band thought they were just as entitled to run things as Moses and Aaron. But that is not what God commanded. God had a certain way He wanted things done, and these men were rebelling against that command. And we will see the consequences of his actions later. Suffice it to say it is never good to rebel against what God has ordained. 

So what can we learn from this today? We learn that God has set up an organization for how He wants the church set up. We find this organization in Ephesians 4:11—And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Notice what Paul says. He Himself gave some to be. In other words, God is the one who appoints those who are apostles, prophets, etc. Those who are in these positions, and are truly apostles, prophets, etc., do not take these mantles upon themselves. But don’t we see Korah’s type of rebellion today; when a member of a church thinks he (or she) can do a better job than the one pastoring that particular flock, and decides to plant seeds of doubt among the members? Again, a pastor also does not (or should not) take that office upon himself lightly. For if a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work (1st Timothy 1:3). The amount of time involved in shepherding a flock—the time spent studying the Scriptures for what the people need to hear, the time visiting the sick and infirm, the time spent in meetings to determine how to spend the church’s funds—is more than many can bear, more than any rabble-rousers can imagine, and can take a toll on that preacher and his family. It is no small thing to shepherd a flock! So you can only imagine the tolls it took on Moses and Aaron top lead almost a million people from Egypt, through the desert, to the land God promised them. Which is why God was so patient with Moses in the times he cried to Him and bemoaned his situation—it was no small thing to lead this group of grumblers and backbiters, when there were scarce resources and there was scorching heat and the threat of those in the surrounding land to come upon them. 

But Korah thought it was. He and those with him thought they could lead this mass of people through the desert just as well as Moses could, and that anyone could minister to God as well as Aaron did. Numbers 16:4-7—4 So when Moses heard it, he fell on his face; 5 and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, “Tomorrow morning the LORD will show who is His and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to Him. That one whom He chooses He will cause to come near to Him. 6 Do this: Take censers, Korah and all your company; 7 put fire in them and put incense in them before the LORD tomorrow, and it shall be that the man whom the LORD chooses is the holy one. You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi!" In verse 7, Moses turns Korah’s argument back on him, by saying that Korah and his band have taken too much upon themselves. And he’s right. When it says in Numbers 12:3 that no one was more humble than Moses, that was the absolute truth. And he had to be. A man who was proud in his heart could not lead this bunch of grumblers through the desert, or his pride would puff him up and he would leave them all behind and take God up on His offer to wipe them all out and start over with that person. And what glory would God get out of that? (Numbers 14:13-19). 

And in keeping with this idea, what is the first thing Moses does when Korah makes his claim? So when Moses heard it, he fell on his face. So many of us would be angry with these people, since God just told them in Numbers 14 that because they have grumbled against Him so many times that they would not enter the Promised Land. This time, it wasn’t grumbling because of food or water or the giants in the land, it was the grumblings of a handful of men who let one thing overtake them: pride. And if Moses was a prideful man, he and Korah would end up throwing hands against one another. But what does Moses do? He humbles himself and bows his face to the earth and instantly gets a word from the Lord, that they should let God decide who the Prophet and High Priest really are. That one whom He chooses He will cause to come near to Him. Here again we see the principle of Election, that God chooses who will be His and who will be chosen to perform the duties of ministering between the people and God, as Moses says again in verses 6-7—6 Take censers, Korah and all your company; 7 put fire in them and put incense in them before the LORD tomorrow, and it shall be that the man whom the LORD chooses is the holy one. In this way, Moses was letting Korah and company know that he was not making the decision, but God. 

Remember back in Leviticus 11, when Nadab and Abihu brought a different incense to burn before God, and He burned them up on the spot? Wasn’t Moses that did that, wasn’t Gershom, wasn’t Eleazar. It was God. Why? Because they did something in a way that God did not approve of. And in the same way, Korah and company were to bring a censer of coals and Aaron was to bring a censer of coals, and God would make the decision. Many people these days think it is some kind of badge of honor to say “Only God can judge me!” And they say it in an almost prideful manner, as if God will excuse their sins. But when someone says “Only God can judge me”, they should be ready for Him, because one thing is certain—He will!

 

And Korah decided also to cast his lot on his own righteousness, rather than acknowledging that He chose Aaron to be High Priest. And even today, we have those who will rail against God’s people, thinking that they themselves are better than the people of God. Paul says in Romans 8:33—Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Korah laid a charge against the men God had chosen, and thought he could get away with it. How brazen must he have been! How prideful! To think that God would turn His back on the man He chose to be High Priest, and accept this prideful man who boasted against God’s elect! This even more clearly emphasizes the point made in Numbers 12:3, that the man Moses was very humble! 

Numbers 16:8-11—8 Then Moses said to Korah, "Hear now, you sons of Levi: 9 Is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to do the work of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to serve them; 10 and that He has brought you near to Himself, you and all your brethren, the sons of Levi, with you? And are you seeking the priesthood also? 11 Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against the LORD. And what is Aaron that you complain against him?” Korah and company thought it was an easy task to lead almost one million souls from Egypt, to Sinai, around the Sinai Peninsula, through the Wilderness of Paran, to a land which the people did not know. And from the human side, Korah and company were treating their election by God as a minute thing—that God had chosen them to be His, that God had chosen them to perform their assigned duties in the Tabernacle, that God had chosen them to act as mediator between the people and God. And now they want more? Now they want to be the ones in charge of the Tabernacle? A position that God Himself chose Aaron for, flawed as he was? This rank jealousy coming from Levites, the ones who were to stand before God and present unblemished sacrifices. How could they stand before God with such a heart polluted by the same sin that caused Satan to be cast out of Heaven, when he declared 13 “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). What do you read over and over again in this passage? I…I…I…… And just as it was Satan exalting himself above the seat of God, here we see Korah—not Moses and Aaron—exalting himself and those with him above the judgment of God. 

”Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against the LORD.” Ouch. This would have been the time for Korah and company to fold their hands and admit that they were in no position to question God. They could have, as Moses, fallen on their faces and begged forgiveness from the Most High, and they may have been struck with leprosy or may have incurred some other punishment from God. As Jesus said of the two sons in Matthew 21:28-31—28 "A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go, work today in my vineyard.' 29 He answered and said, 'I will not,' but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, 'I go, sir,' but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?" Here, we see that God had two sons—Moses and Korah—We know Moses did the will of God. And here, Korah could have been like the first Son in Jesus’ parable—going against the will of the Father, then regretting it and submitting to God’s will. But he didn’t. Much like the wicked men of Sodom in Genesis 19:11, they kept groping for the door of sin and like the men of Sodom, they would face consequences. Well said is it in Proverbs 16:18—Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Dathan was a prideful man, and he (and those who followed him) would experience a fall like no other! 

Numbers 16:12-14—12 And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, but they said, "We will not come up! 13 Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you should keep acting like a prince over us? 14 Moreover you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up!" Again we see the longing for slavery. Edward G. Robinson—I mean, Dathan—and Abiram saw their time in bondage as a time of freedom. They could eat what they wanted, they could do what they wanted, they could play however they wanted—all they had to do was dance in the mud and put up statues to honor the pagan gods. Just like today, when we come to know Christ and even confess Him as Lord and Savior, and something comes up that tests our patience, or is disagreeable to us, we can be tempted to seek to go back to the mire we were taken out of, because we see that as easier than following Christ and accepting of the trial we are in. Or we are tempted by something we used to enjoy, and we think “ya know, if it wasn’t for Jesus, I could enjoy that again.” Instead of seeing that trial or temptation as a way to show that we are actually in a better place than we were in, and to give God the glory we see it as God not being fair, and we say that God has not made our lives easier. But here’s the problem—knowing Christ and following Him may not bring instant joy and deliverance from trials. In fact, the trials may become more intense, But don’t let that dissuade you from following Him. Rather, we should use these trials as a way to depend on Him even more. James 1:2—My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Are you in a financial bind? Ask God how to get through this. Do you have wayward children? Ask God to set them on the correct path. Did you lose your job? Ask God where to seek employment and follow His guiding. But in all these things, ask that His will be done (Matthew 6:10), because His will may be different than your will. 

And be patient. James 1:3—Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. This was one thing Dathan and Abiram were sorely lacking in. “You have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards.” No, they had not come to the land flowing with milk and honey—YET. But they would get there! And it would be a far better place than their time in bondage in Egypt! It has been said that every prayer of the saints is heard by God, and He answers them all. Sometimes the answer is “yes”, sometimes the answer is “no”, sometimes the answer is “wait”. Galatians 5:22—The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering… Patience. Wait on the Lord. David says this in Psalm 27:14—Wait, I say, on the LORD! In our day and age it is hard to be patient. So many things and people around us demanding our attention. So often we are out somewhere and we are behind a slower car, or an elderly couple in the aisle or the checkout at the grocery store. Or maybe we have to wait for five seconds for someone to move out of our way. Our reaction can show who we really are. Do we get angry, and huff and puff? Not only is that impatience, but also displays a bit of pride. “Where I have to go is more important than these people!” Perhaps by slowing you down by five seconds, God may be saving your life! In her song “Granny’s angel”, Nicole C. Mullen posits such a thought in her song “Granny’s Angel”: 

Stuck in traffic, at a quarter ‘til nine

Shirley’s cursin’ “Oops! Is that fatal wreck on my side?

No compassion, ‘cause she don’t realize

Had she been any earlier

BOOM! It would have been her life 

Thing is that no, the people of Israel were not in the Promised Land. But they were getting there. Wait, I say, on the LORD! Abraham Kuyper once said “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Not only does that speak of all of the physical universe, but it also speaks of time. There is not a year our month or week or day or hour or minute or second over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, “Mine!” God could have very easily stopped their mouths and their grumbling and complaining but He didn’t. Why? I don’t know, but He had His reasons. More than likely, He was weeding out those whom He knew were not fit for the Promised Land. Just like when He told Gideon to not go against the Midianites and Amalekites and people of the East with the 32,000 or the 10,000 but only the 300 faithful men. 

Not only was He weeding out the unfaithful and backbiting, He was also doing it for His glory. See, God does not get glory in victory by large numbers, but by strengthening the hands and minds of the few. Remember, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the whole city celebrated. By the time He gave up His life, the city had turned on Him. In the old hymn “Man of Sorrows, What a Name”, P. P. Bliss states: 

Lifted up was He to die;

"It is finished" was his cry; 

He was lifted up on the cross by those who opposed God. Forsaken even by those who followed Him and knew Him as the Son of God. Only John was left, and Jesus sent him away as well. As Isaiah said, 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted…He was led as a lamb to the slaughter…8 He was taken from prison and from judgment…For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken (Isaiah 53:7-8). What glory could come from one Man, beaten and mocked, dying alone on a cross, put to shame for the world to see? Well, this was not just any man. This was the holy, righteous, perfect Son of God. And what had He done that was deserving of death? Why was He beaten and mocked? What blasphemy had He uttered? Oh no friend, it was not because of any sin He committed, for the Son of God did no sin, nor did He even think of doing any sin. In fact, He was put to death for us. For you. For me. For your neighbor. And God took His Son, battered and broken, from the tomb, raised Him up to sit at His right hand, to rule over all creation. The hymn goes on: 

Now in heaven exalted high:

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

When he comes, our glorious King,

All his ransomed home to bring,

Then anew this song we'll sing:

Hallelujah, what a Savior! 

How dare any of us think that just because He has not yet returned that His promise is null and void? How dare we think that just because we are still stuck on this rock that our lives are for naught? We have the promise of our risen Lord that He will return, and that every eye will see Him, that the mouths of the unbelieving will be stopped, and that we who Know Him will be brought safely into our promised reward. But we have to be patient, and Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Part 2 next week

Jesus Christ is Lord

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 15 (Part 2)

Numbers 15:32-36—32 Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. 34 They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him. 35 Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp." 36 So, as the LORD commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died. The seventh-day Sabbath was a token of that Old Covenant that God had made with the people of Israel (Exodus 31:16-17—16 “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath…17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever”). Picking up sticks was considered, by God, to be doing work. This man was doing work on the Sabbath, which God had forbade when He spoke the Ten Commandments to Moses (Exodus 20:10). He proceeded to pronounce the punishment for working on the Sabbath in Exodus 31:14-15—14 “You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death” and Moses spoke to the people the punishment in Exodus 35:2—“Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death”. So this man had heard that the Sabbath was a day of rest on which no work was to be done, lest the person die. Yet he still chose to violate that sign and sin against God, for which he paid the price with his life. When God gave the people manna in Exodus 16, Moses told the people quite plainly to not go out to gather on the seventh day. And what did some of them do? You guessed it. So why did God not call for their death, but did command that this man be put to death? Because the Law had not been given yet. Would He have been right and just in putting those people to death who gathered manna on the Sabbath? Yes. But He had not yet given the commandments about the Sabbath, so while He was angry with them, He did not destroy them. 

Let’s fast forward about 1500 years. Christ is walking through fields of grain with His disciples. Mark 2:23—Now it happened that He went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. Did Jesus rebuke them? Did God command that they be stoned with stones? After all, they were (according to the Pharisees) doing work on the Sabbath. Mark 2:24—And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" Well, they had a point. But their zeal was misplaced. The disciples were not performing work simply for the sake of performing work. They were hungry, and did as prescribed in Leviticus 19:10, and gleaning from the corners of the field. And Jesus, God in the flesh, was there with them. He rebuked the Pharisees by calling to mind what their favorite king, the ancestor of Christ Himself, had done in 1st Samuel 21:3-6, in eating the Bread of Presence, which was only for the priests, which David was not. Now, let me clear up a difficulty with this text in Mark. In Mark 2:25-26, Jesus says 25 “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread…?” Yet the text in 1st Samuel 21 says that Ahimelech was High Priest. “See? Ha! There’s a contradiction right there!” A contradiction which, if the text was altered by “corrupt copyists” as the skeptics like to say, could have been easily been altered. But it is no contradiction. For Jesus is not saying that Abiathar was High Priest at the time, only that this incident happened in the days of Abiathar. For shortly after this, his father Ahimelech was slain by Saul at the hands of Doeg (1st Samuel 22:18). So yes, David ate the showbread in the days of Abiathar (who was more closely associated with David than was Ahimelech), but Abiathar was not yet High Priest. 

So the question remains “what does the Sabbath mean today? Are we, as grafted-in descendants of Abraham, obliged to keep the seventh-day Sabbath?” The short answer is “no”. Which begs the likewise short question “why?” Because that Sabbath, which was the sign of the Old Covenant, has been done away with (as has circumcision) along with that Old Covenant. So which day do we consecrate as our day of rest? That would be what was called the “first day of the week” in the New Testament. We see this in the Book of Acts, where the disciples met on the first day of the week. Acts 20:7—Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread. They met together to break the bread which represented the body of Christ. They did this in remembrance of Him, to stir up the memory of the sacrifice of our Lord. It tells us in Colossians to not let any man hold over our heads that any day of the week is above another. Colossians 2:16-17—16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Paul says again in Romans the same thing. Romans 14:5-6—5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. Justin Martyr, in chapter LXVII of his First Apology, wrote that we should come together to remember our Lord on the first day of the week:

 

On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given…

Ignatius in Chapter IX of his “Letter to the Magnesians”, said,

 

If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death—whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master—how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, being come, raised them from the dead.

[…]

The prophets were His servants, and foresaw Him by the Spirit, and waited for Him as their Teacher, and expected Him as their Lord and Saviour, saying, “He will come and save us.” Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness; for “he that does not work, let him not eat.” For say the [holy] oracles, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.” But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. 

Numbers 15:37-41—37 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 38 "Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. 39 And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, 40 and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. 41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God." The tassels (צׅיצׅת, tzitzith) on the borders (פָנָף, kanaph) were to be made on the four corners of their garments. These were to remind the people of the commandments that God had given them that they may be set apart from their neighboring nations and be seen as holy to God. By the time Jesus came, however, those who wanted to appear more righteous that others had forgotten that principle, and made their tzitzith (κράσπεδον, kraspedon in the Greek) larger and larger so they might appear more righteous to the people. Matthew 23:5—“But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders [κράσπεδον, kraspedon or פָנָף, kanaph] of their garments.” They did not want to be seen as simply holy, they wanted to appear to be super-holy. It wasn’t that they wanted to look at their tassels, rather they wanted others to see their tassels and be impressed. 

Here is a neat little note about the borders of the garments. In Hebrew, the word “borders” (פָנָף, kanaph) can also mean “wings”. The woman with an issue of blood in Matthew 9:20, Mark 5:25 and Luke 8:43 though within herself, “If only I could touch His garment, I will be made well”. And in Matthew 9:20 we see that she did indeed touch the hem, or border, of His garment. Why is all of this so significant? In Malachi 4:2, the prophet says But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. Malachi was not talking about wings like a bird. He was talking about the פָנָף (kanaph) of the garment of the Sun of Righteousness, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. So she was really thinking, “This is the Sun of Righteousness foretold by the prophet Malachi. And in the borders (“wings”) of His garment there is healing! If I could only touch it, I will be healed of this dread condition that no physician could help me with, but this Jesus, the Great Physician, can heal me completely!” Let us all reach out to touch, not only the hem of Christ’s garment, but Christ Himself. He is our Lord and Savior, our God in the flesh, who tabernacled with man for 33 years, and who shed His blood as the sign of the New Covenant. Let us not look to a certain day of the week as our Sabbath rest, but rather to our true Sabbath rest, who has taken our burdens upon Himself and has given us His burden yoke, which are easy and are light. 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.