Korah's Rebellion (Numbers 16)

All right, well, I guess it's about 630 so time to get started if you would turn to numbers chapter 16

Numbers chapter 16 and for the sake of time, we're only going to play verses 1 through 13 on the video

But let's open in prayer heavenly father. We are thankful for All that you've done in our lives and conforming us to the image of Christ and father

I pray that you would keep us safe from temptation keep this church safe from influences from the world things that would hinder us things that would

Affect our walk things that would lead us astray and and father we're thankful that the things that we've read about in numbers with the rebellions and the fighting between one faction versus another that we haven't seen this at Morse Corner Church, at least

Not as far as anyone can remember so Lord we're just thankful for all that you do and Add a blessing to your word this evening as we as we study it.

We pray it all in Jesus name Amen All right numbers chapter 16

Now Cora the son of Isha the son of Kohath the son of Levi With Dathan and a

Byron the sons of Eliad and on the son of Peleth Sons of Reuben took men and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel 250 leaders of the congregation representatives of the congregation men of renown

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? So when Moses heard it, he fell on his face and he spoke to Coda and all his company tomorrow morning

The Lord will show who is his and who is holy And will cause him to come near to him

And that one whom he chooses he will cause to come near to him

Do this Take censors Cora and all your company 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 And Moses said to Coda here now you sons of Levi Is it a small thing to you that the

God of Israel have 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

And that he has brought you nearer to himself You and all your brethren the sons of Levi with you

And are you seeking the priesthood and so Therefore You and all your company are gathered together against the

Lord And what is Aaron that you complain against him and Moses sent to call

Dathan and a Byron the sons of Eliab But they said we will not come up Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land flowing with milk and honey?

To kill us in the wilderness that you should keep acting like a prince over us Okay, so we're gonna stop here

And I don't know about you I guess I can't prove this But just the way they're talking to each other is very calm and and polite

And I just don't think that's the way this went. I don't know. I think I think it was a little different But we'll see.

All right, so numbers chapter 16 Records a significant event in the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel This is the rebellion of Cora.

We've already seen several rebellions up until this point But I think this one at least to me is the most memorable if for no other reason because of how the

Lord Deals with it. So Cora gathers 250 men important men

Representatives leaders look at verse 3 again 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 in the

Lord is among them Why then do you exalt yourselves? above the assembly of The Lord so that's the accusation against Moses and Aaron that they have exalted themselves

Okay, so first of all, who are these men Cora is a

Levite And based on his lineage and based on what's written about him in numbers chapter 4

He would have been a very important man in the nation He would have played a significant role in the ministry of the tabernacle

So to put it in modern terms You could say that Cora is a high -ranking official and you know how it is some people they get a little taste of power or influence and they're not satisfied they want to be numero uno and I think that's

Partly what's happening here and really there's no shortage of people that are upset with Moses So he probably figures this is the perfect time.

There is just that Defeat of the children of Israel. This is the perfect time to stir up a rebellion

So he takes these men from the tribe of Reuben Dathan and a Byron So these are the three ringleaders

Cora Nate Dathan and a Byron and then 250 men Total so Moses they say has exalted himself.

Is that true? Has Moses exalted himself? Now who exalted

Moses well the Lord The Lord did the Lord selected Moses all the way back in Exodus chapter 3 right?

We've talked about this many times. He didn't even want this position But the Lord chose him so Moses without question is

God's man And Aaron is like the number two and his sons

Aaron and his sons held the priesthood But as far as Cora is concerned

Cora thinks he should be a priest too and He probably figures he should be the leader of the nation as well so he is usurping or trying to usurp the authority of Moses and Aaron so this is we're gonna call this an attempted coup this is what he's trying to do because this is a nation remember and the government is

Moses and there's a mixture of the religion and the government so if he can overthrow

Moses and Aaron He's going to be the one in Charge, so his angle is like many revolutionaries throughout history

He claims to be a man of the people his pitch is that Moses and Aaron have kind of taken too much for themselves and All the congregation is holy so really we should just let the people rule

Now this statement that Moses and Aaron have taken too much upon themselves this sort of sounds familiar doesn't it because That's what

Jethro had said that Moses was doing too much and this thing that you're doing is not good

So Moses needs to learn how to delegate and we've talked about the 70 elders that were appointed

But that's not really what Cora is saying that would be reasonable, but what Cora is saying

Basically is that you know you had your chance leading the nation you failed and now it's our turn

So Moses the Moses administration has to go and the Cora administration

Will come in any questions so far No, yeah,

Larry Where where was I know I just read it recently but Aaron's to oldest sons

That were right profane fire Nadab in a bayou.

Yeah, we looked at that a ways back, right? Yeah, I mean there's gonna be a tie -in there

Chapter three, so That's not too much too long ago, yeah chorus obviously forgotten all about that Like what about the guy that Marcus alluded to that was what we went over last week, right?

After 15 so the man who broke the Sabbath and was stoned. Yeah. Yeah Well Cora figures he has a lot of popular support and you know what he does

He does if the Lord did not intervene who knows what would have happened, right?

So we we know better week It's easy for us because we've most of us have heard this before we've read this story before we can kind of step back

And look at this objectively. We know what the scripture says. We know Moses is

God's appointed leader We know that this kind of thing isn't going to work And why don't the people just learn already?

Haven't they seen this happen before they but think of it if you were there We're looking at it, you know in hindsight

If you were there in the wilderness hungry dissatisfied maybe you would have

Bought into Cora's argument. So it's kind of easy for us To say that this is foolish and it is but if you were there that's another story

So this is his yeah, right Yeah Right That's what they were told

Yeah, and they what they want to go back to Egypt they don't want to die in the wilderness

They want to go back to Egypt that that's better in their mind So this is his pitch that all of God's people are

Holy in other words, you know power to the people right and as Americans Maybe this sounds good to us, you know, we the people right only that Never ends up being the case

Leaders may be called public servants, but usually they end up serving themselves

But if there was ever a man who was a true Servant leader it was

Moses Of course G who is the ultimate servant leader? Jesus he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many

Mary Yeah Yeah Moses had that desire that all

God's people would be prophets right So Moses is not just power hungry and looking to hold on to his position

He is doing God's will God gave him this authority and Moses is just carrying out

God's orders That's obviously not how they're looking at it though But yeah, if there is ever a true servant leader other than Jesus Moses is that servant leader

You consider what Moses gave up. He gave up a life of luxury as a prince of Egypt to defend his people

He didn't want the job. We already said that he's constantly interceding on behalf of this people that are not grateful and The Bible calls him

God considers Moses to be the most humble man on the earth That cannot be said for Cora Cora is not

Humble, so he uses this popular sentiment to kind of stir everybody up and he says for all the congregation is holy

Every one of them in the Lord is among them now Is that true just that statement that all the congregation is holy?

Okay, does anyone say yes, that is true. All right

Well, it's an interesting argument because if you've been following along in the book of Numbers they certainly haven't been acting very holy

That's for sure And I think you can almost look at this as an early case of ear tickling

Right Cora is flattering the people. He's telling them what they want to hear

You know, this Moses guy is always preaching about sin and with Moses there's these plagues and judgments you know

Moses is like a Baptist preacher preaching about God's wrath and sin and Forget all that.

I'm here to tell you that you're actually good people You're actually holy, you know

God's favor is among you so in some ways Cora is like a prototype of a false prophet and In the book of Jude when

Jude speaks about apostates and false Prophets he mentions the game saying of Cora So Cora is probably a lot more popular among the people at this point than Moses But again, who's the

Moses has the truth on his side. He has the Lord on his side Yes, Marcus.

Don't you think the guy? Gathering sticks. It was stone was also a prototype. That was the word.

I was kind of looking for. Yeah prototype for All right.

Well if you come up with they'll let me know Yeah, he's a prototype for something. I'm sure So, you know, but at the same time you say all the congregation is holy

They haven't been acting like it, but you know, there's a little truth to every lie, isn't there? God has set the children of Israel apart

So there is a sense where it could be said of them that they are Set apart unto

God that they are a holy Congregation but False prophets have a way of taking something that's true and putting a spin on it and twisting it into a lie and the lie

That he's putting out there is that Moses shouldn't be in charge. So he's using something.

That's sort of true to say something That's that's false and Aaron and his son should not be the only ones allowed to serve as priest

I should be a priest too. All right, so that's what's happening. Look at verse 4

When Moses heard this he fell on his face 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 do this He says take sensors

Korah and all your company and he goes on now. What's the purpose of the sensor? What is the sensor?

Yeah, it's one of the pans Right, you have the fire and the incense. So the sensor you would offer up incense to God This is the main function of the priest to offer incense to God.

So Moses falls on his face What's what is he doing?

He's turning to the Lord Lord you you handle this you deal with this So we'll let the

Lord settle this. Okay, Korah. You think that you can be a priest? Okay, go ahead and offer up some incense and let's see how how this shakes out

Moses is allowing this experiment to play out because he knows

God is going to vindicate him. He has no doubt about this the people

They should know they should know better, but you know how it is There's people in churches today who they know what the

Bible says They know what's true Doesn't mean they do it, right? So the

Lord this is what Larry was talking about the Lord struck down they should have remembered this the

Lord Well, he consumed Nadab in a bayou the two elder sons of Aaron when they offered strange fire unto the

Lord What happened the fire of the Lord consumed them? So Korah should have thought about that But but he didn't so in verse 7

Moses says to Korah You take too much upon yourselves you son of Levi and this is where I can just imagine them

You know kind of yelling at each other. That's the accusation against Moses You take too much upon yourself and he says no you take too much upon Yourself in other words you accuse me or us of this wrongdoing

You're the ones who are guilty and this time you've gone too far So Korah is the one

Ironically trying to exalt himself and this is Another thing that always happens

Evil people they will accuse others of what they're doing, right? So Korah is not just turning against Moses because Moses is

God's man who is this rebellion really against Well, it's against God In Philippians 2 3 the

Apostle Paul says let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit

But in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself

If Korah just put that principle into practice he could have lived out his life and served the tabernacle and served the

Lord and Been blessed by God him and his family, but he got to thinking that hey,

I can do just as good a job as Moses I can do just as good a job as as Aaron and sometimes

You know if someone's in leadership and well, I want to be in leadership So the so the tendency is to kind of knock them down to exalt

Yourself, but you should ask the question. Well, if I'm the one who should be in leadership How come

I'm not in leadership? So Korah is obviously in it for himself

What's Korah's main issue what's the root of all this it might be the root cause of every sin

Yeah, what's the sin itself pride Right, this is what

Lucifer wanted he wanted to be like God And he should have known better But he fell because of his pride

Same thing with Korah Moses is God's man his representative. No Korah Korah wants to be number one so the

Israelites all had a role to play and Actually Korah and the

Levites they had a very important job to do you could say that Korah had a very exalted

Position just like Lucifer had an exalted position Well Korah had that too in the service of the tabernacle and Moses goes on to explain this look at verse 9

He says to Korah 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 him and That he has brought you near to himself you and all your brethren the sons of Levi with you

And you are seeking the priesthood also so It just wasn't enough for him

So they were supposed to work together The Levites because remember Korah is a

Levite so there's the Levites and the priests What's the difference between Levites and aren't aren't they the same or what's the difference?

You tell me who wants to explain to everybody All the all the priests are

Levites, but not all the Levites are priests Good So everybody caught that Yeah, all the priests are

Levites But not all Levites were priests to be a priest you had to You had to be a

Levite, but you had to be more specifically you had to be a son of Aaron Okay So the priests and the

Levites the Levites were to assist The priests and we talked about this

I think back in chapter 28 of Exodus The comparison of the priests and Levites trying to because I'm always trying to make

Application to the New Testament Church Kind of want to bring this into the present and make applications

So we did this a while back that just as the Levites were to assist the priests in the

New Testament Church What's the analogy? Deacons assist the bishops or deacons assist the pastors and This is played out in countless churches where just like Korah and the

Levites rebelling against Moses Aaron and the priest this has played out in many churches where Deacons or a deacon board and you know,

I love that our deacon board. So, you know, I'm not speaking against them But this has happened

Where a deacon board will oppose a pastor instead of working together, which is the whole point

There's supposed to be this division of labor and helping each other out Now there's been many times where the deacon board wants to usurp

The authority or the role of the pastor and they want to be the ones running the show Who's been in a church or you at least know of a church where the deacons were trying to knock the pastor down so they?

could take charge Yeah, I mean most most people at least heard of that So Korah is

Certainly doing that Now thankfully, we've never had that Long as I've been here

I've never seen anything like that at this church our deacons love the church and we want to work towards unity

But what's the problem? I think the root cause again is pride and and selfish ambition

So just like Korah wanted to run the show Sometimes there can be a power struggle in Local churches so going back to what

I've said many times first Corinthians chapter 10 the Apostle Paul said that Israel in the wilderness these things were written for What is it our?

our Instruction or our admonition, right? So this is an example for New Testament Christians of what not to do

So this is what we need to avoid and one of the reasons why I would make this illustration or Reinforce this idea if it's ingrained in us that it's like preventative maintenance that that kind of thing

Wouldn't happen here because we we preach on this This subject so as long as we know the word we're in the word learning from the word

It should it should make sure that this doesn't happen in our church

Because this is how division usually starts you have one guy you have a Korah Or maybe him and his two or three friends you have a

Dathan and a Byron and they get together they have an axe to grind and They build a little coalition and then before you know it the church has real problems.

I know one denomination Where right now a coal a coalition has been built and now they're voting

Really they are voting on whether or not we're gonna obey God Of course they don't put it that way

But what they're voting on is is not really a debatable thing So coal a coalition has been built.

They're gonna vote and I kind of see that here Korah is you know power to the people that all the people are holy

He has popular support and we're gonna overthrow God Because I have

The political support I have the numbers. I think that's what he's what he's thinking.

So the church Really is not I know we're Americans and you this might chafe a little bit, but the church is not a democracy

Why because Jesus is the king? and Anyone who's in leadership? It's their job to make sure the the

Lord of the church that his wishes are carried out Yes historically democracies

Don't do well and what will do well and is doing well as a theocracy

But that verse you mentioned in Philippians 2 verse 3. It's really the

It's really the focal point of a successful church of each Esteems others as more important than themselves

Right, there just won't be there won't be problems that way. Amen. Amen yeah, so Moses is

God's man Aaron is The Lord's priest and you know, that's it.

It doesn't it doesn't matter if the people like it or not It doesn't matter now before we move on I want to be fair because I've been talking about you know churches that have had problems because of deacons

I want to be fair because there's a lot of churches that have had problems because the pastor or the bishop or Whatever you call him has gone bad where the the pastor becomes abusive and In his leadership style and instead of acting like a servant as he is supposed to he starts acting like a dictator

Instead of being gentle with the sheep. He's he's harsh with the sheep and If he ever gets up and says something like hey touch not the

Lord's anointed. I mean this was a common thing Decades ago and I think it's still common in the charismatic movement where a pastor just is very abusive

It's his way or the highway and if anyone says anything To question him.

That's the card that he pulls touch not God's anointed and he's talking about himself Well, who's got in the church who's

God's anointed Well in that yeah, though, that's the same thing.

Like we're every believer is anointed. That's a good point Of course Christ is God's anointed in This story

Aaron is the one if you read numbers the one who's anointed is actually Aaron He's the priest and Cora wants the priesthood for him himself

Yes That's that's what the word Messiah or Christ Hamashiach means is the anointed one.

So it really right Billy is Christ Yeah, so this this kind of power struggle can go on.

It could be the deacon's fault could be the pastor's fault Can happen both directions and one last point on this there are churches out there where the pastor has no accountability

There's no deacon board, there's no elders There's nobody to hold him accountable.

And what do you call those groups? Call them a cult if there's no accountability

That's a cult now bear with me for one moment back to Numbers because you might say well, who's

Moses accountable to? We've already talked about this Moses is not like the pastor figure

Moses is unique. He's the mediator of the covenant. You can't really compare him to a pastor

There's there's churches that have the Moses model. Well, I don't know about that But who is

Moses accountable to? Yeah, he's not accountable to the people really He's yeah, you're right.

He's accountable to God Now cult leaders will say that won't they hey,

I'm in charge because God told me so I'm accountable only to God. Here's the difference

God in Exodus and Numbers is working miracles So this has been proven that Moses is chosen by God the plagues of Egypt proved it and if that wasn't enough when they walk through the midst of the

Red Sea when Moses part of The Red Sea the scripture says the people were baptized Into Moses.

So at that point Moses is unquestionably the leader of the nation of Israel and God proved that so there's no

Having to wonder did God really really do it? All right any Questions or comments before we move on?

Yes, the Egyptians trying to chase them really got baptized Yeah, they got they got immersed

That the God of Israel has separated you in and you get to the bottom and and you're going to be a priest to You're in such a small state as you are.

Hmm. You don't know what's really going on. Yeah Yeah, Korah is making a terrible decision

You know sin causes people to do foolish things. He really should have known better So God is going to justify

Moses with the ground opening up and the people see it and they're terrified and you would think okay this settles it once and for all right

No This is gonna happen. It's gonna happen again. Look at verse 15

Moses tells the Lord Lord do not respect their offerings that they're gonna offer the incense

Moses tells the Lord don't respect it verse 16 and Moses said to Korah Tomorrow you and all your company

Be present before the Lord you and they as well as Aaron let each take his censer and put incense in it and each of you and Each of you bring his censer before the

Lord 250 censers both you and Aaron each with this censer 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 and Korah gathered all the congregation Against them at the door of the tabernacle of meeting notice that all the congregation the people are with Korah So it seems then the glory of the

Lord appeared to all the congregation and The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying separate yourselves from among this

Congregation that I may consume them in a moment So it appears that God is ready to do what he threatened to do back in chapter 14 and just wipe the entire

Nation out that seems to be the threat once again and once again

What does Moses do? Again as the type of Christ he intercedes on behalf of the people.

He says in verse 22 Shall one man sin and you be angry with all the congregation?

You could argue that it was more than one man But Moses is

Like Jesus he loves the people even when they're unlovely

Verse 23 so the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the congregation saying get away from the tents of Korah Dathan in a

Byron 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 on my own will 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. So Moses his reputation is on the line here as a

Prophet his reputation is on the line verse 30 But if the

Lord creates a new thing Isn't something you've never seen before something you've never even heard of before 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 me

Know that these men have rejected the Lord now came to pass as he finished speaking all these words

That the ground split apart under them and the earth opened its mouth and Swallowed them up with their households and all the men with Korah and all their goods

So they and all those with them went down alive Into the pit and the earth closed over them and they perished from among the assembly

Then all Israel who were around them fled at their cry

I Bet they did But they said lest the earth swallow us up also

And a fire came out from among the Lord or came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who are offering incense so just like the two sons of Aaron Now just to clarify one thing

So it says that Korah was brought down him and those with him were brought down alive

Into the pit. I think a lot of people have assumed that that means they were taken down into hell

Alive who's thought that or heard that before? Some people have had that idea

I don't think we should read into that because the concept of of hell really isn't here in this passage

I'm not saying it did or didn't happen. I'm just saying that I don't think that's what happened here They were basically buried alive

So a cavern under the earth opened up and they were buried alive and then those offering incense were burned right the fire of the

Lord Consumed them. So I just don't think we should read into this too much

Although based on what Jude says about Korah, I think it's pretty safe to say he's not in heaven

So we'll end here and next week we'll finish up the chapter and also into chapter 17 because the

Lord isn't done Vindicating. Well, he's vindicated Moses now. He's going to vindicate Aaron in the next chapter

So chapter 17 that covers the budding of Aaron's rod Because Aaron as I said was

God's anointed priest and Korah is trying to usurp His position or Moses or both.

So what's the takeaway? You can't overthrow God you can't vote to undo

What God says to do you can't build a coalition to overturn God's will it's not going to work

I'm just reminded and I'll close with this Psalm chapter 2 speaks of this how the rulers

Take counsel together Against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bonds into pieces and cast away their cords from us