March 9, 2007

DANGER…STAND BACK!

Numbers 16-17

We come today to one of the most horrifying stories in the Old Testament. Like the story of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10, it is a story that doesn’t make it into many children’s Bible story books. The story is stark and possibly even more dramatic because of the sparsity of descriptive detail. What occurs is, in effect, an organized rebellion against Moses and Aaron and their leadership led by three men: A Levite named Korah and two men from the tribe of Reuben named Dathan and Abiram. They are joined in their rebellion by 250 well-known community leaders.

We read the opening of the crisis in the Scripture Reading a few minutes ago (Numbers 16:1-7). In verse 3: They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and Yahweh is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above Yahweh’s assembly?”

Moses proposes a test to let Yahweh himself judge the matter. All of the leaders of the conspiracy are invited to meet at the tabernacle, each carrying a priest’s censer for offering incense. “We will see who Yahweh accepts and who he doesn’t,” Moses states.

We don’t have time to go through all the details of the text. There is a striking exchange of speeches in the chapter which reveals the depths of the scorn and anger these leaders are carrying against Moses. On the next day, with the men assembled, the glory of Yahweh appears. Yahweh orders Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the assembly so that he can destroy the entire congregation. Moses and Aaron plead with God to spare the nation and only judge the rebel leaders. Yahweh agrees and then orders the people to stand back from the tents of the men involved. As the people pull back in fear, in a scene straight out of a science fiction horror movie, the ground itself opens and swallows the men, with their tents and households. Then the earth closes over them and they are gone, leaving the people around fleeing in all directions in panic. At the same time the fire of the Lord then shoots out from the tabernacle and strikes down the 250 men who stood preparing to offer their censers of incense. It was a moment of instantaneous and awful judgment.

It would seem, at that point, that the story cannot get any worse. Surely by now the people must have learned their lesson. But no! The very next day, the congregation gathers together against Moses and accuses him of killing God’s people! Once again the cloud of God’s presence appears over the tabernacle. In judgment, God strikes the people with a plague which begins to move rapidly through the camp, slaying people on the spot. Quickly Moses instructs Aaron to take his censer with the holy incense and hurry out among the people. Aaron does so and stands with his censer between the living and the dead until the plague dies out. The plague is stopped, but not before over 14,000 people have died.

In chapter 17, the intensity of the narrative calms considerably. To put an end to the bickering over leadership and priestly selection, Yahweh instructs the head of each tribe to bring a staff to the tabernacle. The name of the staff’s owner is written on the staff. For the tribe of Levi, Aaron’s staff is chosen and his name is written on it. These twelve staffs were then placed before Yahweh in the tabernacle. “I will cause the staff of the man I have chosen as my priest to sprout,” Yahweh said. The next morning Moses entered the tabernacle. Eleven staffs lay before the Lord as barren and lifeless as they were when Moses placed them there. But the staff that bore Aaron’s name had not only sprouted. The sprouts had blossomed and even born almonds overnight! By this clear miracle God confirmed his choice of Aaron and his descendants to be his priests.

Well, it is a story full of drama. And the “what” of the story is very clear and straightforward. If anything it is too clear. Men question God and his appointed leaders, and God destroys them on the spot. But if the “what” of the story is clear, the “why” of the story may leave us puzzled and troubled. Why did it happen? Why did God respond so fiercely? What was the sin of Korah and his followers? And how should we apply this to our lives today? I know some pastors use this story to warn their congregations against questioning or criticizing the pastor. That might be a tempting on occasion, but I don’t think it is the real lesson of this text.

So what do we make of this passage and its place in Scripture? I really struggled with that this week I came close to giving up several times and just declaring defeat and moving on to the next events in Israel’s history. But I finally got a clue, and with that clue the light slowly began to dawn. I found the clue tucked away in the New Testament. It is found in the second to last book of the Bible, the little epistle of Jude. It is the only reference to Korah in the whole New Testament.

Turn with me to Jude 11: Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

There is the clue. What do Cain’s way, Balaam’s error and Korah’s rebellion have in common? If we can answer that question, I think we will understand what Korah’s sin was and why God judged it so harshly. As I thought it through it finally hit me. They were all guilty of “do-it-yourself” religion.

Do you remember the story of Cain? We all immediately remember him as the first murderer. But that is not what this is talking about. Before he committed murder, Cain and Abel both brought sacrifices to God. Cain brought his sacrifice from the fruit of the ground, Abel brought a sacrifice from his flock. We are told that Yahweh accepted Abel’s sacrifice, but he was not pleased with Cain’s sacrifice. To understand what happened, I think we have to conclude that God had told the two brothers what sacrifice to bring. Abel obeyed, but Cain ignored God. He had a better plan. As a tiller of the soil, he decided to offer God his own “do-it-yourself” sacrifice. God was not pleased.

What about Balaam? We haven’t come to his story yet. It comes up later in the book of Numbers. But when you think about Balaam, I want you to think of him as having a sign outside his door which read: “Prophet for Hire.” Or if you will permit a little play on words, Balaam was a “prophet for profit.” He was a “do-it-yourself” religionist, renting out his services and prophetic powers to the highest bidder.

And that brings us to Korah. At first glance we tend to think of Korah’s rebellion as being against Moses. And it was to a degree. But it wasn’t Moses’ role he wanted. It was Aaron’s. (Read Numbers 16:9-11).

I am not sure if Korah was driven by a profit motive or a pride motive. But he clearly thought he could appoint himself as God’s priest, and take this role upon himself by his own self-anointing. He wanted to be priest, and he found 250 others to join him in this desire. This is clear in the symbolism of the divine test that God proposed. All 250 of them brought censers. Only priests were permitted to use censers to offer sacred incense before the Lord. By taking censers, they clearly thought themselves qualified to serve as priests before God. The Levites did have special privileges in the tabernacle services. But only Aaron and his sons were to serve as priests. That was the crux of the test in verse 5. In the morning Yahweh will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him. When the earth opened to swallow Korah and Dathan and Abiram, and when the fire of God’s wrath flashed out from the tabernacle and consumed those 250 men, God was pronouncing his judgment on “do-it-yourself” religion and self-appointed prophets and priests.

God wanted to be sure that his people never forgot this lesson. In fact there is a part of the story I didn’t narrate earlier. After all 250 of the “would be” priests lay smoldering before the tabernacle, God told Moses to send Eleazar, Aaron’s son, to gather up all 250 censers. He was then told to hammer these censers into flat metal sheets and use these sheets to overlay the altar. The reason for this was clearly stated in Numbers 16:40: This was to remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before Yahweh or he would become like Korah and his followers. God had appointed his priests, and they and only they were permitted to approach him to offer sacrifices and to burn incense. No one else would be accepted. They would die! Once again, God was demonstrating that he is serious about holiness. We learned this lesson a few weeks ago when God’s fire consumed Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, for offering “strange fire” before the altar. “I will be treated as holy!” God said at that time.

The issue of God’s divine appointment for the priests is hammered home in Numbers 17 with the miraculous budding of Aaron’s rod. God is making something absolutely clear in these chapters. There are prescribed sacrifices and only a priest appointed and anointed by God can offer those sacrifices. Any other “do-it-yourself” approach to his presence will be rejected.

Here is the bottom line of Korah’s “do-it-yourself” approach. In rejecting God’s divinely appointed priest, he was rejecting God himself and God’s appointed means of atonement for sin.. That’s what Moses says in Numbers 16:11: It is against Yahweh that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him? And he adds to that in Numbers 16:30: Then you will know that these men have treated Yahweh with contempt. When Korah and his followers turned from the divinely prescribed sacrifices and the divinely appointed priest to do their own thing, they were turning away from God’s merciful offer of a remedy for their sin. And they were arrogantly offering their efforts and man-made system instead.

Korah’s mind set and philosophy have been with us, as we have seen, from the time of Cain. It will be with us until the end of human history. If we were to go back and read all of the epistle of Jude, we would find that it is essentially a treatise and a polemic against false teachers: Do it yourself religionists, self appointed prophets and priests, speaking the word of God, only God has not sent them! In fact they take their sin a step further. In wanting to be priests, Korah and his followers were denying the unique role of Aaron as God’s priest. But these false teachers, we are told in Jude 4, “deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

You see, under the Old Covenant, Aaron and his sons were the only ones designated as priests. Only Aaron’s descendants were qualified to offer the prescribed sacrifices in the temple. And only the high priest was permitted to enter the Holiest Place to offer the sacrifice for sin on the Day of Atonement. This was God’s provision, his only provision, for atonement and forgiveness. As we turn to the New Covenant, especially to the Book of Hebrews, we are told that a new Priest has been appointed. He is greater than Moses. He is greater than Aaron. His name is Jesus. He did not appoint himself. In fact Hebrews 5:4-5 says, No one takes this honor (priesthood) upon himself. He must be called by God, just as Aaron was. So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

This divinely appointed Priest offered the divinely ordained sacrifice of his own body for the sins of the world. And that sacrifice was accepted by God as the sufficient sacrifice, once for all. Any “do-it-yourself” religion or religious teacher that offers a way to God apart from the priestly ministry of Jesus, our ‘great high priest” is committing the sin of Korah. The only difference between the judgment these false teachers and their followers will experience and the judgment which fell on Korah and his followers in that awful moment in the wilderness is the length of the fuse.

Why is this passage and this teaching important to us today? The New Testament, especially the books of II Peter and Jude, make it clear that rather than going away, false teachers will actually multiply and become more numerous as the end of this age of grace draws near. Jude 17-19: But dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.”

In light of this fact, how should we respond? How do we protect ourselves against this spreading danger? I can’t put it any clearer than Jude does himself in Jude 20-21: But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

This is what we must do for ourselves.

And what must we do for those around us? Listen as I read Jude 22-23, and see if the imagery in these verses doesn’t bring to mind the story of Korah. Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Beware the sin of Korah! Reach out in mercy to those at risk of falling under the same judgment! In the last days, the danger to Christ’s followers will become increasingly great, and the task of rescue entrusted to us will become increasingly urgent. I believe that is the lesson we should take from the story of Korah’s rebellion.

I would like to share a grace note to end what has been a rather dark sermon! From the account in Numbers 16, we might naturally conclude that this was the end of Korah’s family and descendants. But we would be wrong. Turn to Numbers 26:10-11: The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them along with Korah, whose followers died when the fire devoured the 250 men. And they served as a warning sign. The line of Korah, however, did not die out.

I am not sure how they escaped. Maybe some of his family refused to endorse his defiant stand, and fled away from his tent before the divine wrath fell. We only know that all of his descendants did not die in the judgment. Do you know something else? Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 42. Look at the inscription. (For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.) In all, 11 psalms are ascribed to the descendants of Korah! Our God is a God of grace as well as of judgment. But his grace is available only to those who will come by the prescribed sacrifice, offered by the divinely appointed High Priest. His name is Jesus.