Numbers 16

THE REBELLION AND DESTRUCTION OF KORAH AND HIS COMPANY.

The disappointment of Israel at his exclusion from the Promised Land when its very threshold had been gained, his shameful defeat in his godless march from Kadesh northward, the rayless gloom of his earthly future, destined by solemn decree of Jehovah to wander without hope and almost without God in the world, and the judicial destruction of the faithless spies, were calculated to engender in the sullen camp all manner of dark conspiracies and rebellions. Moses and Aaron, who had been faithful to Jehovah and were the organ of his rebuke of the faithless nation, are naturally the objects against which the pent up ill-will of many hearts will break out. For unbelievers, having cut themselves off from divine consolations, must be inconsolable when suddenly bereft of all their earthly expectations. Such are equally strangers to the grace of patience and submission to the allotments of Providence. Hence a gigantic insurrection is the natural sequel of the rejection from Canaan. It is the most important event recorded in the annals of the thirty-seven years, wandering in the wilderness. We have no other clew to the time and place than the statement in Deuteronomy 1:46, that Israel abode at Kadesh many days.

CONCLUDING NOTES.

(1.) “The whole of this history is so sad, the judgment which followed it so terrible, finding no other parallel than that which in the New Testament Church overtook Ananias and Sapphira, and the rebellion itself is so frequently referred to in Scripture, that it requires more special consideration. The rebellion of Korah was of course an act of direct opposition to God. But this was not all. The principle expressed in their gainsaying (Numbers 16:3) ran counter to the whole design of the old covenant, and would, if carried out, have entirely subverted its typical character. It was, indeed, quite true that all Israel were holy and priests, yet not in virtue of their birth or national standing, but through the typical priesthood of Aaron, who ‘brought them nigh,’ and was their intermediary with God.

This priesthood depended, in the first place and mainly, on God’s appointment. ‘Him whom the Lord hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him;’ ‘he shall be holy.’ This appointment, irrespective of the natural fitness of the person, here came into consideration as essential to its typical nature. If otherwise the priesthood would have been a natural sequence, not a type, and it would have a rational rather than a divine institution. It was of the nature of a type that God should appoint the earthly emblem with which he would connect the spiritual reality. The moment Israel deviated in any detail, however small, they not only rebelled against God’s appointment, but destroyed the meaning of the whole by substituting the human and natural for the divine.” Edersheim.

(2.) This signal judgment struck the people with sudden awe, but it did not awaken that repentance which leads to newness of life. The impression made soon passed away, leaving only the feeling that a yoke of bondage had been forever fastened upon Israel in order to vindicate Moses and Aaron. They had no spiritual discernment nor gratitude. They showed an entire unfitness for inheriting the Land of Promise. Hence the justice of their exclusion.