(Num 16:26) And he [Moses] 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. {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."

(Num 16:31) 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.

 

§     You would think this would have settled everything for ever, wouldn’t you?

§     How long did it all last?

§     Would you believe the next day they were back at it again: 

 

(Num 16:41) On the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, "You have killed the people of the LORD."

 

Repeating a verse from last time:

(Num 16:35) And a fire came out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense.

 

 

(Num 16:36-40 NKJV)  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

{37} "Tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest,

 to pick up the censers out of the blaze,

for they are holy,

[even though the men holding them were not.]

and scatter the fire some distance away.

{38} "The censers of these men who sinned against their own souls, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar. Because they presented them before the LORD, therefore they are holy;

[we have said before that one way of defining holy is that it is “set apart for the Lord.”

These censers were set apart for the Lord,

even though the Lord did not accept the priesthood of those who wanted to act as priests.]

and they shall be a sign to the children of Israel." {39} So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burned up had presented, and they were hammered out as a covering on the altar, {40} to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no outsider, who is not a descendant of Aaron, should come near to offer incense before the LORD, that he might not become like Korah and his companions, just as the LORD had said to him through Moses.”

 

So to summarize, here is “a memorial to the . . . not [to] become like Korah and his companions”

 

(Num 16:41) On the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying,

 "You have killed the people of the LORD."

Now for some questions:

§     Is God still listening?

§     Is He going to let people get by with saying things like that?

§     Will these people never learn?

Now for some answers:

      God is listening!

      No they aren’t going to get away with this!

      Some will never learn, because they will die in their sins.

 

(Num 16:42)  Now it happened, when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting; and suddenly the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared.

 

Seeing flashing red and blue lights in your rear view mirror is nothing in comparison to this!

 

 {43} Then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting. {44} And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, {45} "Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment." And they fell on their faces.

“That I may consume them in a moment."—God’s patience is just about gone!

“And they fell on their faces.”

But it’s not enough!

 

 

(Heb 10:26-27 NKJV)  For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, {27} but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

 

 

(Num 16:46} So Moses said to Aaron, "Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun."

(Num 16:47) Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. {48} And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.

 

 

(Num 16:41) On the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel

murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying,

 "You have killed the people of the LORD."

 

 

(Num 16:44} And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, {45} "Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment."

 

First, there was Joseph, who saved them from starvation, but he had been rejected by “the children of Israel,” literally.

 

(Acts 7:9 NKJV)  "And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him”

 

(Gen 43:8 NKJV)  Then Judah said to Israel his father, "Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones.

 

1.            Joseph saved them from starvation, but they had rejected him.

2.            Moses saved them from Egyptian bondage, but they rejected him.

 

(Acts 7:25 NKJV)  "For he [Moses] supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.

3.            Finally, they rejected Christ and crucified Him.  Here is Stephens summary:

 

(Acts 7:51-53 NKJV)  "You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. {52} "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, {53} "who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it."

 

So these are people, who consistently reject the help that God extends to them.

 

 

(Num 16:49) Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident. {50} So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague had stopped.

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