Wednesday, May
31, 2017
Meanwhile, Korah had stirred up the entire community against Moses and
Aaron, and they all gathered at the Tabernacle entrance. Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared
to the whole community, and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Get
away from all these people so that I may instantly destroy them!” But Moses and Aaron fell face down on the
ground. “O God,” they pleaded, “you are
the God who gives breath to all creatures. Must you be angry with all the people when
only one man sins?” And the Lord said
to Moses, “Then tell all the people to
get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.” So Moses got up and
rushed over to the tents of Dathan and Abiram, followed by the elders of
Israel. “Quick!” he told the people. “Get away from the tents of these wicked men,
and don’t touch anything that belongs to them. If you do, you will be destroyed for their
sins.” So all the people stood back from
the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Then
Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, together
with their wives and children and little ones.
And Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has
sent me to do all these things that I have done—for I have not done them on my
own. If these men die a natural death,
or if nothing unusual happens, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord does something
entirely new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and all their
belongings, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that
these men have shown contempt for the Lord.” He had hardly finished speaking the words
when the ground suddenly split open beneath them. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the
men, along with their households and all their followers who were standing with
them, and everything they owned. So they
went down alive into the grave, along with all their belongings. The earth closed over them, and they all
vanished from among the people of Israel.
All the people around them fled when they heard their screams. “The earth will swallow us, too!” they cried. Then fire blazed forth from the Lord and
burned up the 250 men who were offering incense. Numbers 16:19-35(NLT)
Have you
ever had the experience of a teacher punishing the whole class for the actions
of a rowdy few? It’s doesn’t seem fair,
does it?
God’s
judgment of Korah and his followers seemed overly harsh. Yet, of the people who perished that day, who
among them hadn’t been confronted with the truth, and yet chose to stand with
Korah’s rebellion? Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram may have been the ringleaders, stirring up the community, but the 250
priests carried incense with their own hands.
It’s really
hard to figure out what God is up to when it comes to judgment. Perhaps, like me, you have lots of questions
about that. For instance, it’s hard to
understand why the punishment for Korah’s stubborn desire to serve God at the
temple warranted him and his followers being swallowed-up by the ground. On the other hand, Jonah refused to serve God and his
one sermon saved 120,000 people in Nineveh.
Is that unbalanced?
I do not
presume to judge God; quite the contrary, I know God is the only one able to pass judgment,
and it is far wiser for me to pay attention to my own ways than to try to hold God
accountable for what He does. That would
be light years above my pay grade.
Still, in
the making sense of it all
department, I’ve come to at least one understanding about what appears
to be unfairness, or unevenness about God’s judging. It’s a principle given to Samuel the Prophet
after King Saul is rejected and Samuel is sent to anoint a new king. As he is looking over the sons of Jesse,
Samuel imagines one of the more regal-looking sons as the next king; God tells
him to have his vision checked:
But the Lord said
to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t
see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks
at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7(NLT)
Therein is
why we are not equipped to judge like God judges; we can’t see like God sees!
For You Today
When
you discover something else about God that you don’t understand, before you
stand with Korah, kneel with Moses; that will likely improve your vision!
NOTES
I Title
image: By U.S.
Department of Defense Current Photos (140403-M-PK171-789) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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