Lesson 105 - Junior

Memory Verse

"I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine" (John 10:14).

Notes

The Levites' Privilege

The Levites had been chosen by God for special service at the Tabernacle. They lived in tents nearest the house of God. Each family had its appointed tasks. To the family of Kohath had been given the care of the sacred altars, the golden candlestick and table of shewbread, and the Ark of the Covenant. Their position was one of honour and trust, and their duties were to be carefully attended to.

But there was one man among the Kohathites who did not appreciate the confidence God had placed in him. He had a longing for greater honour than he thought was his in his present duties. His name was Korah.

Korah spoke to other men about his desire for more glory, and persuaded 250 of the princes of Israel to join him in rebelling against Moses and Aaron, the men God had set up as the rulers of the people. Among the rebels were two men, Dathan and Abiram, of the tribe of Reuben. They may have thought that because they were the descendants of Jacob's eldest son, they, too, should have some power to rule.

Open Rebellion

One day Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and the 250 princes came to Moses and Aaron and asked why they had set themselves up as heads of Israel when all the congregation was as holy as they were. Moses and Aaron had not set themselves up; God had appointed them. At the time when the Tabernacle was dedicated, and Aaron and his sons were consecrated for the priesthood, fire had come from Heaven showing God's approval of what had been done. When the people saw the fire they rejoiced and fell on their faces before God. Everyone honoured Aaron as the high priest that day. And as for Moses, from the time God had called him from Midian, they had seen by the miracles he worked that he was divinely sent. Do you remember that when he threw the rod to the ground it became a snake? And that when he picked it up by the tail, it became a rod again? Then there were the plagues that had come upon Egypt at the command of Moses. And since the Children of Israel had come into the wilderness God had given them food and water at the word of Moses. If the people had wanted to honour the Lord's anointed they could have easily understood who were the chosen ones.

Moses felt very sad about this rebellion. It has not been his wish to lead the Israelites; he had done it only at God's command. Moses had never tried to exalt himself, nor had he asked anything from the people. All he had done had been for their good; and even now he feared what judgment this latest disobedience might bring upon the congregation.

Need of Faithfulness

Moses asked Korah if he and his family considered it a small thing to be God-appointed to take care of the tabernacle furniture, and to be set apart from the rest of the Israelites and live near the Lord's house. Could they not be faithful in that service? God would have rewarded them abundantly if they had been true to their calling.

God has a place in the church for everyone who wants to serve Him. But everyone cannot do the same thing. Paul tells us that we are all one body in Christ, but that body has many members, just as our physical body has. "And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you" (I Corinthians 12:21). Everyone has his place to fill, and that place is important: "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called" (I Corinthians 7:20).

When Moses is referred to in the New Testament, his great deeds are not recounted; but in his faithfulness he is compared with Christ "who was faithful to him that appointed him" (Hebrews 3:2). We shall be rewarded not so much for our great work as for our faithfulness in that which God has given us to do. In a parable that Jesus gave, He said to a man who had gained ten talents from only one, "Because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities" (Luke 19:17). God sees the little things we do: "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward" (Matthew 10:42).

No Honour at Home

Moses and Aaron were of the tribe of Levi, which made them near relatives of Korah. Often it is those of one's own family who first become jealous when the Lord chooses to set someone in a high position and he proves faithful in it. Jesus Himself said that a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country; and "a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Matthew 10:36).

God's Judgment

Moses was a meek man; and, although he had God's authority for his position, he did not pass judgment upon the people. He asked all the rebels to come before God and let Him judge as to who should be the leader.

When Moses asked Dathan and Abiram to come to the Tabernacle, they defied him. They complained that he had not led the Israelites into a land of plenty, but had taken them from Egypt, "that floweth with milk and honey," and had left them to wander in the wilderness. Did you ever hear that Egypt flowed with milk and honey? Rather, Egypt was the land where the Children of Israel had been slaves. They had had to make bricks without straw, and they had groaned under the lash of the taskmaster. Because they had cried unto the Lord for deliverance, He had freed them from slavery, and had brought them right to the borders of Canaan. The only reason they had not gone into that good land at the end of the first two years was that they were cowards, and refused to fight the giants, which God had promised to defeat for them. Moses had done the best he could to give the people rest, but their own rebellion had made them wanderers in the desert.

Presumption

Korah and his followers came with their censers, and they put fire in them as Moses said. This day they would all stand equal before the Lord and let Him choose His leader before the public. Moses and Aaron came, too, with their burning censers, so they would all appear the same. But God could tell the difference. "The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (II Timothy 2:19). They had all been the children of God as long as they obeyed Him, but disobedience broke that relationship. They had backslidden so far from God that they had the boldness to set themselves up against His leaders right in the presence of God Himself.

God saw the sin in the hearts of the dissenters. He saw all the lighted censers, but it was only a form of worship, and an abomination to Him. God told Moses and Aaron to get away from them, and He would destroy the entire congregation.

Moses and Aaron were faithful to the people and begged God not to destroy all the people because of the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. So God told Moses to direct the people away from the tents of the wicked men, and they only should be destroyed. God would show in this way the man whom He honoured. It was not the princes of Israel; it was not the sons of the eldest patriarch; but it was the meek and humble Moses. "God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; . . . that no flesh should glory in his presence" (I Corinthians 1:27-29). Moses had humbled himself before God, and through him the Lord could work.

Moses wanted God's revelation to be so plain that everyone would understand. If the judgment of the evil men would be a natural death, people might say they would have died anyway. But if the earth would open up and swallow the rebels, then all the people would know that Moses had been called of God and had not taken the leadership of Israel upon himself. (He had proved it many times before, but the people forgot quickly.)

The earth did open up; and, it swallowed not only Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, but their houses went down into the pit, too. Then the big pit closed up and they were buried alive. The 250 princes who had burned incense did not escape. The Lord sent fire among them and burned them all.

A Memorial

This was a judgment long to be remembered in Israel. The censers of these "sinners against their own souls" were beaten into broad plates for an altar covering so that whenever the Israelites came near they would re-member what had happened to the men who had set themselves against the Lord's anointed.

The incident did not end with the destruction of the ringleaders. The poison of the ideas of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had spread throughout the camp; and in spite of God's dramatic and decisive judgment against them, the people still favoured them. They accused Moses and Aaron of killing them. Moses and Aaron could not have made the earth open and swallow people. The Israelites could have understood it if they had wanted to, but sin in their hearts made them blind to the things of God, "having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:18).

God did not let their murmuring go unpunished. He came down in a cloud before the Tabernacle and said He was going to destroy the entire congregation. A plague broke out among them and people began to die.

Moses, the true man of God that he was, felt sorry for them and told Aaron to run quickly with a lighted censer throughout the camp to make atonement for the Israelites. Aaron, too, did not hold the sins of the people against them, but stood "between the dead and the living," to save the remainder of the Israelites. God stopped the plague, but already 14,700 were dead.

Questions

1. Whom did God appoint as the leader in Israel?

2. In today's lesson who wanted to be the leader?

3. What did God think of their ambitions?

4. What sign did God give to prove who was the true leader?

5. How did the sign affect the people?

6. Of what did the people later accuse Moses and Aaron?

7. What did God do about that accusation?

8. How was the plague stopped?

9. How many died?