Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 16-18.

It is not clear how long after the Israelites refused to enter the Promised Land and Moses turned them back into the wilderness that Korah’s rebellion occurred.  Perhaps it occurred immediately after the Israelites defeat, or perhaps it was some time later.  We also do not know what specific instruction from Moses triggered this rebellion, although the words attributed to Korah and to Dathan and Abiram suggest that the rebellion was in response to some instruction from Moses.  Reading this again it almost appears like there were two separate rebellions against Moses at the same time.  The passage lists three leaders of the rebellion, Korah, a Levite, and two Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram.  It also lists that there were 250 other men, who were leaders among the Israelites who followed these three.  However, when I read how this got resolved it reads to me like those 250 men were followers of Korah and as if Dathan and Abiram had  some additional followers of their own.  Moses called for Korah and his followers to come before the Lord and, together with Aaron, present an incense offering, allowing God to decide whose offering to accept.  Moses also summoned Dathan and Abiram to come to this “showdown”, but they refused to do so.   So Moses went to them.  It reads that Moses said that the earth would swallow up the tents and all of those within the encampment of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and that it did so.  Then fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering incense.  That reads to me like there were followers of Dathan and Abiram in addition to the 250 followers of Korah, although I am unsure of that.

The thing I noticed today was the similarity between what happened to Korah’s 250 followers who burned incense and what happened to Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, when they burned incense before the Lord using coals to light the incense which did not come from the altar.  Presumably, these 250 men would also not have had access to coals from the altar in order to light the incense which they offered.  Of course, one would also presume that they were aware of what had happened to Nadab and Abihu.  Which makes one wonder how they did not suspect that something bad would happen when they burned incense before the Lord.  But it also reminds us that we often fail to learn from the suffering which others have brought upon themselves.  How often o we rebel against those whom God has placed in authority over us?  We often spend time concerned about recognizing when leaders abuse or overstep their authority, but we do not spend enough time looking at whether or not we adequately submit to those whom God has appointed to lead us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.