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

Shortly after the Israelites suffered for rebelling against the Lord by first refusing to enter the land of Canaan and then, after God told them to not do so, attempting invade, a Levite rose up in rebellion against Moses and Aaron.  Korah and some other leaders attempted to start a populist rebellion against Moses.  It appears from Moses’ response that the rebellion was primarily among Levites, with support from prominent Israelites from other tribes.  Whenever I read this passage I always struggle to figure out what Korah got wrong, because, as a general rule, I believe that leaders should have the support of those they lead for the decisions which they make.  However, despite claiming to represent the whole community, it appears that Korah and his associates only had the support of 250 people.  So, Korah’s rebellion appears to have been engineered by a small group of people who thought they could use the discontent over God’s rejection of them going into Canaan to overthrow Moses.  They claimed that the whole community was holy and thus could hear the word of God and implied that they had the support of the whole community to remove Moses from his leadership role.  But they failed to consult God, or to actually gain the support of the majority.  If you believe that the leaders of God’s people are mistaken, there are several steps you must take.  The first is to pray to God for His guidance and listen to what He tells you.  Second, speak with the leaders to discover whether they have answers to your objections.  Finally, reach out to people to see if they actually support you over the current leaders.

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