This horrifying, salutary, sobering story has both a sad and a glorious conclusion. Number 16. So we read earlier and looked a little bit earlier that all of that, a vast number of people went down to the pit, the earth swallowed her mouth, opened her mouth and swallowed them up. And all, verse 30, and all that appertained, they go down quick into the pit. And then you shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. They spoke against God. That was the rebellion, the gainsaying of Korah.

And Korah, in his 250, were a fire, verse 35, and a fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men that offered incense. And then, we won't be looking at it in any detail, but these censers that these 250 men had were made as a covering for the altar for the rest of the day so that people Everyone who thought about that altar and came to that altar realised the awful, awful price of rebellion against the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Especially rebellion against Him when you actually are claiming to be His and be with Him. And it was set there as a memorial, verse 40.

But I want us to start in verse 41 and I want us to to be amazed at the extraordinary sinfulness of sin in the hearts of humanity. But, verse 41, number 16, but on the morrow, all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. Have you heard that before? And listen to what they say, saying, you have killed the people of the Lord. I didn't think Moses did any killing at all.

And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, and they looked towards the tabernacle of the congregation, and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation, and the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment. and they fell upon their faces.

And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make atonement for them. For there is wrath gone out from the Lord, The plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the congregation and behold the plague was begun among the people and he put on incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living. And the plague was stayed, it was stopped.

Now they that died in the plague were 14,700 beside them that died about the matter of Korah. And Aaron returned unto Moses unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the plague was stayed.

I want us to look at what it is for Moses to be a servant of the Lord, in particular in relation to these particular stories. Moses, as we know something of his history, he had a remarkable birth. He was no unusual child. And he was read in the providence of the Lord in Pharaoh's household. And when he was 40, he thought that he would take upon himself the deliverance of the people of God. And he slew an Egyptian. who was treating the children of Israel badly. And then when Pharaoh knew about it, Moses fled. And for the next 40 years, he was a shepherd in the wilderness. He was a shepherd in the wilderness. married and had two children.

But Moses, most of all, he knew the father and he knew his son. You know that story well in Exodus chapter 3 when the Lord meets with Moses. It's a glorious picture of the gospel, isn't it? And he came to horror, and the angel of the Lord, verse 2 of Exodus 3, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And the Lord spoke to him. And he says to him, draw not thy hither, put off thy shoes, verse five, from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Why is it holy? Is there any better than any of the other dirt around there? It's holy because God declares it to be holy, because in that place, that bush pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't need, the fire didn't need the energy of the bush, and the bush was not consumed by the fire. It's a picture of what happened on the cross of Calvary.

But I love how Moses was humbled, and Moses, this man who was most exalted by God, in the congregation of the children of Israel. Moses went to Egypt and delivered those people. Moses is a glorious picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was, Numbers 12 says, he was the meekest man on the earth. The meekest man on the earth. Why? Because he'd met God. To be meek is not to be weak. To be meek is to know who you are in light of you knowing who God is. And so his meekness was a reverence for God.

But three times, to go back to our passage in number 16, three times as we saw earlier in number 16, Moses fell on his face when there was rebellion. Moses, the servant of God, I want us to ponder. I want to be a servant of God. I want for all of us to be servants of God. When Moses heard about their rebellion in verse three of Numbers, he heard it and he fell on his face. Verse 22. they hear again. He hears from God this time. The Lord spoke unto Moses in verse 20 and to Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And Moses fell. They fell upon their faces and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all of the congregation?

The servant of God, when he hears of the wicked rebellion of religious people against God, he doesn't rise up in pride and self-righteousness. He falls on his face. What a lesson. What a lesson for us. What a lesson for us who know the truth of the gospel. And therefore we'll have, as Moses did throughout his ministry, he'll have rebellion and rebellion and rebellion and rebellion. Now as soon as one act of rebellion finishes and another act of rebellion starts again, and yet Moses, now an old man, When he hears of that rebellion, he falls on his face. When he hears of the wrath of God coming upon these people in verse 22, he falls on his face. They fell on their faces.

And Moses, the servant of God, he deceives to God on behalf of people who are rebels against their own souls. In verse 45, part of the passage we're looking at now, verse 45, God speaks again to Moses and said that he's going to destroy them. He says, get you up from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell on their faces. They fell upon their faces. That's how we who are led of the Spirit and are put in a place of leading others, and we each lead each other in either worship and faithfulness or in rebellion against God Almighty. When those challenges come upon us, will we be made by the grace of God to be like Moses and fall on our faces? May it be. Not publicly, but may it be in our hearts and in our lives that those who rebel against us have to walk over us pleading, pleading on God's behalf for them. I pray the Lord will give us hearts of flesh as Moses had and not hearts of stone, hearts that love his glory and love his sovereignty, but also hearts that are deeply, deeply concerned about the eternal destiny of those that we love.

Peter speaks about the trial of our faith. Moses' faith was tried. It's tried in 1 Peter 1. And the trying of that faith is of more precious than gold that perishes, that you might be found unto the praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. We're going to go through trials. The Lord Jesus Christ went through them. He's promised them for all of his people. They'll hate his people without a cause.

But at 80 years of age, Moses was a man who had very little ability to speak. And it seems as if he had very little ability to carry out God's purpose. This seems as if he had some speech impediment, maybe a really bad stutter, but the Lord appointed Aaron to be the one who spoke. He says in Exodus 3, verse 11, he says, who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh? Behold, he says in chapter four, verse one, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice.

In verse 10 of Exodus 4 when Moses is being commissioned, I want us to see that the accusation against Moses seeking a position of prominence is just profoundly untrue according to the scriptures. He said in verse 10, he says, unto the Lord, O Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent. Neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. And what's the Lord say to him? Who made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or the deaf or the seeing or the blind? Have I not? Have not I, the Lord, in a sense done all these things? He says, now therefore go And I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee. God had already prepared it. Moses was meek and Moses was humbled and Moses knew God. And Moses, as I said, if you read the rest of his life story, you'll see that he was a man so greatly plagued by what he saw around him.

He met God on that mountain. He came back in an hour and organised an orgy at the bottom of it. They had a Pentecostal worship service down there. They were all dancing around and singing. And this miraculous golden calf had just popped out of the fire. Moses went back up to the mountain again. He had his own internal weakness and then he had trial after trial after trial. Why? So that God gets all the glory. That's exactly why he makes his servants weak. And we are made to be seen to be weak in the eyes of this world.

They were about to stone him. They were about to go through our trials. We will see a man of God burdened and in distress because of the trial of his faith. Yet, when all that rebellion is against him and against him personally and against his God personally, on his face before the Lord. Moses the servant rebukes the hardness of our heart. May the Lord make us to respond. We have to stand. We have to contend. We will have opposition because we stand and will not be moved. We will not move from the fundamental glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. We cannot join as Baal and would have us join with those who dishonour God, thinking that they're worshipping God from the very temples of Baal.

But I firstly, Moses, I want us to see that Moses is a servant in the most wonderful, wonderful way. In the midst of this extraordinary rebellion against him and the plague that had come out from the Lord. They murmured against Moses, verse 41 of number 16, saying, you've killed the people of the Lord. And it came to pass when the congregation was gathered against Moses and Aaron, they looked towards the tabernacle of the congregation, and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.

What glory that must have been. That was the Shekinah glory of God Almighty being revealed to all of these people in rebellion against him. And the Lord says, I'm going to consume them. Moses fell on his face. Someone else fell on his face. In a garden, when all the sins of all of his people in their rebellion against God Almighty were given him in a cup and laid on him and his heart broke. Mark 14 35 says that the Lord fell to the ground when the cup of sin was given to him.

But I love the picture at the end of this, and this is where I want to spend the next 10 minutes or so. There is just this glorious picture, isn't it? What does Moses, the servant of God, do? He says to Aaron, verse 46, you take a censer and you go to the altar, you go into the altar of God, And you put on the incense and go quickly out of the congregation. You do this in haste. There's a hundred-year-old man running around with a censer, running to the altar, running to get the incense, and then running into the crowd of people because the plague has begun.

There is just one way, the servant of God, Moses, the servant of God. saying, there is just one way for the wrath of God and the plague that rightfully comes upon you to be stayed. We're as rebellious as the Israelites. We are Cain's and Balaam's and Korah's by nature, desire and practice. And we need an intercessor who can stay the plague that we have brought upon ourselves. Our greatest need and our greatest problem is only solved by the intervention that God can bring upon you.

Moses prayed, but Moses acted, and Moses sent for an atonement to be made. I love the fact that Moses prayed. I'd love to have someone like Moses praying for me. Every time Moses prayed, God answered him. You read the scriptures, every time Moses prayed, God answered him, just like Samuel. He says, as for me, when he faced rebellion, Samuel said, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.

When the plague was broken out, Moses knows there is just one who can help. Moses, the word of God, Moses also represents the law of God. The law of God is helpless. The law says one thing to the plague ridden people who are about to die. It says guilty, guilty, guilty. The law says do and you'll fail. Do and you will fail. You'll fail to come up to the glory of God. Your sins have separated you from your God.

And I love what Moses did. Moses said to Aaron, the word of God speaks to the high priest of God, to the atoning high priest. He doesn't speak to the people. not the sinning people upon whom the plague had already broken out. We've already seen how hard the hearts of men are. No matter what rebellion, no matter what God does, no matter how much they witness, they continue in their rebellion against God. The day after thousands were killed in the most extraordinary way, they come in rebellion against God.

We speak to God on behalf of sinners. We plead with God for God to do something because they're dead. They don't need information. They don't need reformation. They need something done for them. from completely outside of them and not on the basis of anything that they could do to earn it. They were completely demerited of any call upon God, these people who were dying. It's called grace. That's what grace is called, isn't it? Only sovereign grace, only God acting in sovereign mercy and grace can stay the plague that has broken out in you and will break out upon you.

The condemning law says to the high priest, you must act to stay the plague. I am helpless. You take a censer. The censer, that censer which was carried into the holy of holies, that censer carries the sweet odour of Christ into the holy of holies and fills heaven with the glory of Christ's death and sin-bearing atonement. There is just one censer. These men have made their own censers, but there is one for the high priest. There's one incense. There's one particular sort of incense. If you made another incense, you were to be put to death in Israel. There was one incense. There is. That incense represents the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of this is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is just one altar. There is one altar. We, according to Hebrews 13, we have an altar. that the religious world doesn't have. Those that worship at the modern day tabernacles and temples and put people back under the law, they don't have an altar. And there is one fire, there is one censer, one incense, one altar, and there's one fire. Nadab in a bayou found that out to their great, great peril. And that one fire consumes the sacrifice of God's providing.

Where did the fire come from? This is to make atonement for these people. Where did the fire come from? When that tabernacle was sent up and when that altar was sent up and Moses had everything prepared on it, Leviticus 9.24 says, and there came a fire out from before the Lord. God lit the fire, that fire, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat. When Solomon had set up the temple and he'd made an end of praying, a fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifice, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. The fire, that altar was lit by a fire which came from heaven.

And that fire which comes from heaven represents exactly what happened to Korah. and all of his 250 with him. Our God is the consuming fire. Those people thought they could come into the presence of God without the Lord Jesus Christ, just as Cain thought he could come into the presence of God without the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. That fire represents what consumed Korah and the 250 with him.

What does the fire on the altar speak of? a substitute bearing the fire of God's holy wrath against sin. You take that fire, that particular fire from that particular altar and you put on incense, the sweet odour of Christ must reach up to heaven. The essence of our gospel, isn't it, is substitution and satisfaction. God must be satisfied. God's holiness must be satisfied. God's wrath must be satisfied. and it's done in this atoning way. And he says, you go quickly. This is the words of the servant pleading with he who represents the high priest, you go quickly. Salvation is always a now matter. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the day. If there's the possibility of it being left for a convenient time, you are lost and you may well stay lost. Everything about our gospel is urgent.

The plague had broken out. 14,700 people had died. it was, it was instant death upon these people. And you take it to this congregation. This day, this plague is for this congregation and this congregation only. And then he says to him, and make an atonement for them.

This religious world says you offer them an atonement. There is this rebellious crowd, enormous crowd of rebels against God, against his word, against his priest. What can you offer them that they can take? We've seen in this picture of numbers how dead men are in their rebellion against God. And he doesn't say you make atonement if they do something, does he? He doesn't offer them salvation, he saves them. He doesn't make it conditional upon them doing something for him to make atonement. He just says, you go and make atonement. You take this fire from this altar with this incense and you go as the high priest into the midst of the rebellion of death and you stand between the living and the dead. Isn't that the most amazing verse of scripture?

And he stood between the living The dead and the living, that's all humanity. The Lord Jesus Christ stands between all humanity. Humanity is divided into two groups of people, the dead and the living. We are born spiritually dead and we need life from above. We need this atoning sacrifice. It's such a glorious picture, isn't it? Only the Lord Jesus Christ can stand before the plague which is broken out from the Lord. And that plague is broken out in justice. Was it right for God to consume those people? Of course it was. That 14,700 died that day. Was it right for God to kill them? It would have been right for God to kill the whole lot, wasn't it? The only reason he didn't kill the whole lot was because there was an atoning sacrifice. He alone can stand before the plague. He alone can stand between the living and the dead and give life to those condemned to go down to the pit. It's called grace. He does it all. He does it all. The great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, does it all without their asking. Without their permission, without their will, he just does it.

I love what Elihu says of Job. He speaks of the grace of God to him and said, deliver him from going down to the pit. Why are you delivered from going down to the pit just like that earth opened up on those people? What an extraordinary picture of hell we have in number 16. They go alive or they go burnt.

Deliver him from going, deliver Job from going down. Job was rebellious against God. What was Job doing? He was pushed to the point. This man who was so blessed of God in so many remarkable ways, he was pushed to the point by the trials of his life to defend his own righteousness.

And then God meets him. After God sends a preacher and the lie he says, deliver him from going down to the pit, why? I have found a ransom. God must find a ransom. God must find a payment that satisfies God. And it's not about you and it's not about your works. It's a transaction between God and God.

He stood between the living, the dead and the living and the plague was stayed. He stands between the dead and the living. We're born into this world dead. You know, don't you? It's the hardest word to get across to people that's so clearly written in the scriptures. It says in Ephesians chapter two, you have he quickened, you've made alive, who were dead in transgressions, in trespasses and sins.

Dead is the hardest word to get people to understand because only those who are alive know what it is to be dead. The dead never know that they're dead. They've always got something they can do. They can always activate something in themselves.

God must stand between the dead and the living. He must stand between me and where I naturally would take myself. He's got to stand so that I'll be gracious and I'll call out to him alone for all of my salvation. He must be so gracious that he will reveal his salvation in such a way that he gets all the glory and I get deliverance from the plague which kills.

He must stand between the dead and the living with this one atonement from this one altar, with this one sacrifice, with this one fire delivered, with this one censer, with one high priest. He does it all. The simplicity of Christ, the singleness of the gospel. It's about him. He must satisfy God, and he has satisfied God. And how did he do it? Where did the plague go? The Lord Jesus Christ, the fire of God's wrath, fell on the Lord Jesus Christ when the plague of sin came upon him and he consumed that fire until he cries out and says, it is finished. It is finished.

He must stand between all of my dead works, which I will cling to until he takes them away from me. I'll cling to what I've done. I'll cling to what I might do, what I could have done. I'll cling to how I've done these things and I haven't done these other things. I'll cling to those things like that Pharisee did at the temple until the Lord takes it all away and you are caused. by Him coming between you and the religion that so invades and plagues our nature, which says, I will be as God's. I will be. I will. I will. He has to stand there, and He does. The great high priest makes the difference. He's done it all. He stands as that great intercessor.

Don't you love how Hebrews begins, speaking of this intercession and this atonement? Atonement means to purge. It means to cover. It's the covering of the ark. We know exactly what colour the ark was, don't we? People have these wooden arks and they make them all pretty and everything and decorate them with all sorts. The ark was black. It was covered in pitch. And that word pitch is the word atonement. It was covered in atonement. And those on the inside, all they saw when they looked at that ark was atonement. The Atonement not only saves us on the outside from the wrath of God, but the Atonement works in the hearts of God's people. And all that time, all that 12 months that they were there in that ark, they were looking at the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only reason they were alive. The rest of this crowd that day, the only reason they were alive was because of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Is that the way it is with you? That the only reason that you're alive, the only reason that you're spiritually alive, is because of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Listen, go back to Hebrews chapter 1 with me. God who at sundry times in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets. What a word number 16 has been. What a word we see in these Old Testament preachers. He spoke in various ways. He hath in these last days spoken unto us by son. That's the last word of God to all of humanity.

What about my son? whom he hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom also he hath made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he, this is just the most glorious word, isn't it, when he had by himself purged our sins.

Atonement is translated as purging, cleansing, forgiving, pacifying, reconciling. That's what happened, wasn't it? when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Christ is the servant. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, not to minister, but to be, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. I want to be a servant. I want us to be servants of God.

Moses prays when he is being so personally offended and mistreated so, so badly. Moses, the servant, sends for a mediating, atoning priest. May the Lord stand between the dead and the living in our lives and in the lives of those that we love. And may he cause his people to cry out, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner. you can make me clean.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father we do thank you that there is an atoning sacrifice. We do thank you Heavenly Father a saviour who stands between the dead and the living. We praise you heavenly father that on the cross of Calvary your dear and precious son bore the infinite eternal wrath that you poured out on him on all the sins that he was made to be upon the cross.

and we praise you heavenly father that he stood as it were on the cross between the dead and the living and saved that man who had nothing to commend himself in any way at all and may we just cry out like that thief on the cross and say lord remember me lord remember me lord remember us lord But if it's your will and by your grace, may you make us to be servants like Moses, servants who pray, servants who speak.

and bring the one atoning sacrifice that covers the sins, that your people can live, not just now, but live eternally with you. We praise you, Heavenly Father, that there is such a Saviour for sin. You'd give us a simple trust in Him, relies upon Him, needs Him to be our sin-bearing sacrifice.

We thank you again, Heavenly Father, that there is a Gospel and that there is a High Priest and that there is an atoning sacrifice. Apply it to our lives and hearts that we might be made, like Moses, to be your servants in this world. For your glory, Heavenly Father, and for the good of your people, we commend ourselves and commit ourselves into your hands. In Jesus' precious name, Amen. Amen.