I please God to bless us together
this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of Numbers, chapter 16, and we'll read the first three
verses. Verses 1 to 3 in the 16th chapter
of the book of Numbers. Now Korah, the son of Izhar,
the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram,
the sons of Eliab, And on the son of Peleth, the sons of Reuben,
took men. And they rose up before Moses
with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the
assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. And they gathered
themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto
them, ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are
holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore
then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. We should not think that because
we have the Old Testament that does not directly speak of Jesus,
of course it does very much indirectly, that it is for the most part
irrelevant to us today. The whole of the Bible is relevant
to all of us, all our life. And we should not think, well,
therefore something was written a long time ago which really
appears just to be an historical account is of any value and we
should think well perhaps we can just read it and then pass
it by. Well we should realize therefore
that God's Word is to be thought upon and to be meditated on and
is to be considered as the Word of God speaking to us even today
in our own lives. And so as we read this account
and it was important enough for Jude in his one chapter, just
before Revelation, refers to it in the 11th verse. So clearly
it was something of significance. And really what it means is this. Korah and his brethren, what
were they really doing? Well, they were arrogant, and
they were rebellious, and they were not willing to acknowledge
that the Lord was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that
the Lord God had spoken to Moses and to Aaron and had directed
Moses and Aaron what to do and they'd fulfilled that which they'd
been told to do and it wasn't easy. They had a pretty rough
run but now there was this occasion and these people were rebellious
against them. And they came and they said,
therefore, and they said, ye take too much upon you, seeing
all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord
is among them. Wherefore, then, lift ye up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord. Well, they weren't, of
course. They were just doing that which
God had commanded them. They weren't lifting themselves
up above what God had said. God had told Moses to come and
to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. He'd also called
Aaron to be the high priest. It was a direction of God. And
they were only doing the commands of God. But you see, these people,
Korah, it would have seemed they were jealous of what was occurring. They wanted to have an important
part to play. Well, we almost must realise
that God is in charge of your life and my life. And God gives us that position
in life. He directs us as to what we should
do and what we should say. And we shouldn't think, well,
I'm a more important person and I should have a more important
place so that more people might take notice of what I say. We need always to realise that
we need to be humble before God and we need to be willing to
serve God in whatever position that might be. and not to think
we want an important place. You know, David many years ago,
he was willing, as he said, he'd rather be a doorkeeper than a
dweller in the tents of wickedness. He was happy just to be a very
menial position, something very simple. I remember years ago
I was with quite an eminent person, he was a Christian, he was an
architect, and he said, If God gave me the job of washing out
the toilets, I would be quite content. Well, that's good, isn't
it? To have a position like that.
Not wanting some highfalutin position so that people might
bow down to us, as it were, but willing to be just a very small
person and yet doing God's will. There's great blessing in doing
God's will. And so here we have Cora and
Nathan and Abira standing up and doing and speaking those
things. And we might say, well, how did
Moses react? How did he react when these people
came to him? We're told he fell down before
God upon his face. It's a wonderful position, isn't
it? He had a good conscience that
he was doing God's will. Moses did. And therefore, although
taking criticism was very hard, which it is, it's not easy to
be criticized by people and to be told, well, we shouldn't really
be doing it, we should give way to other people. It's not easy. But here was Moses, he fell down
before God and he said to Korah and all his company, Even tomorrow
the Lord will show who are his and who is holy and will cause
him to come near unto him, even him whom he hath chosen will
he cause to come near unto him. And so we should realise that
today God causes people to be put in positions and God will
decide who is to do this and who is to do that and therefore
we should not think that we are more important or we might think
we're more valuable than someone else. We should be willing to
come and to take the lowest place. Well, Moses was able to speak
to them, these people, and he said, He came and said, Seemeth
it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated
you from the congregation of Israel. He's speaking here to
Korah who was a Levite and God had separated the Levites to
play an important part in the position of Israel. They were
in charge of the tabernacle, in charge of all that it contained
and when the tabernacle moved they were the people that did
the moving so it was an important position and therefore Moses
reminds them of this he tells them to bring you near to himself
to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before
the congregation to minister unto them and then he goes on
and he says and he has brought thee near to him and all thy
brethren the sons of Levi with thee and seek ye the priesthood
also." You see, God had called them to do this work and he's
now saying, surely you're not wanting the priesthood also.
But that's clearly what they did want. For which cause both
thou and thy company are gathered together against the Lord. And that's the critical statement
really, isn't it? It wasn't against Moses and Aaron. Because Moses and Aaron had been
put in that position by the Lord. So if therefore they were not
happy with that, what were they doing? They were rebelling against
the Lord. They were rebelling against God. They were murmuring against what
God had done. And how important for us to realise
this great truth, that you and I should not murmur against God,
murmur against what he is doing, against what he has done. We may not always like what God
is doing for us or what God has done for us. We may not think
it's very suitable for us and we wish we were doing something
else and going somewhere else. What a favour then if you and
I are submissive to God's will. If we are submissive to God's
will, we shall know peace in our hearts. If we're not doing
God's will, and if we're rebelling against Him, you know what we'll
be like? The Bible gives us a little description,
it tells us it's like this. It's like a troubled sea. A sea
which is in storm, it's going about everywhere. There's no
peace. What a blessing therefore if
you and I are found doing God's will and know something of the
peace of God. And so Moses sent and he called
these people and they said, we will not come up. They weren't
willing to obey the word of Moses. Remember, Moses was God's servant
and he was doing that which God instructed him in. He wasn't
just doing his own will. It wasn't a whim that he had.
He was standing before God as God's representative. And here
we have then these people saying, we will not come up Is it a small thing that thou
hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey
to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether
a prince over us? Well, the Lord hadn't brought
them up to kill them in the wilderness, although many were to die because
they disobeyed God. You may remember in an earlier
chapter in Numbers, when Israel had come out of Egypt in just
over a year, And God had blessed them very wonderfully, and he
told them to go up and possess the promised land, the land of
Canaan. And they had 12 spies, which
God allowed them to send up to have a look at the land and see
what it was like. And they went out and they came back, and they
all brought back an evil report, apart from Caleb and Joshua. The rest, they said it was a
lovely land, but there were giants there, and they were walled cities,
and were not able to go up and conquer. What were they doing? They were disobeying God. God
had told them to go up, and they had the evidence that God was
with them. But now, God has said, go up and fight, and you'll win.
And they said, no, no, we're not going up. And therefore,
God said this to those people then, just going back a few chapters
in Numbers. He said, all the people who are
20 years of age or older would die in the wilderness. That was
a very painful thing to hear. And it came to pass, and it was
only their children that would eventually go into the promised
land. And therefore, we see what these people are speaking about
now. And then he says, moreover, thou hast not brought us into
a land floweth of milk and honey, or given us an inheritance of
fields and vineyards. Cora is speaking about the promises
of God which hadn't as yet been fulfilled. They would be fulfilled,
but they hadn't been fulfilled to the timescale that Cora and
his friends wanted. And we've got to be careful of
that in our lives. God has a timescale for his plan. for all of us.
He doesn't always tell us what that timescale is. In fact, he
very often does not tell us what his timescale is. And you and
I have to be patient for that timescale to be fulfilled. Now, Israel did come into Canaan,
into a land flowing with milk and honey. They did come into
a wonderful country. But it would have been something
like about 39 years or so after this occasion. It was a long
time. But you see, these people were
impatient. And we should not be left to
be impatient. The Bible tells us this, your
time is always, but my time is not yet. Now it's good therefore
to be patient and wait for God's time to do those things which
he has promised. And so here was this arrogance
really by these people and they were so against Moses that this
hadn't happened. Now what was the result? Well
now we hear that Moses was very wroth. Moses was a very meek
man, but yet you see when people spoke against God, that's when
Moses was angry. It wasn't when people spoke against
himself, it's when they spoke against his God. And therefore
Moses was very wroth and said unto the Lord, respect not thou
their offering and etc. Moses said unto Korah, be thou
And all thy company before the Lord, thou and they and Aaron
tomorrow. And every man his censer. Put
incense in them and bring ye before the Lord every man his
censer. Two hundred and fifty censers, thou also and Aaron,
each of you his censer. And so that's what happened. And Korah gathered all the congregation
against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation. Just
try and ponder that. When the Lord's glory appeared,
as it did in the Old Testament, it was in the form of an amazing
light. It shone forth and it was clear
that it was not something that a man produced. It was an action
of God. We would think that with this
wonderful evidence of the glory of God, it would have an effect
upon these people that they would say hold on a minute I made a
big mistake we've done things that are wrong we must be sorry
we must confess our sins but they didn't at all they were
hard-hearted they were rebellious and the Lord was going to consume
them all And we're told Moses came and
Aaron and they fell upon their faces and said, O Lord, O God,
the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and
won't there be wrath with all the congregation? And the Lord
spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the congregation saying,
get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.
And so they got up and went. And these men, Dathan and Byron. Proud as they were, they came
out of their tents and they stood in their tent doors with their
wives and their sons and their little children. Try and imagine
it. These people there. Spoken against
God. Acting against God. So arrogant. They stood in their tent door. You can imagine it, can't you?
Proud people. Saying, we're here. We've got to be taken notice
of. He didn't realise that God's awful judgement was about to
come upon them. And so it did. And in a very
wonderful, in a very amazing way. Because Moses said, look
if something normal happens to them, then I haven't spoken. But if something extraordinary
happens, like the ground opening up to swallow them up, then you
will know. that it's God that has spoken. And so this new thing
occurred after Moses had stopped speaking. The ground clave asunder
that was under them and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed
them up and their houses and all the men that appertained
unto them and all their goods and the earth closed over them.
It must have been a most terrible frightening experience for all
those who observed it. God had worked. God had spoken. God had done
that which it wasn't possible for man to do. Man can't produce
an earthquake. Man can't open up the earth.
But God did and swallowed up all these people. It didn't stop
there. There were then these 250 princes
and fire came down from heaven and consumed all of them also.
And so we have here in this account a very solemn warning to all
of us to obey the Word of God and not to argue with God and
not to try and get something better for ourselves, something
more important but to be willing to submit ourselves to the will
and purpose of Almighty God. And so I expect you're thinking
well now I don't see any gospel in this this morning. Well there
is instruction in this my friends to our natural lives and how
we are to organize our lives and how we are to think in a
spiritual way. But let us just remind ourselves
of what they were turning their back upon. They were turning
their back upon the gracious commands of God. They were forgetting
the wonderful deliverances of God. And the wonderful deliverance
that God had brought for them and the gracious instruction
in erecting the tabernacle and all that it contained, all those
things spoke very clearly of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, these people would have
been very aware of it. They would have already seen
the fact when two of Aaron's sons disobeyed the word of God,
Nadab and Abihu, when they put strange fire in their senses,
before God and what happened, God struck them down that they
died. They would have been very aware
of that. And they would have been very aware of what the Word
of God spoke to them about. And the wonderful deliverance
they had when they came out of Egypt. And how that deliverance
came about. How God had appeared. The many
miracles which Moses did. And of course then the blessed
institution of the Passover. Now clearly these men had cast
that aside. They had not realised the relevance
and the importance of it. But today as we think of these
solemn situations, to also be reminded that they had passed
over, turned aside from the gracious ordinances and instructions of
Almighty God. And so as we ponder that today,
to think of it in our own lives, to remember what the Lord has
said and remember what the Lord has done. You see, we have the
great and glorious gospel before us. And that should be the principal
element in our lives, to be constantly aware of our great salvation. And as we may be aware of that,
that it may influence the reaction of our words, the things that
we do and what we think, and to not be left to our own understanding,
to just as it were, try and please ourselves. This is what these
men were trying to do. They wanted to have the rule
themselves, they wanted to please themselves so they were important.
And they'd really forgotten what the Word of God had spoken to
them in the illustrations of the Passover and the offerings
which were to be offered in the tabernacle day by day. There
was the continual evidence of the need to be forgiven. There was a continual evidence
of the Lord Jesus Christ set before them in those sacrifices. That was the whole purpose of
them. It wasn't just a question of
taking a lamb or a bullock or a goat and slaying it and burning
it. The whole essence was to direct
the offerer and Israel to the one sacrifice for sin, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And not to be carried away with
their own ideas. Now that's no different today.
You and I have set before us the great and glorious gospel.
My friends may that fill our hearts with worship, fill our
hearts with bowing down before God, fill our hearts with recognizing
What we are before a holy God. And what are we before a holy
God? Well, bless God when the Holy Spirit has shown us what
we are. And what are we? We are a sinner
before a holy God. Every person born into this world has been and is and will be before
God a sinner. We go right back to Adam and
Eve, sinners. Sin entered into the world and
every single person therefore needs forgiveness. And everybody therefore needs
to look to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation. Now how different it would have
been if these people had been more concerned about their standing
before God than what other people were thinking of them with regards
to pre-eminence in the things of this life. What a blessing, therefore, for
us today, if we're more concerned about what God thinks of us than
what people think of us. What a mercy if the Holy Spirit
comes upon us in this way. See, these people, Korah, Dathan
and Abiram, they were left to themselves. And many people today are left
to themselves. And what do they say in their
heart? They say this, I will not have
this man to reign over me. And who is this man? The Lord
Jesus Christ. This morning, what is our reaction? Are we like Korah, Dathan, Nabarim
and all those 250 princes? Eminent people? Only eminent
in time. Only eminent in the things of
this life. My friends, you and I don't want to be eminent in
the things of this life and have no eternal life of glory with
Jesus. We don't want to be just found
seeking natural adoration. We want to be those who worship
the Lord. And so today, these men, they
did not want to worship the Lord. Do you and I want to worship
the Lord today? Do you and I want to obey the
word of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we want to forsake our own
natural aims and prospects? Nothing wrong, of course, with
desiring to work hard and to prostrate in this world, but
to recognize that this takes second place. It's not the principal
thing in our lives. It's the second place and the
principal thing should be to know the Lord Jesus Christ as
that one who has come to save our souls. The one who has come
to free us from that condemnation which has come upon us because
of our sin. All who have sinned are under
God's condemnation. Who is that? Everybody. We are all condemned under the
law of God. We've all fallen short. We're
all guilty. And so today, oh, may we rejoice
and bless God for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, today,
you and I have the wonderful privilege of the New Testament. which speaks of Jesus and tells
us who he was and what he did. In the Old Testament there was
the picture, but it was only a picture. It wasn't in real
life as it were. Jesus had not come, but there
was the prophecy of Jesus coming. And it was so clearly set before
Israel on that wonderful night when they were freed from Egypt. And that light was when the Lord
came and slew all the firstborn of the Egyptians. But all Israel
were safe if... Do you know what that if was?
There was no safety to the Israelites also, unless there was a certain
situation which occurred. And what was that? The Lord had
commanded every family to take a lamb as perfect as they could,
and to slay that lamb, and to take the blood, and to paint
it upon the doorposts, that's either
side of the opening, and the lintel. And everybody had to pass into
that door and to stay in their house. And if they'd done that,
they were safe. But if they had not painted or
sprinkled any blood on the doorpost or the lintel, they were not
safe. and the eldest person would have
been slain. You may say, well, what is the
significance of that? The significance of that is very
important to us today. Because it meant that only those
who were safe, who went into their house and passed through
that door, were the blood over them. And now today, there is
only safety in The Lord Jesus Christ, if we pass through that
door, He is the door, into Himself, and have the blood over us, the
blood that He shed upon the cross at Calvary. No, today it's not
a physical thing, but it is that which you and I walk by faith. In that hymn, we sang the middle
hymn, We sung about this faith and the fear of God. And it's
blessed to have the fear of God which gives us that faith. We're
told that this fears the spirit of faith. A confidence that's
strong. An unctuous light that means
a very real and precious light to all that's right and a bar
to all that's wrong. So if you and I are blessed then
with faith and the fear of the Lord to come to him believing
the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation to deliver
us from our sin. Remember I said earlier we're
all sinners. We're all condemned because of
that sin and we all need to be freed from that sin. And the
only way you and I can be freed from that sin is this. to be
found believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, that One
who has given His life, who shed His precious blood to take away
all our sins, so that we are sinless and therefore we then
have access to that glorious place of heaven when we die,
because we have no sin. It's been washed away, it's been
taken away by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have this position
here with Korah and Dathan and Abiram. They were clearly knowledgeable
of this wonderful picture which they had been part of when they'd
come out of Egypt. And then the sacrifices which
had been instituted, and the sacrifice every day, morning
and evening, signifying the importance of shed blood and forgiveness,
and they'd passed it by. My friends, how sad today, if
you and I pass these things by, and concentrate more and more
on our natural life than on our spiritual life. Our most important
thing is our spiritual life. The things of our natural life
are important, but they're so less important. And so as we
have this illustration before us in the Word of God, it's very
striking. I hope we don't forget it. I
hope we realise how relevant it is that they disobey God and
they were consumed. Well, men today are not perhaps
consumed in that same way, but they are not forgiven. And they
pass out of time into eternal hell, which is a terrible, terrible
thought. But all those who are in Christ
are eternally safe and are eternally blessed. And so this morning,
may we have that faith given to us to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ as our Saviour, that one who has come into this
world to deliver us from all our sins and to bless us with
the wonderful gift of eternal life. Amen.