What were they thinking? Korah and the "250 well-known community leaders?" This isn't a nameless or faceless mob. It's not a bunch of rabble or rebels. It's the leadership challenging Moses' authority. Why? They saw him lead them through the Sea on dry land. They've witnessed him in God's presence. Yes, they lost the battle Amalekites and Canaanites. But that wasn't Moses' fault. It was their own because they listened to the statistics. They listened to what 10 out of 12 had to say rather than the One God.
So why are the leaders doing this? Are they using Moses as a scapegoat because of their own shortcomings? Has the power gone to their head? Well...they're about to get in over their heads...literally. One of the toughest things for a group of men to do is to consider that they might be wrong. And when they've found themselves to be wrong, to acknowledge it. Why don't people come forward or open up and ask for prayers and admit their weakness? Because they are not lead to...only told to do it.
Leadership isn't telling. It's doing.
"Ahhh, everyone take a step back from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, please."
The wives and children seems a little excessive, don't you think? Unless some of the wives badgered their men into taking a stand. Now, I'm not saying they did. But I wonder. I don't understand the taking of innocents? It seems on the surface like a total disregard for human life made in the Creator's image. That's what it seems like to me on the surface and, Lord knows, that's as deep as I can fathom or see. But I have faith even when I don't see.
So the 250 leaders are dead.
Then the people complain about what happened to the people who complained and a plague kills another 14,700. What irony. Those that the Lord's plagues had freed are now claimed by the Lord's plagues.
And so the distance between God and man continues. First we walked with God in the Garden. Then He made personal appearances with the tribal leaders. He had a meal with the Children of Israel's leadership on the mountain. Then He was in the smoke and in the fire and at the Mercy Seat and His glory shown at the Tent of Meeting for all to see. Now He wants the people to take step back. Our sin is destroying His desire to be close to us.
"From now on the Israelites must not go near the Tent of Meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die." [Numbers 18:22]
Another sad sentence in the history of man's dealings with God. Forgive us, Lord. Thank you for drawing near when we were powerless to be worthy of your company.
My post last year on this date.
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