The story of Korah’s rebellion reveals the arrogance, ugliness, and consequence of embracing an age old enemy, pride! God had assigned a special role for Korah to fulfill, which was even more visible than most because he and his company served in the Tabernacle! Such service was limited to a few and revered by all. Without a doubt, many would have thought, “What a special job it must be to serve in the Tabernacle like Korah!” However, for Korah and his company, being special was not enough; they had to be assigned the highest position!
It is not unusual for pride to be accompanied by other comrades such as arrogance. For Korah, this certainly rang true. Imagine the gall to stand against God’s spokesman in front of all the congregation at the tent of meeting! He simply could not become more prideful or arrogant! Pride also blinds one to reality. Korah must have convinced himself that he would control Moses to get his way and God would not mind! That is not how things turned out! In fact the glory of the Lord shows up, and the ground swallows up Korah and all his company!
You can rest assured of this, though, Korah was swallowed up by pride long before he was swallowed up by the ground! Pride is always lurking about in our mind and hearts looking for a place to settle down. What is our main weapon against pride? We don’t want to end up like Korah, eaten up by pride! The answer is contentment. We must learn to be content with where God has us in life and trust that His will is best for us. We must learn to love and enjoy our lot in life, knowing that somehow we will glorify God best right where we are! Just imagine how different the story would have been if Korah had been content with Tabernacle service!
I found another curious trail to follow. This time it started with what God said in Numbers 14:22+23: "None of the men who have seen My glory and My signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed My voice shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers..." Did God mean TEN? or just MANY? So I went back and counted the rebellions.
ReplyDeleteHere they are:
Ex. 14:12 at the edge of the Red Sea
Ex. 15:24 "no water!"
Ex. 16:3 "no food!"
Ex. 16:20+27 disregard for manna instructions
Ex. 17:2 "no water!"
Ex. 32:1 golden calf fiasco
Lev. 10:1 Nadab + Abihu's presumption
Num. 11:1 complaining of misfortunes
Num. 11:4+5 "all that good food back in Egypt!"
Num. 12:1+2 Miriam + Aaron rebel
Num. 13:28-14:4 rebellion at Canaan's boundary
So I counted 11, but maybe either of the rebellions with Nadab + Abihu OR Miriam + Aaron could be counted as individuals' sins rather than Israel as a whole. Subtracting one or the other would give 10.
It is what Paul White calls a "rabbit trail", I suppose. But I would've been TICKED a lot sooner than God was, wouldn't you???
I was listing all of Israel's sins and I just now had an awful thought. Suppose someone was tabulating all of my rebellions and failures??
Jan. 14--Stinky attitude when husband added 3 errands to the list for the day
Jan. 15--
I don't want to think about that so much.