Numbers 16 April 25, 1999   
On Shaky Ground with God

How could they have gone unnoticed? Why did no one recognize the problem that was brewing? In the days following the massacre at Columbine High School the question of “why” is asked continually.  Less than three months before their carefully planned attack on classmates, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were impressing a juvenile-court officer as bright young men with “a great deal of potential.'' He wasn't the only one fooled: Neighbors and friends say they were reassured by the teens' middle-class backgrounds and quiet, “utterly normal'' family lives. Klebold and Harris were caught breaking into a van last year and entered a juvenile-court diversion program allowing them to clear their records. They finished the program in February, with flying colors. 

“Eric is a very bright young man who is likely to succeed in life. He is intelligent enough to achieve lofty goals as long as he stays on task and remains motivated,'' a diversion officer wrote in Jefferson County District Court documents released Thursday. Of Klebold, the officer wrote: “Dylan has earned the right for an early termination. He is intelligent enough to make any dream a reality but he needs to understand hard work is part of it.'' Can you imagine what that officer is going through now?

Can you spot a rebel? Can you identify that person who might lash out against another? We imagine the rebel is easy to spot by the externals of his rebellion. His clothes break social convention, the music is grating to the status quo, interests teeter on the bizarre. Unfortunately, the past five days have been an effort in explaining sin in simple terms which go no further than black trench coats and video games, guns and the Internet. We think it should be easy to pick the rebellious teen out of the crowd, that such monstrous behavior can be handled apart from a biblical framework.

We want to make what happened at Columbine High School a neat package so that we don’t have to go any deeper than the act of murder to the heart issues of our culture. We don’t want to examine our own hearts. 

As a nation we have embraced the culture of death, as we have legalized the murder of the pre-born. We wonder why young people can cold-heartedly murder their classmates all the while we murdered a quarter of their generation in the womb. We scratch our heads at the senseless slayings but still celebrate the brutality on the videos we rent, as we celebrated the power that comes out of the barrel of a gun, as we enshrine celebrities those who use brute force to achieve their ends on the screen.

The reason we have such trouble sorting out these details is that rebellion is not something that just happens in other people. Rebellion is not about those who step outside the status quo of society, but rebellion takes place whenever we imagine that we can live independently of God and His authority. Rebellion is not measured by societal norms, but by what God determines is true. With that definition, we will easily see that each one of us rebels against God in so many ways. 

1.  Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites--Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth--became insolent 

 2.  and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. 

 3.  They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?" 

 4.  When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. 

 5.  Then he said to Korah and all his followers: "In the morning the LORD will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him. 

 6.  You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers 

 7.  and tomorrow put fire and incense in them before the LORD. The man the LORD chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!" 

 

 23.  Then the LORD said to Moses, 

 24.  "Say to the assembly, `Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.'" 

 25.  Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. 

 26.  He warned the assembly, "Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins." 

 27.  So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents. 

 28.  Then Moses said, "This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: 

 29.  If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. 

 30.  But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave,  then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt." 

 31.  As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 

 32.  and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. 

 33.  They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. 

OUR REBELLION DEMANDS GOD’S RESPONSE - Verses 1-11

Once again we meet a bunch of complainers. We can easily begin to wonder if this book of the Bible is called Numbers since it counts the numerous times God’s people complain and rebel. But with each rebellion we see a different facet of our own desire to be free from God and control our own destiny. 

As we saw last week, those rejecting God are not the outsiders of Israel, but the consummate insiders. In Numbers 13-14 it was the ten spies who were among the elite of Israel who stirred up the people to refuse to enter the Promised Land. Now it is Korah the Levite and the Reubenites: Dathan and Abiram. 

Why is Korah so mad? We don’t know the exact reason but it may be that Korah, a cousin to Moses and Aaron, is not particularly happy with his lot in the service of God. Aaron and his descendants get to be the High Priests, but Korah’s family only gets to be manual laborers for the articles of the tabernacle. 

Dathan and Abiram likewise have their noses out of joint. Their complaints may be due to their loss of primogeniture. Reuben was the eldest of Jacob’s children, yet of the twelve tribes Levi seems favored at this time. Their discontented attitude may have been fueled by Korah and his people, since their tents were placed near each other on the south side of the tabernacle.  

In addition to these three, there were 250 others who also began to raise a stink about the order of life in the desert. These rebels are described as well known, community leaders, those appointed to the inner circle. There are not slouches, slackers, or upstarts. These rebels are leaders.
 
What seems to be the problem?

Verse 3 - “Moses, you’re taking yourself far too seriously! You’ve over-estimated your importance!” On what basis can they make this accusation? Korah and the others offer sound evidence that Moses is not the authority he thinks he is: “The whole community is holy, every one of them! Enough with this hierarchy of Aaron as High Priest, enough with only you being able to tell us what pleases God and what does not.” 

How can they say that? Look over in Numbers 15:37ff. Jewish men were to wear tassels on their garments which reminded them of God’s Law. Their presence symbolized that God placed His Law with them and that they were consecrated or holy before God. This was not just for Aaron and his family but for everyone. God is just as present with the least member of Israel as He is with Moses. 

Korah, the consummate heretic, affirms this truth to the exclusion of the other, the divine appointment of Aaron and Moses. It is not so much what he says is false, but what he excludes. That they were called to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, does not diminish the offices God also instituted. Korah concludes that he has grounds for his next question (which is rhetorical): “now why do you exalt yourselves over the congregation of Israel?”

Moses lays out a simple test. If Korah is correct that since everyone is holy, since everyone is equally elect by God, then all should have immediate access to God. No need of a mediator. 

Moses is willing that all the Lord’s people should be priests, if God is so pleased. Back in chapter 11 God showed that He could make anyone a prophet, that God could send His spirit on people other than Moses. But the means by which that truth would be determined is dangerous. 

Those who felt they were holy should take their censers, the receptacles for the coals from the altar which were to be taken into the Holy Place and put on the Altar of Incense. If they think they have what it takes to be priests, then go, perform the highest function of the office - that of offering incense. This action should’ve caused them to have second thoughts.  Some time before, two of Aaron’s sons, who were qualified to offer incense, did so improperly and they were struck dead. (Leviticus 10)

At first glance Korah’s challenge finds great resonance within a democratic culture such as ours. 

This plebeian concept of universal and equal authority has infiltrated into our churches as well. The rebellion against God comes in the subtle guise of holiness, of spirituality. But it comes on one’s own terms. This is rebellion based on the assumption that everyone is right, that I set the standards and have to answer only to myself. The essence of rebellion is an individualism that rejects authority. 

According to sociologist Robert Bellah, 81% of the American people say "an individual should arrive at his or her own religious belief independent of any church or synagogue." Thus the key to the paradox is the fact that those who claim to be Christians are arriving at faith on their own terms -- terms that make no demands on behavior. A woman named Sheila, interviewed for Bellah's Habits of the Heart, embodies this attitude. "I believe in God," she said. "I can't remember the last time I went to church. But my faith has carried me a long way. It's 'Sheila-ism.' Just my own little voice."

In their famous studies of American attitudes, James Patterson and Peter Kim published the hard facts about Americans in their book The Day America Told the Truth: What People Really Believe about Everything That Matters. According to their research, Americans “stand alone in a way unknown to any previous generation.” What sets us apart is the absence of any objective moral compass. “The religious figures and Scriptures that gave us rules for so many centuries, the political system which gave us laws, all have lost their meaning in our moral imagination.”(27)  

“While a great majority of Americans believe they actually keep the Ten Commandments, only 13% think that each of these commandments has moral validity. It is no surprise to learn that 74% say that they will steal without compunction; 64% say that they will lie if there is an advantage to be had in doing so; 53% say they, given a chance, they will commit adultery; 41% say that they intend to use recreational drugs; and 30% say that they will cheat on their taxes. What may be the clearest indicator of the disappearance of the moral texture to society is the loss of guilt and embarrassment over moral lapses. While 86% admit to lying regularly to their parents, 75% to a friend, 73% to a sibling, and 73% to a lover, only 11% cited lying as having produced a serious level of guilt or embarrassment. While 74% will steal without compunction, only 9% register any moral disquiet. While pornography has blossomed into a 4 billion dollar industry that accounts for a quarter of all the videos rented in shops, seen in the thriving hotel business or on cable, only 2% experience guilt about watching. And, not surprisingly, at the center of this slide into license and moral relativism is the disappearance of God. Only 17% define sin as a violation of God’s will.” (Losing our Virtue, David Wells, 59)

This egocentric morality which has replaced a theocentric ethic is what Robert Bellah calls “expressive individualism” (Habits of the Heart, p142). This form of individualism “assumes that all people have a unique core of intuitions and feelings within them that is then coupled with the understanding that they have the inherent right to pursue and express these intuitions and feelings.” (Wells, 66)  This expressive individualism is “driven by a deep sense of entitlement to being left alone, to live in a way that is emancipated from the demands and expectations of others, to being able to fashion its own life in the way it wants to, to being able to develop its own values and beliefs in its own way, to resist all authority. To be free in these ways, many have come to think, is indispensable to being a true individual.” (Wells, 67)

This is where we rebel most clearly and yet all the while we cloak our insurrection with middle class values and cultural Christianity. Like Korah we may want the pretense of community, but we’ll have none of its responsibility. We have a deep sense of entitlement to be left alone, of creating God in our image, but God is way out of line if He ever calls me to obedience.  

How do I rebel like Korah?  Whenever I demand that my holiness should count for something. Whenever I think that I possess within myself what is necessary for life, as opposed to what God gives. We rebel like Korah whenever we are:

Overly confident about our ability

This happens when we reduce the Christian life to manageable proportions; we have stripped it of its life and have substituted a false religion for a living relationship with Jesus Christ. Christianity is reduced to morality instead of faith. Whenever we do this we will cover our sin with a veneer of piety and never expose ourselves for the sinners we really are.  How far can you go in your Christian life without Christ as mediator?

Overly naïve about our depravity

When we think we have something to offer to God to make His Kingdom better rather than living a life of trust in Him working through us, we succumb to good intentions and constant resolutions to do better. But we do not take into account our fallenness which pollutes the process.  When we underestimate the depravity of our hearts, minds and motives, we propose solutions that are inadequate as we come up with fleshly answers to problems that have spiritual roots. 

GOD’S RESPONSE TO OUR REBELLION

God’s response to rebellion is horrific. In our passage the people are called to distance themselves from those who think they possess sufficient goodness in  themselves, apart from God’s decree, to come before Him. As the people move back from Korah, Dathan and Abiram, Moses explains that what is about to take place only serves to prove that it is God’s authority which they question. Rebellion against what God has ordained, whether it be in His Word or His appointed leaders, is offensive. 

Korah and his crowd are given a final opportunity of grace. As the people pull back and they stand like targets for God’s wrath, instead of falling down and humbling themselves before God, admitting their crime and begging pardon, they stood brazenly. All the while affirming their holiness before God, declaring their own ability, they were in fact shaking their fists at God. 

Just as their mouths were like open graves, so the ground opens up and swallows them whole. Just as they sought to tear the people in two with their pseudo-pious holiness and usefulness to God, so the ground beneath their feet was ripped wide to engulf them to the pit while they were still alive. 

We might be tempted to shrink from such a story thinking, “what a harsh and terrible thing to have happened.”
This is a favorite pastime for those who seek to belittle the Old Testament and say that the Old Testament God is not the Christian God, but rather a bloodthirsty Jewish Deity, and that Jesus came to correct such false notions about Him. But one has only to look at the account given in Acts 5 of the judgment on Ananias an Sapphira by the holy God of the early church to realize how wrong our superficial interpretation is. The rebel who thinks that they may serve God on their terms, who may be satisfied with superficial spirituality mocks God’s demands for perfection. The hypocrite claims holiness he does not possess; the believer claims sin he knows he possess, but trusts God’s provision for that sin. The rebel is reclaimed only when he owns his rebellion for what it is and places his trust in the One who suffered the penalty for that sedition. 

We find this critique offensive because it cuts us to the heart. C.S. Lewis said: “A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world -- and might even be more difficult to save.” 

We don’t mind the earth swallowing up truly evil people. We may not object to the idea of eternal punishment to those who show themselves beyond help. But not to a person like me!

For this reason, we find this story frightening. You and I stand on very shaky ground if we attempt to promote ourselves as those who can muster up sufficient goodness to stand before God, that we have no need of a mediator. Korah and the other leaders looked at Aaron and thought whatever he had to offer was meaningless. Likewise, we can pleasantly tip our hat to the work of Christ, His perfect life lived for His people, to be imputed to the elect and think, that is sweet, but am I not holy? Am I not God’s child? The rebellion of an unbelieving heart, of a person who thinks they are good enough for God, is a dangerous place to be. 

The Christian life is that which constantly confesses that we seek to be independent of God. To be a Christian is to know we rebel - but what is more, that God has broken our rebelliousness by sending His own Son who refused to rebel, who submitted to the Father’s authority, who prayed: “Not my will, but your will be done.” 

While Korah’s life ended there, still rebellious as the final grain of sand covered his head, God’s grace doesn’t end. While it was indeed too late for Korah, a powerful lesson was learned by his family that day, for not all his kith and kin followed along. 

This family name which is synonymous with rebellion and self-righteousness appears again in 1 Chronicles 6. While the names of the Levites who served God in the temple are listed, there is a list whose job was to sing and make music in the temple. Among the musicians was Heman whose lineage is traced back to Korah. We have some of his music in the Psalms, but unlike David or Asaph, he does not record his name, but that of an ancient relative as he and his family refer to themselves as the Sons of Korah.  It would be as if you were hired by the President and you proudly displayed your heritage by calling yourself a son of Benedict Arnold. 

But in Psalm 84 and 85 we see what a God of grace does to one who knows the skeletons in the closet are not hidden, but reveal one’s own sin and God’s perfect grace.

In Psalm 84:10, the sons of Korah remind us all that they would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. Their ancestor was not satisfied with the job of serving God in the tabernacle and so chose rebellion, but they know that even the lowliest job done for the honor of the great God is worth it. Why?

Psalm 85 tells us more. Verses 2-3: “You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. You set aside all your wrath and turned from your fierce anger.” They know the answer to the questions they ask in verses 5-6: "Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?" God will show His unfailing love to His people. Why? (verse 10ff) “Love and faithfulness will meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”

God forgives and gives righteousness to rebels like us. While our rebellion may be within the social boundaries or our age, while we may mutiny and no one will know it - God does. What He asks of you and me is to see ourselves as the rebels we are, to confess our sinfulness and trust that Christ’s death is sufficient for us. Don’t make the fatal mistake of Korah. Don’t brush aside God’s grace and the means He has given for you to know Him, thinking your way to God is as good as any. Don’t think you can gain access to God apart from His chosen means: through Christ's work for His people on the Cross, His death instead of yours, his life instead of yours. Then you will be able to sing with all the sons of Korah the truth that God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.