The Sandbox Showdown
(READ Numbers 16)
THE STORY:
The question is why would these men want to rebel against Moses and Aaron, and ultimately against what God had commanded? The answer is found in their ancestry (families). Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were all acting like little kids who hadn’t been getting what they want! Have you ever seen little kids fight over who’s going to be what? They have their toys out ready to play and one grabs the spider-man figurine and the other says, “No, I wanna be spider-man….no I wanna be spider-man.” “Well….you can’t be spider-man cause this is my house and I deserve to be spider-man more than you.” Oh yeah, well…my dad bought me a web shooter that you wear on your wrist, so I’m better than you at being spider-man.” “Oh yeah, well my dad is bigger than your dad, and my daddy’s gonna beat your daddy up…YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT!” This is exactly the kind of thing that’s happening in the text of Numbers 16.
Here we have the leader of the rebellion: Korah. Korah was of the tribe of Levi. Korah was a cousin to Moses. He wasn’t a priest, but he wanted to be…and he was going to get what he wanted from cousin Moses. He wanted to be spider-man, but Aaron and his sons were already spider-men (or priests as we read). So, there’s Korah’s attitude at the outset of this story. I want to be spider-man!
Then, we have two more little kids enter the sandbox following Korah. Dathan and Abiram. These two men were what we might call famous or chosen among the tribe of Reuben (Num. 26:9). Now, how many tribes of Israel were there? 12. Who was the father? Jacob/Israel. Take a wild guess as to who was the oldest son of Jacob. Reuben. Dathan and Abiram were the descendents of Reuben. Now, as the oldest son (under the OT Law) you were entitled to most of everything. If you were the firstborn son, you had it made! You were on easy street. So…these two were the descendents of the first-born, and what do you think they thought they were entitled to? MORE than everybody else! So, here comes Korah to Dathan and Abiram. Korah says to himself, “I wanna be a priest!” Dathan and Abiram say to themselves, “We’re descendents of the first-born son of Jacob and we deserve to have more leadership and blessing than all the rest! My Daddy’s better than your daddy!”
APPLICATION:
We need to be careful that we don’t think to highly of ourselves…especially when it comes to thinking that we’re better than others. You know exactly what I’m talking about. Take me for instance….just because I’m a preacher doesn’t automatically place me in a position higher than yours in this life. That doesn’t mean that I’m better or more righteous than anyone. Just because I grew up in a Christian family doesn’t make me more deserving of blessings from God than anyone else. At school, just because someone doesn’t wear Hollister shirts or American Eagle jeans, or Abercrombie Cologne doesn’t make them less of a person than those that do. And this is a big one…just because they don’t drive as nice a vehicle as you do…doesn’t give you the right to say, “I’m better than them.” Or just because someone might not live in as nice a house as you do, doesn’t make you any better than them. If you have an athletic body and someone else has a belly, it doesn’t make you better than them. If your parents make thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars…we have nothing in this world that we can really call our own!
You and I don’t own anything…we don’t own the shirt on our backs, we don’t own the vehicles we drive, we don’t own anything…because what we’ve been blessed with…has been given to us by God. And the sooner we realize that the things we see with our eyes will not last….and the things we don’t see will last forever…the sooner we’ll remove all our presupposed ideas about if you have this you’re better than everybody else or if you wear this or drive this. That’s what little kids do when they fight over spider-man figurines.
Meanwhile…back in the camp of Israel…the sandbox showdown is getting ready to go! Korah (who wants to be a priest), and Dathan and Abiram (who think that they deserve more because their daddy is better) get more followers. How many more? 250 more. But these weren’t just ordinary men out of the congregation….oh no…you couldn’t go against Moses and Aaron with the ordinary Joe Schmos of Israel. So, who did they get? They got famous people! They got what we would call the Movie Stars, the Senators and governors, the CEO’s, the famous people. People with power! People who the rest of Israel respected.
So, we have the cliques forming, and you can see this in your mind. Think of it in high school terms. You have all the cool people that think they’re better than everybody else, and they deserve more. They get together a clique of 250 of their famous, luxurious, powerful friends. So, there’s one side…and you can compare this group of 250+ people to those that think everyone should bow down to them and say how great they are. You don’t know any people like that at school do you? NOOOOO. Clique one: Korah, Dathan, Abiram and their 250 famous friends.
Group #2: Standing up for the truth and the right…standing alone amidst the crowd are Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons. This group is made up of the people that want to follow the rules and do what’s right. They look to the word of God for their guidance. They stick out from the crowd because they don’t follow the famous people…they don’t look at what people wear or how popular they might be. They look to God for acceptance and not to man. Clique 1 and Clique 2.
Now, let’s look at what Clique 1 decides to do? They marched right up to Moses and Aaron and said, “You have been spider-man long enough! You’re not any better than anybody else! Why do you exalt yourselves above all the rest of us?” Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were acting like little kids. “I didn’t get what I want! Now, I’ve come to take it!”
So, what better way to decide than a Divine duel…a showdown between those that think that they deserve more (Korah, Dathan, and Abiram) and the one whom the Lord had chosen to have it (Aaron, the high priest). Moses said, “Ok, you think you deserve to be priests, you wanna be spider-man…we’ll let the Lord decide! OOOOOO! The tension’s getting thick! It’s kind of like when the cool, football quarterback, Alpha male of the high school group is challenged by another. Are they gonna fight? Is there gonna be a fight. And you can only imagine the tension in the camp of Israel, “Is there gonna be a fight!?”
Well, Moses says: The Lord will ultimately decide all of our fates. Here’s what’s going to happen: You bring censers filled with incense. You light that incense with fire and whoever is left standing by God will be the holy one.” OOOOOOO! A showdown. It’s like a gunfight, only without the guns, and they really didn’t fight…ok…it’s not like a gunfight, but the tension was there nonetheless.
Moses looks at Korah and the crowd that’s gathered against him and says, “You should be grateful for the work that God has given you to do! You get to work in the tabernacle itself…your tribe gets to minister to the rest of Israel as servants that prepare sacrifices! You have a great job and responsibility right now!”
“BUT I WANT TO BE SPIDER-MAN! I WANNA BE SPIDER-MAN! Aaron gets to be spider-man all the time! Aaron’s sons get to be spider-man all the time. They get to serve as priests and get all the recognition…all the glory! I want that glory too! It’s not fair!” So, Moses says, “OK, just come tomorrow and offer your incense, and the Lord will decide!” The sandbox showdown comes to a head.
APPLICATION:
How many of us are content with what we have in this life? Paul said, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am in…therewith to be content.” (Phi. 4:11). Wow. You mean if you had to drive a hooptie lookin car to school…you’d be content? If you didn’t have an XBOX 360 or a Wii you could live with that? You mean to say that if your whole family died, and all your friends abandoned you…you would be content? That’s what Paul said, “I know both how to be live in humility and in prosperity…” Most of us will never get to that point…most of us will never mature to that great of a faith. I have not gotten to that point. And if you say you have gotten to that point that you are content, then there is nothing else you want in this life, but to leave it for the next one. I don’t know about you, but I’m still working on that one.
I know that I’m not as content as I should be because there is always something else that I want that Kacie tells me I can’t have. I want to slam my truck to the ground…I want to put a flip-up DVD player in the dash…I want a new system in there…I’d love to have my brother-in-law’s engine in there. There is always something else, but the difference is that I would never let that desire come between me and God…and I hope I never get to the point where I think about those things more than I think about God. And the difference between me and what Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were doing is that they would do anything…ANYTHING to get what they want, and what they thought they deserved. They knew what God has said…they knew they couldn’t be priests…they knew that Moses was THE chosen leader, but (listen) what God had said was not good enough for them. They were going to change God’s Laws…and in doing so…they release God’s wrath.
Back to the story…the showdown is about to begin between Korah, Dathan, and Abiram------- and Moses and Aaron. And here it goes! The 250 followers of Korah (the famous ones, along with Dathan and Abiram) come to the tent of meeting and set their incense on fire before the Lord. Aaron and his sons set their incense on fire before the Lord. Well, that wasn’t so bad. But then, the glory of the Lord appears to all the congregation. And the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron telling them to separate themselves from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Uh-oh, this can’t be good.
Some time passes and Moses goes to the tents of these men (almost in a last ditch effort to get them to repent). Moses explains, “I am not leading these people because I want glory…I do this because the Lord has sent me to do so. And here’s a little demonstration that this is the truth. You have offered fire upon an altar that you have not been chosen to burn upon. You and your friends have transgressed the Law of God. If you die a normal death…if you just fall over dead, then I will gladly say that the Lord has not sent me to be a leader over Israel. BUT…BUT…if you die in some way never seen before….if the ground below you opens up its mouth and swallows up everything you own and brings you down to Sheol (the grave)…then you all will know who really deserves to be spider-man. You will all know who is chosen of the Lord to lead the people and to offer sacrifices.”
And as soon as Moses spoke those words…the ground underneath Korah, Dathan, Abiram split apart…the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up! They went down alive into the grave and the earth closed over them. ALL ISREAL AROUND THEM FLEES because of their painful shrieks and cries. The 250 famous people, the Movie Stars of Israel, the Senators and the CEO’s that offered incense on their censers…were consumed by fire which came out from the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t done with these people yet…the Lord wanted the fire that consumed these men to be kept going…the Lord wanted the blasphemous golden censers to be hammered into plates or sheets to cover the altar of sacrifice, so that everyone will remember that if you did not come from Aaron…you do not offer incense to God.
Whew! I’m glad that’s over! I’m glad that Israel learned their lesson. I’m glad they finally realize that Moses has been chosen by God to lead Israel, and that Aaron and his sons were to be the priests. I’m glad they learned. NOT EXACTLY! You see, after sleeping on it…the next day the congregation of Israel grumbled and murmured against Moses and Aaron. They concluded that it was their fault that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and the 250 famous people had died! They came to Moses and Aaron and said, “YOU HAVE KILLED THE PEOPLE OF THE LORD!” Are you kidding me?! They even assembled together against Moses and Aaron. It was Moses and Aaron versus the whole of Israel. Imagine, being Moses and Aaron surrounded by thousands of angry, murmuring, people. AND THEN THE LORD SHOWS UP.
APPLICATION:
God is always watching! He sees how we react to situations. If you’re the only one that isn’t doing something, don’t think that this is a bad thing. God watches us…He sees what we choose to do, and He sees when we fall into sin. He sees if we need help, and in His time he brings it. He is a very present help in time of trouble. He knows when you need to be rescued…he knows how much fire to give you to purify your faith. And if you come to a point in life where you don’t think that you can take anymore…guess what? There is no temptation that is above that which you are able to bear (I Co. 10:13). There is no trap that Satan may lay that doesn’t have a way of escape. The Lord is watching you…take comfort in that. He knows just what you need.
Meanwhile…here we have Moses and Aaron surrounded by an angry mob of Israelites, but then the Lord shows up and says, “You know…seeing that the whole family of Israel is here, and that the whole congregation of my people are assembling against the two men I have chosen to be leader and high priest…why don’t I just destroy all of you with a plague!” God tells Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the rest of the people, so that Jehovah can consume them in an instant! And if I were Moses and Aaron I would be going, “OK, go right ahead!” And that’s what most people would have done…if some group of people has done something to us…if someone has wronged us and offended us…we scream for justice! We want vengeance! We want them to be punished! And that’s exactly what God was doing! But Moses and Aaron had compassion (and that’s a hard thing to have when people are murmuring against you..
Moses told Aaron to take the censer…lay fire on it from the altar…put incense in the fire and run through the congregation so that atonement can be made for their sins. WHY? Why would Moses tell Aaron to do this? Why would Moses want Aaron to offer an incense of atonement? Because as Moses spoke…a plague of death was being sent through the camp of Israel. Aaron, ran and got the censer of fire, put incense in that fire and, no doubt, ran as hard as he could…but it was like trying to outrun a wave of death that swept through thousands that made up the Israelite camp. He ran with that censer as he saw people drop dead left and right from the plague God had unleashed on His disobedient, murmuring people. And as Aaron finally came in front of that wave…with the burning incense in hand….he stood between 14,700 dead people…and the rest of the living.
APPLICATION:
Aaron in this story is a type of Jesus Christ. There is a plague of sin in this world that causes souls to die every day. The only way that plague can be cured is by Christ and His blood. The cross of Christ is the dividing point between the dead and the living. Christ is the dividing line between eternal life and eternal destruction. In order to have life…we must be in Christ…we must be on the Lord’s side. In order to be shielded from the wrath of God…we must be covered by Christ’s blood. And I hope that each of you here has made the decision to be covered with Christ’s blood in baptism…because Christ’s blood is the only thing that can save us.