Advanced Level, Block 4—Wilderness
Week 39
The Rebellion of Korah
Point to Emphasize: We must realize that our actions and attitude are wrong.
Reference Reading: Numbers 16:1-32, footnotes 31, 51
Memory Verse: …God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6b)
Story Sample
Today we will cover the outcome of the rebellion of Korah. Korah, along with Dathan, Abiram, and On, took 250 leaders from among the people and assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. They were coming to tell Moses and Aaron that the two were taking too much upon themselves, thinking that they were the only ones to look after the children of Israel. They were questioning them: Why should the children of Israel only listen to them or follow only them? Didn’t they know that there were many competent ones among them who could do the same? Didn’t they know that they (Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On) should lead the people? Why did Moses and Aaron exalt themselves like that?
When they spoke in this haughty way, with such an attitude, uplifting themselves above Moses, Moses fell on his face. You see, even though Moses was appointed by God to lead His people, he did not consider this as a position of power over the others. He was humble as they spoke these words against him; he did not fight back. Rather, he realized that they were rebelling against God Himself.
When he heard this, Moses spoke to Korah and his company saying, “In the morning Jehovah will make known who is His…even the one whom He will choose…” (Numbers 16:5). The next day, Moses called Korah and his company to come. They refused to come before Moses and even accused him of taking the position to lord over them. This, of course, was not true. Moses had never demanded any payment from them as a ruler would and he had never done anything to harm them. Moses told Korah and his company, along with Aaron, to come the next day to the front of the tabernacle with their incense censer (an item used in the worship of God) to come before Jehovah.
Then Jehovah told Moses how He would handle this rebellion against Himself. Moses told the whole assembly to separate themselves from the tents of the wicked men and not to touch anything that belonged to them. As these rebellious men and all their families stood by their dwellings, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up along with everything that belonged to them. And all of the other people who were around them fled. Then fire came forth from Jehovah and consumed the rest of Korah’s company of the 250 men. This was God’s judgment on the rebellion against Himself.
Now, what would we expect the response of those who witnessed this to be? [Lead them to talk about how no one would ever question God again.] We think this should have set everyone straight! God had shown clearly how He handled rebellion. Everyone should humble and bow before Him as Moses had.
BUT on the next day, the whole assembly of the children of Israel who had witnessed God’s judgment spoke against Moses and against Aaron saying that they had caused the people to die. WOW!! It is really difficult to believe that on the very next day they all came and blamed Moses and Aaron for what had happened. They didn’t blame the rebellious ones; they blamed the ones God had chosen to lead them and to lead His worship! Doesn’t this seem OUTRAGEOUS? What an evil attitude! By doing this they were showing their rebellion. It had not just been Korah and the company with him that rebelled. Now, the whole assembly rebelled. Of course, Jehovah came in to judge this rebellion.
This story may seem so totally absurd to us. Something that could only take place in the Old Testament. It may seem far removed from us, but we really have small experiences that are like this story. Here is one such real example. There was a ten-year-old girl who for weeks loved to play video games. Once she got home from school you always knew where to find her—in front of the TV playing video games. Even when her mom called her to come to dinner she refused to come. All she wanted to do was to play more of those games. Her mom would call her, telling her that she had to come to dinner, but she would just yell, “NO” back at her mom. Once her mom got so upset at her that she hid the game console. This was her punishment for not listening to her mom and talking back to her. Inside, the girl was fuming. How dare her mom do that! She just did not know anything at all! How dare she try to stop her from playing video games! When her father returned from a business trip, he heard how she had yelled at her mom and how badly she had behaved. He lectured her and then disciplined her. Outwardly, the girl obeyed for a while, but inside she blamed her mom. This girl wouldn’t change her attitude. [Storyteller, add your own example if you have one.]
I am sure that some of us could tell the same kind of story. We just won’t admit that it is us who are at fault, that we are wrong. But we are the ones challenging authority. It is sad that we are like this. When we are disciplined, we should feel bad and realize we were wrong. BUT often, something strong rises up in us, a feeling that we are not wrong at all. We are sure that we are not to blame! No matter how bad the discipline seems, we won’t change our attitude. This is the same rebellion that we saw in our story. Don’t fool yourself. You are the one who is wrong. This outcome in the Bible should help us consider our own actions and attitude. I hope in the future that seeing this will help you to let go of that attitude when you are disciplined for being wrong.