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Korah Leads a Rebellion
251
from among the assembly.” The people ran away, self-condemned
as those who had taken part in the sin.
But the judgments were not ended. Fire flashing from the cloud
consumed the two hundred fifty princes who had offered incense.
These men had not been destroyed with the chief rebellion planners.
They were allowed to see their end and to have an opportunity to
repent, but their sympathies were with the rebels, and they shared
their fate.
The entire congregation shared in their guilt, for to a greater or
lesser degree, all had sympathized with them. Yet the people who
had permitted themselves to be deceived were still given time to
repent.
Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, was working to
save them from destruction. The judgment of God had come very
near and appealed to them to repent. Now, if they would respond
to God’s leading, they could be saved. But their rebellion was
not cured—that night they returned to their tents terrified, but not
repentant.
Korah had flattered them until they really believed themselves
to be a very good people, wronged and abused by Moses. They had
foolishly cherished the hope that a new order of things was about
to be established in which there would be praise instead of reproof,
and no troubles instead of worry and trials. The men who had died
had spoken flattering words and promised great interest and love
for them, and the people decided that somehow Moses had been the
cause of their destruction.
The Israelites had proposed putting both Moses and Aaron to
death, yet they did not spend that night of probation in repentance
and confession, but in planning some way to resist the evidence that
showed them to be the greatest of sinners. They still cherished hatred
of the men God had appointed, and braced themselves to resist their
authority.
“On the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel
complained against Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘You have killed the
people of the Lord.’” And they were about to move violently against
their faithful, self-sacrificing leaders.