Tragedy At The Tabernacle, Korah, Dathan, And Abiram's Rebellion Series

Tragedy at the Tabernacle, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram's Rebellion

Introduction: The Bible records events of people and nations at their best—and at their worst. Numbers 16 has a story that frankly didn’t have to happen. The LORD had already said who could do what in regards to the worship activities of those days. That wasn’t enough for some of the people, though: some flat out rebelled but, as it turned out, they paid dearly for doing so.

1 The Challenge

Text, Numbers 16:1-3, KJV: 1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: 2 And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: 3 And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?

These first verses give the names of the rebels. Oddly enough, one of them, Korah, was a cousin of Aaron and Moses! Korah’s father, Izhar, was the second of Kohath’s sons while Amram, the firstborn, was father of Aaron, Moses, and their older sister Miriam (1 Chronicles 6:1-2). Now, the LORD had promised Aaron that he and his descendants, alone, would be priests to the LORD. The rest of the Kohathites had the privilege of handling the Ark of the Covenant, although they were forbidden to see it, plus other duties (Numbers 4:1-20). The sons of Merari and Gershon, Levi’s other two sons, had other duties which the LORD spelled out plainly in Numbers 4. In a word, all priests were Levites, sons of Levi, but not all Levites were priests: only Aaron and his descendants had that privilege and responsibilities.

The challenge, and I have to confess it’s not clear to me what these men were protesting, seems to be that Aaron and the other sons of Levi were “lifting themselves up above the congregation of the LORD (verse 3, paraphrased)” and that all of the congregation were holy (the word meant set apart or dedicated, etc. (see https://biblehub.com/hebrew/6918.htm). That statement was as wrong as could be, as Miriam and Aaron confronted Moses, resulting in Miriam becoming a leper, temporarily (Numbers 12); the ten spies convincing most of the nation that bondage in Egypt was better than blessings in Canaan (Num. 13-14), resulting in a 40-year detour; and a man had been put to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day (Num 15:32-36). So, the claim that all Israel was holy was, in a word, wrong!

After this, the accusers had to come up with something, I suppose, and said, “Why do you lift yourselves up above the LORD’s congregation?” This doesn’t make sense to me, as the LORD had chosen Moses and Aaron, and the sons of Aaron, plus the Levites, to perform the various acts of worship, offerings, sacrifice, and the like. Remember that under the Law, the LORD made great promises to Israel, both good and bad: blessings when they obeyed Him: but problems when they didn’t do so. Besides, they were already starting their 40-year series of wanderings for their disbelief and disobedience at Kadesh-Barnea (Numbers 13-14)!

All right, then. The rebels had thrown down their challenge, but what would happen next?

2 The Concern

Text, Numbers 16:4-6, KJV: 4 And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face: 5 And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.

-Moses’ concern for the nation

After Moses heard the words of the rebels’ challenge, he did something wise: he fell on his face. This seems to be the first time he did so even though we’re not told why at this moment. One thing was likely simmering beneath the surface, to borrow a phrase, and that was the memory Moses must have had when Israel had just recently rebelled (witness the golden calf, Exodus 32; and their “back-to-Egypt” protest in Numbers 14.This challenge must have caused Moses a great deal of concern, for them, and for the nation. Moses knew God didn’t tolerate rebellion and my hunch is that Moses was afraid of what the LORD might do to Israel.

-Moses’ concern for the rebels

Verses 4-6 have the record of how Moses showed concern for the rebels. After all, they were fellow Israelites and Korah was a cousin of Moses and Aaron, as noted. One might wonder about the Levi family get-togethers and how all the children got along (or, maybe, didn’t!). Besides, Korah was one of the sons of Kohath and they had some very special privileges when it came time to take down the tabernacle (after all, it was mostly a tent).