Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Number 16 is where we're at, and let me just pray over us real quick. Lord, thank
you so much for being good to us. Thank you for your word. Thank you in the midst
of hardship, in the midst of the trials that life brings, in the midst of
everything that's going on in our own society, but also just in our own personal
lives. You meet us even in a chapter in the Old Testament that can sometimes be
overlooked. We just pray that your spirit would lead us tonight to a place of
repentance, a place of knowing you more, loving you more, and seeing your
Son Jesus here tonight. So just thank you in Jesus' name, amen.
Alright, so I'm gonna start by just reading, because it's kind of a long
chapter. We're in chapter 16 of Numbers, if you miss that. It's kind of a long
chapter, but there's so much, there's so much gospel in here. It's funny, two
weeks ago is whenever I was asked to teach tonight, and I was looking at the
chapter and I was just like, alright, Lord, what do I do with this? Because it's just kind of like, if
you've already read the chapter ahead of time, you kind of already know, like it's
just this wacky story that happens, and for like four days I was preparing and
just praying and like, Lord, I don't know what to teach here. I don't know how do
we apply this to our current lives, because it's just a dishonor to the
Word, if we're just reading it as history instead of application as well. It's both.
And so, just last week though, the Lord just revealed so many things, and so he was
just so good in just giving me fresh eyes for this, and I say that because
chapter 16 is just, it's the gospel of Jesus. That's what it is. And not just
the joy in salvation, but the sorrow in rebellion. So we're gonna start reading
in verse 1. Now Korah, the son of Ishar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and
Ibaram, the son of Eliab, and on the son of Palath, the son of Reuben, took men,
and they rose up before Moses with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs
of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. They assembled
themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You have
gone too far, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the
Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the
Lord? So Korah is the leader of this rebellious group that's coming up
against Moses, the appointed leader of Israel, pointed not by man, not by himself,
but by God. And in fact, Moses wanted nothing to do with his position. We look
way back in the previous books, and we actually see God saying, Moses, I want
you to go and lead the people. And Moses is saying, please send somebody else. And
yet here he is being accused of taking the authority for himself, trying to take
power and influence and the might of this role that he has as the people's
leader. And he says, every one of us is holy. Why are you being self-righteous,
Moses? We're all on the same playing field. Why are you putting yourself in
this role above us? And the first note there is just to recognize that pride,
because it's going to be obvious, I'll just put it plainly, it's going to be so
obvious what the motives are of Korah and these men. It's not because they
think that Moses is doing a poor job, it's not because they think that they're
better men than Moses, it's not because they see any fault in Moses, it's because
they want power, they want authority, and they're filled with pride and selfish
ambition. And so they're accusing him of taking power instead of being in
submission to the Lord. And notice that 250 chiefs of the congregation in verse
2, 250 chiefs of the congregation chosen from the assembly, well-known men, followed
along. Another application point for us right there, if you're not rooted in the
Lord, if you're not rooted in his will and his design, in here it's a design
of hierarchy and authority, if you're not rooted in submission and obedience to
the Lord, even if you are well-established, even if you are well-liked
and appointed by men, it is easy to be misled by wicked people. And so are we
following after voices of man or are we following after the voice of the Lord?
Because right here, 250 well-known, established, appointed people from the
people chose to follow after the voice of a man, not after the voice of the Lord,
not to live in submission and obedience to the Lord. And I just want to really
quick just not back up to the last chapter but just summarize in slight of
where we're at is they were all of this Old Testament of Exodus and
Numbers is all leading the people out of Egypt to a promised land and in the
last few chapters, if you've been here, you saw that they were denied that promised
land, not because God is just punishing them for the sake of punishing them but
because they chose to rebel and live in fear and walk in fear, not encourage and
obedience to the Lord. Even though Caleb and Joshua said, look, there are giants
in the land that God promised, but God, but God is greater, but God is bigger
than any giant. And so because of their rebellious hearts and because of their
their complaining spirits, the Lord had to discipline them. Enough was enough. And
so now we are in this position where Korah's promised land is gone. The joy
and the pleasures of the hope of the future are gone. And so he says, I'm gonna
take what I have then, which I can at least get power and authority here with
this people. And so that's where he ends up. And these other men are deceived by
him. And then where did we stop there? In verse three, they have assembled. Oh, I'm
sorry. Verse four, when Moses heard it, he fell on his face. Notice that Korah is
accusing him of pride and selfishness, yet the first response he has is humility.
He literally falls on his face. And it's not because he's falling on his face
before these men, but he's falling on his face before God Almighty and asking for
intercession. He's asking for the Lord to intercede and do something here
because he can see the wickedness in the hearts of these men. And so it says
that Moses fell to his face, and he said to Korah and all in his company. In the
morning, the Lord will show who is his and who is holy and will bring him near
to him. The one whom he chooses, he will bring near to him. Do this. Take censors,
Korah and all his company, put fire in them and put incense on them before the
Lord tomorrow. And the man who the Lord chooses shall be the Holy One. You have
gone too far, sons of Levi. And Moses said to Korah, here now you sons of Levi. Is it
too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the
congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself to do service in the
tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to
them, and that he has brought you near him and all your brothers, the sons of Levi,
with you? And would you seek the priesthood also? Therefore it is against
the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is Aaron
that you grumble against him? Just a context to who Korah is and who these
men are. They're in the Levitical family, which means their
position in the congregation of the people of Israel was to take care of and
to carry the holy sacraments of the Lord. So their job was to carry the Ark of the
Covenant, their job was to carry the golden lampstands, everything that was in
the holy place. It was their job to go into the presence of the Lord and carry
these things every time the Lord was having them move their camp. And Moses is
rebuking them right in this moment because he can see that their heart is
a heart of pride, not a heart of desire for the goodness of the people. And he's
seeing that isn't it enough for you to actually get to be in the presence of
the Lord and carry his holy things. You're ministering to his people already
by being in that place. God chose you for something and now you're seeing somebody
else's calling and going after that instead. It is so easy to be discontent
with the calling that God has for our life and look at somebody else's grass
and say the grass is greener over there, I want that ministry, I want that calling
in my life. When God is telling you if your grass isn't green, start watering it
with the Holy Spirit and with the Word of God, right? Because wherever God has
called us to is the best place for us. It will have the best life outcome for
us if we stay in the calling that God has for us instead of chasing after the
calling that God gave somebody else. And here they are chasing after the calling
of Aaron. Aaron was the, we could say, the most important person in Israel
right now. He was the high priest. It was his job to intercede on behalf of
the people. It was his job to go and be with the Lord in his presence in the
holy of holy places. And Korah didn't see that as a place of humility, but he saw
it as a place of power and authority and he wanted that. And so he's being
rebuked. Isn't what you have good enough? Now you want to steal somebody else's
calling? I also just want to point out the test that Moses declared. Let's do
this test. If you really think that everyone here is set apart for this, if
we're all on the same playing field, if God didn't call me, but instead we can
all just take this position of holiness, this position of being the high priest,
then let's do this test. Let's take this incense. Let's go stand before the Lord
God Almighty and let him tell us, I chose you. When you're walking in the calling
God has for you, when you're walking in confidence that you're being obedient
and humble to the Lord, you can say, let's go stand in his presence and
find out because you're confident that you're being obedient. You're confident
that you're living a life of humility, not pride. And that's just the picture of
Moses here is a life of humility. I just don't want to miss that. The picture of
Moses here is a life of humility. Every single time something happens and it's
not just in this chapter, it's in almost every chapter before. When God
speaks, Moses doesn't stand up. He falls to his face and they didn't have clean
carpets. They had dirt floors. So he's willing to go before the Lord and say,
Lord, you tell us who is holy because he can see the deceit and the pride in the
heart of Korah and he knows the obedience and humility in his own. They
wanted to be lifted up, but the only way to be lifted up is through humility. In
1 Peter chapter 5 verse 6 it says, humble yourself therefore before the
mighty hand of God and at the proper time he, God, will exalt you. If you want
to live a life of exaltation and to be exalted is to have your name praised. So
if you want your name praised by God, you don't go and achieve it. You don't go in
and do amazing things and preach amazing sermons and make sure that you got the
most people saved. You humble yourself before the mighty hand of God. We see
the same thing in James chapter 4 verse 10. Humble yourself before God and he
will exalt you. He will lift you up. Korah and his group of men wanted the
exaltation without the life of repentant humility. But it doesn't work that way.
You can't get the exaltation if you're not humbling yourself before the Lord.
And verse 12 will continue, Moses sent to call Dathan and Biberam the sons of
Heliab and they said, we will not come up. Is it a small thing that you have brought
us up out of the land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness?
That you must also make yourself a prince over us? Moreover, you have not brought
us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of the
field and vineyards? Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.
First, I just want to note that last, will you put out the eyes of these men is such
a confusing sentence. I read that and I was like, what are you talking about?
I don't typically read from the message Bible but it really has, it just explains
it and it just says, we're not blind. We can see the mess that we're in. Do you
really think that we're blind and we can't see that the promised land that you
took us out of slavery to go to isn't here? You see, they're walking in the
sin as quite literally as old as time, as old as the garden. We're here because
of you, not because of me. It's your fault. They're unwilling to repent. This is
something that just marks the people of Israel, a non-repentive heart. God, time
and time again, showed them mercy upon mercy upon mercy. It says in his
book, and in the past, they would sin, Moses would be humble and repent for them,
and it actually says in a chapter in Exodus that the Lord turned his wrath
away from them because of Moses pleading. But at some point, at some point in life,
it doesn't matter if the pastor, it doesn't matter if the person leading you
is repentant or not. If you are not living a life of repentance, there has to be
judgment. There has to be discipline and punishment, and that's where we've come to
where God said, Moses, you're doing great, you're being humble, but I have to
punish them because they are continuing to walk in pride and not humility.
They're continuing to turn from me, not to me. They're continuing to not repent.
I can't keep allowing this. And here, again, it's just so evident what their
heart motive is, is they don't want to repent, even here. What if they did?
What if instead of rebelling, instead of pointing all the blame at their leader,
what if the entire congregation of Israel said, Lord, we should not have complained?
That was wrong. We should not have been in fear when you told us, take courage.
I would like to believe that the Lord would have had mercy because he did in
every single book of the Bible leading up to this, and he does in every single
book of the Bible pass this.
But unfortunately, they did not choose repentance still. Verse 16, and Moses
said to Korah, be present. So this is now the next day, the day of the test.
Moses said to Korah, be present you and all your company before the Lord, you
and Aaron tomorrow, and let every one of you take a sensor and put incense on
it. And every one of you bring before the Lord his sensor, 250 sensors, you
also and Aaron, each of his sensors. So every man took a sensor and put fire in
them and laid incense on them and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting
with Moses and Aaron. Then Korah assembled all the congregation against them at
the entrance.
Do you notice that when humble people rebuke, they do it in private one on one.
But when people that want others to see how great they are, they make a loud
show. They bring out an audience. Watch this. Look how cool I am. Look how
authoritative I am. Look, I've got 250 of your most prized leaders all
watching me on my side. Everyone come watch this.
And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, separate yourself from among
this congregation that I may consume them in a moment.
And they fell on their faces. Surprise, surprise. We see Moses's response
once again.
They fell on their faces. Oh God, the God of the spirit of all flesh shall
one man's sin and will you be angry with all the people? And the Lord spoke
to Moses saying, say to the people, get away from the dwelling of Korah,
Dathan and Ibaram.
Notice how gracious Moses is to the sin of one man, even though 250 other
men are sinning right along with him.
Then Moses rose up, went to Dathan and Ibaram and the elders of Israel followed
him. And he spoke to the congregation saying, depart please from the tents
of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with
all their sins. So they got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan and
Ibaram and Dathan and Ibaram came out and stood at the door of their tents
together with their wives, their sons and their little ones. And Moses said,
hereby, you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things.
If these men die as all men die, meaning if they die of old age, they die of
disease, they die just like any of us would die, then this wasn't the
Lord. This was just me. But if the Lord creates something new and the ground
opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them and they go
down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the
Lord. Just want to highlight that, despise the Lord. We'll come back to
that. As soon as he had finished speaking, the ground under them split
apart. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them in it with their
households, all the people who belong to Korah and all their goods. So they and
all the people that belong to them went down alive into Sheol and the earth
closed over them and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And all who
were around them fled at their cry for they said, lest the earth swallow us
also. And fire came out from the Lord and consumed 250 men offering the incense.
There's a lot of application in here. The first thing to note
is just to look at the mercy of God through the humility of Moses, that he
actually allows the people to back off, to get away from what is about to
happen. But notice that it said, if you even touch their belongings, then you're
going to have the same fate as them. So flee, get away from them. And I think
one major application to us, one, don't live in rebellion and do not despise
the Lord because there is judgment coming and that is the gospel. There is
judgment that will come upon everybody in the end of time. But also, if you live a
life that is in despising the Lord, the earth will swallow you up. We are living
in a society with record high suicide, record high anxiety and depression, record
high divorce rates. The earth is swallowing up sinful people. If you despise
the Lord, the earth will swallow you up. The earth in all its sinful ways will
devour us, if we do not walk towards the Lord. The other point though, who are we
spending our time with? Who are we listening to, looking to, letting lead us?
Because it says that all 250 men were consumed by fire from the Lord, just for
going along with what Korah was doing. Nowhere in this chapter does it say they
said a word, but their action and their posture was following after someone in
rebellion. I think I already said it, but whoever is leading you spiritually,
whether that's a pastor or someone that's discipling you, their righteousness does
not save you. We have to walk in discernment ourselves and discern if the
people that we're listening to and following are a representation of Jesus or
a representation of the world. Paul said follow me, but the next sentence was as
I follow Jesus. So are we following representations of Jesus or are we
following representations of sin? Or better yet, are we following Jesus?
Don't be found reaching for sinful people's things. Don't even want what
they have to offer. They might have all the goods, all the power and authority
from looks. Don't even attempt to chase after those things, because even that
you'll be found in the same fate as them. Then in 36 it says, then the Lord spoke
to Moses saying, tell Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the sensors
out of the blaze, then scatter the fire far and wide, for they have become holy.
As for the censer of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let
them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they offered
them for the Lord and they became holy. Thus they shall be assigned to the people
of Israel. So they're holding these metal, I couldn't find a picture of what in the
world a censer is. I'm sure they exist out there, but I'm guessing it's just like
a metal like torch, because I had to hold fire. And those, notice I think it
just said it in verse 39, when consumed by the fire of the Lord were made holy. The
men weren't, they weren't found holy at all, they were completely consumed,
incinerated, gone. They are dust on the ground, but the thing that they were
holding was made holy. When the fire from the Lord tests you in this life, will you
be found holy, or will you be consumed completely? In the New Testament it
talks about how testing is like fire, like gold, how it is meant to refine it.
But on that final day of judgment, when we're sitting before the seat of the
Lord, and his judgment comes, and the fire goes past us and consumes all our
flesh, are we going to be found standing there still, holy, before the Lord? How
did you do that? We're gonna get to that in just a few verses. Verse 41,
but on the next day all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against
Moses and against Aaron, saying you have killed the people of the Lord. And when
the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned
toward the tent of meeting, and behold, the cloud covered it and the glory of the
Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, and
the Lord spoke to Moses saying, get away from the midst of the congregation. Any
guesses on Moses' response? Fell on his face, and Moses said to Aaron, take your
sensor and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry
quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out
from the Lord, the plague has begun. So Aaron took it, as Moses said, and ran into
the midst of the assembly, and behold, the plague had already begun among the
people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he
stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. Now those who
died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the
affair of Korah. And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of
meeting, when the plague was stopped.
We can choose rebellion and be consumed by this world, both figuratively, I pray
that people walking in sin, and when I am not walking in repentance, I can tell you
I am consumed with my own anxieties. But all it takes is a moment of repentance.
But that's in this life. And there's a day that we're going to stand before the
seat of the Lord, and judgment is going to come, and we have to be found holy to
be found standing there. And Aaron shows us how to be found holy. Only through the
role of the high priest, Aaron is the representation, I'll just put it clearly,
Aaron is the representation of Jesus Christ. He is a representation of the
high priest, the final high priest, Jesus, who came, died on the cross for
us, so that we could have, what is the word here? Atonement. Aaron went and stood
in between the living and the dead. I can almost picture his hands out with both
censors, one hand here, one hand here, just like Jesus on the cross. And it is only through that
Atonement that when judgment comes and consumes us, we can be made holy.
Two weeks ago, I didn't see the gospel. I just saw a crazy story of some rebellious
men falling into a sinkhole. But today I look at number 16, and all I can think,
this is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news that if you live in repentance
to the Lord, you can be made holy. But if you walk in rebellion, and that word that I
wanted us to go back to in verse 30, the very last sentence, these men despised the
Lord. And if you despise the Lord, you will be consumed by the world. This friend
that I mentioned earlier, right now is just running from the Lord. And she's
telling us how anxious she is, and she's telling us how depressed she is. And
she's telling us how if she stops working for just a day, she's filled with
fear. Because if you despise the Lord, you will be consumed by your sin. But if
you repent, and you turn to Jesus, there's hope. There's eternity of holiness waiting
for you. Let's pray. Lord, we just thank you for your word. Thank you that the
gospel of your Son Jesus is here. Thousands of years before he even walked
the earth, his image was clear and evident right here. To be in your presence
is to be in repentance. And to be in pride is to walk in judgment, to be
consumed. Lord, help us not to be consumed, but to walk in repentance. Lord, in
whatever way that means for us tonight, whether that's repentance from big sins,
that's repentance from little sins. It's all the same to you. You just want us to
be present with you. You love us so much. You wanted your people to be present
with you. But Lord, you don't allow rebellion to go on and on and on. So Lord,
I just thank you for your goodness. Thank you that you sent your Son Jesus
so that we can have atonement, so that you can stand between death and life
and give us life when we put our faith in you. God, I just pray that you'd be
with us right now as we break into a small group and just pray and spend time
discussing your word. Amen. All right, so we're not gonna break into multiple
groups. We're just gonna break into one group. And like I said earlier, I didn't
get a chance to print anything off, but I want us just to go over two questions,
which is what and how. What do we think this chapter is here for? And how do we
then apply this to our life today?
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His
Word. Don't forget to join us for worship lives Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern
on YouTube. Be blessed and have a great day!
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