Context:
The Israelites have been wandering through the desert for two years, and they have arrived near the promised land. Twelve scouts checked out the land and most were certain that the Israelites would not be successful in a fight with the inhabitants. God punished the Israelites for their lack of faith, killing ten of the scouts and refusing to let the disbelievers ever see the land he had promised. They would wander in the desert for forty more years.
Text:
1 Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain
Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became
insolent 2 and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men,
well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. 3
They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone
too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with
them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?"
4
When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. 5 Then he said to Korah and all his
followers: "In the morning the LORD will show who belongs to him and who is
holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will
cause to come near him. 6 You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this:
Take censers 7 and tomorrow put fire and incense in them before the LORD. The
man the LORD chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too
far!"
8 Moses also said to Korah, "Now listen, you Levites! 9 Isn't it
enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the
Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the LORD's
tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? 10 He has
brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to
get the priesthood too. 11 It is against the LORD that you and all your
followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against
him?"
12 Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But
they said, "We will not come! 13 Isn't it enough that you have brought us up out
of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert? And now you also
want to lord it over us? 14 Moreover, you haven't brought us into a land flowing
with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you
gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!" (NIV)
taken from www.biblegateway.com
In today's text some of the Levites were jealous of Aaron and his descendants because they had closer contact with God. The Kohath tribe was responsible for carrying the most sacred of the Tabernacle furnishings whenever God told the Israelites to move, but they were not allowed to look at them or touch them directly or they would die. They were so close to the sacred items of God, but they wanted to have more honor by being able to meet with God directly.
I was catching up on my 'Bible in a year' reading this morning, and read about a lot of disobedience and death. Israelites died because they complained about the food, disbelieved the power/protection God would provide, and rebelled against Moses and Aaron. God caused plagues, fires, and earthquakes in retribution. Moses spent a lot of time flat on his face praying for God's forgiveness of his people.
I started wondering -- how long would I'd have made it if I'd been an Israelite? We'd all love to say that we'd be strong and courageous like Caleb and Joshua, the scouts who believed that God would deliver them to the Promised Land as he'd said, but I have a feeling I wouldn't have made it that long. Would I have given up on Moses (and God) and convinced Aaron to create a golden calf that I could worship? Would I have grumbled and complained about the lack of variety in the diet (I know I would have...)? Would I have coveted the relationship Moses had with God and tried to convince the Israelites that I'd make a better leader?
I have a feeling the only way I would have made it through the desert would be if I had been a child, since only those twenty years and older were forbidden from entering the Promised Land!
How would you have fared?
And in what ways are we rebelling against God today?
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