And Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him.
In Numbers 16:25 Moses walks down to the rebels' tents himself, with Israel's elders behind him. The ground is about to open — so why does he go, and what is he doing there before judgment falls?
The men Moses walks toward are not fringe troublemakers. One writer notes who led this conspiracy, and warns that a pious appearance proves nothing:
There is a conspiracy under the fairest pretensions possible. This does not mend matters. The basest things sometimes put on the most pious appearance. No one should be fooled by how something sounds… Some of them belonged to the ministering class. Others were chief men in the congregation. On the whole they represented what people today would call leading men in church and state.
Where did all this pride leave Moses himself?
It is a good thing when the pride that Satan knows so well how to stir up brings out nothing but lowliness and humbling of our souls before God. Pride tends to provoke pride, and flesh to irritate flesh. But it was not so with Moses.
Moses does not rise to go until he has first asked God to spare the crowd that followed these men:
Then the Lord stepped in. He spoke first to Moses and Aaron, telling them to separate from the company of evil doers and leave God free to consume the congregation (vs.20-21). Yet Moses and Aaron were ready to intercede at once for the congregation. They pleaded with God not to consume everyone, but to make a difference between the guilty leaders and those who followed them (v.22).
Moses walks down to call the ordinary people away from the leaders before judgment falls. One writer sees his two sayings here as a pattern for us when error attacks the faith:
In our chapter Moses answers Korah and his company, "the LORD will show who is His, and who is holy." To Dathan and Abiram he had to say, "Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs." These two sayings clearly point forward to the instruction the apostles give us. We need it when we come face to face with error that attacks the foundations of our faith… We are neither sovereign nor all-knowing. God is both, and in due season He will make clear who are His. We are however responsible to act in line with His word, and avoid all sharing in the error and evil.
Israel now sees two groups of rebels at once, and hears of a sign only God could give:
There stand Korah and his company with their censers, in proud presumption daring the judgment of God. At the door of their tents, see Dathan and Abiram with their wives, their sons, and their little children. What a moment of waiting for the assembled thousands of Israel! Then one word more. It is not only a warning, a call to separate from the guilty leaders. It is the sentence of death — and not a common death, but a death unheard of before. "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."
The ground opened. Yet a later note in Numbers changes the picture:
How terrible sin is in the sight of the Lord!… Yet in Num. 26:11 we read, "But the sons of Korah did not die." Yes, in the riches of sovereign grace He saved them from going down alive into the pit. And that was not all. As part of the family of Kohath they received the cities of refuge, and Hebron is named first (1 Chr. 6:54-67). Oh, how our God delights in mercy!
- Pretension. The revolt wore a pious face and had respected leaders. That is what made it dangerous.
- Patience. Moses met pride by humbling himself before God, not by matching it.
- Prayer. He prayed before he walked. He asked God to tell the misled crowd apart from the guilty leaders.
- Parting. His walk was a rescue call. Step away from the evil. God alone knows His own; our part is to keep clear of what is wrong.
- Preservation. Judgment fell, yet Korah's sons lived. Later they received cities of refuge. Mercy stood inside the scene of ruin.
And he spoke to the assembly, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye perish in all their sins.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they got up from the habitation of Koran, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side. And Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the entrance of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little ones.
Numbers 16 is one warning away from judgment: God has told the whole camp to pull back from the tents of the three rebel leaders. This verse records two very different answers to that warning — one saved lives, the other cost them.
Before judgment fell, God gave a way out, and the people took it:
The Lord answered their faith by telling them to warn the people to separate from the guilty leaders, Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Moses at once gave the message to the congregation, who were concerned enough to obey God's word.
The warning was not just to leave. Moses told them to leave everything behind, even family ties:
He says, "Leave. Do not touch a thing. Get out of their tents and out of their villages, even if it is a brother or sister. Get away from them." But you say, "That is the command of the law. Whoever says that is harsh and that is unchristian." Is it? … Whether it is in the Law or in the Gospel, God does not change His demands when it comes to believing on Himself and His Word.
The rebels saw the whole camp back away from them. They did not take it as a last call to repent:
These men learn nothing from the situation. On the contrary, they stand in the entrance of their tents with their wives, their sons and their little ones. They defy the entire assembly.
Two groups now stood in view at once, each in the place it had chosen:
There stand Korah and his company with their incense burners, in proud presumption daring the judgment of God. In the door of their tents, see Dathan and Abiram with their wives, their sons, and their little children. What a moment of expectation for the assembled thousands of Israel! … They had spoken wickedly against the man the Lord had chosen, and defiantly they stood. Their judgment came suddenly, and there was no remedy.
The revolt came from two directions at once:
Dathan and Abiram seem to have pressed their claim again to the rights of the firstborn, and their rebellion was mainly against Moses as leader. But Moses and Aaron cannot be separated here, for Christ, whom they both pictured, is both King and Priest. So we find Korah, of the tribe of Levi, joined with the sons of Reuben, and Korah's rebellion was chiefly against the priesthood of Aaron. … As a picture, it answers to the refusal of Christ's sacrificial work and of His unique place of nearness to God — the only One through whom anyone can come to God. It was not rebellion against man. "What is Aaron that you grumble against him?" They rebelled against the authority of God, and against the mercy by which He had spared the guilty nation.
Whole households went down, not the men alone. Years later Moses retold the story, and his choice of names was deliberate:
How the judgment on Dathan and Abiram and their households humbles the soul! How awful the thought of the earth opening its mouth and swallowing them up! And for what? For their rebellion against what God had appointed. In the history given in Numbers, Korah, the Levite, is the prominent character; but here Moses leaves him out and names the two Reubenites instead — two members of the congregation. He is seeking to act on the whole body of the people by setting before them the terrible result of self-will in two of their own number. They were two ordinary members, as we should say, and not just a privileged Levite.
The judgment had one exception, and it fell where nobody would expect:
The children of Dathan, Abiram, and the rest were all swallowed up. But, wonderful to say, there was one exception. Where was it? Some unusually faithful person, who had the misfortune of being closely tied to them? Not at all. The exception of grace was in the household of the very worst of them. The people who, as man would have thought, deserved least of all to be spared were exactly the ones God kept this special grace for — the sons of Korah! Korah led and organised the whole rebellion, and his position as well as his conduct made him the most guilty of all. … Is not this the true grace of God? … Grace is no new thing with Him.
- Warning — God moved the crowd out before He moved the ground. The call to separate was mercy arriving ahead of judgment.
- Choice — the same warning saved the congregation but taught the leaders nothing. They heard it and stood in their doorways instead of stepping out.
- Target — the quarrel looked personal, aimed at Moses and Aaron. It struck at the authority of God, who had appointed them both.
- Cost — self-will does not stay private. Wives and little ones stood in those doorways, and Moses later held up two ordinary men as a warning to everyone.
- Grace — the one household spared was the ringleader's own. The sons of Korah lived, by a mercy no one had earned.