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.
And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that Jehovah has sent me to do all these deeds, for they are not out of my own heart
Korah's company had accused Moses and Aaron of grabbing authority for themselves. The whole camp was watching to see who was right. Moses answers by pointing to a sign only God could give. Everything he has done stands or falls on what God does next.
The charge Moses answers is that he invented his own role. One writer shows how far the rebels had misread it:
How little they understood that Moses had not wanted to be Israel's leader (Ex. 3:10-11; 4:1-13), but God absolutely required him to be. Their argument rests on this: "all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them." Did Korah really care for all the congregation? No! He wanted to be the high priest himself (vs. 10-11). He accused Moses and Aaron of exalting themselves (v. 3) when it was plainly God who had exalted them. But Korah wanted to exalt himself, using his followers to this end.
If Moses did not appoint himself, then the complaint has to travel past him to the One who did appoint him:
Korah and his company, therefore, were quarrelling with God and not with Moses and Aaron. God had called these men to hold a certain position and to do a certain work, and woe to them if they refused. They had not aimed at the position or taken up the work themselves; God appointed them. This ought to have settled the question. It would have settled it for everyone except restless, self-occupied rebels, who tried to undermine the true servants of God and exalt themselves. This is always the way with those who promote division or discontent. Their real object is to make themselves somebody.
Moses does not defend himself. He hands the whole dispute to God:
Moses, in these words, makes it a question simply between the Lord and the rebels. He can appeal to God, and leave everything in His hands. This is the true secret of moral power. A man who has nothing of his own to seek — no aim or object but the divine glory — can wait with confidence to see how things turn out. But for this, the eye must be undivided, the heart upright, the purpose pure. It will not do to assume or pretend anything.
He had done the same earlier in the chapter, waiting instead of acting:
Moses relies on God's decision to confirm the position He has given to each one. At the same time, he waits until "tomorrow." He does not want to rush, serious as the situation is. He prefers to give Korah and those with him enough time to repent.
The sign is something no natural force could produce:
"A new thing." This, then, was not a mere earthquake. Whatever causes earthquakes now, this one had no natural cause. It was the direct act of God in a marked and special judgment. Nothing is as terrifying as an earthquake. This one carries a mark: it came when men first attacked the rights of Christ as King, in the person of Moses.
The rebels were not just challenging a leader. They were challenging the priesthood God Himself had appointed:
With these men it was a rebellion about religious office: they "contended against the LORD" in His appointed priesthood. The whole rebellion was a picture of opposition to the kingship and priesthood of Christ.
One writer has just described the Christian priesthood. He then warns that Korah's sin is not only old history:
And let the reader note this carefully. To aim at any other form of priesthood than this is, in principle, the sin of Korah. So is taking up any other priestly function. So is setting up a special priestly class — a group of men who act on behalf of their fellows, or who carry out priestly service for them before God. We only speak of the principle, not of persons. The seed of the sin is as clear as possible. In time there will be the full-grown fruit.
- Sent, not self-made. Moses never asked for the job. God required it of him, so nothing he did came from himself.
- Sent means the quarrel is with God. Attacking a man God has placed somewhere is really a dispute with the One who placed him.
- Sent men can stay silent. Moses defends nothing and leaves the verdict with God. He even delays the test, giving the rebels time to repent.
- Sent, and God proves it. The sign is not a natural event but the direct act of God.
- Sent points to Christ. Moses and Aaron stand for the kingship and priesthood of Christ. Grasping at what belongs to Him is Korah's sin in seed form.
if these men die as all men die, and are visited with the visitation of all men, Jehovah has not sent me;
Korah and his followers had accused Moses of setting himself above the people. Here Moses stakes his whole claim on one public test: if these men die an ordinary death, God never sent him.
Moses does not argue his case. He names two possible endings and lets the result give the verdict.
Then Moses spoke as a prophet, and with great seriousness. He showed Israel that he had not acted by his own will in what he did, but as God directed him. He tells them that if these men died merely natural deaths, God had not spoken through Moses. But if the Lord created a new thing, making the earth open and swallow them up, then it would be clear that these men had rejected the Lord Himself.
The test only works because Moses has nothing of his own to gain by it.
Moses, in these words, makes it simply a question between the Lord and the rebels. He can appeal to God and leave everything in His hands. This is the true secret of moral power. A man who has nothing of his own to seek — no aim or object but the divine glory — can confidently wait for how things turn out. But for this, the eye must be single, the heart upright, the purpose pure. It will not do to assume or pretend anything. If God is going to judge, He will most certainly expose all pretence and play-acting. Such pretending has no place when the earth is opening its mouth and the fire of the Lord is burning up everything around. It is easy to swagger and boast and speak big words while all is at rest. But when God steps into the scene in terrible judgment, the look of things changes fast.
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Commentators read the rebellion as an attack on two offices at once.
The sin of Korah was twofold. On one side, he openly rebelled against Moses and Aaron. He said, "You have gone too far… why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" On the other side, he was not content with his own position. He seized the place of priestly intercession that belonged to Aaron alone. He sought to pull Moses and Aaron down to the level of the congregation, and to lift himself up to the level of Aaron.
Everyone dies, so an ordinary death would settle nothing. Moses asks for something no one had seen — and no one believed it could happen.
That judgment was no new thing; the earth opening and swallowing them up was both new and unexpected. Moses had warned them, saying, "if the LORD creates something new." But those standing around Dathan and his company did not seem to believe it was possible. Neither did the men who died. So terror gripped the surrounding crowd. They fled at the cry of those who went down alive into the pit, saying, "Lest the earth swallow us up too." But it worked no change in them.
Korah's end is sobering because he already held a high place.
Truly, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." How much better it would have been for Korah to rest content with his Levite service! That service was of the very highest order. As a Kohathite, his work was to carry some of the most precious vessels of the sanctuary. But he aimed at the priesthood, and fell into the pit.
Commentators carry the question Moses raised — sent by God, or self-appointed? — over to every claim to priestly office.
About the appointment of the priest on earth: "No one takes this honour for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was." Here again we see an analogy to the priesthood of Christ. No one can truly take the place of priest, in any sense of the word, who is not called by God. Neglecting this great truth is a deeply serious thing. We see it in the judgment that overtook Korah and those with him. They tried to establish themselves in the priesthood without a call from God.
- Sent, not self-made. Moses' entire defence rests on one claim: he did not act on his own initiative, and God alone can prove it.
- Nothing to defend. A man with no private aim can hand the case to God and wait, because pretence is exactly what judgment exposes.
- Ordinary proves nothing. A normal death would have proved the rebels right. Only something never seen before could answer Moses.
- The target was office. Korah pulled Moses and Aaron down to the level of the congregation, and pushed himself up to Aaron's place.
- Called, or condemned. No one takes the honour of priesthood for himself. Korah already held a high service, and lost everything by reaching past it.
but if Jehovah make a new thing, and the ground open its mouth, and swallow them up, and all that they have, and they go down alive into Sheol, then ye shall know that these men have despised Jehovah.
Korah and his followers have challenged Moses, and Moses stakes his whole commission on one test. If these men die an ordinary death, he was never sent; if God does something never seen before, everyone will know the quarrel was with the Lord, not with Moses.
Moses hands the dispute over to God and waits. One writer finds there the root of real spiritual strength:
Moses, in these words, makes it a question simply between the Lord and the rebels. He can appeal to God, and leave everything in His hands. This is the true secret of moral power. A man who has nothing of his own to seek can confidently wait for the outcome. He has no aim or object but the divine glory. But for this, the eye must be single, the heart upright, the purpose pure. It will not do to assume or pretend anything.
The charge is not that the rebels disliked Moses, but that they had "despised the LORD." Their demand had two halves, one aimed down, one aimed up:
The sin of Korah was twofold. On one hand, he openly rebelled against Moses and Aaron: "You have gone too far… why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" On the other hand, he was not content with his own position. He seized the place of priestly intercession that belonged to Aaron alone (Num. 16:3, 9-10). He sought to drag Moses and Aaron down to the level of the congregation, and to lift himself up to the level of Aaron.
Fire from God had struck before, so death by fire would prove nothing new:
They had seen Nadab and Abihu perish by fire from the LORD; but here are two hundred and fifty princes, men of renown, who are consumed in a moment. That judgment was no new thing; the earth opening and swallowing them up was both new and unexpected. Moses had warned them, saying, "if the LORD creates something new." Yet those who stood around Dathan and his company did not seem to believe it possible, any more than those who did perish. So the surrounding crowd was terrified.
Older translations read "down quick into the pit." That word "quick" is often misread:
We may add that the word "quick" does not refer to the suddenness of the act, but means they went down living into sheol.
The word behind "pit" is Sheol, and it does not always carry the same sense:
Now in the following passages… Num. 16:30, 33… Sheol cannot well mean anything but "the grave"… while elsewhere its general reference is mostly to the place of departed spirits.
The households went down with the rebels. But one line was spared, and it bore fruit long after:
It must be noted that the sons of Korah did not perish. A careful reading of verses 27-33 brings out this fact. Chapter 26:11 settles it beyond doubt: "But the sons of Korah did not die." Sovereign grace saved them from the terrible fate of their father. They were saved from the pit. Mercy was remembered in wrath… And more than that, the Holy Spirit inspired them to write some of the beautiful Psalms. Read Psalm 84.
One writer, after describing the priesthood that belongs to every Christian, draws the line:
To aim at any other form of priesthood than this is, in principle, the sin of Korah. So is taking up any other priestly function. So is setting up a priestly class — a group of men to act on behalf of their fellows, or to carry out priestly service for them before God. We only speak of the principle, not of persons. The seed of the sin is as clear as possible. In time there will be the full-grown fruit.
Another writer follows that fruit to its end:
In Korah, of the tribe of Levi, we see men given a place of nearness in ministry pushing into privileges that belonged to the high priest alone… So too, in the coming day, God will have the Antichrist cast into the lake of fire. He is the false prophet who would take Christ's place.
- Provocation. This was no personality clash. Korah pulled God's servants down to the crowd's level and pushed himself up to the high priest's level.
- Patience. Moses seeks nothing for himself. He makes it a question between God and the rebels, and waits.
- Proof. Death by fire had happened before. The ground swallowing men alive had not, and that was the sign the crowd needed.
- Pit. "Quick" means alive, not sudden. They went down living into Sheol — here the grave, though elsewhere the word points to the place of departed spirits.
- Pardon. The children of Korah did not die. Rescued from the pit, they later wrote psalms — mercy remembered inside wrath, while the same judgment points ahead to the Antichrist's end.
And it came to pass when he had ended speaking all these words, that the ground clave apart that was under them.
Moses had just staked his whole standing on a sign. An ordinary death for the rebels would prove him a fraud; a new act of God would settle the matter — and the last word had barely left his mouth when the earth split.
Moses was not improvising. He named the outcome in advance, so that the event itself would settle who had sent him.
Then Moses spoke solemnly as a prophet, to show Israel that he had not acted by his own will, but as God directed him. He tells them that if these men died natural deaths, God had not spoken by Moses. But if the Lord created a new thing, making the earth open and swallow them up, then one thing would be clear: these men had rejected the Lord Himself.
Moses could leave the result to God because he wanted nothing for himself.
Moses, in these words, makes it a question simply between the Lord and the rebels. He can appeal to God, and leave everything in His hands. This is the true secret of moral power. A man who has nothing of his own to seek — no aim or object but the divine glory — can confidently wait for how things turn out. But for this, the eye must be single, the heart upright, the purpose pure. It will not do to assume or pretend anything.
One writer weighs which part of this judgment was new, and what the watching crowd did with it.
That judgment by fire was no new thing. The earth opening and swallowing them up was both new and unexpected. Moses had warned them, saying, "If the Lord makes a new thing." But those who stood around Dathan and his company seemed to believe it no more than the men who perished did. That explains the terror of the surrounding crowd. They fled at the cry of those who went down alive into the pit, saying, "Lest the earth swallow us up too." But it produced no change in them.
Korah was not a man God had passed over. The trouble began with what he did with the honour he already had.
Unbelief constantly shows itself in this very form. If God puts an honour on a man, and the man does not receive it as from Him, that honour becomes only a stepping stone. The man despises the God who gave it, while grasping after what God has never given him. Nothing produces such dissatisfaction as a heart that fails to put the right value on what God has given us.
The irony of verse 31 is that the man who wanted to go higher is the one who went down.
How much better it would have been for Korah if he had been content with his Levite service, which was of the very highest order. His work as a Kohathite was to carry some of the most precious vessels of the sanctuary, but he aimed at the priesthood, and fell into the pit.
This was never only a dispute about leadership. One writer places it last in a line of departures from God, and names what Korah's demand really attacked.
The last case before us is the rebellion of Korah, and here those who depart from God perish. This was not just the selfish twisting of truth into a means of self-advancement, bad as that was. It was open, deliberate revolt against the rights of Christ Himself. Moses was the apostle of the faith Israel confessed, and Aaron was its high priest. Christ is the apostle and the high priest of the faith we confess. For a man to claim and exercise a priesthood now is a direct invasion of what only Jesus Christ can do at the right hand of God.
Korah's line was not wiped out. A later note in Numbers records the exception, and Israel's songbook still carries the family name.
In Numbers 26:11 we meet the exception that sovereign mercy made: "Nevertheless, the sons of Korah did not die." Notice this in connection with the Psalms — the eleven Psalms "for the sons of Korah."
The chapter is not only a warning about rebellion; it is an argument for contentment with a small place.
If God gives us a crossing to sweep, let us sweep it, under His eye and to His praise. The great and all-essential point is this: be found doing the very work He gives us to do, and filling the very post He appoints us to. Had Korah and his company learnt this, their piercing cry would never have terrified the hearts of their brothers. But no; they would be something when they were nothing, and so they went down into the pit. If we are governed by the rule of God's kingdom, we shall find that the only way to get up is to go down.
- Grasping — Korah already held a high honour. Discontent with the place God gave him turned that honour into a weapon against God.
- Staking — Moses named the sign in advance and left the outcome with God. He could wait without fear, because he had nothing of his own to gain.
- Splitting — death by fire had happened before; the opening ground had not. The sign was unmistakable, yet the onlookers fled in terror without repenting.
- Sparing — the sons of Korah did not die. Eleven Psalms carry their name. Judgment fell, but mercy drew a line through it.
- Stooping — the man who reached upward went down alive. In God's kingdom the only way up is down.
And the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men that belonged to Korah, and all their property.
The ground splits open under Korah's tents. It is one of the most shocking scenes in Israel's forty years in the wilderness, and it answers a demand for a place God had not given. Why did a quarrel over religious position end in a death no one had seen before, and did anyone in that camp escape?
Korah was a Levite, already separated to serve at the tabernacle. Commentators trace his ruin to discontent with the very gift God had handed him.
Unbelief constantly shows itself in this very form. If God puts an honour on a man, and he does not receive it as from Him, that honour only becomes a stepping stone. He despises the God who gave it, while grasping after what He has never given. Nothing produces such dissatisfaction as a heart that puts the wrong value on what God has given us.
His daily work already put him in touch with the holiest things in Israel.
How much better it would have been for Korah if he had been content with his Levite service. It was of the very highest order. As a Kohathite, his work was to carry some of the most precious vessels of the sanctuary. But he aimed at the priesthood, and fell into the pit.
God first warned the people to move away from the rebels. What came next was no ordinary death.
One word more. It was not only a warning, a call to separate from the guilty leaders. It was the sentence of death — and not a common death, but a death unheard of before... At once the earth opens. They go down alive into the pit. They perish from among the congregation... They had spoken wickedly against the Lord's anointed, and they stood there in defiance. Their judgment came suddenly, and there was no remedy.
The wording of this verse is careful. Set it beside other passages and a difference appears.
Numbers 26:10 seems to say that the earth swallowed up Korah. But Numbers 16:32 speaks only of "the people who belonged to Korah". And in Deuteronomy 11:6 and Psalm 106:17-18 only Dathan and Abiram are named as swallowed up. There was an exception in the case of Korah: his children were not included in the punishment. Several psalms carry the names of his sons or descendants, who took part in the service of song.
That distinction fits the two forms the judgment took in the chapter.
In the case of Korah the judgment came straight from the hand of God in His dwelling-place. In the case of the others it came through God's ordering of the forces of nature.
Everything belonging to these households went down. The one exception is the surprise of the whole chapter.
The exception of grace was in the household of the very worst of them. As man would have thought, the people who deserved it least were the very ones for whom God reserved this special grace — the sons of Korah! ... Where can you find a finer sample of grace's power, and of how it rises above every circumstance? Look at the grace that singled out and saved the children of Korah — the most infamous of those who had conspired against Moses and Aaron, the two men who pictured Christ as king and priest.
This rebellion is not left in the past. Jude uses Korah's name for the last stage of a road that ends in ruin.
Jude sets before us the beginning, the way, and the end... The last stage is Korah's rebellion, and here those who depart from God perish. This is not just the selfish twisting of truth into a means of self-advancement, driven by the greed of the heart — bad as that is. It is open, planned rebellion against the rights of Christ Himself. Moses was the apostle of the Jewish faith, as Aaron was its high priest. Christ is the apostle and the high priest of the faith we confess. To claim and exercise a priesthood for man today is a direct invasion of work that Jesus Christ alone can carry out at the right hand of God.
Some also read the scene as a preview of a judgment still to come.
In Korah, of the tribe of Levi, we see men who had been given a place of nearness in ministry pushing into the rights that belong to the high priest alone. This is a complete denial of the necessity of the priesthood of Christ... So too, in the day that is coming, God will have the Antichrist cast into the lake of fire — the false prophet who would seize the place of Christ.
- Place given. Korah held one of the highest services in Israel. His sin began when that place stopped being enough.
- Place seized. Reaching for the priesthood was open rebellion against the rights of Moses and Aaron — and so against Christ, whom the two men pictured.
- Place opened. The death was unlike any Israel had seen, and it came suddenly and without remedy.
- Place spared. The households went down, yet Korah's own sons lived. Grace rested on the family least likely to receive it.
- Place warned. Jude points back to Korah as the pattern of the end for all who invade what belongs to Christ alone.
And they went down, they and all that they had, alive into Sheol, and the earth covered them; and they perished from among the congregation.
The ground opened under Korah, Dathan and Abiram and swallowed them alive, along with their households and everything they owned. Older translations read "the pit" where the ESV has "Sheol," and both the death itself and that word have drawn close study.
One writer explains why no one could blame this death on bad luck or geology.
"A new thing." This then was not a mere earthquake. Whatever causes earthquakes now, there was no natural cause for this one. It was the direct act of God in marked and special judgment. Nothing is so terrifying as an earthquake. This one bears the mark of its timing: it came when men first openly attacked the rights of Christ as King, in the person of Moses.
Moses set out the test in advance and let God answer it:
Moses tells them that if these men died ordinary deaths, God had not spoken through him. But if the Lord created a new thing, making the earth open and swallow them up, then it would be clear that these men had rejected the Lord Himself.
The old wording "went down quick into the pit" sounds as if they died suddenly. One writer corrects that, and argues the phrase describes a state, not only a burial plot:
As to the word "into," we can speak of an individual going into death, who may never be in the grave at all. The moment a man dies he is in death. The body usually waits hours or days before burial. "In" or "into" can apply to a condition just as much as to a place. We may add that the word "quick" does not refer to the suddenness of the act, but means they went down living into sheol.
Commentators differ on how wide the word reaches. Another writer treats it as covering both the burial place and the state of the departed:
The mistake starts with a wrong idea of what the term sheol covers. It really includes the grave, as well as the region where spirits, still without their bodies, wait for their resurrection... The congregation of Dathan and Abiram went down alive into the pit (sheol)... People understood sheol as what we might call the whole underworld. They thought of both body and soul as entering it.
Korah was not an outsider. He already held a high place, and that is what makes his end so pointed:
How much better it would have been for Korah to stay content with his Levite service. It was of the very highest order. His work as a Kohathite was to carry some of the most precious vessels of the sanctuary. But he aimed at the priesthood, and fell into the pit.
Others read the same sin as an attack on a truth, not just on a man:
Moses saw that this was not only a refusal of Aaron. It was a refusal of this truth: as a sinful people, they could have no standing before God except through the priest who offered the sacrifice.
The pit did not take everyone in Korah's family. One writer follows what became of those spared:
Sovereign grace saved the sons of Korah from the awful fate of the father. They were saved from the pit. Mercy was remembered in wrath... And more than that, the Holy Spirit inspired them to write some of the beautiful Psalms. Read Psalm 84, "How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts."
One writer sets this rebellion at the end of a path with clear stages:
Korah's rebellion is the last stage in this wilderness history. Jude sees it as the last form of the evil in the Christian world, an evil already at work in his own day... He shows how that evil develops. First comes "the way of Cain" — that is, self-righteousness, which has no need of the atoning sacrifice. Then comes the spirit of Balaam, leading others astray for pay. Finally comes what we have here, the rebellion of Korah, the height of their wickedness, in which they perish. The final step is open opposition to God, and to Him whom "God has made both Lord and Christ": so their doom is assured.
One writer turns the same warning on anyone claiming priestly office today:
It was a fearful thing to sin against Aaron. Is it then a light matter to sin now against Christ, by taking over the work of the priesthood? We earnestly urge you to repent before the terrible judgment, now so near at hand, overtakes you.
- Cause — Korah already carried the holiest vessels. He wanted the priesthood as well, and lost everything.
- Sign — The ground opening was something new, with no natural cause behind it. It proved that God, not Moses, had spoken.
- Word — "Alive" does not mean "suddenly." They went down living into Sheol — a word for a condition, not just a burial plot.
- Mercy — Grace spared the sons of Korah. The judgment that swallowed the father left his sons alive, and they later wrote psalms.
- Warning — Jude puts Korah at the end of a road: first self-righteousness, then greed for pay, then open opposition to Christ.