Numbers 16:23-40
23 So the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the congregation, saying, ‘Get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.’”
25 Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. 26 And he spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart now from the tents of these wicked men! Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins.” 27 So they got away from around the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents, with their wives, their sons, and their little children.
28 And Moses said: “By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will. 29 If these men die naturally like all men, or if they are visited by the common fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. 30 But if the LORD creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the LORD.”
31 Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. 33 So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly. 34 Then all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up also!”
35 And a fire came out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense.
36 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 37 “Tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, to pick up the censers out of the blaze, for they are holy, and scatter the fire some distance away. 38 The censers of these men who sinned against their own souls, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar. Because they presented them before the LORD, therefore they are holy; and they shall be a sign to the children of Israel.” 39 So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burned up had presented, and they were hammered out as a covering on the altar, 40 to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no outsider, who is not a descendant of Aaron, should come near to offer incense before the LORD, that he might not become like Korah and his companions, just as the LORD had said to him through Moses.
After Moses pleaded for the LORD to spare the entire congregation for the sin on one man, God then warned Moses and everyone to stand clear of the tents of the rebel Korah and his two conspirators, Dathan and Abiram. They had defied the living God and the servants He had chosen to speak for Him, and not they were to be either spared or destroyed. If they were spared, then Moses had not been sent by God to speak to them; if he had been sent by the LORD to do all the wondrous deeds they witnessed, then He was sent and they should heed his words as if from God and obey them. The proof would be if the earth opened up and swallowed the accusers and all their possessions as never had been witnessed by anyone ever before. It would be a miraculous event that only the Sovereign Almighty God could do, in other words, to prove who He is and that He spoke through Moses to them. As soon as he finished speaking these words of the LORD, the earth opened and took them all down to the pit of judgment. Then the earth closed up over them, sealing them away from view, a proof even more miraculous! The people were so astonished and afraid that they cried out to be swallowed up also. God then sent out fire to consume those offering strange incense also. The incense censers were recovered by the priests at the command of the LORD and the fire and ashes scattered outside the camp, eliminating the unholy while keeping the holy vessels that had been sanctified, set apart for holy use as they ought to have been. These misused censers of those who sinned against their own lives were beaten into plates to cover the altar of atoning sacrifices to keep their holy use. There these plates would be a testimony against rebellion and a reminder of the consequences of judgment for those who reject God’s authority and appointed leadership. It was also a warning that only the appointed and anointed priests were allowed to offer incense to the LORD as prescribed or they would suffer the same consequences as Korah and his clan. We now realize that this warning is to all who reject the gospel (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, Hebrews 2:3-4) of deliverance from judgment in the end, those who refuse to hear the message of the messengers (Romans 10:14-15) sent to lead the faithful to follow God’s word as His own precious people (1 Peter 2:4, 6-7) and not suffer the lake of fire in the pit of eternal judgment. Today if you hear the gospel command of the Lord through His messengers (Hebrews 3:7-8, 4:6-7), listen and hear to receive your deliverance from sin’s eternal consequences and enter by faith in Christ into eternal life (John 5:24) before it is too late. Don’t listen to those false priests offering any other way to God. Heed God’s spoken word to avoid the fiery pit of eternal suffering and despair and instead find peace with God in Christ to stand before Him forever, made holy in His righteousness by grace through faith in His promises. This is the true God and eternal life as it is written in John 17:3 and 1 John 5:20.
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