Numbers 16:41-50
Complaints of the People
41 On the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the LORD.” 42 Now it happened, when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting; and suddenly the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared. 43 Then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting.
44 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 45 “Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.”
And they fell on their faces.
46 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun.” 47 Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. 48 And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped. 49 Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident. 50 So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague had stopped.
The people of God immediately began to complain that the LORD was not fair because He punished the unrighteous who rejected His word and His leaders. They were warned and yet persisted in defying Moses and Aaron who were messengers of God’s word, of His sovereign authority, and were swallowed down into the fiery pit of the dead to await their final judgment as we all do apart from being found in Christ and His righteousness. The people of Israel failed to see the holiness and sovereignty of their God and blamed Moses and Aaron, attempting to kill the messenger as a defiance of the authority set over them and meted out by the leaders chosen by God to direct their ways to follow Him in pleasing ways. When the congregation so defied them, the LORD shone His glory and announced their destruction as well as the sons of Korah who just were consumed by fire and swallowed up in the ground they were still standing on. Moses quickly had Aaron make atonement for them to save them from a certain destruction by standing between the dead and the living. Then the plague ceased and the rest lived. The picture of eternal judgment on our inherited and practiced sins of blaming God for our sin’s consequences is still true from the Fall of Adam and is only solved by God’s own Son standing between us and our just due judgment (Romans 6:23) as we continue to complain with entitlement of perceived fairness from our limited view apart from His sovereignty and holiness. We all are born deserving judgment yet atonement is offered by God’s chosen one who stands between us and eternal judgment, between life and death. Who are we to complain that God is not fair? Indeed, if He was fair, we would all suffer the fiery judgment on our sin that we each and all deserve for blaming Him and denying our own guilt we have inherited and continue to practice. Thanks be to God (Romans 8:32, 2 Corinthians 9:15) for making the ultimate sacrifice to atone for our sins and their consequences and freely giving us this indescribable gift of our salvation from His just wrath!
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