Here again (as after the sin with the golden calf) the Lord proposes to Moses to smite this whole people with pestilence, and then make of his posterity a nation greater and mightier than they (Num. 14: 12). But in this case as in that, Moses listens not a moment to the proposal which might seem flattering to his ambitionif he had any; and turns his plea wholly to the point of God’s glory before the nations:—What will they say of him if he abandons this whole people as if in despair?——It was well understood that he had promised to bring them into Canaan; what will they say if he fails to do it? How will it bear upon the name and the fame of Almighty God if the nations are left to say—“Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.”——To this, Moses adds an appeal to that blessed name which the Lord had given him on the former occasion:—Let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken, saying: “The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. O pardon thou the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt until now.”——To this prayer the Lord promptly answers: “I have pardoned according to thy word; but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord”—(i. e. with the glory of his righteous justice); for of all those men who have seen my glory and my miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have not believed in me at all, but have utterly dishonored my name, not one shall enter into the land of promise. March them back into this great and dreary wilderness; let them wander there forty years—as many years as they have spent days in searching out the land of Canaan. So let their judgment perpetually remind them of their sin, till all that unbelieving generation, old enough to bear moral responsibility for this unbelief, have fallen in the wilderness.——Then their children who, they said, would fall before the sword of the Canaanites, shall go into the land, drive out those men of Canaan, and possess the goodly land of promise.
The ten unbelieving spies perish at once by the plague before the wrath of God. The people were sorely distressed by this decision. Some of them rushed at once to the mad extreme of marching unbidden against the Canaanites—only to be smitten before them.
Thus issued this sad case of strange, cruel unbelief. The conquest of Canaan was postponed almost forty years; the generation of twenty years and over when they came out from Egypt were doomed to fruitless wanderingand an early death in the wilderness; and that nation and the world had one more lesson on the wisdom of believing God, and on the infinite folly as well as guilt of refusing to believe and trust the Lord.——Moses (in Deut. 1: 19–46) gives a somewhat full recapitulation of these scenes. In Ps. 90 he puts in the form of sacred song his meditation and prayer on this sad yet most instructive event.
The Rebellion of Korah and his Company.
During the period of thirty-seven years intervening between the scenes at Kadesh last noted and the return to Kadesh in the last year of the wandering, one event of most signal and solemn moment occurred, viz. the rebellion of Korah and his company, recorded Num. 16, and referred to Num. 26: 9–11. The leaders were Korah of the tribe of Levi, a near relative of Moses, and Dathan, Abiram, and On, of the tribe of Reuben;—the former ambitious of the distinction enjoyed by Moses and Aaron, and doubtless believing himself at least equally capable and worthy; the latter probably restive under the loss of that pre-eminence which was normally conceded to the first-born. Associated with them were two hundred and fifty leading men of the tribes, not otherwise distinctly designated. The movement thus assumed formidable proportions in the outset. They seem to have demanded that Moses and Aaron should retire from office and give place to themselves; or at least that they should resign and open the way for another election by the people.——Moses wisely referred this matter at once to the Lord. Let him say who shall be the Leader of this people, and who shall come near before him as High Priest. Take you, said he, every man his censer and put fire therein, and come before the Lord. Let him pass upon this great question.——Expostulating with Korah, he said, Should it not suffice you that God has given the whole tribe of Levi special responsibilities and honors? Why should ye murmur against Aaron because the Lord hath chosen him to lead in the most holy services?——The Reubenite faction, resisting the summons of Moses, stood off obstinately. With falsehood and insult they arraign Moses upon two grave charges: (a.) that he had brought them out of a landof plenty to kill them in the wilderness; and (b.) had utterly failed to bring them into a land of plenty as he had promised. And now, said they, “wilt thou put out the eyes of these men”? Wilt thou dupe them and lead them on blind-fold to their utter ruin?——These were cutting charges. Moses was indignant. Appealing to God he said, “Respect not thou their offering. I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them.”——Again Moses refers the decision of the great question to God. “The glory of the Lord appeared (we read) unto all the congregation.” Inasmuch as the pillar of cloud and of fire was always visible to the people, we must suppose that on this occasion these words imply an unusual brilliancy—a blaze of glory.——The first words from the August Presence indicated the divine purpose: “Stand ye aloof from those rebels; separate yourselves from that whole congregation that I may consume them in a moment”! Suddenly Moses and Aaron are on their faces in supplication that God would stay his hand; for they seem to have feared a most sweeping judgment. “Shall one man sin” (said they) “and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation”? Promptly the Lord replied: Give orders to the people to withdraw from the tents of those leading rebels as they would escape their doom. They did so, leaving only the leaders and their households in their tents, awaiting the result—with what feelings and anticipations we know not. Whether their impudent hardihood failed them and terror seized upon them, or whether they stood boldly or stupidly, awaiting the issue, nothing is said to show.——With words inspired of God, Moses put the great question of God’s choice of Leader upon its decision: “If those men die only the common death of mortals, the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord create a new creation [Heb.], i. e. work a miracle; do something outside the course of nature; if the earth open and swallow up those men alive and all that appertain to them, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.”——With not one moment’s delay, as the last word fell from his lips, the earth opened her mouth beneath their feet and they went down into that awful grave, and the earth closed over them! They perished from among the congregation. Their place was thenceforth vacant forever!——Significantly it is added “all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them”—those shrieks of awful horror as they went down thrilled the whole people with terror and they fled from the scene; for they said, “Lest the earth swallow up us also.”
It seems almost incredible that after such a scene of holy judgment on guilty rebels and of such consternation upon the whole people, we read that on the morrow all the congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, “Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” This, although their prayer had saved the masses of the people (v. 22); this, although the hand of God only and of no mortal man had wrought their destruction; this, although they had seen the whole transaction and fled in horror lest God swallow them up also!——It should not surprise us that the wrath of the Lord broke forth against them and the plague began. Moses cried to Aaron to take a censer with incense (the symbol of prayer) and run in among the people, waving his censer between the living and the dead. Only so was the plague stayed. Yet fourteen thousand seven hundred fell in that fearful judgment.——We are simply amazed at the perverseness and folly of many of that Hebrew people. “How often” and with what strange infatuation “did they provoke their God in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert”! (Ps. 78: 40.)
The next chapter (Num. 17) records a special test to show which of the twelve tribes the Lord had chosen for the priesthood. Each tribe brought forward its several rod; Aaron’s among them for the tribe of Levi. All were laid up before the Lord for one night only. In the morning Aaron’s rod had blossomed and was bearing fruit; all the others were still dry sticks! Aaron’s was thenceforth laid up in the most holy place—a perpetual memorial of God’s choice of Aaron and his family for the priesthood.
If it be asked by what means were Korah and his company destroyed? Were the common agencies of earthquake employed in this case? Or was the effect produced by the divine fiat with no intervening force of imprisoned steam or explosive gases? All I can reply is that the record says nothing on this point whatever. The agencies common in earthquakes have producedsimilar results often in the world’s history. If the Lord saw fit he could have brought those agencies into action at precisely that moment; or he might have produced the result miraculously with no intervening physical agency. It would be the Lord’s hand in either case. The question which method God employed in this case is of no practical consequence whatever, and can never be decided save by a special revelation from himself.