Sometimes humans can be unbelievably dumb.
Last week we learned the story of Korah and his men and how they rebelled against the anointed leadership of Moses and Aaron.
These arrogant men thought themselves worthy to be equal to or greater than God’s appointed servants and they thought they could now take over leading the people in their place.
God quickly proved to them that they were not up to the job.
WHEN THE GROUND SPEAKS – PEOPLE SHOULD LISTEN
The ground opened up and swallowed the rebellious leadership and all of the people who saw it ran away because they were afraid of the same thing happening to them.
I was reminded of that old saying; “give someone an inch and they want to take a mile.”
Moses and Aaron knew that their power to lead the nation came directly from God. They realized their source. These men who wanted to lord over them had no idea how all power comes directly from God.
Excuse the simplicity of this, but; they were stupid enough to think that they were smart.
Moses had let them be in charge of a few things and now they wanted to run the world.
They were not qualified.
GOD IS ALWAYS IN COMPLETE CONTROL
Only God could say who would be loaned the temporary power to run the world.
God always seems to pick men who are humble and meek; men like Moses and Aaron who knew they were nothing unless God backed them up.
When God DOES back up his leadership though; the sky is the limit.
Nothing is impossible if you are working within the realm of God’s will instead of relying on the ways of mankind.
MANKIND CAN BE FICKLE
You would think all that had happened with Korah and his followers would have been enough to get all of the other people to regroup and be thankful for what they had instead of mumbling and complaining against God’s appointed leadership.
People falling under the earth and never returning should have proved some kind of point – you would think.
Ah – but the human factor displaying the fickleness of the people kept popping up again and again.
The VERY NEXT DAY a whole community of Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron saying “You have killed the LORD’S people.”
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Poor Moses and Aaron.
Yet; this time they didn’t even have time to get upset.
God had seen enough of this type of behavior.
As soon as they started grumbling again, the Cloud of Glory with the LORD’s presence appeared. Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Tent of Meeting to hear what the LORD had to say.
God told them; “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.”
When God has got your back; He remains completely loyal. God had Moses and Aaron’s backs.
GOD DEFENDS HIS LEADERS
It was time to show a few doubters how nothing was impossible for His chosen leaders. The people were about to see for themselves (again) how God protects His own.
God was pretty sick of hearing the people talk trash down to Moses and Aaron, who obviously were his chosen leaders. He was perfectly willing to defend their honor by putting an end to every single complainer in the crowd.
ONE MAN STANDS IN THE GAP FOR ALL
Immediately Moses and Aaron fell face-down before the Lord and prayed.
Then Moses told Aaron to get his censer and put incense inside it along with burning coals from the altar, then hurry toward the people and make atonement for them.
God’s incense needed to be burning over the smell of the fake incense that had been used by Korah and his men.
The stench of the wrong fire must have covered the camp. They had used forbidden fire; the fire that had not originated from God at God’s own altar.
Only God’s fire was powerful. All other fire was forbidden.
Their nasty smell had come before God and he didn’t want to breath the air if they were in it.
Aaron had to take some holy incense from God’s altar and create a pleasing aroma with true and holy incense between them and God in order to save the lives of the people who were left alive.
LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SIN
Had he not done so; God would have destroyed them immediately and moved away from all of these unnecessary problems that Moses was so patiently dealing with.
Aaron did exactly what he was told to do; but God’s wrath had already begun and the plague had already started to spread among the people.
As Aaron stood between the living and the dead, spreading the smell of the incense of holiness and praying and pleading for atonement; the plague finally stopped.
However, 14,700 people had already died before this happened.
GOD’S WRATH IS HIS JUST RESPONSE TO SIN
When Aaron was sure the plague had stopped he returned to Moses at the Tent of Meeting.
You just THOUGHT you were having a bad day.
Moses and Aaron were truly having a terrible, horrible, really, really bad day.
Now what do you think really happened here?
I found a post on the internet that described it well. You have to read between the lines, or maybe like this post – you can find some type of witness. I wish I knew the author of the article; but it wasn’t posted. All that showed up was this PDF, which made me even more sure of the fact that it might be meant to be shared with our readers today.
I hope you enjoy this link that explains the story in a slightly different perspective: https://www.avpc.org/files/3415/3954/1825/between_the_dead_and_the_living.pdf.