This morning I was reading in my Bible in the book of
Numbers, and a certain passage caught my eye.
Many of you may know it as Korah’s Rebellion. Essentially what happened was that Korah and
some of the Levites got all mad at Moses and Aaron and called them out for
supposedly putting themselves up as leaders when they had no right to. They were saying that all of God’s people
were set apart and holy, and they wanted to know who they thought they were
trying to lead these people through the desert like they owned it or
something. They made all kinds of
accusations of Moses, saying that all he wanted was control and that he had
purposely turned them away from the Promised Land so they would die in the
desert. Great, right?
If you have read this part of the Bible before, you know
just how preposterous this whole thing really is. I mean, Numbers 12:3 literally says that
Moses was the most humble man on earth.
He was clearly not the take-over-the-world type. Not only that, but Korah, along with all of
the people who willingly followed Moses out of Egypt, had entered into covenant
with God, agreeing to live their lives the way He told them to, part of which
included following Moses because God had put Moses before them as an
intercessor on their behalf.
So anyway, the passage that specifically caught my eye this
morning was Numbers 16:9-11.
“9 is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the
congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to
stand before the congregation to minister to them; 10 and that He has brought you near, Korah,
and all your brothers, sons of Levi, with you? And are you seeking for the
priesthood also? 11 Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against
the Lord.”
Since Korah and his gang were part of the tribe of Levi,
they were the ones that God had specifically chosen and set apart from the rest
of Israel, an already set apart nation, to work in the Tabernacle, which was
the place that God’s presence literally dwelled. They were already the set apart of the set
apart, but that wasn’t enough for them.
They wanted more. They wanted to
overthrow Aaron as High Priest and they seemingly wanted to take over the whole
congregation of Israel.
And get this; since they were yearning for something more or
different than what God had given them, Moses told them that they were gathered together against God. Woah.
Let me say that again. Since they
wanted something different than what God had for them and were going after it, they were assembled against God. They were fighting God. And do you know what happened? Later in the chapter, God literally caused the earth to open up and swallow them alive.
This got me thinking, because just yesterday, I had God put
a stop to some plans that I had. I was
all ready to go be a junior counselor at a camp in Oklahoma. And when I say that I was ready, I mean that
I was at the bus station, suitcase in hand, ready to get on the bus, when God
suddenly put His hand out and unexpectedly cancelled my plans in a way that I
never would have even thought of. And I’m
going to be honest, I was mad at first.
I mean, this was a perfectly good thing.
I was going to a camp of fellow believers to minister to the kids and
worship the Father. Why would God want
me to stay in Delaware, of all places, when I could be doing that?
But who am I to be
mad at God’s plans for me?
For whatever reason, it wasn’t in His plans for me to go to
Oklahoma this week. Now, I could rebel
like Korah and try to find a way to go anyway, or I could simply submit to His
plan for me, whatever that may be, and try to keep in mind that His timing is
not my timing and His plans for me are far better than anything I could think
up for myself. If I choose my ways over His, I am putting myself against Him, and I
will lose every time.
Now we, as believers, are like Korah and the Levites. We are set apart for God. We are the ones that He has chosen to draw
near to Him and do His work, serving Him and ministering to those around us. We have to stop and ask ourselves, is this
enough for us? Because it should
be. The plans that God has for our lives
are plans that predate us. When God
created the earth, he already knew that we would one day walk upon it, and He
had a plan for us that He wants us to carry out. We really only have 2 options in this life;
whether we will follow God’s plan or our own.
We need to remember that we are either for or against God,
and there is no middle ground.
If we choose our ways, we will be swallowed up by the
earth. Literally? Maybe not.
But we will be swallowed up by the hatred, immorality, death, and evil
that runs rampant in our world today, and we will be separated from God.
Now, if I had rebelled and gone to that camp anyway, would I
have been immediately separated from God?
Probably not, but that’s the danger of it. You only have to turn slightly to the left or
slightly to the right and before you know it you are miles from where you’re
supposed to be. I would guess that that’s
how it happened with Korah, too. All he
needed to do was let one little thought take root, something like “who is
Aaron, that he should be High Priest and not me?” or “who is Moses that God
should talk exclusively to him and let him be in charge of all of us?” One little, seemingly harmless thought turned
into a conversation, which turned into a revolt, which turned into a
rebellion.
We need to decide if we are for or against God. All or nothing. Who will we follow? Who will we choose to be?
