Numbers 16 Meet the co-conspirators

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Numbers 16:8 Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you Levites! 9 Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the Lord’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? 10 He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. 11 It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”

12 Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But they said, “We will not come! 13 Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you also want to lord it over us! 14 Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you want to treat these men like slaves(b)? No, we will not come!”

15 Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, “Do not accept their offering. I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them.”​

b. Numbers 16:14 Or to deceive these men; Hebrew Will you gouge out the eyes of these men

It seems to me that Dathan and Abiram are blaming Moses for God's decision to keep them all out of Canaan.

This is from Studylight.org.

These were co-conspirators with Korah. They would not even meet with Moses, nor answer his challenge. They chose to accuse Moses instead.

This shows that Dathan and Abiram colored the past. They thought of Egypt as a land of milk and honey, even for the Hebrew slaves. Rebels and divisive people commonly create a past of their own preference, a past that puts leaders like Moses in the worst possible light.

This shows that Dathan and Abiram assigned an evil heart to Moses. They spoke as if they had discovered the plot of Moses and Aaron: To lead the nation into the wilderness and then kill them. The foolishness of this shows how, against all reason, rebels and divisive people often assign every evil intention to the heart of leaders like Moses.

This shows that Dathan and Abiram refused to acknowledge growth in Moses. It was true that Moses was at one time a prince, a self-confident man who thought he could deliver and lead Israel with his own hand. God broke him of that with forty years of leading another man’s flock in the wilderness. Yet Dathan and Abiram threw it back in his face, as if God had never dealt with Moses in these areas.

This shows that Dathan and Abiram had unfair expectation of Moses. It was true that Moses had not yet brought them to the Promised Land, and it was true that some of the blame must lay at the feet of Moses because he agreed to the demand of the people to send spies into the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 1:19-23). Yet, it is wrong to wholly blame Moses for this, or to think that Korah could have done any better.

It is unbelievably easy for the Korahs of this world to sit back and say, “If I was leading the nation at Kadesh Barnea, I would have done thus and so.” But Korah was not leading the nation, and men of his type rarely do. God rarely puts the Monday-morning quarterbacks, the backseat drivers, in positions of real leadership - except as a chastisement, to show them just how difficult leadership really is - and that perfect leadership, like perfect anything, is impossible.

Leaders should expect to be held to a higher standard; but it is patently unfair to hold a leader to a perfect standard.

We will not come up! This shows that Dathan and Abiram considered themselves under no authority. It said, loud and clear: “Moses, we have no respect for your authority. We will listen to God, but not to you. Your word means nothing to us.” They simply would not submit.

Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up! Perhaps Dathan and Abiram did not speak for all of the 250 leaders, representatives, and men of renown. Yet note of those 250 were heard to raise an opposing voice to their harsh accusations.

Some of the 250 thought that maybe Dathan and Abiram were going a little far; but they did not have their courage to speak up. They were wrong because they allowed Moses be accused this way with no one to defend him.

It was easy for them to stand back and say, “Well, I won’t take sides. I can be friends to both groups.” But here and in many subsequent conflicts, silence is taken as agreement. If a godly man or woman - especially a leader - is being falsely accused, and you say nothing, you have sinned, because your silence is received as agreement.​

There's a short addition from the easy English site.

Moses reminded Korah and his followers that Levi’s tribe had special responsibilities. Already God had chosen them to work for him. But this did not satisfy them. Korah wanted more. He wanted to be a priest. He wanted to do a more important job for God. But really, he was God’s enemy! When he and his followers opposed God’s priest, Aaron, they were opposing God. Moses and Aaron had not done anything wrong. God had chosen them to do their special jobs.

Dathan and Abiram were not with Korah. Probably, they were in their tents still. They refused to go to Moses. Instead, they sent a message to him. They complained that Moses had not brought them to the Promised Land. They even said good things about the country called Egypt. But they did not really believe that their lives in Egypt were good. They said these things on purpose, to insult God’s Promised Land. They were blaming Moses, God’s servant, because they were in the desert still. But they were not just insulting God’s servant. They were saying that God’s promises were lies. Therefore, they were insulting God. This was blasphemy.


So, if a man is stoned to death for gathering wood on the Sabbath, just what do you think will happen to these trouble makers and the rabble rouser? If men should know what day of the week it is.... then men should certainly know that revising history and making false accusations must be dangerous too.... Right?

:coffee:
 
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