Numbers 15 – 17
In Chapter 15:1-16 God talks to Moses and instructs him to
tell the children of
2 Thessalonians 1:6 since it
is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble
you, 7 and to give you
who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with
His mighty angels, 8 in
flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do
not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,
From passages like these
we learn a great lesson to pay very close attention to Gods will and not our
own. Now the Lord speaks to Moses again,
Numbers 15:17 Again
the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 18
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you come into the
land to which I bring you, 19
'then it will be, when you eat of the bread of the land, that you shall offer
up a heave offering to the LORD. 20
'You shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave
offering; as a heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it
up. 21 'Of the first of your
ground meal you shall give to the LORD a heave offering throughout your
generations.
Again we see God teaching
the principle that we are to give our best or our first to God. The word heave
simple contribution.
In verse 22 – 31 we find
out what is to be done with those who break God commands unintentionally and intentionally. First it
deals with the congregation. If the entire congregation commits some sort of
sin and they didn’t realize it then they are to
Numbers
If an individual sin
unintentionally they are to offer up a female goat for their sin and they to
will be forgiven. However, if someone does it on purpose knowing full well what
they are doing they are to be cut off from the camp and their guilt be left on
them.
From these verses we see
how destructive sin can be. Even when a person sins unintentionally there was a
need for a sacrifice to be made. When think about these laws it really causes
me to be thankful that we are no longer under the law of Moses but under the
system of grace. I am sure that we have all sinned unintentionally from time to
time and may still not be aware today that we have sinned against God but I
believe that the grace of God covers
these things. However, I personally think that its important that we not only
ask God forgiveness for the sins that we
know that committed but to ask for forgiveness for those sins that we don’t
know that we committed just as the children had to make offering for those sins
they didn’t know they had committed.
Numbers 15:32 Now
while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering
sticks on the Sabbath day. 33
And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to
all the congregation. 34 They
put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to
him. 35 Then the LORD said to
Moses, "The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall
stone him with stones outside the camp."
36 So, as the LORD commanded Moses, all the congregation
brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.
Again, we see seriousness
of God for his people to obey his commands. When I think about this story it
reminds of how denominations view the
1 Corinthians 4:6 Now these things, brethren, I have
figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may
learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed
up on behalf of one against the other.
Galatians 1:6 I
marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace
of Christ, to a different gospel, 7
which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert
the gospel of Christ. 8 But
even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what
we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
Lets this man who decided
to pick up sticks and break the command of God to serve as example to us as
Christians today to take the word of God seriously and not to allow ourselves
to think that we can get away with abusing Gods grace.
Numbers 15:37 Again
the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 38
"Speak to the children of
Not only did
God remind them by word he made them start wearing these tassels so that
they could remember that they are to
obey Gods commands. This was another
memorial that God into place.
In chapter 16 a rebellion
takes place.
Numbers 16:1 Now
Korah the son of Izhar,(yitz – har) the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with
Dathan (daw – than) and Abiram (ab-ee-rom) the sons of Eliab, and On the son of
Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men;
2 and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of
Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of
the congregation, men of renown. 3
They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "You
take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy,
every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt
yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?"
Here we go again, these
men think that they are equally qualified to be the leaders of the congregation
and they accuse Moses of making himself greater than everyone else. Which
simply is not true and we can see this in Moses response.
Numbers 16: 4
So when Moses heard it, he fell on his face; 5 and he spoke to Korah and all
his company, saying, "Tomorrow morning the LORD will show who is His
and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to Him. That one
whom He chooses He will cause to come near to Him. 6 "Do this: Take censers,
Korah and all your company; 7
"put fire in them and put incense in them before the LORD tomorrow, and it
shall be that the man whom the LORD chooses is the holy one. You
take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi!" 8 Then Moses said to Korah,
"Hear now, you sons of Levi: 9
"Is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated
you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to do the
work of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to
serve them; 10 "and that
He has brought you near to Himself, you and all your brethren, the sons
of Levi, with you? And are you seeking the priesthood also?
Notice Moses doesn’t act
like dictator here and command the people to kill these men. No, instead he
bids them to let God decided this
matter. First Moses talks to the Levies and begin to see what their motivation is to take part
in this rebellion. It seems that the Levites were beginning to thank highly of
themselves because God had separated them
out for a specific purpose. If you will remember not all the Levites
could priest and only the descendants of Aaron could be high priest. It appears
they did not like that rule because Moses ask them are you seeking the
priesthood as well? This is common thing that you can read about in history.
Many of the rebellions that are started is because a group of people decide they don’t like the
rules and so they try to over throw the leaders so they can be in power and
make their own rules. Now this can work when it man that is making the rules
but when God makes the rules a rebellion
is futile and that’s exactly what these men are about to find out.
After this Moses tries to
talk to these other men that were involved in this rebellion but the refused to
come to him and notice what they say.
Numbers
Here more false
accusations directed at Moses and as
continue on the next verses you find that this makes Moses mad and he ask God
not to accept their offerings because Moses had not brought any harm to these
men. The next day the 250 and Moses and Aaron light their censors and then the
glory of the Lord appears to them and God tell Moses and Aaron to separate
themselves from the congregation and he will wipe them all out. But, notice what Moses does,
Numbers 16:22 Then
they fell on their faces, and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all
flesh, shall one man sin, and You be angry with all the congregation?"
Now Moses wasn’t happy
that these men were rebelling but he did not want the whole congregation to
have to pay for these men. So look at Gods solution.
Numbers 16:23 So the
LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24
"Speak to the congregation, saying, 'Get away from the tents of Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram.' " 25
Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of
Moses wants them to
understand that none of things that he has done starting from the time there
were in
Numbers
Can
you imagine how scary that was to see the ground literally open and underneath
these men and their family and to watch them
fall deep into the earth because of the rebellion. No wonder the
children of
Numbers
Once again we see God
setting up a memorial for all the children of
Numbers 16:41 On the
next day all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured 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.
It is times like these
when I read about the children of
Numbers 17:1 And the
LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2
"Speak to the children of
This miracles of budding
of the rod would forever show that preeminence of Aaron and that he is the God
chosen high priest. At the end of this chapter we see the fear of death
expressed by the children of