Korach - When Freedom Rebels Against God’s Order

It Has Never Lasted More Than 400 Years

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans:

Paul's attitude and understanding in this case is 100% the same as several rabbinical personalities. Rebellion against the government that God appointed by due process is in fact rebellion against God's elected ruler.

Democracy is the greatest and finest form of government — I wouldn't want to live under dictatorship or tyranny. But democracy has some weaknesses. It has never existed in the history of mankind for more than 400 years. Even ancient Athens, where democracy was invented, did not last 400 years. Freedom is not a license to do anything you want to do — it is a privilege to do what is good and right and just according to God's instructions. Equality is a great value, but it only works when you receive it and not grab it. When fraternity, brotherhood, and liberty are taken to the extreme with the wrong and selfish motives — like during the French Revolution and even earlier in the Korachite rebellion — these important values become harmful to a civil and just rule of law and order.

The values of Sodom are actually very similar to socialism. In Sodom, equality and fraternity and liberty meant that everyone had the same right to everyone else. Nothing was really to be held as private — not your property or your body. Stop being selfish! We are all equal and have equal rights! Doesn't this sound modern and right and very democratic? The West is still harvesting the bitter fruit of the French Revolution. Democracy turns against itself and devours itself when it begins approving values and issues that are expressly forbidden by God and expressly negate nature itself.

The Pattern That Keeps Repeating

The root of Korach's rebellion was already in Numbers 12 when Miriam and Aaron made the same claim to their brother Moses. And part of the root for their criticism might have grown from chapter 11 when two men — Eldad and Medad — prophesied outside the Tabernacle, and Moses said in good faith, "I wish that all of Israel would prophecy" — anticipating the pouring out of the Spirit of God on all flesh, like Joel the prophet promised many years later. Moses's gracious wishful thinking was twisted into an argument by those who wanted power. In Numbers 16, Korach and 250 leaders of renown bring the same argument. After them, Absalom — David's beloved son — had the very same claims against his father.

The sad truth is that the fate of all those who have rebelled against God's anointed one had to face God's own medicine — a very harsh and final medicine. Death for Korach and his gang. Leprosy for Miriam. The good news is that the gates of repentance were opened for Miriam and Aaron, but not for Korach and his 250 men. And in the Israeli Defence Forces, the number of officers who die in battle is as high — and sometimes higher — than the number of enlisted men, because the motto of the IDF is "Follow Me." The leaders go first. The leaders pay most. That is the opposite of Korach's logic, which said: give us more, give us first, give us equal.

He Who Did Not Spare

We like to quote that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We often forget what else is said of this same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:

This aspect of God is not popular today in Christian circles. But we must not forget that God is also called a consuming fire. There is a limit to grace. There is a limit to mercy. There is a limit to forgiveness. It is not endless and not without consequences — and the story of Korach and his 250 leaders of renown is one of the clearest demonstrations in all of Scripture of what happens when God's patience runs out.

Leaders are not made in a cookie factory. There is no college or university, Christian or Jewish, that produces leaders anointed by God to lead His people. Leaders are the men and women who are touched with the fire of the burning bush that burns and does not consume. The leaders of God's choice have a burning in their hearts, and are open and seek God's guidance by day and by night, in sunshine and in storm clouds. The best of these leaders often don't want to lead and don't seek fame and acclaim. That was Moses. That is the standard against which Korach's demands must always be measured.