Numbers: Faith, Law, and History

The Democratic Rebellion

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Democratic Rebellion

Genre:

Track: 29

Dictation Name: RR181Q29

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

Oh Lord, our God, we give thanks unto thee that in a world of injustice, thy justice governs and prevails. That in a world of evil, thy holiness shall triumph, and everything that is, shall be holiness unto thee. Give us grace therefore, day by day, to walk in the blessed confidence that thy will shall be done, thy purpose accomplished, and every word of thy holy scripture fulfilled and made more clear than the sun. Our God, we thank thee. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is Numbers 16:1-35. Our subject: The Democratic Rebellion. This is a famous episode and you’ll understand after we read and study it, why it is a neglected one. Numbers 16:1-35. The democratic Rebellion. “Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face: and he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the Lord will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. This do; take you censers, Korah, and all his company; and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord to morrow: and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.

And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi: seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from 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 unto them? And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also? For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him? And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which said, We will not come up: is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.

And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them. And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before the Lord, thou, and they, and Aaron, to morrow: and take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye before the Lord every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; thou also, and Aaron, each of you his censer. And they took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation with Moses and Aaron. And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation.

And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation? And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of their's, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.

So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children. And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.

And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.”

We come now to what has been variously called a mutiny, a revolt, a rebellion, and so on. It was, however, an assertion of equal rights by a group of leaders. The leaders were a certain Levite, Korah, a son of Kohath; Dathan, On, and Abiram, of the clan of Reuben.

Their charge against Moses, aided by two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly was, first, “Ye take too much upon you,” or an ARS Kennedy’s translation, “We have had enough of you,” which is a bit of a paraphrase but it gives the meaning. Korah was a Kohathite, and this group camped on the south side of the sanctuary, and the Reubenites also camped to the south. Thus, the revolt began and spread first among men close together and it them infected the others.

Second, the rebels asserted, All the congregation are holy, everyone of them. This was an assertion of religious equality. The target of this charge is specified. It is Moses. Indirectly, Korah may have had Aaron and the high priest in mind, since he was a Levite. It was, at any rate, an assertion of equality. Now, throughout history, when men have demanded equality, the demand is made against those above them, not those below them. They do not protest that some are not as prosperous as they are, and then proceed to share their wealth and power with them. The demand for equality marks hypocrites who resent all who are superior or wealthier, or who have more authority than they do. In this instance, the resentment is against Moses, who God vindicated again and again. What God and man say are alike nothing to men who are possessed with the desire to pull everybody down to their own level.

Then third, these rebels charge that Moses did not recognize an obvious religious fact, but also, not only that the congregation is holy, every one of them, but that the Lord is among them. Again and again, God had judged these people, but now they claim that God is equally with them. This is an amazing arrogance, but it is very common in every age and certainly in our own day.

Then fourth, given these supposedly obvious facts, they said, “Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord.” In Numbers 11:4, we are told that a mixed multitude, or a rabble, created the problem. In this instance, it is the leading men. They never ask, “By what right are we clan leaders?” It was Moses who was above all the clans they resented. Equalitarianism is always an upward drive to destroy those above one.

The response of Moses was to prostrate himself before God and to appeal to God for vindication. There is no reasoning with these men. The Levites associated with Korah wanted the priestly power, and the princes behind the Reubenites wanted the prophetic leadership and authority which belonged to Moses by God’s appointment. Moses then spoke first to the Levites; Korah and his company. The decision, he said, would be God’s. Let them appear before the sanctuary with censers and incense, as would Aaron, and see then whom God would accept. “Ye take too much upon you, you sons of Levi,” he said. Then Moses told them that their rebellion was primarily and essentially against God. They were treating God’s word and His appointment of the line of Aaron as a small thing. God has blessed you also in His own particular way, and you are treating Him with contempt.

Moses also summoned Dathan and Abiram and there Reubenite and other cohorts, but they refused to come at his bidding. Instead, they made their charges. First, they said Moses had by deception, led them out of Egypt, “a land that floweth with milk and honey.” How wonderful it was in retrospect. Slavery in Egypt had now, in their minds, become prosperity. The murder of their firstborn sons a generation earlier, the beatings by the labor levied bosses, and the abuses of their women were now nothing to them. Moses had replaced Pharaoh as the menace.

Second, they charged Moses had brought them into the wilderness to kill us. The judgment pronounced by God was now ascribed to Moses. It was God who said you’re going to die here for disobedience. It was all Moses’ fault, they said, that now both Egypt and Canaan were blocked to them, and that they would perish in the wilderness.

Third, they held none of this was their fault. With the older generation dead, Moses, they claimed, planned to make himself a prince over us. All the evil was on Moses’ side, not their’s. No mention is made of God. He was not real to these men. All the miracles meant nothing to them because no miracle means anything to the ungodly.

Our Lord in a parable illustrates this vividly in Luke 16:19-21. The rich man in Hell indicts God for not telling him what he needed to escape Hell. To prove his nobility of soul, he asks God to send Lazarus from heaven to testify to his five brothers. Abraham answers him saying, “T hey have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” No miracle, no judgment will awaken those who hate God, and Christ’s resurrection did not change the minds of any.

Now Moses was angry. He begged God to show no respect for their offerings, for “I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them.” Moses then told the Levites around Korah to appear at the sanctuary with the censers and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation. Moses and Aaron were commanded to separate themselves from all the congregation and from Korah and his associates, so that God might destroy them all. Moses and Aaron interceded for the people, and then Moses ordered the people to separate themselves from the rebels. The Reubenite and other princes stood defiantly in front of their tents with their families. The Levites went forward to offer incense. The judgment of God fell on these Levites. The earth opened up to swallow them and their families. Fire first destroyed the two hundred and fifty men and their offered incense. God killed them and God buried them. Even then, the men of Israel quickly interpreted this as some kind of natural event unrelated to God and Moses. The men of Israel were faithless. They were also envious.

Envy is basic to equalitarianism, and it is unteachable. An envious person will learn nothing. The envious man lives in a simplistic world. To fulfill his envious and leveling demands, he sees as the remedy for all evils, when in fact, it is the source of greater evils. Envy is marked by a strong impudence. The word impudence comes from the Latin. “Im” meaning not and “pudens,” shame. Envy is a shameless thing, that’s what it means literally. It is impudent because it masks evil as virtue. It reverses moral standards and calls it good.

Moses recognized that he was the primary human target. In verse 11, he asks, “And what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?” This was not especially respectful of his brother, Aaron, but it was the truth. Aaron, while still high priest, had forfeited moral authority, and they knew it. He held an important and respected office, but Aaron himself was weak. Moses was the target. By standing in front of their tents with their families, the princes were demonstrating their defiance and contempt for Moses as he passed by. The people here were asserting their right to equality. This right was declared immediately after a national act of disobedience, and there is a connection between the two. To assert a right too often means to deny a duty. It is an insistence on privilege rather than responsibility. Rights then express self-interest. Advancement through work and intelligence is replaced by coercive claims.

The rebels had accused Moses of putting out the eyes of the people, which is an old Hebrew idiom for throwing dust in their eyes. God, in return, destroyed them. Their claim to being a holy people was based on God’s own statement which however, they insisted, on misreading. In Exodus 19:5-6 we read, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Very plainly, there was a condition to being God’s holy people. They had to obey God’s voice, his law, and “keep “my covenant.” That is, walk in my law and rejoice in my grace. Only then shall ye be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation.” But this is now forgotten. The January prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C., with all the dignitaries attending, celebrated God’s unconditional love for Israel. Since then, I’ve written on the heresy of unconditional love for Christians, or church members, as though there is no obligation on man’s part, and I have received a long letter of rebuke that somehow, that is not Christian to say God has a right to expect anything of us, and His love has conditions.

Israel had forfeited this status by its sin. Envy always has bitter fruits. It divides men wrongly. It divides men on immoral grounds; whereas God requires a division on holy grounds. There is another grim factor here. Korah was a close relative to Moses and Aaron, and he led the revolt. This was the most far-reaching revolt, and it came from a source close to Moses and Aaron. Centuries later, descendents from this sub-clan to which Korah did distinguish themselves in God’s service. Now they disgraced it. Civil warfare is always the ugliest and most vicious form of conflict. The casualties in the U.S. Civil War far outnumbered those of either World Wars 1 or 2. Similarly, nothing can equal church and family quarrels in their bitterness and harm.

After this struggle, the life of Israel in the wilderness went only downhill. Their stand cost them dearly, and brought grim and unanticipated results. Let us pray.

Our Father, we live in a time when the same rebellious spirit as Moses faced then confront us now, and the whole earth is eaten up with envy. Judge them in thy righteousness, oh Lord, and deliver us from these ungodly ones, we beseech thee. In Christ’s name. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] Thomas Sowell, in a lecture to Heritage recently, on affirmative action, which is a demand for equality, was asked by some body in the audience what he expected to result from the affirmative action program, and he said, “Civil war.”

[Rushdoony] Yes, because when you make envy the basis for any kind of action in a society, short of a radical reformation, it will only create warfare, and even then it will, after all, the Reformation did lead to all kinds of warfare. It was made the excuse by the rulers to go to war for other reasons. Any other questions or comments?

[Audience] In Romans 12:9, it makes very clear that love embraces an element of hate, for that which is evil. Evil people {?} not just for sin but for {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, and while we are not to hate our personal enemies, we are to hate the enemies of God, and the psalmist says, “Do I not hate them that hate thee, ye I hate them with a perfect (that is a mature) hatred with an awareness of their hostility to thee.”

[Audience] The separation of power {?} does that derive from Numbers 16? It’s similar to that {?} sons of Korah {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, from a great many things because first, the priesthood and the civil rulers are radically separated and when one King Uzziah attempted to unite them, to usurp priestly powers, God struck him down with leprosy, even though Uzziah was one of the better kings, but He did not allow that usurpation. The separation of powers is a thoroughly biblical concept.

In an article that I have written for a forthcoming issue of “The Chalcedon Report,” I deal with the fact that this is now a forgotten doctrine, because while we are aware today of totalitarianism in the state, we forget that totalitarianism can exist in the church, and therefore, we even have people applauding it as good. They feel that everything should be under the church that is Christian, and they have a term for any kind of ministry that is not under church control; para-church ministries, as though Christianity were the exclusive possession of an institution. No idea could be more anti-Christian than that. Yes?

[Audience] Is it not reasonable or biblical, to conclude then if anyone vehemently argues for the love of those who are the haters of God and His law, that they hate God?

[Rushdoony] Yes. Scripture tells us that He hates evildoers. Now, if we’re going to insist on loving evildoers, then we’re going to be haters of God, and we have people now who are very insistent, for example, that we are to love sodomites, and that there are too many Christians who are going astray here because they don’t like sodomites, and that’s evil on their part. This is a kind of anti-Christianity that prevails in the name of Christ.

[Audience] In observing people who have done that in terms of what you have told us, that unconditional love idea, whenever I tell them there is no such thing and they are sinning by insisting upon that, it’s interesting for me to observe that those same people are among the worst gossips about their own Christian brothers.

[Rushdoony] Yes, very true. They operate in terms of a double standard. They can get very angry at you for calling attention to the word of God, that they can redefine it any way they see fit, and one of the great evils of our time is precisely that insistence on redefining the Bible. There are various terms for it, and perhaps two of the most common are liberation theology, which is pure Marxism, and contextualization, which again had Marxist sources, but in terms of contextualization, although it will always wear a pious façade, you can make the Bible mean what Buddha says, and what Mohammed says, or anything you want it to say. Now, the argument that people will use, “Well, if you will read this or that article,” and I’ve had all kinds of articles shoved at me on contextualization, some by people I know, likeable, kindly people, but evil. Despite their good manners.

Well, who, if he’s going to sell you a gold brick, is going to be nasty and unpleasant? He’s going to be one of the sweetest, talking people imaginable, and so these people who are promoting contextualization and liberation theology are sweeter than sweet. They’re the nicey-nice people, and they’re flooding the church with their piety and their insistence that the rest of us are nasty, hating peoples. But there scarcely a major evangelical seminary and college today which is not infiltrated by liberationism and contextualism. Your major magazines on missions are now contextualization propaganda pieces.

[Audience] Something that you have spoken of often, and that is, and Otto has as well, the disintegration of the use of language on the part of . . .

[Rushdoony] The celebratin of what?

[Audience] The use of language, the meaning of words and the importance of the use of language, and there was a meeting, it appears to me and I’ve read it {?} contextualization and of course all pagan philosophy, they are very self-conscious in their use of words and their ability to deaden {?} and use words with skill in order to deceive people.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Karl Marx said that language is a means of warfare, and these contextualists and liberationalists use language as a means of warfare.

[Audience] And most Christians are truly ignorant that they’re doing it.

[Rushdoony] Yes, and they get angry if you call their attention to the truth. Well, our time is drawing near to an end. Let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we thank thee that thou art God and that thy word is truth, and that all the evil of men, and that all their attempts to twist thy word can prevail. It shall only destroy them. We thank ye that it is thy government, and thy word, and thy purpose that shall alone prevail. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape