Divine glory appeared in the cloud above the tabernacle and a voice spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.”
Moses lingered in this terrible crisis, showing a true shepherd’s interest for the flock of his care. He pleaded that God might not completely destroy the people of His choice.
But wrath had gone out and the plague was doing its work of death. Following his brother’s instructions, Aaron took a censer and hurried into the middle of the congregation to “make atonement for them.” “And he stood between the dead and the living.” The plague was stopped, but not until fourteen thousand Israelites lay dead.
Now the people were compelled to believe the unwelcome truth that they were to die in the wilderness. “Surely we die,” they exclaimed, “we perish, we all perish!” They confessed that they had sinned in rebelling against their leaders and that Korah and his company had experienced the just judgment of God.
Don’t the same evils still exist that were at the heart of Korah’s ruin? Pride and ambition are all around, opening the door to envy and power struggles. People become separated from God and unconsciously drawn into the ranks of Satan. Like Korah and his companions, many are thinking, planning, and working so eagerly to exalt themselves that they are ready to twist the truth, lying about and misrepresenting the Lord’s servants. By continuing to repeat lies, they finally come to believe it to be true.
The Hebrews were not willing to submit to the Lord’s directions and restrictions. They were unwilling to receive correction. This was the secret of their complaints against Moses. All through the history of the church, God’s servants have had to meet the same spirit.
Rejection of light darkens the mind and hardens the heart, making it easier to take the next step in sin, to reject even clearer light, until habits of wrongdoing finally become set in the heart. The person who faithfully preaches God’s word and condemns sin is too often repaid with hatred. Soothing their consciences with lies, jealous and resentful people spread conflict in the church and weaken the hands of those who want to build it up.
Those who are envious and continually criticize have misrepresented every step forward made by those whom God has called to lead His work. It was this way in the time of Luther, of the Wesleys, and other reformers, and it is the same today.
Korah and his companions rejected light until they became so blind that the most amazing demonstrations of power were not enough to convince them—they attributed them all to human or satanic sources, and the rest of the people did the same thing. Despite the most convincing evidence of God’s displeasure, they dared to claim that His judgments were from Satan, declaring that Moses and Aaron had caused the death of good and holy men. They committed the sin against the Holy Spirit. “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man,” said Christ, “it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him” (Matthew 12:32). It is through the Holy Spirit that God communicates with us, and those who deliberately reject this influence as satanic have cut off the channel of communication between themselves and Heaven.
If we finally reject the Spirit’s work, there is no more that God can do for us. We have cut ourselves off from God, and sin has no remedy to cure itself. “Let him alone” (Hosea 4:17) is the divine command. Then “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26, 27).
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