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Life Tabernacle Church Podcast
Biblical preaching and passionate teaching from Life Tabernacle Church in Vinton, Virginia.
Pastor Dallas Herndon and guest ministers teach verse-by-verse through Scripture, exploring the teachings of Jesus Christ and applying them to everyday Christian life.
Topics include:
• Prayer
• Discipleship
• Faith and doubt
• Spiritual formation
• Biblical theology
• Living the Gospel
New sermons recorded live each week from Life Tabernacle Church.
As Aaron offered this sacrifice to God to stop the death, this is what Christ has done for us. You're thinking like, dad, this is this random scary story in the book of Numbers. How does this have anything to do with Jesus? It has everything to do with Jesus.
Speaker 2:Hello, friends. Welcome to the Life Tabernacle Church podcast. It's an honor to be with you today. This podcast serves as our church's weekly sermon archive. Tune in each week to hear what God is speaking in our community.
Speaker 2:Be sure to follow and share with a friend. We hope you enjoy today's message.
Speaker 1:Alrighty. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those. We'll hop right into God's word here in one moment. I think we've had plenty of time, I think. Seven minutes feels long, I guess.
Speaker 1:Everybody sleep well last night? Everybody good? I think my daughters and my kids actually slept good last night, so I feel good today. Sometimes it's elusive. As y'all know, few weeks ago, we finished a sermon series through the book or the letter of James, and that was fun.
Speaker 1:Last week, we preached a message on the harvest. Look at your neighbor and say, The harvest. Harvest had all those pump kins up here and had to drag them back home. That wasn't fun. Today we're gonna start a small mini sermon series, because we are in the fall season, the best season in my personal opinion.
Speaker 1:And we have the cultural holiday of Halloween coming up. And this is the season where people love pumpkin patches, corn mazes, scary movies. Raise your hand if you like scary movies, okay? Anybody like scary movies? I don't do scary movies, okay?
Speaker 1:I don't like corn mazes either. I don't like the thing they do at Liberty Scare Mayor. I don't like being scared, okay? I don't like someone jumping out. I don't need that, okay?
Speaker 1:All right? And so, but with that, I wanna do a sermon series simply titled Scary Sermons. Look at your neighbor and say scary sermons, or spooky sermons, whatever scary sermons. All right. And so we're gonna look at a few different texts in the Bible.
Speaker 1:Cause if we've all read the Bible for long enough, we know there's some scary stuff in here. Right? When you read a story like we're gonna read today, it can scare you. I I don't know about y'all, but it's a little freaky, some of the stuff that happens in the air. So I want to be able to look at these texts in this season, and I hope we can walk away with two things.
Speaker 1:I want us to have a greater fear of God. The Bible says the beginning of the wisdom is the fear of God. So if we wanna be wise, we need to fear God, but we ultimately just wanna fear God and not fear anything else. Jesus has literally conquered death, hell, and the grave. What is there to fear?
Speaker 1:Right? And so I wanna be able to dig into some texts together. And today we're gonna be looking at a story in the book of Numbers. We'll be in Numbers 16. So if you wanna go there, go to the book of Numbers, chapter 16.
Speaker 1:And this is the story of what is known as Korah's Rebellion. Korah's Rebellion. So raise your hand if you're familiar with the story. No shame. Okay.
Speaker 1:Kind of a weird one, kind of one out there. I've actually never heard a sermon on Korah's Rebellion. I'll you a quick snippet. The story of Korah's Rebellion is about a guy named Korah who rebels against God. And as a result, the earth opens up and swallows him and his family.
Speaker 1:Literally, the earth just opens up, they fall in, it closes, and that's it. And that's freaky. I think that's pretty scary. So let's dig into it together. So we'll be in number 16.
Speaker 1:We'll read verses one through three to begin. If you're there, say I'm there. If it's on the screen, I got it. Alright, here we go. Numbers 16 verses one through three.
Speaker 1:My friends, this is the word of the Lord. Korah, son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab and own son of Peleth, became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were two fifty Israelite men, well known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, you have gone too far. The whole community is holy.
Speaker 1:Every single one of them. And the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly? My friends, this is the word of the Lord. Let us pray this morning.
Speaker 1:Lord, we thank you for your word. Even though this is an ancient book, it means something now. This was written about to God's people and about God's people, but it is for us today. Let us have ears to hear what the spirit is saying about this scary story of Korah's Rebellion. In the name of Jesus, all of God's people said, Amen.
Speaker 1:I don't know about y'all, I love TV shows. And recently I watched a TV show called the Pindragon Cycle, the Rise of the Merlins. Anybody seen this on Prime? It's really good. And it's about like King Arthur.
Speaker 1:I didn't really grow up reading the King Arthur stories and the knights of the round table and the search for the holy grail and Merlin and all that stuff. Didn't, I didn't really understand it as a kid and wasn't really interested. But now that I'm older and I have less hair, I'm more interested now. And so I watch this TV show, it's really interesting. And there's one of these storylines in the movie, or in the TV show, about the lost city of Atlantis.
Speaker 1:This is a legend. We might know if you're familiar with fantasy and history. Atlantis was supposedly this really advanced civilization that used to be on earth a long time ago. It was actually written about by the philosopher Plato in three sixty BC. It was a city well known for its great wealth, its riches, and power, and wisdom.
Speaker 1:But for some reason or another, what what what the legend goes is they basically became greedy and became proud. And as a result, the gods judged them, and they allowed Atlantis, the lost city of Atlantis to sink into the sea. And that's all that we know that it is. It's a legend. There's some people that have claimed that they have found the lost ruins buried under the sea, but no one really knows.
Speaker 1:But the idea that this great city, this once great city that had great wealth and riches and everything was great, but they fell under divine judgment is something that I think we're all familiar with. Right? The reason why Atlantis fell was because of their pride and the gods judged them. And so this idea of God in heaven judging humanity or executing judgment through supernatural and natural means is something we're well acquainted with. We look at the earth and when we look at the world, look at the news and you see earthquakes.
Speaker 1:Right? You see volcanoes, you see hurricanes, you see crazy weather events around the world. And on one hand, we try to explain them as natural means. This is just God's natural order. This is so happens to happen this way.
Speaker 1:But there's another side of us, probably deeper in us that we're all thinking, is this God? I don't know about y'all as a kid. Anytime there's a thunderstorm and I heard thunder and lightning, I thought God was angry in heaven. And He was he was having a little, you know, a little fit and he was going off. But I was also told that when I heard thunder and lightning that it was God bowling in heaven.
Speaker 1:Okay? So I got some mixed reviews about what was really going on. But the idea that some cosmic events, some crazy natural events are really a result of God's judgment here in the present. And that's what we see all throughout the scripture. The Bible is full of these crazy stories of divine judgment all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
Speaker 1:I think one of the craziest stories, one of the scariest stories in the Bible is the one so many of us have painted on our kids' nurseries. You know? You got the baby room, the baby's on the way, you wanna do a little theme, so what do you do? You get a little Noah, little bald Noah with a beard, and he has a hammer in his head and he's building an ark. Right?
Speaker 1:And you got Noah and his kids and two of every kind of animal on the earth. And they crawl on the boat and they go for a cruise to The Bahamas for a while. Right? It's great. It's this beautiful story.
Speaker 1:Like there's a rainbow on the wall and the animals are smiling. Right. It's this beautiful, fun story. Right. The problem is in that story, like the rest of humanity's like drowning to death.
Speaker 1:Uncomfortable laugh, right dreamer? Literally like God said that he had gotten so frustrated that he regretted making humanity because they had sinned so much. And in God and his holiness and his righteousness and his justice decides to judge the world by sending a flood. At this point in history, in that story, it never rained on the earth. So yes, it's awesome that Noah listened to God and God preserved His promises through Noah and his family, but it is a sad, scary story.
Speaker 1:Literally the whole earth died. That's awful. It's not only this, the Bible's full of these. You got stories like Sodom and Gomorrah. Right?
Speaker 1:And then you have this crazy story where these little kids make fun of this bald guy in the Bible. And this bald guy's response, he calls two bears down and the bears like eat all the kids. It's like freaky. It's like, what, why, why is this in the Bible? Right?
Speaker 1:Like, if anybody calls me baldy, I'm like, that's not gonna be my response, but whatever. But it's not only that in the Old Testament, we actually see this going into the New Testament. Right? The Bible ends or begins with a bunch of weird, scary stories of divine judgment and it ends with it. And I think this is something that we're all kind of familiar with, whether we're a Christian or not.
Speaker 1:Because all of us watch different movies and shows, read books, walk, the walking dead. Anybody like zombie stuff? Anybody here know Armageddon? Y'all remember that movie in the nineties called Armageddon? You got this asteroid headed towards the earth and the earth earth's going to be destroyed.
Speaker 1:It's going be over and it's going be sad. And then, you know, someone saves the day. It's awesome. Whatever that's how it's all, all the movies in, but we have all these shows and movies in our culture that really speak to a coming day where everything hits the fan. That there's coming a time at some point, we don't know where humanity is gonna absolutely turn on itself and the flood gates of heaven are gonna open up and God is going to execute judgment on the earth.
Speaker 1:And we are going to enter into an apocalypse and it will be the end of the world as we know it. And that's not because we're superstitious. And that's not just because we're anxious, something bad's going to happen. This is actually something the scriptures speak to. Like I just said, the writers of scripture call this the great and terrible day of the Lord.
Speaker 1:This coming day where God is going to execute judgment on the living and the dead for what humanity has done. This is a fact. This is coming. We can see the birth pains happening. You see wars everywhere.
Speaker 1:You see people murdering each other. You see people hating each other. We see this all over the world. You read the news for five minutes. We know we are headed towards a crazy end.
Speaker 1:And that can make us feel scared. Right? I mean, I, in a way I hope it does because that means you're human. Because when I think about my beautiful wife, who's it's her birthday today, shout out to my wife's, you know, you know, she's 27 and she's cute. Okay.
Speaker 1:So shout out to my wife, but I love my wife. And I have these four beautiful kids. And I hate to think that there's coming a day where the earth just falls apart and they're going to be here for it. That's scary. My kids haven't grown up yet.
Speaker 1:My kids haven't got to experience all the goodness of God in their lives. And I don't know about you, it makes me feel a little anxious. It's not a good feeling. It makes us feel scared. That's why this is called scary sermons.
Speaker 1:However, through the story of Korah's Rebellion today, I want you all to be able to leave here, not feeling scared because there's a promise that we're given in scripture. We read this story and it's gonna be a little freaky, but I promise if you can listen to what the spirit is saying, you don't have to leave here scared. You literally can go out of this place today, fearing any divine judgment that ever happens again, if we would accept it. And I want us to do that today. So let's look back at our passage here in Numbers 16.
Speaker 1:16. So Numbers 16. Numbers is towards the beginning of the Bible. And in Israel's story, God's people Israel in the Old Testament are getting going. So let me kind of just recap if you haven't read Numbers in a while.
Speaker 1:There's a God named Yahweh, who's led the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. We see this in the book of Exodus. God takes his people with great displays of divine judgment with the 10 plagues that He places on Egypt. And God's people go from being in Egypt. They go through the Red Sea and they're now in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:God and his great love for them makes a covenant with them at Mount Sinai and giving the people the law as we know it. Because this one true Holy God who's executed these great judgments on the earth. He wants these people that he's chosen who are from Abraham's family. He wants them to be close to them. He wants to have a relationship with them.
Speaker 1:So he gives them what we know is the law. Can you say the law? The law is what we read in the old testament. These 617 different laws that God gives Israel. And these weren't supposed to be burdensome.
Speaker 1:These were given to them as an act of grace. Because if the people were to do these, they could approach God and they can know God personally. They could be closed in because God is holy. He's a one true holy God. He displayed that to the greatest nation of the time in Egypt when he completely embarrassed them.
Speaker 1:We understand that God is holy. And because God is holy and there can't be any sin near him, because there's no evil or sin within him, he gives them the law so that they could come close and that they could be his people. And so they do that and they they get all these laws starting in Exodus and then Leviticus and Deuteronomy. They got all these laws and things are going okay. And then God basically says, hey, look, I'm not only giving you the law, I wanna take you to the promised land.
Speaker 1:Remember God had made a promise to Abraham? I am gonna give you this land for your family. And this is how they're going to fulfill it. And God's just going to march them right in there and they're going to take care of it. So we get the story in numbers and they send out 12 spies.
Speaker 1:Moses, by God's decree, sends out 12 spies into the land. They're checking it out to see if they're able to take the land. 10 of the spies say, you know what? The land is too fortified. It's too strong.
Speaker 1:The people are too great. There's no way we're going to be able to do this. But then there's also only two guys out of the 12, Caleb and Joshua, who say, you know what? I think God is able. I think we can take the land and we should.
Speaker 1:But the problem is the 10 convinced the rest of the people, we don't need to do it. This ain't the time to do it. We're not going to be successful. And the whole people of Israel are like, we can't do it. Let's just go back to Egypt.
Speaker 1:And then God gets mad. Rightfully so. And Moses gets mad. And there basically is a judgment saying, hey, instead of taking like a two week walk from Mount Sinai to the promised land, you are now gonna walk in the wilderness for forty years and this entire generation's gonna die. A journey that was literally supposed to take ten, eleven, twelve days now takes forty years.
Speaker 1:And so with all this said, there's frustration. Y'all ever been frustrated? Y'all ever been frustrated with your kids, frustrated at work, frustrated with family, whatever it is. Right? Frustrated that the Cowboys are the worst football team in the world.
Speaker 1:Right? You've been frustrated. Hey, my name's Dallas. I mean, you can blame my father. We'll pray.
Speaker 1:We'll pray at the end together. Must pray. So, you know, we felt frustrated and the people are frustrated. Right? The people are frustrated because they're either sitting there thinking to themselves, this is Moses' fault.
Speaker 1:We should be in the promised land. But because Moses is not a very good leader, we're gonna have to walk out here for forty years. So there's this inward stirring. We need a new leader. We need someone else that can lead us to the promised land In step Korah.
Speaker 1:Look at your neighbor and say Korah. Now we're back to number 16. Let's read read verses one through three. Korah, son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, son of Levi, and certain Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On, son of Peleph, became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were two fifty Israelite men, well known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council.
Speaker 1:They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, you've gone too far. The whole community is holy. Every one of them and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly? Very simply, we see here.
Speaker 1:Korah is upset with the leadership that God has set forth, namely Moses and Aaron. They're frustrated. Korah's saying, you know what? I can lead this people. And he begins making this accusation in verse three.
Speaker 1:Hey, look, God's given us the law. All of us are holy now. All of us can come close to God. So since we're all holy Moses, why do you keep exalting yourself as the leader? Any of us could be the leader here since we're all holy now.
Speaker 1:Move out the way. I wanna challenge you for the position. He's arguing on the basis that, hey, we're all holy. Not only does Korah have this envious spirit to himself and once Moses' position, he not keeps it. He doesn't keep it to himself.
Speaker 1:He drags everybody else into it. Korah convinces three other guys and two fifty other prominent leaders in Israel to go along with his plan. That makes me think of this. Any sin that is in our hearts, if we don't kill it at the source, it's going to affect others. Every single time.
Speaker 1:Sin has the ability to do that. Sin likes to creep out and likes to grow and fester like a nasty mold. That's what it does. I mean, like, if you hear... Let's say you got a...
Speaker 1:You got beef with somebody. You're upset with somebody. You don't like somebody. They get on your nerves. Whatever their problem is.
Speaker 1:Instead of just saying, you know what, Lord? Deal with my heart. I have a problem with that person. But Lord, I wanna bless them. I don't wanna be so frustrated at them.
Speaker 1:Right? Instead of doing that, what do we do? Say, hey, Lewis. Bro, do you see what Lewis Junior was wearing today? Bro, he looked like a bum, didn't he?
Speaker 1:A real bum, ain't he? Ain't that your son? You gotta get him some new clothes. He looks like a bum. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:You don't have money. Okay. We'll take him an offering for you, I guess. But that's the, the idea is that in this scenario, you begin to gossip and you begin to involve others in your sin, in your issues. And the problem is sin grows.
Speaker 1:And so Korah doesn't keep it to himself. He doesn't take it to God and prayer like he should. He involves everybody else in his nasty little plan. And this really goes from not being a big deal to very bad, very quickly. It goes from one man.
Speaker 1:Now there's over two fifty men who are ready to rise up and challenge Moses and Aaron. So I just want you to think as we work through this text, is number one is that sin affects everybody. If you let it out, it's gonna grow and fester. So my encouragement to you is if you have a sin or issue in your heart, kill it at the source. Kill it in here now.
Speaker 1:Don't let it get out. Now, what's also interesting is that Korah is not just some regular Israelite. Korah is actually the cousin of Moses and Aaron. Here's the interesting piece. And this might be a little confusing.
Speaker 1:I think it's confusing to me when I try to think about all this. Okay? Korah was also a Levite from the fam... From the family, but not of Aaron's line. So when God brought the nation of Israel out, He chose the tribe of Levi to be the priest.
Speaker 1:But within the tribe of Levi, think about this big family, he chose Aaron, Moses, his brother, Aaron's family to be the priest over God. These are the ones that are able to go into the Tabernacle, into the Holies of Holies to make sacrifice, to burn incense, and to be priests before God for all the people. And Korah didn't get to be a part of that. Korah's dad was not Aaron's dad. So, but the cool thing is, the interesting thing is Korah's still a Levite.
Speaker 1:Meaning Korah still has very special ministry to do in the Tabernacle. Korah's family wasn't really in charge of being like the set up and tear down crew of the tabernacle. They were like the maintenance guys. They were able to protect and preserve the Tabernacle. So it's not like he's saying, hey, look.
Speaker 1:Like, I don't get to do any of the fun stuff like you. Korah still had a very privileged position in God's plan and ministry for Israel. But that wasn't enough for Korah. It wasn't enough. He he wasn't okay with what God had given him and he wanted something else.
Speaker 1:And so many of us, that's what we do. We forget and neglect what God's given us. Giftings, callings, passions, etcetera. And we fix our eyes on somebody else. You know, so you know what?
Speaker 1:I wish I could be like dreamer. I wish I could pray like dreamer. She's such a prayer warrior. And then you neglect what God's given you. And you become envious.
Speaker 1:And you become, you begin to covet what she has. And then you feel away towards somebody because you're upset because you're just jealous. Korah had a privileged position. He was special. Anybody else in all the Israel would have killed to do what Korah does, but that wasn't enough for him.
Speaker 1:And that really leads us... That that that really is the second point. It wasn't enough. And that's what Moses says here in Numbers 16, nine and ten. It says, Moses says to Korah, 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 to himself to do the work at the Lord's Tabernacle and to stand before the community and to minister to them?
Speaker 1:He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you're trying to get the priesthood too. That phrase, isn't it enough? Look at your own life right now. Close your eyes if you need to. Isn't it enough what God's given you?
Speaker 1:I don't know about... I'm being honest with you. This week, I get on Instagram. I get on Facebook. I look at other pastors and preachers of great churches around the world.
Speaker 1:And I watched this video of this one pastor. It was crazy. He was talking about there's a time in his life where he did ministry at a small church and nobody knew him. And he felt very insignificant. And what he...
Speaker 1:This is crazy. What he said is our church only ever got to 800 people. Felt so insignificant. And I was like, what? 800 people?
Speaker 1:You felt insignificant with 800 people. My friends, that's a lot of people. And I'm like, you felt insignificant? And then all of a sudden, I didn't check myself. I've been getting to feel insignificant.
Speaker 1:I'm like, well, you know, I I get the privilege of pastor a small church. Well, if he feels insignificant, what am I? Maybe I want what he has. And I began to check myself and and I began to almost disrespect the giftings and callings God's given me because I fixed my eyes on somebody else other than God. And that's what happens when we neglect what God's given us.
Speaker 1:That's why we have to learn to be thankful. Look at your neighbor and say, thankful. In this season, I love the fall season as you know, but this is the season of gratitude. Gratitude really fixes a lot of our issues. If we wake up every day, not just faking it, but really trying to offer prayer to God.
Speaker 1:We just say, God, thank you. Thank you that you have given me the job you have. Thank you that you've given me the abilities I have. Lord, I'm not them, but I'm me. And I'm the only me in this world.
Speaker 1:I can only be me. I can only do what you've called me to do. I can't do what Lewis has been called to do. I can't do what Bruce has been called to do. I can't do what anybody else.
Speaker 1:I can do what God's called me to do. And I should... That should be enough for me. But the problem is in our stories, we look at Korah. It wasn't enough for him.
Speaker 1:It wasn't enough. He wanted something else that he couldn't have. And unfortunately, because Korah could have snapped out of it. You know what? He could've like, you know what Moses?
Speaker 1:You're right. It is enough. I'm content. I'm sorry. Everybody, let's forget this whole thing.
Speaker 1:Let's just get behind Moses and Aaron. These are God's leaders. That wasn't enough. He didn't get the message. And that's why it goes down.
Speaker 1:Because God won't be mocked and God won't be disrespected. So God instructs Moses, okay, let's put this to a test. Let's put this to a test to see who God's true leaders are. Let's go. So this is what it says in Numbers sixteen sixteen nineteen, continuing to work through the text.
Speaker 1:It says this, Moses said to Korah, you and all your followers are to appear before the Lord tomorrow. You and they and Aaron. Each man is to take a censer and put incense in it. 250 censers in all and present it before the Lord. You and Aaron are to present your censors also.
Speaker 1:So each of them took his censors, put his burning coals and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance of the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly. Here's the test. Real simple. Remember, Aaron and his family, who are the priests, they were the only ones authorized to present fire before God.
Speaker 1:Okay? There's a couple of guys not long before this who presented unauthorized fire before God and God burned them up as a result. So he said, God said, fine. Let's all put a little fire in our bowls. These are like...
Speaker 1:Is any... Is anybody... I I forgot my my incense bowl. It's in my office. But I have this little bowl where I'll put frankincense in it and I'll burn it.
Speaker 1:You light it on fire, then you blow it out, and then you have this beautiful smoke or incense that begins to rise. So he says, fine. Let's let the real priest put some incense in the burners and everybody else too. And let's see what happens. And Moses and Aaron are very keen on what God's doing.
Speaker 1:And this is why they begin to freak out Because Korah and the boys are getting their little bulge of incense to make their way towards the Tabernacle. The glory of God falls on the Tabernacle. And God speaks to Moses and Aaron here in verse 20. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put a end to them at once. They know exactly what God's doing.
Speaker 1:God's about to kill all these folks. Because they are disrespecting what God has established. And God said, I'm not gonna be mocked. I'm the one true holy God. Let's show them who God is.
Speaker 1:And you what Moses and Aaron do? Moses and Aaron are like, fine. Cool. Kill them. Sounds good to me.
Speaker 1:That's not what they do. That's what we would probably do. We have enemies in our life. We have people that get... We're frustrated within our life.
Speaker 1:We get people that get on our nerves. And and somewhere in underneath the skin of us, we we say or pray something like that. Something like this. God, I hope they get what they deserve. And they've been so nasty for years.
Speaker 1:Sorry. Sorry if they burn. Right? Sometimes in us because we don't have the full love of God in us. We want people to receive wrath and not grace.
Speaker 1:And Moses and Aaron though, show who they really are. Instead of saying, God, burn them up right now and go on about their merry business. You know what they do? Look at verse 22 here. I love this.
Speaker 1:But Moses and Aaron fell face down and cried out, oh God. The God who gives breath to all living beings. Will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins? They pray for Korah and all the rebel... The rebels.
Speaker 1:They offer prayer to God and say, God, you know, don't kill them all. Just kill Korah if you're gonna kill anybody. You're gonna kill everybody for one man's sin? Please don't do that. You're merciful.
Speaker 1:You're gracious. Don't don't do that. This is beginning to show us the real difference of who's God's real people are and who's not. Because we have Korah who's jealous. Not only jealous of leadership, but he's jealous of his family member.
Speaker 1:And he's gathered all these guys and we see his character. Now we're seeing the character of the true priests. They offer prayer. They intercede for them. And this is what the Lord says to Moses and Aaron as as a response.
Speaker 1:He says, hey, you need to get away from Korah and these guys right now. You need to get away from them. And this is what goes down in verse 28 through 35. Then Moses said, this is his this is how you will know the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea. Let's pause there.
Speaker 1:We got verse 28. Remember back in Exodus, I'll refresh your memory. Moses did not want to be the leader of the Israelites. He could care less. Moses grew up in Egypt.
Speaker 1:He grew up there for a while. Then he killed a man. And then he fled into the wilderness and lived there for forty years. It wasn't until he was 80 years old that God encountered him at the Burning Bush. And Moses response was not me.
Speaker 1:Send somebody else. I don't want to go. He didn't want this position yet God called him to do it. The Bible describes Moses as the most humble man who's ever lived. He did not want this.
Speaker 1:That's why he says, this was not my idea. This was not my idea to be the leader of the people. If it was my choice, I wouldn't be it. This was not my idea. Is what he says.
Speaker 1:But this is what he says. This is how you know the Lord has sent me and it wasn't my idea. Next verse. If these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. Very simple.
Speaker 1:Here's the fur test. If if they just like live a long life and they die when they're old, that means I was wrong. But then Moses says this. But... Look at your neighbor and say, but.
Speaker 1:If the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them with everything that belongs to them, then they go down alive into the realm of the dead. Then you will know that these men had treated the Lord with contempt. As soon... Look. As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground underneath them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households and all those associated with Korah together with their possessions.
Speaker 1:They went down alive into the realm of the dead with everything they own. The earth closed over them and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled shouting, the earth is going to swallow us too. And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who are offering the incense. That's scary.
Speaker 1:Moses put it to the test. God said, Put it to the test. Moses wasn't lying. They did not die a natural death. Literally as Moses was speaking.
Speaker 1:And Moses is basically saying, Hey. Because I was thinking about this earthquakes and the earth opening up wasn't a new thing. Like a sinkhole just automatically opening up all of a sudden wasn't something that had never happened before. But what was unique about this is Moses said, if something crazy happens right now at this word, then you're going to know it's God. And as soon as he got done talking Korah and his whole family, I, I, I, I want you to have that picture.
Speaker 1:This isn't what... This is... Wasn't just Korah and the guys that were rebelling against him. His whole family. His wife, his kids, probably his father-in-law, his mother-in-law, his mother, father, everybody.
Speaker 1:And everything they owned gets swallowed by the earth in a moment. Everything. And I look at that. I'm like, that's not fair. This is Korah's fault.
Speaker 1:Why are you punishing his wife and his kids and everybody else? Again, that's what sin does. The Bible says that sin basically goes from generation to generation to generation. Like when we do something, it can get passed down to our kids. Some of us call it generational curses.
Speaker 1:Some of us explain it in a more natural way. I don't know how else to say it other than sin affects our families. And that's what happens in this story. Because of Korah's hard, proud, envious, rebellious heart, his whole family and all these guys who had great lives to live die because of his pride. And at this, we know that Moses wasn't lying and that God was being honest.
Speaker 1:Not only that, not only does the earth swallow these four guys and their family and all their possessions. Can you all just pause... Can you all imagine that? You know, imagine walking out here today to your car and all of a sudden, like, you're following like hundreds of feet into the ground like that, but that is unfathomable. Not only that, all the guys that had the little incense bowls on around the fire comes out from those and consumes all the two fifty guys somewhere else.
Speaker 1:And it says that all the people of Israel, the rest of the people, which was like over a million Israelites, were all like, the earth's gonna swallow us too. This is terrifying. This is scary. And you would think by this point, everybody would get the message that God's holy. Look at your neighbor and say, God is holy.
Speaker 1:If you don't get anything else today, let's just pause here for a minute. God is holy. What do I mean by that? What does the word holy mean? I've heard people say, I've invited people to church and they're like, you know what pastor Dallas, if I come to church, I'm just gonna burn up as soon as I come in the door.
Speaker 1:And we laugh. And what they mean is, I don't feel holy to approach a holy God. We understand that. But what holiness really means is this. It means to be completely different than.
Speaker 1:It means to be set apart. It means to be unlike anything else. It means not commonplace. And so the best description of God that we have in the scriptures, it is that God is holy. There's so many little g gods in this world.
Speaker 1:There's so many little demons running around. There's a real devil. But there is a one true God who is holy. There's no one like him. He is the most powerful.
Speaker 1:He's the only creator. He's not the creation. And he's holy. Without sin. Without evil.
Speaker 1:Without blemish. There's nothing wrong with him at all. He's holy. And Korah had the guts to tell Moses. Hey, all of us are holy now.
Speaker 1:We can all... The leaders. We're all holy. Korah was acting and talking like he was holy, but he was not inwardly holy. There's a difference.
Speaker 1:We can fake it as we did in our James series. You can walk. You can walk the walk and you can talk the talk. Right? But the difference is, are you just a hearer of God's word?
Speaker 1:Are you actually a doer of God's word? Do you just say, hey, wanna be holy? Or are you actually living a holy life? Because we serve a holy God. He's holy.
Speaker 1:And that's why he does this. Because he's holy. And he created all these people. And these people were disrespecting him. And since he's the creator, he can do what he wants.
Speaker 1:And He allows all these people to perish. And you would think that would be enough to communicate to the rest of the people that God's holy. That Moses is His leader. And they should be content with whoever they are and whatever they've been called to do. Right?
Speaker 1:That would be the lesson we would learn this far. We're good. I've learned my lesson. I don't wanna be swallowed by the earth. I want to just live life for God in my own lane.
Speaker 1:That's not enough. Look what happens next. Literally. Literally. Literally the next day.
Speaker 1:I mean, imagine seeing this the day before and then you wake up like you had amnesia. Literally the next day, the bible says this in verse 41. The next day, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron saying, you have killed the Lord's people, they said. Then the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and torn... Turned toward the tent of meeting.
Speaker 1:And suddenly the cloud covered and the glory of God appeared. Here we go again. Moses and Aaron are staring at the Tabernacle. The people are like, hey, we're gonna kill you now because you killed all them. And the glory of God settles.
Speaker 1:And Moses and Aaron are like, oh no. Not again. Not two days in a row that you're gonna do this, God. No. No.
Speaker 1:No. Please don't. God's about to kill everybody. He literally, that's what He says. He says right here in verse 45, get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.
Speaker 1:He was going to kill everybody. Fine. I can... I'll just raise up my nation just from you guys right here. We'll be fine.
Speaker 1:But what does it say again? Look at the end of verse 45. And they fell face down. They fell face down. Again, they don't get frustrated.
Speaker 1:They're not mad at the people. Right? They're scared for them because they know we serve this one true holy God who does not play games. God doesn't play games, my friends. And as a response, they fall face down and they begin to pray for the people again.
Speaker 1:And then Moses in verse 46 says this. Then Moses said to Aaron, take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly and make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord and the plague has started.' So, and during all this, there's a plague. I don't know exactly what it was, but some type of plague immediately began and people start dying left and right. People are dropping dead because they get this plague and they're sick.
Speaker 1:And God tells Moses to tell Aaron, Hey, if you care for these people, go get some incense and run through the people and let basically intercede for them. Pray that I would relent of my anger. And so they being fully obedient followers of the Lord who are humble, who are content with what God has given them, who are respecters of this one true holy God. This is what they do in response. Ketan, as you come.
Speaker 1:Verse 47, it says this. So Aaron did as Moses said. He ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people. But Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them.
Speaker 1:He stood between the living and the dead. And the plague stopped. But fourteen thousand seven hundred people died from the plague in addition to those who had died because of Korah. Instead of allowing God to just judge these people for being so disrespectful of this holy God they serve, they show mercy on the people once again. He shows...
Speaker 1:Aaron shows where his heart truly lies. And I don't know about you. I would have been terrified to run-in between the people who are dropping left and right from this plague. Yet Aaron, wanting to obey what God's told him to do, says, I'll do it. And he runs around with his little fire incense, And the plague stops.
Speaker 1:I love that phrase. It says, that he stood between the living and the dead. You think about that. Said that Moses, who's the high priest of Israel, stood between the living and the dead. What does that sound like to you?
Speaker 1:I love what Ambrose of Milan said. Old church father guy. He said, Truly the man, Aaron is priestly in mind and heart, who throws himself with pious love before the flock of the Lord like a good shepherd. In this way, Christ himself broke the sting of death. He held off the attack.
Speaker 1:He put an end to the dying. As Aaron offered this sacrifice to God to stop the death. This is what Christ has done for us. You're thinking like, dad, this is this random scary story in the book of Numbers. How does this have anything to do with Jesus?
Speaker 1:It has everything to do with Jesus. My friends, we are... Have all been like Korah, unfortunately. We have all rebelled against God. In one way or another, we've all told God, I wanna do it my way.
Speaker 1:My way is better. You're God and you get on my nerves. I don't like your laws. I don't like your statutes. I wanna do whatever I feel like I wanna do.
Speaker 1:We've all rebelled against God. And as a result, we all deserve to be swallowed up by the earth itself. We all deserve to be swallowed up by incense and be burned up. We all deserve to have the plague get to us and kill us. That's what we all deserve.
Speaker 1:The Bible says, for all have fallen short of the glory of God. That's what the scripture said. We're all like Korah. Yet, there was a man. There was a man who's fully God, fully man named Jesus of Nazareth.
Speaker 1:He said, you know what? I'll stand between the living and the dead for them. I will get up on the cross and I will pay the price for them. I will burn incense among the people so that they may live and not perish. My friends, this whole scary story has everything to do with Jesus laying his life down for rebellious humanity.
Speaker 1:This story is about us. It is about us. And this is why you have the potential to leave here with no fear. If you don't know Christ, I'd be scared. But Christ has made a way for us to not die, but to have eternal life.
Speaker 1:It's what we celebrated at the table this morning. New life in him, eternal life in him. Jesus is the high priest who has stood between the living and the dead. If you can with... If you can, would you stand with me this morning?
Speaker 1:Jesus has made a way. He has stood between the living and the dead. A way where we can live without fear of death, disease, sickness, or catastrophe. So it doesn't matter whatever happens. Doesn't matter whatever happens in the world or whatever horrible thing happens.
Speaker 1:We can have the security in the sense that you know what? I fear God. I don't fear anything else. That's really what we need. If we fear him now, we don't have to fear him later.
Speaker 1:We fear God now. We don't have to fear him later. So with eyes closed this morning, I just wanna provide a few invitations. Perhaps you find yourself like Korah. You feel far from God.
Speaker 1:And you're like, I don't know where my heart is with him. My friends, come close to him today. He has stood between the living and the dead for you. You've never confessed Jesus or it's been a long time, maybe that day is today. Another point perhaps, even though you're a follower of Christ, you feel scared.
Speaker 1:You're sitting there and you're like, you know what? I feel anxious. I know Jesus. I'm following him as best I can, but I still feel scared. My prayer for you today is that you would just get a revelation of God's power and blood over you.
Speaker 1:That he has spoken a better word over you, that you have no reason to fear whatever comes in this life. Jesus said in this world, you will have suffering. You will have tribulation, but take heart. I've overcome the world. Perhaps you just need to be reminded and strengthened your spirit.
Speaker 1:I don't need to fear the world. I just need to fear God. And lastly, today, perhaps you are a follower of Christ. And instead of acting more like Moses and Aaron, you're acting more like Korah. You find yourself prideful.
Speaker 1:You find yourself envious. You find yourself discontented. You find yourself rebelling against God. My encouragement to you is come back to him. Confess that sin before it's too late.