At it again…

Reading out of Numbers 16 this morning we see rebellion against Moses and Aaron. Korah, Dathan and Abiram all decide along with 250 other Israelites men…”You have gone to far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?” these men charged…

The first sign of trouble for these guys was once they had made their statement Moses fell face down, or ducked depending on your perspective…and then Moses tells them in the morning the Lord will show who He is with. I don’t know about you but at this point I would hope I would realize I had made a big mistake. Have you ever found yourself in this position? You hear something and at first it sounds good, but when it is presented and you see the reaction of those receiving the message you realize maybe this isn’t such a good idea. Maybe we need to rethink this whole proposal. But we know this group by now and know they will carry out their idea in front of the entire community.

So they set up a trial by fire…notice the guys who came up with the idea are not with the 250 men holding the censers…Korah, Dathan and Abiram who stird up this rebellion stay in their tents while the “little” guys get tested…First rule of rebellion “if the leaders are not leading from the front your about to get toasted.” So as the 250 are getting ready for their trial Moses goes to the tents of the three main characters and tells everyone to move away from the tents. So imagine this group of people moving away from you and your tent, like people move when my son takes off his shoes in a crowd…you know something bad is about to happen. Not only does the Lord burn up the 250, but the ground opens and swallows the rebellious leaders who have gathered outside their tents…along with their entire families. Nothing is left, not their tents, not one descendant from these houses would remain to talk about the events of this day.

After seeing this you would think the message would have been received…but the people grumbled again against Moses and Aaron…”you have killed the Lord’s people’…It was only after Moses intercedes again does the Lord spare the people…

What does this all mean for you and me…many times in any group setting, work, church, family etc…we grumble about the leadership. We say if I was in charge I would do this or that. It’s the attitude of rebellion…I have experienced this attitude myself or have been caught up in a “movement” thinking it was the right thing to do only find out it caused more harm than good. We need to be extremely careful when grumbling against leadership…I have always believed “if your not part of the solution your part of the problem”.

This is especially true in church leadership. Being supportive of the pastor is critical. Many times we forget it was God who appointed our pastors. We start to think we are the ones who decide who will lead us and take God out of the equation all together. So if you take anything away from this, remember it is God who appoints the leadership…for better or worse…depending on your attitude.

-ps

Daily Reading: Num 16, 17 Mark 6:33-56