Wednesday 6th September
Read Numbers 16:23-34
“Then the Lord said to Moses, 24 ‘Say to the assembly, ‘Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.”’ 25 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. 26 He warned the assembly, ‘Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.’ 27 So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents.
28 Then Moses said, ‘This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: 29 if these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. 30 But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.’
31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. 33 They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. 34 At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, ‘The earth is going to swallow us too!’” (NIVUK)
What does holiness look like? Traditionally we understand holiness to represent a ‘setting apart’ for service and throughout this story there have been separations. They are escalated here but if one reads back through the story carefully, it is everywhere. Korah tries to merge the Levites with the family of Aaron, to reduce the distinction between them and claim the privileges of priesthood. Dathan and Abiram (from the tribe of Reuben, the firstborn) similarly seek to democratise leadership. Both are seeking to ‘merge’ what God has ‘set apart’ for Himself.
Holiness involves being set apart. It is dangerous to merge things together. What this warning tells us though is that it is also a matter of life and death. For ultimately, as awful as this makes us feel, those who sought to ‘merge’ are visibly ‘set apart’. And destroyed. The separation is between life and death, they ‘go down alive into the realm of the dead’ (v30, 33). The consequence of a lack of holiness is to suffer living death. This is a graphic example, but the principle is clear enough. It is certainly memorable.
Peter makes much the same point in his first letter (cf 1 Peter 1:13-21). Merging with the world and its ways, conforming to its wishes and desires, is not the path of faith. There must be a separation, the outworking of which is life or death. “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. 5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.” (1 Peter 4:3-6) (NIVUK)
