The account in the Book of Numbers implies that with a civil rebellion against the authority of the lawgiver was combined a religious revolt against the influence of the Aaronic priesthood. The revolt against Moses was led by Dathan and Abiram, of the tribe of Reuben. As members of the oldest tribe they resented his supremacy, and rudely reproached him with his unfitness for the leadership. Their rebellion was fearfully punished. The earth “clave asunder” under them and “swallowed them up” with their wives and children. Korah, on the other hand, demanded on behalf of the whole tribe of Levi, to which Moses and Aaron belonged, the right to exercise priestly functions. His adherents, however, who had presumed to offer incense upon the sacred altar, brought upon themselves speedy retribution.
The account of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram seems to contain three narratives:-
(1)
Dathan and Abiram, sons of Reuben, rebel against the civil authority of Moses, who wishes (as they allege) to make himself a prince. For this they and their households are swallowed up (JE).
(2)
Korah and two hundred and fifty princes rebel against Moses and Aaron in the interests of the people at large as opposed to the monopoly of the tribe of Levi (P).
(3)
An independent Priestly account relates how two hundred and fifty Levites rebelled against Aaron's priestly authority.
In Num_26:11, alluding to the death of Dathan and Abiram in company with Korah, there is the statement “Notwithstanding the sons of Korah died not.” They became in fact an influential guild of musicians in the second Temple.1 [Note: F. J. Foakes-Jackson, The Biblical History of the Hebrews, 380.]
1. The revolt against the secular authority of Moses was organized by three Reubenites, Dathan, Abiram, and On, who contended that Moses had brought the people out of a bountiful land into the wilderness under false pretences, and was endeavouring to make himself a king over them. Moses vehemently protested his innocence of any act of oppression, and bade the people separate themselves from the mutineers, appealing to the doom that he asserted would befall them to vindicate his claims and his position. The narrative relates that his anticipations were verified, and that Dathan and Abiram, with their families were swallowed up by an earthquake as they stood at the door of their tents.
A widespread rebellion, an organized rebellion, not home geneous, but with many elements in it tending to utter confusion is what we see. Suppose it to have succeeded, the unity o worship would have been destroyed completely. Each tribe with its own cultus would have gone its own way so far as religion was concerned. In a very short time there would have been as many debased cults as there were wandering companies. Futile attempts at conquest, strife or alliance with neighbouring peoples, internal dissension, would have worn the tribes piecemeal away. The dictatorship of Moses, the Aaronic priesthood, and the unity of worship stood or fell together. One of the three removed, the others would have given way. But the revolutionary spirit, springing out of ambition and a disaffection for which there was no excuse, was blind to consequences. And the stern suppression of this revolt, at whatever cost, was absolutely needful if there was to be any future for Israel.1 [Note: R. A. Watson, The Book of Numbers, 202.]
2. Korah's rebellion was directed against the superior religious authority enjoyed by Moses and Aaron together over other Levites. He and his partisans (250 men) were challenged by Moses to approach the tabernacle and offer incense, it being left to Jehovah to decide whether they or Aaron should be His chosen ministers. They did so, and were destroyed by fire. The censers which they used were made into plates for covering the altar, to serve as a reminder that none but members of the house of Aaron might burn incense before Jehovah (Num_16:40). On the morrow, however, the people charged Moses and Aaron with causing the death of their fellow-countrymen; whereupon a plague broke out in which 14,700 persons perished, and which was stayed only by Aaron standing with a censer of incense between the dead and the living to make atonement (Num_16:41-50). After this, to still such complaints for the future, Moses was bidden to lay up in the tent of meeting twelve rods, each inscribed with the name of one of the tribes, Aaron's name being written on the rod of Levi. The next morning Aaron's rod was found to have borne almonds; and as a token of Jehovah's choice, his rod was preserved before the Testimony.
In this sacred position, the miraculous rod was a most significant symbol to all generations of the danger of worshipping God wilfully and presumptuously in any other way than that which He Himself had appointed, and of the blessedness of the service rendered in accordance with His will. It also declared in that holy place the great truth, everywhere and at all times true-that the whole significance and worth of religious worship depend upon the fact that it is of Divine appointment; that it is an expression not of man's yearning after God, but of God's yearning after man-an expression of God's own gracious will, that the creature who had rebelled against Him should have access to the Divine presence. “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son; today have I begotten thee.”
The rod that blossomed, we infer from the narrative, was a branch of an almond-tree. This was an appropriate feature of the symbol. By the Jews this tree has always been regarded with reverence, the English Jews, even at the present day, carrying on their great festivals a bough of flowering almond to the synagogue-just as of old their ancestors presented palm branches in the temple. Its Hebrew name of shaked, or “the waker,” was applied to it because in Palestine it is the first tree that awakes from the sleep of winter. Hence the beautiful poetic allusion of Jeremiah-“The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.” Its snowy blossoms appear on the bare branches before the leaves-like the common sloe of this country-as early as January, and are regarded by the people as welcome harbingers of the spring.1 [Note: H. Macmillan, The Garden and the City, 109.]
As representing the princes of Israel, the almond-rod seems to have implied that, as this tree precedes all other trees in forming its blossoms and fruit, and thus hastening to accomplish the ends of its existence, so these princes stood out conspicuous as examples of all the national virtues. They took precedence of the people in rank and excellence, and therefore each of them might be deemed worthy of ministering before the Lord in behalf of Israel. And yet the almond-rod of Aaron alone fulfilled miraculously the natural characteristics of the tree, and attained its true ideal; while all the other rods, though placed in precisely the same circumstances, remained dormant. The Divine priesthood of Aaron and Levi was the only “waker” out of the everlasting winter sleep that had overtaken the false, presumptuous human priesthood of the other princes and tribes, for it alone had the true abiding life in it.2 [Note: H. Macmillan, Ibid., 110.]
Say, was it the sigh of the southern gale
That flushed the almond bough?-
Ever brightest and first spring-time to hail,
It needs soft winds, I trow.
Say, was it the sunshine that woke its flowers
With a kindling look of love?
For, far and deep within, through coldest bowers,
Can gleam smiles from above.
Not so, nor so-away from breeze and light
Was shut the sapless rod;
But in stillness it felt a secret might-
Thrilled to the breath of God.1 [Note: Felicia D. Hemans.]
3. Sorrow and chastisement marked the march from its outset. Before the armies moved from Kadesh, Miriam, the elder sister of Moses, died, and was buried. “Miriam died there and was buried there,” in one of the rock-hewn tombs which perforate the whole range of the hills surrounding Petra; it may be, in that secluded spot still known by the sacred name of the “Convent,” still scaled by the long ascent cut out of the rock for the approach of pilgrims in ages beyond the reach of history. The mourning for her death, according to Josephus, lasted for thirty days, and was terminated by the ceremony which remained to the last days of the commonwealth, the sacrifice of the red heifer, as if in special allusion to the departed prophetess.
