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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Calvin Complete Commentary - Numbers 16:11 - 16:11
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11.For which cause both thou, and all thy company. He here lays open their sin, which they had endeavored to disguise. For they had neither scruple nor shame, as we have seen, in pretending pious zeal. But in one word Moses scatters these mists, telling them that they were instigated by nothing but pride and envy to disturb the condition of the people. We must observe the expression which he uses, that they are in “ against God;” for, although they might have never confessed to themselves that they had to do with Him, but only that they were contending for the pre-eminence with men; still, because it was their aim to overthrow the order established by God, Moses casts aside all false pretences, and sets before them the simple fact that they are waging war with God, when they are fighting with His servants. If, therefore, we are afraid of contending with Him, let us learn to remain in our right place. For, however they may prevaricate, who disturb the Church through their ambition, in fighting against the servants of God, they attack Himself: and therefore it is needful that He should resist them, to avenge Himself. For war is not waged against God, as the poets feign the giants to have done, when they heaped up mountains, and endeavored to surmount heaven; but when He is assailed in the person of His servants, and when what He has decreed is in any wise undermined. The vocation of the priests was sacred, so that they who conspired to overthrow it, were the open enemies of God, as much as if they had directed their arms, their strength, and their assaults against Him. We must, therefore, bear in mind the reason which is subjoined, “ what is Aaron?” for, if Aaron had usurped anything for himself, his temerity and audacity would not have been supported by the countenance of God. Moses, therefore, declares that this is God’ cause, because there was nothing human in the ordinance of the priesthood. It was, indeed, an honorable office, so that Aaron justly deserved to be thought something of; but Moses indicates that he had nothing of his own, nor arrogated anything to himself; in a word, that he is nothing in himself, and moreover, that he is not elevated for his own private advantage, and that his dignity is no idle one; but rather a laborious burden placed upon his shoulders for the common welfare of the Church. How utterly ridiculous, then, is the folly of the Pope in comparing all the enemies of his tyranny to Koran, Dathan, and Abiram; for, in order to prove that his cause is connected with that of God, let him show us the credentials of his calling, and at the same time thoroughly fulfil his office. But what frivolous and vapid trifling it is, when some mimic Aaron sets himself up — produces no divine command or vocation — domineers in obedience to his own lusts, and is rather an actor on the stage than a priest in the temple; that all who reject this spurious dominion should be condemned as schismatics! Wherefore let us hold fast this principle, that war is waged against God when His servants are molested, who are both lawfully called and faithfully exercise their office.