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Light
from the Sidra |
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What awesome
events we read of in Sidra Korah! Should we not fear God when we read
of such judgements. But there is an abundance of mercy too. In Sidra Shelach
Lecha we considered intentional and unintentional sins. The events of
Korah underline those lessons. Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who were
leaders of the people and should have known better, were utterly
presumptuous in challenging the authority of Moses and Aaron. Korah, Dathan and
Abiram were prototype communists. They asserted the equality of all the
people, “You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is
holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them.
Why then do you exalt yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?” No doubt their
challenge arose out of their frustration that they had not entered the
Promised Land and were now condemned to wander for forty years in the
wilderness. But instead of humbling themselves, repenting and
submitting to the judgement of the LORD, they were
determined that things should go differently, and that they were the
people to change the situation. It was an open rebellion by those who
should have known better and for such intentional sin there was one
punishment. The rebels must be “cut off” from the people, and the
cutting off happened in a dramatic and terrible way. The judgement
that befell Dathan and Abiram served to underline the authority of
Moses, and the judgement on Korah and those who offered incense at the
tabernacle once again established the high priesthood of Aaron.
Subsequent events, such as the budding of Aaron’s rod, the regulations
for the work and the support of the priests and the Levites further
strengthened the position of Aaron. Though all the
congregation of Israel gathered with Korah, they were spared the
judgement that fell on their leaders. Moses pleaded with the Most High
to spare them because Korah, Dathan and Abiram alone were responsible.
Only they were punished. But the next day, after all the people had
seen the earth open and the fire of God fall on the rebels, they
themselves challenged Moses and Aaron. This was presumptuous and
intentional sin! On this occasion
Moses could offer no excuse for their behaviour and so offered no
prayers for them. Their guilt had to be punished, and a plague killed
14,700 Israelites. It was an awesome moment. Would all Israel be swept
away? What could be done to save the people? Moses commanded
Aaron to take a censer full of burning incense and run among the
people. When Aaron overtook the pestilence, the wave of divine wrath
stopped where he stood. Aaron stood literally between the living and
the dead. What high drama! If you had been among the people at the time
you would have seen the plague moving inexorably towards you as people
fell down and died. What hope would you have had? What could you have
done? Pray for mercy?
Not even Moses could do that. Run? It was too
late. Cry to Moses? Not
even he would have been able to save you. Moses knew that
Israel’s only hope was the prayers of the LORD’s anointed High
Priest, symbolised by the burning incense. Those prayers would not be
refused. The day before, the incense of Korah and his 250 priestly
pretenders had been rejected. But this day, when Israel was all but
lost, the work of Aaron, the true High Priest, saved the nation. Here
is a great lesson for today: only a High Priest appointed by the LORD, offering what
God himself has ordained, can save sinners from God’s judgement. Because all are
guilty of sin, both intentional and unintentional, how can anyone be
saved from God’s wrath? Today there is no temple and no priesthood.
What can save you? Religion? Good deeds? Prayers? The mitzvot of a
Rebbe? The prayers of a Zaddik? Not even the prayers of Moses could
save the people from judgement. The good news is
that there is a High Priest whom the Most High has authorised, a great
High Priest who has offered a final, once-for-all sacrifice for sin and
who lives eternally to pray for his people. He is Jesus of Nazareth and
the Almighty gave assurance that his sacrificial death was acceptable
by raising him from the dead. God sent him into the world and anointed him to stand between the living and the dead and protect us from the plague of death. If you try to save yourself by any other means than Jesus you will die by the plague of God’s wrath. But if you stand behind him you will live. |
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