Thoughts on Numbers 16 & Hebrews 10

Today’s reading: Numbers 16; Hebrews 10

Thoughts on Numbers 16

Numbers is kind of a crazy book. Time after time the Israelites rebel against God even though His presence is there in their midst and He is actively protecting and providing for them day by day, and God responds to these rebellions in significant and memorable ways. Numbers 16 is one of the more famous of these, often referred to as Korah’s rebellion, as 250 men are consumed by the fire of the Lord outside the tabernacle and the ground opens up under the tents of Korah, Dothan, and Abiram, and swallows them, their families, and their possessions whole.

There is one really interesting thing happening in the background of this event though that I think is a really good foil to a lot of the rebellion we see in the book of Numbers, and that is the sons of Korah.

Now, if you read the chapter today before reading this post you might be thinking to yourself, “Wait, I don’t remember reading anything about the sons of Korah in Numbers 16,” and that is exactly the interesting point. When the ground opens and swallows the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, we are specifically told that Dathan and Abiram were swallowed with their families, but Korah’s family is conspicuously not mentioned. At first blush you might just assume that they were swallowed up too along with everyone else, but it’s worth remembering that a handful of Psalms are attributed to “the sons of Korah.”

To be fair, there are a few Korahs in the Scriptures, and we are not told specifically which Korah these psalmists are the sons of, but they often use imagery that would make sense if they are the sons of the Korah of Numbers 16, like, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way…” (Psalm 46), or “Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.” (Psalm 49). Assuming they didn’t share his fate, Korah’s sons would have watched the earth give way and swallow their father and his co-conspirators, their form and their dwelling places drawn directly into Sheol, so to see these images appearing in their psalms would make complete sense.

I personally think that, most likely, the psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are referring to the Korah in our chapter this morning, which is why I think they make such an interesting foil to so much of the rest of the rebellion we see in this book. When the spies gave a bad report of the land, because they were leaders among the people, the people blindly followed in opposition to the Lord. When Korah rebels against Moses, 250 men follow his leadership, and the rest of the congregation evidently gathers in support of this rebellion. When punishments, plagues, and death befall the congregation and the families of Dathan and Abiram, it is not collateral damage, but it involves the people because the people willingly follow their leaders in rebellion against Yahweh.

But that following into rebellion is evidently not a foregone conclusion. While everyone else is jumping on board, the sons of Korah were willing to stand apart from their leader, even though their leader was also their father, and as a result of standing on the side of Yahweh, they were not swept up in the punishment like the sons of Dathan and Abiram were. Instead they can say, in Psalm 49, “God will rescue my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.” And God did receive them and they were rescued from being dragged into Sheol alive with their father.

People like to point to passages like this to try to show how vindictive and evil the God of the Old Testament was, but what we see from the sons of Korah is the opposite. Those who were willing to trust in the Lord, even when their leaders were telling them to turn away, were protected and preserved, meaning those who died were not the result of Yahweh going on a wanton killing spree, but they were dying for their own choices and their own rebellion against God. Each person was responsible for making the choice for themselves whether they would trust in Yahweh or not, and the punishments we see meted out in Numbers fall, not on the Israelites indiscriminately, but on those who chose against Him.

Thoughts on Hebrews 10

I have some stuff I want to talk about in the second half of Hebrews 10, but I think that will have to wait until the next time we hit Hebrews, which I think is sometime this fall, so come check back in in 6ish months for that! But this morning I want to follow up on my post from yesterday about Hebrews 9.

I mentioned yesterday that my misunderstanding of the argument the author of Hebrews was making made for some weird understandings, and one of those is right here at the beginning of Hebrews 10. The first few verses of chapter 10 read, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?”

Picking up what I was saying yesterday, if the author of Hebrews is saying that the old and new systems accomplish the same things, but under the old covenant it had to be repeated while under the new covenant it is once for all, do you see what is really weird about these verses I quoted? The author would seem to be implying that, if Jesus’ sacrifice was truly effective, we should no longer have any consciousness of sins… But I do have consciousness of sins, so does that mean I’m not really a believer? Or does it mean I shouldn’t experience guilt for sin because it has been so thoroughly covered? Or maybe that sin just doesn’t even matter anymore because it has been paid for, so I can just do whatever I want without caring (without being conscious that it is even sin I am committing)? I think you see how this gets messy…

But as the author of Hebrews finishes up that first paragraph, when he says that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, he doesn’t just mean permanently, he means at all. Like we saw yesterday as we read back from Hebrews 9 into Numbers 15, under the old covenant, there was no forgiveness of sins, at least not intentional sins, only cleansing of ritual defilement. So Jesus is not simply a better sacrifice in that He does the same thing but with a longer-lasting effect, but He is a better sacrifice in that His sacrifice is able to cleanse us from all defilement, including our moral defilement, and therefore bring us into the family of God in a way that no old covenant sacrifice ever could.