Wednesday Bible Study: K is for Korah

This one is a wide ranging story about a somewhat minor character (though Ramsey Hill might disagree) named Korah.  For those of you that didn't watch The Ten Commandments or don't know the story, I'll thumbnail as I go along.  But in the name of combining two complete stories together, I'm going to start with the six things that led to Korah's fall, and then go into them.  Now some of this is Biblical, the rest from Jewish tradition.

Sin #1- He made himself 'elite' through treasure.

This part, from tradition, is a new one on me.  Korah had supposedly found a 'treasure' that Joseph had buried in Egypt, and took it with him on their exit- "The keys of Korah's treasuries alone formed a load for three hundred mules", according to Rabbinical literature (henceforth 'RL').  In fact, the Rabbis believed that Korah and Haman- the guy who ran Persia until undone by Esther- were the richest men in the world (hard to see how either one could have beaten out Solomon, but whatever).  Thus it was that he lived a life of privilege in Egypt- but not so much on the road.  And that led him to his second presumption...


Sin #2- He forgot that God doesn't go by seniority.

His tribe was the Kohathites, descended from Levi.  The first son of Kohath was Amram, father of Moses and Aaron.  The second was his own father, Izhar.  As Amram's kin "controlled" the 'kingship' (through Moses) and the priesthood (through Aaron), tradition says he believed that as the son of the next son of Kohath, he should be the head of the clan.  HOWever, the man actually chosen was Elizaphan, son of Kohath's youngest, Uzziel.  Now as we have learned, names go a long way in the OT to figure someone's character.  Uzziel meant 'strength of God', and Elizaphan was "God of treasure"- meaning the treasure of Elizaphan was what he was GIVEN by God- not something he 'found'.  The Jews thought that important, and so do I.   Korah, however, though Moses was screwing him over.  Whether this was so or not, who can say?  But, his next sin- a sin very similar- is biblical...

 (NOTE:  'What's in a name,' you say?  Consider this:  Part of the RL tells that Korah's wife complained about the command by God to include ritual shaving in the sanctification of the priests ((Numbers 8:7)) as, "still more, he has made thee shave all thy hair in order to disfigure thee." Korah answered: "But he has done the same to his own sons." His wife replied: "Moses hated thee so much that he was ready to do evil to his own children provided the same evil would overtake thee" .  And, Korah's name means, according to Strong, " to depilate: - make (self) bald.  Even that he can blame on himself.)

Sin # 3- He thought blood= righteousness.

I have found that this is a common fallacy in Biblical and modern times- thinking that, "Since I am a Jew, I am a 'child of Abraham', and thus made righteous by Abraham's faith..."

Jesus says:

Mat 3:9  And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 
Mat 3:10  Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 

But Korah began his justification of his actions by treading this very road...

Num 16:3  They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" 

Reminds me of, just prior to my own conversion, I was asked if I wanted to receive Jesus.  My answer?  "That's okay, I'm a Catholic..."

This is one of many times that Korah accuses Moses of his OWN sin- self-aggrandization.  Moses, puts it, as he always does, up to God...

Num 16:4  When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, 

Num 16:5  and he said to Korah and all his company, "In the morning the LORD will show who is his, and who is holy, and will bring him near to him. The one whom he chooses he will bring near to him. 

Num 16:6  Do this: take censers, Korah and all his company; 

Num 16:7  put fire in them and put incense on them before the LORD tomorrow, and the man whom the LORD chooses shall be the holy one. You have gone too far, sons of Levi!" 

Korah didn't see it that way, which brings us to...

Sin #4- Saw God's will as man's opposition to him.

One of the reasons I decided to approach this from the tradition angle is that there were three utterly fascinating stories in the tradition that really made Korah's evil sing.  The first of these was Korah's use of a twisted logic to prove Moses wasn't getting the rules from God at all.  First, he challenged him on the Law from Numbers 15:

Num 15:37  The LORD said to Moses, 

Num 15:38  "Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. 

Korah asked Moses, "So if the (prayer shawl) is made of blue-dyed wool, does it still need a tassel?"  Moses said, "Yes".  Then Korah, moved on to the Mezuzah- the little tube with the verses that they were told to "put on their doorpost" for all generations- and asked, "Does a house already containing the Books of the Law require a mezuzah?"   Moses replied that it did; whereupon Korah said: "The presence of the whole Torah, which contains 175 chapters, does not make a house fit for habitation, yet thou sayest that one chapter thereof does so. It is not from God that thou hast received these commandments; thou hast invented them thyself." (wiki)

And that part fleshes out the story of the rebellion from Numbers; because, there it says...

Num 16:2  And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. 

Num 16:3  They assembled themselves together against Moses...

And the tradition said, that in a direct affront to Moses (and thus to God), each of these men were wearing a blue Tallit without tassels.  So we see that Korah's pride and unwillingness to quit his own sins made it so he couldn't see God OR Moses for who they truly were.  Adding to this, according to tradition, he relied on the council of like-minded friends- as well as his wife, who said Moses did all these things out of hate for Korah.  Once again, he was wrong...

Num 16:19  Then Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation. 
Num 16:20  And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 
Num 16:21  "Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment." 
Num 16:22  And they fell on their faces and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?" 

So Moses saved them all- the FIRST time.  Does that sound like a man motivated by hate?  But by now, Korah was full of himself and his own wisdom, such as it was.  So according to tradition, the next sin...

Sin #5- He saw wisdom as nothing but a tool to manipulate.

He stirred up the people by telling them a Parable based- incorrectly- on the Law God gave to Moses.  He starts with a poor, struggling widow woman and her two young daughters.  So she has a piece of land, and begins plowing for the crop.  But she has both an ox and an ass tied to the plow, and "Moses tells her" that she can't do that, per Lev. 19:19 and Deut. 22:9-11:

Lev 19:19  You shall keep my statutes; you shall not cause your livestock to breed with different kinds; you shall not sow two kinds in your field; and you shall not allow a garment mixed of linen and wool to come upon you. 

Deu 22:9  You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seeds, that the fruit of your seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard not be defiled. 

Deu 22:10  You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together. 

Deu 22:11  You shall not wear a garment of different kinds, of wool and linen together. 

Of course it is Moses' fault for being mean, not the woman's fault for not using just one of them, or the community's for not taking care of the widow AS THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO.  Nonetheless, Korah goes on.  Next, she plants with mixed seeds, which is also prohibited.  He doesn't ask if it was an accident (in which case she would have been okay, per the RL), or if she was GIVEN mixed seed (which would have put the Korah Seed Company on the block), but just that "Moses found out", and per 22:9 that part of her field had to be unharvested as unclean.  

Then, she goes to harvest the rest, but "Aaron" comes and tithes her the amount of the WHOLE field; so she sells the field to buy 2 sheep, figuring to make a go of it there.  But then "Aaron" comes and takes the "firstborn" of the two, per Deut. 18:3-4.  Notwithstanding that it is the person who RAISED the sheep that is responsible for the firstborn tithe, and if her "older" sheep was a firstborn, the Korah Livestock Exchange should never have sold it to her.  So then comes sheep shearing time, and right there is "Aaron" to collect the tithe of the wool.  So she thinks, "I might just as well slaughter and eat them," at which point "Aaron" shows up to collect the parts due the priest- despite the fact that applies to SACRIFICES and not DINNER.

At this point, she gets mad and says, "If you're gonna do me this way, I'm just going to dedicate the sheep to the Lord."  To which "Aaron" says, "Fine.  Then according to Numbers 18:14, I'll just take both of them!", leaving her and her kids destitute.

So Korah tries to condemn Moses and Aaron- and thus God- by twisting God's own words, a time-honored tradition still used by this world to condemn those who try to hold us up to God's standards.

But the real killer here, was what the RL says was the reason that an 'intelligent' man like Korah thought he was getting away with all this:

Sin #6- setting himself up as prophet, priest, and king.

According to the RL, Korah fancied himself a prophet, and had prophesied that a great prophet- Samuel- would eventually come through HIS line.  

He had foreseen that the prophet Samuel would be his descendant, and therefore concluded that he himself would escape punishment. But he was mistaken; for, while his sons escaped, he perished  (wiki).

I am not sure whether this meant that he thought he was gaining righteousness from Abraham in the past AND Samuel in the future, or he thought he was involved in some "don't screw with the timelines, thus I am immortal" deal, but either way, he could have done with this deathless bit of future prophecy:

Eze 14:19  "Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, 

Eze 14:20  even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness. 

And so it was Korah's story ended with Moses telling the people, "If these guys (Korah of course had buddies, including Edward G Robins... er, Dathan) die in a natural way, then God's hand isn't in this.  But if they are killed by something never seen before, then you know it is from God."  Result?

Num 16:31  And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart. 

Num 16:32  And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. 

Num 16:33  So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. 

Num 16:34  And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, "Lest the earth swallow us up!" 

Num 16:35  And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men offering the incense. 

And thus, Shake'N'Bake was invented.  And you would have thought that would be enough to stop the stupidity.  But...

Num 16:41  But on the next day all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, "You have killed the people of the LORD." 

Which gives us the people's sin- Not thinking for themselves, ,but only listening to the sound bytes that Korah and friends had fed them.  Not dissecting all the many flaws in the tale.  And thinking that, wrapped in Korah's justification of their sin, they were safe.  Pay attention to the next part of this play, Mayor Buttigieg...

Num 16:42  And when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting. And behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared. 

Num 16:43  And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, 

Num 16:44  and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 

Num 16:45  "Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment." And they fell on their faces. 

(NOTE: This makes the SECOND time in two days, God was going to destroy the lot of them.)

Num 16:46  And Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the LORD; the plague has begun." 

Num 16:47  So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. 

(NOTE #2:  And this makes the second time in 2 days that hateful, self-aggrandizing Moses had saved them all...)

Num 16:48  And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. 

Num 16:49  Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. 

I think, among the lessons here, there is one more thing to consider- Korah is a precursor to the AntiChrist that comes.  He acquires position through deception; he "speaks lofty words" (Daniel 7:8), deceiving even the elect (Matt. 24:24), and tries to put himself in the position of the Most High (Isa 14:13-14).  So the lesson here is, when HE comes, are you ready to dispute his lies, or will you just "go along with the crowd", not bothering to consider for yourself?