Numbers 13-17
When the Israelites approached the land of Canaan, which was the land that the Lord promised to give to them. The Lord told Moses to choose a leader from every tribe to explore the land of Canaan. Moses chose twelve men to explore the land of Canaan. Moses gave them the following instructions. They had to check whether the people living in the country are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. They had to see if it is a good or a bad country in which the people live, and whether they live in camps or in cities that have strong walls. They had to check if the soil was fertile or not. And that they should bring of the fruit. They came to a valley where there were grapes, but the grapes were so big that they had to fix it on a pole to wear it on their shoulders.
The men only returned after 40 days after looking at everything in the country. The men told him what they saw and showed him how the fruit looks in the country. They told Moses that it was a land of milk and honey. But the other men who explored the land with Caleb and Joshua told the Israelites lies and all kind of wrong stories about the country. They told the people that they would die if they lived there and that they had seen huge giants there too.
The Israelites shouted loudly, and the people were crying all that night. All the Israelites accused Moses and Aaron. The whole assembly said to them, We wish we died in Egypt or here in the desert, we wish we were dead. Why does the Lord bring us to this country to die in war? The enemies will take our wives and children for themselves. It would be better for us to return to Egypt. They said to each other, Let's choose a leader and return to Egypt. Moses and Aaron lay down before the Israelites with their faces to the ground. Joshua and Caleb were two of the men who went to see what the country looks like. They tore their clothes and said to the Israelites: We went through the land, and we went to see the land. It is a very good country, very good. If the Lord is good to us, He will bring us into this land and He will give it to us. But then do not be rebellious against the Lord, and do not be afraid of the people in the country. We will easily win them. Nobody can protect them. The Lord is with us, do not be afraid. The Israelites then decided to kill Joshua and Caleb with stones.
But then the Lord appeared at the tent. The Lord then said to Moses,
11 Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long will these people reject[d] Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the [e]signs which I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
Those men who told the false stories all died of the plague that the Lord sent.
Only Joshua and Caleb did not die. The Israelites then rose early the next morning and told Moses that they had sinned, but they are about to take over the land that the Lord promised them. Moses warned them not to go because the Lord was not with them. But the Israelites were stubborn, they went up to the mountains, and the Canaanites who lived in those mountains came down and conquered the Israelites.
There were four other sons and with them were 250 men. They became rebellious against Moses and thought they were better than him and wanted to take over the leadership. They gathered against Moses and Aaron and said to them, You want to do everything yourself. Why do you want to rule over the people of the Lord?
When Moses heard that he lay down with his face against the ground. He then told Korah and all his friends: The Lord will show you tomorrow who belongs to Him and who obeys Him. Moses said to Korah and his friends, Listen to what I say: You must know, you and all your friends are rebellious against the Lord Himself. Why are you now accusing Aaron? Then Moses said to Korah, Tomorrow you and all your friends must stand before the Lord, you and them and Aaron. Each of you shall take a pan and incense therein, and he shall bring it to the Lord. Everyone must have their own pan, there must be 250 pans and you and Aaron must each have a saucepan. Moses called Korah, Datan and Abiram, but they said, We will not come. You took us from a fertile land to die in the desert. Isn't that enough? Do you want to hurt us even more? You have not taken us to a fertile land and given us wheat lands and vineyards that belong to us. Do you want to keep deceiving these men?
Moses became very angry. He said to the Lord: Do not take the sacrifices they want to give to you. I did not take anything from them, and I did nothing wrong to them. The next morning everybody took his pan and put coals in it and incense on top. They stood at the entrance of the tent where the Lord appeared in a cloud to the Israelites. Moses and Aaron also stood there. Korah gathered all the congregation at the entrance of the tent where the Lord appeared to the Israelites. He made the assembly rebellious against Moses and Aaron.
Then the Glory of the Lord appeared to everyone there. God said Move away from these men! I want to destroy them now! But Moses and Aaron lay down with their faces to the ground, and they said, O God, you give life to all. Only one person has sinned, why are you angry with all the people?
The Lord then told Moses that he should say to the people to go away from the tents of Korah, Datan and Abiram.
Moses told the people to leave the tents of these bad people and to not touch anything that belongs to them so that they should not disappear because they have sinned. So the people left the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents with their wives and their children and their other people. Then Moses said, You will now know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things, you will know that I have not decided to do it myself. But if the Lord makes something else, and if the earth opens his mouth and he swallows you with everything that belongs to you, and if you go down to hell, you must know that you have not shown that the Lord is important to you.
After Moses said that, the ground had torn open among those people. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed their families, everyone who was with Korah, and all that belonged to them. They and all who belonged to them went alive to the kingdom of death.
The earth closed them. They have disappeared from the people. All the Israelites fled near them when they heard how the people screamed. The Israelites were afraid that the earth would swallow them. Then the Lord sent a fire, and the 250 men who wanted to sacrifice the incense burned.
The following day, the Israelites accused Moses and Aaron of killing the people of the Lord.
While they were still busy accusing Moses and Aaron, the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron that they should get away from these people because today He is going to kill them. Moses and Aaron lay down with their faces to the ground to make atonement for these people so that the Lord should not kill them.
But when Moses saw that people were dying, he told Aaron.
Take a pan and put in it the coals that are on the altar. Then put incense on top and go to the public meeting quickly and make reconciliation for them. The Lord is very angry, and there are people who die. Aaron did what Moses said. The people died, but Aaron ran in between them and burned incense and made atonement for them. As he stood there between the people who died and the people who lived, no more people died. There were 14 700 people who died. Korag and his friends also died.
One day God told Moses that he should tell the leaders of each tribe to get a rod from their father's house and write their names on it and give it to him. Moses then put the rods in front of the Lord's feet in the tent where the ten commandments were. The next day when Moses took the rods out of the tent where the ten commandments were Aaron's rod was full of twigs, leafy flowers and ripe almonds.
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They looked at the rods, and every leader took his own rod. But the Lord told Moses to put Aaron's rod back in the tabernacle in front of the Ten Commandment. It had to be there to be a sign for rebellious people. They had to know that if they did not stop accusing Moses and Aaron that they would die.
So the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Surely we die, we perish, we all perish! 13 Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord must die. Shall we all utterly die?”
Remember the Bible is not just a made-up story. It is the word of God and it is a true story. Everything happened exactly as the Bible tells us.
Thank you for reading.
Sources: ERV Easy to read Bible, ICB International Children's Bible, The Message Bible, The New King James Bible.
Images: freebibleimages.org
