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Good leadership
is important. A good leader can make a tremendous
difference to a nation. During the last century,
the question was raised, who is the greatest leader
of the 20th Century? I considered it, and after
reflection I thought that Winston Churchill was
the greatest leader of the last century. What
would have happened to Britain without the wisdom
and the leadership of this man? They would probably
be speaking German today!
If you
are a woman, choosing the right man, who is designed
by God to be your leader, is extremely important.
In the religious area, there are many leaders.
How should we choose a good religious leader?
In this
week’s sedra, we will see that there was a struggle
for the leadership of Israel, and the majority
of the people rejected the leadership of Moses
and Aaron, and chose Korach and some others.
In last
week’s parasha, we saw how the majority of the
Jewish people wanted to reject Moses and Aaron,
and appoint a new leader who would take us back
to slavery in Egypt. In this week’s parasha, the
fires of rebellion are still smoldering, and a
great mutiny breaks out.
Why is
this so dangerous? Because Moses and Aaron are
God’s appointed leadership. They are close to
God, and leading Israel in the right direction
- spiritually and politically. To reject them
is to reject God, and to reject God’s good ways
for us. That can only lead to disaster, ruin and
destruction. That of course would be bad for Israel,
but also for the world, since Isarel is to be
the Light to the other nations. Let’s see if we
can’t learn some lessons from this rebellion:
This
is a two-pronged attack. Korach, a Levite, and
a cousin of Moses, is unhappy with Moses and
Aaron being appointed the priests of Israel.
He is unhappy with their religious leadership
The second
prong of this attack comes from Datan, Aviram,
and On, who were from the tribe of Reuben. They
were from the tribe of Reuben, who was the eldest
son of the 12 sons of Jacob. They probably felt
that the leaders of Israel should come from their
tribe. So, they are unhappy with the political
leadership of Moses.
In addition,
250 other prominent leaders, distinguished and
influential men, joined Korach, Datan, Aviram
and On in challenging the leadership of Moses
and Aaron. That’s quite a challenge!
Here is
their charge: “You have gone far enough, for all
the congregation are holy, every one of them,
and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you
exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”
Notice that they use religious terminology. They
use theology. They sound spiritual and reasonable.
“Moses
and Aaron - who do you think you are? You are
not special, and don’t deserve to be our leaders.
And, why have you taken the priesthood upon yourselves?
Don’t you know that all of Israel are holy. The
Lord is equally among us all. Yet, you have elevated
yourselves above the rest of us. You have gone
too far! We need to get rid of you arrogant leaders,
and get some new leaders.”
Moses
falls on his face, showing his genuine humility.
Moses happens to be the most humble man on Earth,
totally aware that he is a creature made by God,
saved and redeemed by God, and that God has put
him in the place where he is. And, he is willing
to serve God where the Lord has placed him.
Moses
responds to this challenge by telling them that
tomorrow morning the Lord will make clear who
is holy, who He has set apart to accomplish His
special purposes, and who the Lord will allow
get close to Himself, and who He wants to be leaders
over Israel.
So here’s
what we will do. We’ll have a kind of ordeal -
a kind of trial by miracle. You assume that you
can be priests like Aaron and I? Try this: take
firepans used for burning incense, and burn incense
in them that rises up and makes a nice smell before
God, symbolic of our prayers and praises rising
up before Him, and pleasing Him, and the Lord
will choose between us. We will see who the real
spiritual leaders are that God has chosen. But
I’m already telling you that it’s you who have
gone too far - it’s you who are presumptuous and
are trying to usurp authority that is not rightfully
yours - not Aaron and myself!
I would
suggest that Moses knew exactly how to respond
to this challenge to his leadership because he
had already heard from God what to say.
He tells
the Levites that they should be satisfied with
the elevated position that the Lord has given
them - being allowed to get closer to the Lord,
and helping at the Mishkan, the place where the
God of the universe most powerfully manifests
His presence on Earth, and serving the congregation.
They should be satisfied with those great honors,
and not attempt to usurp the K’hoo-nah - the priesthood.
The reality of the situation is that by challenging
Moses and Aaron they are really challenging and
rejecting the Lord, who appointed them. Aaron
and Moses are merely His servants.
Moses
summons Datan and Aviram to come to him, but they
refused. “It’s bad enough that we were already
in the land flowing with milk and honey, and you
have brought us back into the wilderness to die
here. To make things worse, you have made yourself
lords over us. You are blinding the rest of Israel
to the facts!”
Moses
denies that he has done anything wrong. He has
hurt no one, and has taken nothing from anyone.
These accusations are baseless. Moses is being
treated very unfairly, and he became very angry,
and ask the Lord to reject the offering of Datan
and Aviram - by which we drew near to God. “Lord,
reject these men, and keep them far from you -
they are causing way too much trouble and are
dangerous.”
So, the
next morning, Korach assembled all of Israel to
the Tent of Meeting. Who did the majority of the
people side with? Our good and God-appointed leaders,
who led us out of Egypt? No, the majority sided
with Korach against Moses and Aaron. It’s always
better to side with the majority, right?
The 250
leaders took their firepans, and put fire on them,
and put the incense on them. Then, the Glorious
Presence of God appeared, and the Lord spoke to
Moses and Aaron, telling them to separate themselves
from the rest of the congregation, because He
was about to destroy them at once! This is not
the third or fourth time that the Lord has wanted
to destroy Israel.
It’s a
good thing that I am not Moses and Aaron, because
I probably would have separated myself, and cheered
the Lord on as He destroyed these people. Instead,
they pray to the God of the spirit of all flesh
- the One who made every human being, who is able
to distinguish between the guilty leaders, and
those misled by the especially guilty, and intercede
for the Jewish people, and ask the Lord to spare
them.
Again,
the Lord listens to the prayers of Moses, and
also Aaron, who are genuinely humble, merciful,
gracious and forgiving, and excellent models for
each one of us to imitate.
The Lord
does spare the people, but not the leaders of
this rebellion. The ground under the tents of
Korach, Datan and Aviram opened up, and then sank
under them and their families, and all their possessions
- everything that belonged to them. Then the earth
closed up again over them, and they were buried
alive, and died. They are completely destroyed.
Then,
fire came from the presence of the Lord and incinerated
the 250 other leaders who joined this mutiny.
Rebellion against God is a very serious matter,
my friends, and the Lord does not take kindly
to it.
The 250
firepans are gathered up, hammered into sheets,
and used to plate the Bronze Altar, as an additional
bronze covering, and as a sign to the rest of
Israel not to follow in their rebellious ways.
Only God-appointed, God-ordained men should dare
draw near to the Most Holy One.
Moses
and Aaron have been dramatically and supernaturally
vindicated by this ordeal, right? The people have
been corrected, and learned their lesson, right?
The fires of rebellion have should now be completely
out, right? Let’s see what we can learn from our
people about human nature, whether human nature
is good, wise, close to God, teachable, correctable:
“But
on the next day all the congregation of the
sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron,
saying, "You are the ones who have caused the
death of the Lord's people." The majority
of the people blame our God-appointed leaders,
who are the innocent victims of this mutiny,
for God’s righteous judgment resulting in the
deaths of the rebels.
For something
like the fourth or fifth time, the Lord is so
angry with our unbelief and rebellion that He
says He is intent on wiping out the Jewish people.
Moses and Aaron fall on their faces, in humility,
in a posture of supplication, and pray and stand
in the gap for Israel. A fast acting deadly plague,
sent by God, breaks out among the people. Aaron
takes his firepan, puts fire and incense on it,
a sweet smell that rises us, symbolic of the prayers
and praises of Israel, and took his stand where
the plague was advancing, between the dead and
the living.
The Lord
smells the sweet aroma of the incense, remembers
that Israel can offer up prayers and praises,
and causes the plague to stop. 14,700 died - but
most of Israel would have died if Aaron had not
made atonement for the people.
Under
the New Covenant, each Believer is a priest. When
we see something bad taking place, we too can
intercede - stand in the gap. It may be that the
Lord will hear our prayers, and regard our intercession,
and stay his judgment on those who are displeasing
them, and save them! So, pray for the Community
of Believer! Pray for the lost! You may be accomplishing
far more than you realize!
That brings
us to chapter 17. Again, the Lord wants the spiritual
leadership of Aaron to be firmly established in
the minds of the Jewish people, so they won’t
rebel against Aaron, and rebel against the Lord,
and be punished for it. So, He tells us that each
leader from each of the twelve tribes is to bring
a wooden rod, write their names on them, then
deposit them in the Tent of Meeting. The rod of
the man whom God has chosen to be His mediator,
His representative, will sprout. The next day
after the rods were placed in the Mishkan, Aaron’s
rod had not only sprouted branches, but produced
buds, blossoms, and ripe almonds! Aaron had indeed
been chosen by God, and his ministry would be
fruitful, as this miracle, that only God could
have done, proves.
Did the
people take this lesson to heart? Did they learn
that they had a bad attitude, and had been wrong.
No. The Torah records that they complained to
Moses that everyone who comes near the Mishkan
was dying.
I take
this to mean that they thought he problem wasn’t
with their evil, unbelieving hearts, that kept
challenging God, and disobeying Him, so that He
was forced to punish them time after time. Why
are we suffering? The problem, you see, is the
Lord’s fault. The problem is with the Mishkan
(even though that was the place specifically designed
to bring us near to God, to help us understand
Him and His ways, to draw closer to Him, to be
reconciled to Him, to find atonement and the forgiveness
of our sins).
It reminds
me of those Jewish people who blamed God for the
Holocaust, not realizing that God is not to be
blamed for that tragedy. The cause lies with us,
our continued unbelief, our continued rebellion
against the Righteous One, our continued mutiny
against the Almighty. It was our sin, and the
sin of the German nation, and others - but not
with God.
Chapter
18 gives further commands regarding the Priests
and the Levites. The Priests are in charge of
the Tabernacle, and the Levites are their helpers.
Only the Priests can serve inside the Holy Place,
and at the Altar.
The gifts
and sacrifices of the Jewish people went to the
Priests, to support them. They didn’t have any
inheritance of Land. They depended on the Lord,
and the gifts brought to Him at the Temple for
their livelihood.
The Jewish
people were to bring the firstfruits, the best
of the oil, wine, grain and fruit, to the Priests.
The firstborn animals were theirs. The firstborns
sons could be redeemed, and five shekels of silver
given to the Priests.
The Levites
were also to be supported by the Jewish people.
They didn’t have a regular inheritance in Israel
like the other tribes. They only had cities scattered
throughout Israel, but not one whole land area
of their own. They were to be supported by the
tithe of the rest of Israel, so that they could
serve the Priests and the Lord.
The Levites,
God’s servants, from the tithe given to them,
were required to tithe from it to the Priests.
The best of the things given by them, they were
to give to the Priests.
The same
principle holds true today. I suggest that we
too give a tithe - ten percent, to the work of
God. And, let’s show our honor and reverence and
respect for God by giving the firstfruits, the
beginning and the best of the harvest, to God.
We don’t arrange our priorities so that we spend
everything on ourselves, and maybe even spend
beyond our means, and go into debt, and spend
everything on ourselves, and then give God the
leftovers - little or nothing. That’;s not right
my friends. It wasn’t right under the Sinai covenant,
and it’s not right now. How can you tell if someone
is truly spiritual and mature? Find out if they
are honoring God with their money.
Most people
choose a spiritual leader by going with the majority.
After all the majority is almost always right,
right? Wrong! If the man is popular, he’s got
to be OK, doesn’t he? No.
What should
we look for when choosing a spiritual leader?
Let’s
look to Moses. What made Moses a good leader?
He really
knew God.
He really
knew the Word of God. He wrote the Torah!
He was
a man of integrity.
He was
a servant-leader. He was very capable, but didn’t
exalt himself.
Look at
a leader’s life. Does He really know God from
his heart. Is able to really make contact with
God, and walk with God?
Does he
really properly understand the Word of God? “But
Rabbi Loren, how can I tell if he really knows
and is properly teaching the Word of God?” Is
his teaching focused on Yeshua? Does He share
the great burden of Yeshua - reaching a lost and
dying world with the Good News? Or, is he focused
on something else?
Is he
a man of integrity? Is he worldly, greedy for
more and more material things?
Is he
a capable leader, but does he have some humility,
and want to be a servant?
Choose
your leader wisely. Be careful who you listen
to, who you submit yourself to. If the blind choose
a blind guide, both will fall into a pit.
You know,
as we read this, it’s hard to believe that the
Jewish people would reject the leadership Moses
and Aaron, and thereby reject the leadership of
the Lord, because to reject the God-appointed
leaders that God raises up is really to reject
God Himself.
God has
raised up another great leader for Israel, another
Mediator like Moses, a great prophet like Moses
- Yeshua. Yeshua is the Messiah, and the King
of Israel, who will rule from the throne of David
over Israel one day. God says of Him, “I have
installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain
(Psalm 2:6).” Dare you to rise up and challenge
Him, and go along with the likes of modern day
Datans and Avirams, and go along with the rebellious,
mutinous majority?
The priesthood
of Messiah Yeshua has likewise been established.
The Lord has sworn to Him, “You are a priest forever”
(Psalm 110:4).
“Oh, I
don’t need a priest. I can approach God directly.”
Really? Dare you bring your own firepan by yourself?
God says you need a Priest. God has provided a
Priest. Dare you rise up and challenge Him? Dare
you ignore Him? Or do you come to God through
Yeshua - the one and only Mediator and High Priest
between God and man? Your eternal destiny rests
on this one thing!
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