Numbers 16:23 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the case of Dathan and Abiram settled, those who rebelled against Moses. In the next paragraph, God will also settle the case of Korah and his group, who tried to rival Aaron. Dathan and Abiram seem to have set up a large tent area in the middle of their families’ tents. There they held court, met in council, and openly challenged Moses. That place is called the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers 16:24, Numbers 16:27).

There they stayed while Korah and his allies went up to the Lord’s tabernacle, waiting for the outcome of their test. But even before that test was finished, God dealt with them in a different way. God uses whatever method he chooses in his judgments.

First, public warning is given to the whole community to move away from the rebels’ tents. God tells Moses to speak this warning (Numbers 16:24). This answer comes in response to Moses’ prayer. Moses had asked that God not destroy the entire congregation. God’s reply is, in effect, that he will not destroy them, if they are wise enough to get out of harm’s way. If they leave the rebels, they will be safe. If they stay, they must face what follows.

We should not expect to benefit from our friends’ prayers for our rescue unless we also use the means of salvation ourselves. God never promised to save by miracles those who refuse to save themselves by ordinary means. Moses, who had prayed for them, must also preach this warning to them and tell them to flee from the coming wrath.

So Moses goes to the rebels’ headquarters, leaving Aaron at the entrance of the tabernacle (Numbers 16:25). Dathan and Abiram had stubbornly refused to come up to him before (Numbers 16:12), yet Moses humbly goes down to them, trying once more to convince them and bring them back. Ministers should do the same. They should gently teach those who oppose the truth and not think it beneath them to stoop to the most stubborn people for their good. Christ himself stretches out his hand to a rebellious and argumentative people.

The seventy elders of Israel go with Moses and act like a guard, protecting him from the crowd’s insults. Their presence also honors him and, if possible, should strike fear into the rebels. We should do all we can to support injured innocence and honor.

Then a proclamation goes out that anyone who cares about their own safety must quickly leave the tents of these wicked men (Numbers 16:26). By doing this, they would show that they rejected the rebels’ cause, despised their evil plans, and feared the punishment coming on them. Those who do not want to perish with sinners must come out from among them and be separate. It is useless to pray, “Do not gather our souls with sinners,” if we do not also save ourselves from the crooked generation. God’s people are called out of Babylon, so they will not share in both her sins and her plagues (Revelation 18:4).

The people take the warning, but the rebels remain stubborn (Numbers 16:27). In mercy, God moves the people to leave the rebels. They get up from the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, both those who lived nearby and those who had come from all over the camp to watch what would happen. This was an answer to Moses’ prayer, because God stirred up the congregation to protect themselves. God gives repentance to those whom he means to save, so they may escape the devil’s trap. Grace to turn away from evil people is one of the marks of salvation.

But in justice, God leaves the rebels to the hard stubbornness of their own hearts. Though they see themselves deserted by their neighbors and exposed to God’s judgment, they do not fall down before God and Moses. They do not admit their sin or ask for forgiveness. Instead, they stand boldly in the doors of their tents, as if they could stare God down and dare him to do his worst. Their hearts were hardened to their own ruin, and they felt no fear when their situation was most dangerous.

It is sad that their small children, who could not understand guilt or fear, were put in that dangerous position by their parents’ pride. Happy are those who are taught early to bow before God, and not, like those unhappy children, to stand against him.

Then Moses, speaking in the Lord’s name, pronounces sentence on them, and God himself carries out the decision. Moses, moved by a holy anger at the rebels’ boldness, speaks with confidence before all Israel, who are watching for the outcome (Numbers 16:28-30). If the rebels die a normal death, he is willing to be counted as a false prophet. That is true not only if they die naturally, but also if they die by any judgment already seen before, such as plague, fire from heaven, or the sword.

But if the earth opens and swallows them alive, a punishment never seen before, then all Israel will know for sure that Moses is the Lord’s servant, sent and used by God. They will also know that anyone who fights against Moses is fighting against God. The judgment itself would already prove that God was against the rebels. Yet when Moses foretells it ahead of time, with no outward sign that it is coming, the proof becomes much stronger. It shows that Moses is not only God’s servant, but one especially close to him, one who knows the divine plans and receives amazing signs of God’s power in his defense.

The punishment comes at once. It shows that God and Moses understood one another very well, because as soon as Moses spoke, God acted. The ground split apart (Numbers 16:31), opened its mouth, and swallowed them, their households, and all they had (Numbers 16:32). Then it closed over them again (Numbers 16:33). This judgment was unmatched. God made a new thing in it, something he had never done before. He has many arrows in his quiver, and his judgments, like his mercies, show great variety.

Dathan and Abiram may have thought they were safe because they were far from the Lord’s presence, where the fire of the Lord had sometimes come out. As people say, he who is far from Jupiter is far from the thunderbolt.

God showed them that he was not limited to only one way of punishing sin. When he chooses, the earth can serve his justice as surely as fire does. It was also terrible for the sinners themselves to go down alive into their own graves. They died and were buried in a moment, while they were still strong and at ease.

This judgment was severe on their poor children, who died with their parents to make the warning more frightening and to show God’s wrath more fully. We cannot say exactly how far the children shared their parents’ guilt, or how God may have dealt with them in mercy. But we do know this, in general, that perfect justice did them no wrong. Far be it from God to act wickedly.

This event was completely miraculous. The earth splitting open was just as wonderful, and just as beyond nature, as the sea parting. The earth closing again was even more amazing than the water returning over the sea. God has every creature under his control, and he can use any of them, whenever he wants, as tools of judgment. None of them will be our friends if God is against us.

God was confirming to Israel what Moses had just taught them in his prayer, “Who knows the power of your anger?” (Psalm 90:11). When he chooses, God has strange punishments for those who do evil (Job 31:3). So we should ask, who can stand before this holy Lord God?

The judgment was also fitting. They had spoken against heaven itself, and their words were full of death. So the earth opened its mouth against them and swallowed them up. They had torn apart the congregation, so the earth was torn open under them. Sinful people who refuse correction are a burden on the earth, and all creation groans under them. That was shown here, because the earth sank under these rebels, as if tired of carrying them. And when we think how the earth still carries the weight of sin, it is remarkable that this was the only time it ever sank under that load.

The judgment also pointed ahead to the eternal ruin of unrepentant sinners, those who die without turning back to God. In that sense, they go down into the pit (Psalm 9:15) and descend quickly into hell (Psalm 55:15). But David, even when he felt himself sinking in deep mud, still prayed in faith, “Do not let the pit close its mouth over me” (Psalm 69:15). His danger was great, but it was not hopeless like theirs.

All Israel was frightened by this judgment. They ran away at the sound of the cry (Numbers 16:34). They cried for help when it was already too late. Their sad cries did not bring their neighbors closer to help them, but drove them farther away. Knowing their own guilt, and the guilt of one another, they urged each other to get away, saying, “Lest the earth swallow us up also.” We should take warning from the ruin of others. If we could hear by faith the cries of those who have gone down to the bottomless pit, we would work much harder than we do to save our lives and escape that same condemnation.