Pastor Ben Beaghan preaching from Numbers 16 at Redemption Bible Church in Bellefontaine, Ohio.
Redemption Bible Church
The Sons of Korah
Turn your Bibles to Psalm 49. There's a lot to get to today, so we're jumping straight to it. Right before verse one, you should see a little heading that says, to the choir master, a psalm of the sons of Chora. The psalms weren't all written by David. There's a few different authors of the psalms, and one of these groups is the sons of Chora. I've been preaching through the psalms as I've had opportunity, and today's gonna stay within that theme, but we're gonna take a little detour as we look at the sons of Chora. So who are these guys? Where did they come from? Hopefully answering these questions will help give some background and some insight into this family, and then as you read the psalms that are attributed to the sons of Chora, it'll be helpful. So we read about the story of their father Chora in number 16, Chora is a man who is known for his rebellion against Moses and Aaron, which is a symptom of his own rebellion against God in God's order. So this week and next week, we're gonna spend some time get to know this family, and we'll see the grace of God working in this family even as there's great sin and rebellion. And so this week we're gonna study number 16, and then next week we'll take a look at Psalm 49. So we have a lot to cover this morning in number 16. It's 50 verses, so please turn there and follow along. I'm gonna break this chapter into four divisions. So here they are. You have the rebels complaint, Moses's response, God's response, and the people's response. Each of these four sections of what happens within the story will help us to examine our own heart before the Lord and lead us to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ. So I'm gonna read through all 50 verses, and then we're gonna jump into the four different sections of the chapter as we see what God is teaching us through this narrative. So number 16. Now Chora, the son of Isar, the son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Nathan in a by-room, the sons of Eleab, and on the son of Pelath, sons of Ruben took men. 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. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far for all in the congregation "or holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. "Why then do you exalt yourselves "above the assembly of the Lord?" When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, and he said to Chora, "In 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. "Do this, take censors Chora and all his company, "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. "And Moses said to Chora, "Here now, you sons of Levi, "is it too small a thing for you that God, "the God of Israel, has separated you "from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself, "to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord "and to stand before the congregation to minister to them, "and that he has brought you near him "and all your brothers, the sons of Levi with you. "And would you seek the priesthood also? "Therefore, it is against the Lord that you "and all your company have gathered together. "What is Aaron that you grumble against him? "And Moses sent to Nathan in the by-room "the sons of Levi and they said, "We will not come up. "Is it a small thing that you have brought us "up out of the land flowing with milk and honey "to kill us in the wilderness, "that you must also make yourself a prince over us? "Moreover, you have not brought us "into a land flowing with milk and honey, "nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards? "Will you put out the eyes of these men? "We will not come up." And Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, "Do not respect their offering. "I have not taken one donkey from them "and I have not harmed one of them." And Moses said to Cora, "Be present, you and all your company before the Lord, "you and they and Aaron tomorrow, "and let every one of you take his censor "and put incense on it, "and every one of you bring before the Lord his censor, "250 censors, you also and Aaron each his censor. "So every man took his censor and put fire in them "and laid incense on them and stood at the entrance "of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. "Then Cora 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. "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, "separate yourselves from among this congregation "that I may consume them in a moment. "And they fell on their faces and said, "Oh God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, "shall one man sin and will you be angry "with all the congregation? "And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Say to the congregation, "Get away from the dwelling of Cora, "Dathan and a byroom. "Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and a byroom "and the elders of Israel followed him. "And he spoke to the congregation saying, "Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men "and touch nothing of theirs "lest you be swept away with all their sins. "So they got away from the dwelling of Cora, "Dathan and a byroom. "And Dathan and a byroom came out and stood at the door "of their tents together with their wives, "their sons, and their little ones. "And Moses said, "Here by you shall know "that the Lord has sent me to do all these works "that it has not been of my own accord. "If these men die is all men die, "or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, "then the Lord has not sent me. "But the Lord creates something new, "and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up "with all that belongs to them. "And they go down alive into Shiel, "then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord. "And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, "the ground under them split apart, "and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up "with their households, "and all the people who belong to Cora "and all their goods. "So they and all that belong to them "went down alive into Shiel, "and the earth closed over them, "and they perished from the midst of the assembly. "And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, "for they said, lest the earth swallow us up. "And fire came out from the Lord "and consumed the 250 men offering the incense. "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Tell Eliezer, the son of Aaron, "the priest, to take up the censors out of the blaze, "then scatter the fire far and wide, "for they have become holy. "As for the censors of these men who have sinned "at the cost of their lives, "let them be made into hammered plates "as a covering for the altar. "If they offered them before the Lord and they became holy. "Thus they shall be assigned to the people of Israel. "So Eliezer, the priest, took the bronze censors, "which those who were burned had offered, "and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar. "To be a reminder to the people of Israel "so that no outsider who is not of the descendants of Aaron "should draw near to burn incense before the Lord, "lest he become like Korah and his company, "as the Lord said to him through Moses. "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.' "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, "and Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, "and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Get away from the midst of this congregation, "then I may consume them in a moment, "and they fell on their faces. "And Moses said to Aaron, 'Take your censor 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 the wrath has gone out from the Lord, "the plague has begun.' "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, "and he stood between the dead and the living, "and the plague was stopped. "Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, "besides those who died in the affair of Cora. "And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting "when the plague was stopped. "Lord, we're thankful for your word. "We're thankful for how you use it to convict our hearts. "Lord, I see you'd soften us towards your word, "that you would change us to become more like Christ. "Amen." All right, so let's look at the rebels complaint. "Rebellion against the Lord leads to unholy rebellion "against God's instituted authority. "So Cora, Dathan, and a by-room "are these three men who stir up division in the congregation, "and they bring their contagious, rebellious ideas "to others and persuade them to go up against Moses. "So what exactly are they saying? "What exactly is their complaint? "Cora's complaint is a spiritual complaint "against the religious leadership of Moses and Aaron. "The Cora was a Levite, was involved in the Levitical duties "that were given to the Levites, "and he's not liking the position that Moses and Aaron have. "He believes that Moses and Aaron have set themselves up "over the people in an inappropriate way." So verse three, "They assembled themselves together "against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, "'You have gone too far for all in the congregation "'or holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. "'Why then do you exalt yourselves "'above the assembly of the Lord?'" So Cora is saying, "Everyone in the congregation is holy. "You are exalting yourself up higher than everybody else." And Cora, he's actually appealing to what had been said already in Exodus 19, 5 and 6, which says, "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice "and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession "among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. Cora is desiring the priesthood of all believers, but he has his own ideas of what that should look like. But God has set up in different way, and Cora doesn't like this, and is blaming Moses and Aaron for it. So the reality is that Cora is looking for more power and more authority for himself, while being disgruntled with the authority that God has instituted above him. He's not content with the position that he has, he is jealous of others. And so we have this spiritual complaint that comes against Moses and Aaron, and there's also another complaint, a biorum in Dathan, they're Rubenites, and they're charged had more of a civil leadership issue against Moses and Aaron. Verse 12 to 14, we see this. And Moses sent to call Dathan and a biorum, the sons of Eliab, and they said, "We will not come up. "Is it a small thing that you have brought us "up out of the land flowing with milk and honey "to kill us in the wilderness "that you must also make yourself a prince over us? "Moreover, you have not brought us into land flowing "with milk and honey, nor given us "inheritance of fields and vineyards. "Will you put out the eyes of these men? "We will not come up." There's a number of things, a number of troubling things with this complaint. They don't like being in the wilderness understandable. However, they're in the wilderness because of the people's sin. Being in the wilderness does not have anything to do with the leadership. It's Israel's own making. Also, did you notice how they speak about Egypt? They are viewing Egypt as a land flowing with milk and honey. They've got a short memory. They were enslaved and oppressed to an extreme degree for hundreds of years and yet they're looking fondly upon their time in Egypt. They're mad that things aren't going as fast as they would like. They accuse Moses of trying to kill them in the wilderness and that he's exalting himself above them like a royal dictator. They're obstinate and do not respect the authority of Moses and Aaron. Cora, a biorum, dathan, believe Moses and Aaron have set themselves up in a way that exalts themselves above the congregation and they believe that this requires a confrontation. To get to the point of a confrontation means that these types of thoughts have been infecting their minds for a while. Something interesting about the co-hathite Levites, that's where Cora came from, and the Rubenites is that they camp next to each other on the south side of the tabernacle. It's not surprising that these two tribes would have people grumbling together that then leads to a rebellion. They're grumbling and they're complaining, has been contagious among themselves and then they become united in their rebellion. So Cora, a biorum and dathan, by confronting Moses and Aaron are not submitting to God's authority and decide to drag other influential people along with them. They get 250 chiefs of the congregation to join in with them and bringing this complaint against Moses and Aaron. 250, that's a lot of people. That's a good number of people and they weren't just any people either. They went after the leaders. Why would they go after the chiefs, these type of men? Because they know that in order to have some influence, they need to be able to influence the leaders to steer the ship in a certain direction. If you're able to influence and control the leaders, then you're able to bring about change. So this is a good point to stop for a word of caution. Be careful who you listen to and what you believe. Be careful who you listen to and what you believe. Be careful about what you hear and how that affects the decisions that you make. What you believe impacts others. 250 men who are leaders in their community were persuaded to follow Quora into rebellion. Sometimes we can read texts like this and place ourselves in the position of the good guys in the position of the people who are right. We need to take a dose of humility and recognize that this is a good picture of us. We are the ones that got riled up and wanted to stick it to our authority. God. What is sin but rebellion against God and his authority? When we sin, we're listening to the council of Satan, like our parents, Adam and Eve in the garden. We are just like these men who were foolishly persuaded to rebel. Our sin is rebellion against God. There is a way to guard against being wrongfully persuaded into rebellion. The first thing is for us to recognize that we have already been persuaded to rebel against God. We need a savior to save us from our sin and rebellion. Repent and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. It's only after being saved by Jesus that we're able to walk in holiness. So repentance is the first step here. Secondly, be so firmly rooted in the truth found in scripture that you are able to discern what God says is right and wrong even when someone of influence is telling you something different. And that's the hard part. Leaders are people who have respect and have influence over us. And it should be that way. There's health in this as long as those people are people of influence that are being influenced by scripture, not simply following their own desires and their own wants driven by selfish ambition. Check all of what you hear with the scriptures to determine if what you hear and what you are being told is truly what God says. This is what the Bereans are known for in the New Testament. They took the word that was spoken to them, examined it with the scriptures daily to see if it was so. Examine what is said with God's word. And this will guard you against falling into something deceptive or following after a false leader, false teacher. The only time that Chora is mentioned in the New Testament is in Jude 11, which says woe to them for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's heir and perished in Chora's rebellion. Jude is speaking about they're being false teachers that have crept into the church unnoticed. These are false guides who only lead to death and destruction and should not be followed. And this is who Chora was. Chora's a man who has the reputation of being a false leader who led people away from God and away from their proper authority, which led to destruction and the death of many. He became an archetype of someone who denies God's law and authority. His rebellion against the Lord shows up with his rebellion against Moses and Aaron. So just a brief word on confronting others. There are times when confronting another person is necessary. When confronting an authority is necessary. Our highest authority is God. So if an employer is asking their employee to do something sinful, the employee should not listen to the employer. You can make more examples like this, whether in the home or at church, where there's an authority who is not following the Lord, then there should be a confrontation there. So graciously confronting a leader who is not following the Lord is godly because it's keeping God in his rightful place of authority rather than allowing a man to be placed there. So if you're going to confront someone, you need to make sure to take a moment of self-awareness and humility to figure out if what you're about to say is in line with God's will or not. Having an older and wiser mentor in your life can be helpful way to process through. This before you taking a step of confrontation is what you are wanting to say, something that is going to build this person up in the Lord and help them to more faithfully imitate Christ. If yes, praise God, do so in a spirit of gentleness. If the goal is something other than helping someone more faithfully imitate Christ, then you need to question your own heart motive of why you're interested in giving this criticism. Proper correction should be done in a spirit of humility and a desire for someone to be more like Jesus. When we bring this confrontation because we're wanting something for ourselves, then our own selfish ambition is driving us rather than there being a goal for holiness. That's a problem. Have humility in Christ's likeness as a goal in your confrontation if that needs to happen. Christ's likeness needs to be the goal. So let's look at Moses' response here. So he's received some harsh criticism. Imagine what that would have been like to have this happen. A lot of men, at least 250, a little more than that because of the rest of the chora, a barum, Nathan, they come and bring us charge. How do you respond? I don't know about you, but within my own heart, there'd be a great deal of wanting to defend myself. Prove that what they're saying is wrong. That's not the first thing the Moses does. There's a helpful lesson here. Seek the Lord in humility when criticism comes your way. Seek the Lord in humility when criticism comes your way. One commentator said, even when he himself was under attack, he didn't immediately lash out at those responsible, but instead first took his concerns to the Lord. This is a model for all leaders who find themselves under attack. We see this in verse four where Moses falls on his face and appeals to the Lord. So when Moses heard it, he fell on his face and he said to chora 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'll bring near to him. This response to chora's challenge, challenges chora to have his criticism be tested by God. This is great leadership. Moses calls upon the Lord to make a decision about what is true and what is right. He trusts in the Lord and is calling upon chora to take account before the Lord is well. The way this is going to happen has to do with them taking sensors, putting incense in them, burning them before the Lord the following morning. This test should have been alarming to chora and the rest of the rebels as it should have reminded them of Nadab and Abaiheu who back in Leviticus were actual sons of Aaron, legitimate priests, but they did not take seriously where the fire should come from that they ignite the incense from and the Lord put them to death for unauthorized fire. They rebelled as they did not follow the Lord's commands and the consequences of that was their death. So Moses bringing this type of test up should have brought some serious questions into the heart, some serious apprehension in the minds of the rebellious. They were serious consequences for Nadab and Abaiheu. They were consumed with fire for their disobedience. This is a warning. It's a chance to repent, but they don't. After appealing to the Lord, Moses questions them and tells them the truth. So even though Moses has appealed to the Lord, he still tells chora the truth. It's chora that's gone too far, not Moses. He tells them plainly that they're not being content. Verse eight, and Moses said to chora, here now you sons of Levi, is it too small of a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister to them and that he has brought you near him and all your brothers, the sons of Levi with you and would you seek the priesthood also? They're not content. They're not content with the position God has given them, which was already a special position within the nation of Israel. They're already sons of Levi. They have these special responsibilities that nobody else has. It's a distinguished position, but their desire for the full priesthood is not theirs to have. That was given to Aaron and his descendants. And verse 11 is important here. Therefore, it is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you grumble against him? This complaint is not truly against Aaron. Aaron's just a regular guy. God decided to choose to give him the priesthood, to him and his descendants. There isn't anything special there. That's not Aaron's fault. That's God's choice. Their argument is really with God and it's coming from a place of discontentment with their position. They're desiring more leadership than what has been given to them. It's not necessarily a bad thing to desire leadership. Paul commends those who aspire for eldership in verse Timothy 3. But the desire for leadership can be a dangerous thing when it becomes an idol as if I have to have it. One commentator said, in other words, those who desire most intensely the ability to wield power are also the most likely not to wield it well. Some people aspire to positions of authority in order to lord it over others, not so they can serve others. They didn't need to be priests to be servants. Being discontent can destroy you. A heart of discontentment is a thankless heart. There's no gratitude. This is why Moses brings up all these blessings that Cora already has. Is that not enough? A heart of discontentment is a heart that does not have an eye for blessing, but instead looks around for all the things that it believes that should be better. Discontentment with who God has made us to be and the responsibilities that God has given us can move us towards rebellion. Discontentment is fueled by pride in that you believe you should have more than what you have. I deserve more. I deserve better, more power, more authority, more responsibility, more gifts, more possessions, more money, more praise, more priority. Whatever it is, you want more of it rather than simply wanting the lord and being content to have him. The lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Heart at rest with the lord is a heart that is thankful and content. Where there is satisfaction in the lord, there's no need to want. Discontentment is greed for some sort of gain. And so Cora is not content. He rebels. Nathan and Byron defy Moses. They give him their complaint, which we've already mentioned. And Moses is understandably angry and praise do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them. I have not harmed one of them. One of the more interesting prayers in the bible. For the sake of time, all I'm gonna say about this is this. Take your anger to the lord. If you can handle it, a major purpose for our emotions is that they would drive us to the lord. So with your emotions, whether it's anger or something else, have that drive you to the lord and prayer. And so the scene is set. Cora and the rebellion are to come in the morning with their censors and in their pride they do. How will God respond? So God's response. God speaks to Moses and Aaron and brings judgment upon Cora and the rebellion. Verse 21, separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. God is trustworthy in his judgments because he judges justly. A helpful thing for us to remember. We can trust God that he's gonna make proper and correct judgments. And do that in his timing. Romans 12, 19 says, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, "but leave it to the wrath of God "for it is written, vengeance is mine. "I will repay," says the lord. We are not to be a vengeful people. But instead, you can trust in the goodness of God and in his right judgments. God has just told Moses and Aaron to move away because God is going to consume the rebels in a moment. There is immediate action that's about to take place. Notice Moses and Aaron for a moment. They respond to God's justice by falling on their faces and pleading for God to have mercy on the people. And these are the people that came after them. Oh God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and you be angry with all the congregation. We see the mercy of God as he tells Moses and Aaron to tell the congregation to separate themselves from the dwelling of Cora, Nathan, and a by-room. God is about to destroy the rebellious. Now the responsibility of the people is to separate themselves from the rebels. The people have a decision to make. Will they take their side with the rebellious or with God? There's a hopeful and sobering reminder here as well. The effects of your sin go beyond just you. It has deadly effects on us and those around us. Your sin does not just stay with you. It impacts other people. It influences your family. It can impact the church. For Cora, Nathan, and the by-room, their sin destroys their family. Their wives and children are swallowed up by the ground. All their possessions, everything was taken from them because they did not submit to God. Sin promises life and abundance, but it ends in death and destruction. In the sin of these fathers affected the whole family. After God sends his judgment, where the earth swallows up families and fire comes out from the Lord, consumes the 250 men, the chiefs, the leaders of the congregation, God tells Moses to have them take up the metal sensors from the fire and have those sensors be hammered into a covering for the altar. Verse 38, "As for the censors of these men "who have sinned at the cost of their lives, "let them be made into hammered plates "as a covering for the altar, "for they offered them before the Lord and they became holy. "Thus they shall be assigned to the people of Israel." Sin costs your life. The wages of sin is death. This is why we need a savior. The only hope we can have in salvation is that someone other than us would pay the death that we deserve. Praise God for Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for his sheep. Forgiveness of sin is available because the cost of our life for our sin was paid for by Jesus. So God then has these sensors made up to be a reminder to the people of the order that God has set in place for how to worship. And it's a warning of what happened to the people who rebelled against God's order that do not become like Korah and the rebels. Learn from other people's failure. A wise person will learn from someone else's failure. Learning the hard way is so much more painful. We have examples in scripture like Korah and the rebels here. We have examples in our everyday life. People have not followed after the Lord and there's consequences for the sin that's in their lives. Be wise by learning and applying what God's word teaches. It's God's grace that we have examples of other people's failure in scripture to help be a warning for us. So take heed, listen to that. That's the grace of God. We're fortunate to be living in a time where we have God's word. We're able to read it freely when we want to. Take advantage of that. We need God's word. And the people of Israel really need it too as their response the next day is completely irresponsible. Verse 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." The people just saw God's judgment being poured out on the rebels. The earth swallows Cora and the rest of them. Moses and Aaron didn't kill them. Moses and Aaron are not capable of making the earth split open, swallowing up the people. They're not capable of making fire come out from the Lord to burn up the 250 men. Moses and Aaron did not kill anybody. The Lord enacted his righteous judgment. This is a crazy accusation. The people grumbling and complaining about it the day afterward, it's complete madness. And it's so easy to look at this and think, I can't believe that they're saying that. I would never do that. So again, we need to be careful with who we are identifying with here. You and I are just like these people of Israel grumbling and complaining about what God does, not understanding his righteous judgment, disagreeing with his decisions, blaming others. A good question to consider within your own heart is this. What are the things that I complain about? What are the things that I complain about? What are the things I grumble about? And sometimes we keep our complaining and our grumbling just to ourselves, nobody else sees it, but God knows the heart. Don't stop there with those questions about what you complain about, but then ask, the fact that I am grumbling or complaining about this thing, what is that revealing about my heart and its desires? The Christian life is a life of growth and maturity and part of growing in maturity is to look around and find areas in your life where you need to grow in your maturity to be more like Christ. The more you grow in the knowledge of God, the more you grow in your love for God, the more areas in your life you will see that you fall short of God's glory. The immaturity of the people of Israel is showing as they blame Moses and Aaron, and then God responds again. God says in verse 45, "Get away from the midst of this congregation "that I may consume them in a moment." The people deserve judgment. They rebelling in response to God's righteous judgment. Moses and Aaron, they fall on their faces. Moses says to Aaron, "Take your sensor "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 the wrath has gone out from the Lord. "The plague has begun." So Aaron goes, makes atonement for the people and the plague has stopped. This is a wonderful picture of the foreshadowing of a picture of what Christ has done for us. You and I are in need of someone to stand between us and God. We need a mediator. We need someone to make atonement for our sins that we don't receive the wrath of God that we righteously deserve. And that person is Jesus Christ. Without the work of Jesus Christ, we're just as helpless and lost as Cora and as a group of rebels. We're just as helpless and lost as these Israelites who blame Moses and Aaron. We deserve to be swallowed up by the earth and die in our sin. But thanks, Peter, God, that there's salvation, there's forgiveness of sin that's available in Jesus. And so repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Each of us is responsible to turn away from our sin and turn towards Christ. And we see a beautiful picture of this in the sons of Cora. If you turn over to Numbers 26, we see this interesting comment about Cora's rebellion. It's Numbers 26, verse nine. "The sons of Eliyab, nemul dathan in a by-room, these are the dathan in a by-room chosen from the congregation who contended against Moses and Aaron in the company of Cora when they contended against the Lord and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Cora. When that company died, when the fire devoured 250 men and they became a warning. But the sons of Cora did not die. How is it that the sons of Cora were not swallowed up in the earth? The only explanation is that the sons of Cora decided to step away from their father's tent as God gave the congregation instruction to move away from the dwelling place of these rebellious men. The sons of Cora had to make a huge decision about who they were going to follow. Imagine, again, imagine that scene. God tells the congregation to step away from the dwelling place of these men. This means that if any of the family members chose to step away, they would be leaving their family, leaving their possessions behind. And the question is this, are they willing to lose all these things in order to follow the Lord? Would they follow their earthly father in his rebellion? Or would they step away from dwelling with him and follow their heavenly father? And by God's grace, they chose to follow after their heavenly father. Psalm 49, a few other psalms exist because these sons decided to stand with the Lord rather than to follow in the footsteps of their rebellious father. There's a lot of hope here. God's grace is powerful to save us from our own sin and from following in the footsteps of rebellion. Each of us has the responsibility to repent of our sin, turn away from rebellion, turn towards Christ, and then rather than dwelling in the house of rebellion, the Lord actually makes us the church, his dwelling place, that we may dwell with the Lord forever to the praise and glory of God. So this is the decision for all of us. Thank God for his grace that he pursues after us. He saves us while we were yet dead in our sin, dead in our trespasses. Christ makes us alive. Let's pray. Lord, we are grateful that you are a God who pursues after your people, that you are a God who sent your son Jesus Christ to live among us and die for us. We recognize, we are just like Cora. We are just like these Israelites that grumble and complain against Moses and Aaron. And that's really showing our own heart and grumbling and complaining against you. Lord, we thank you that even in the midst of our sin, you chose to save us, that you have provided the gift of repentance. Lord, help us to be a people similar to the sons of Cora that we would step away from sin, that we would step away from rebellion, in repentance and turn towards Christ. Lord, we thank you again that you are a God who is rich in grace and mercy, that you provide forgiveness of sin to those who repent and believe, that we can look forward to dwelling in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.