Joy in the Messiah

Korach / Korah
Numbers 16:1-18:32
1 Samuel 11:14-12:22
Romans 13:1-7  

          In Greek Mythology, Narcissus was known for his beauty and a fixation on himself and his outer appearance. The story told about him is, after seeing his reflection in a pool of water, he falls in love with it as if it were another human being.
     Hebrew names have meanings, and the name Korach is no exception. It means ice, baldness, frost or hail.  How profound!  He is no doubt the father of spiritual narcissism. Korach was a big fish in a big sea as a main leader of the Kehatites, the most prestigious of Levites. He was looked up to and respected. That is why he was so successful in getting 250 men of Israel, leaders of the community, and men of renown to join in the rebellion; he had clout. 
     Korach, a cousin of Moses, argues that he is just as deserving of leadership as Moshe, claiming that Moshe took power for self-elevation. Numbers 16:3 – ‘They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” In reality, he was accusing Moshe of what he himself was guilty of.
     In turn, Moshe threatens Korach with powers of God in Numbers 16:4-7.  In Numbers 16:15 Moshe becomes angry ‘Then Moses was very angry, and said to the Lord, “Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, nor have I hurt one of them.” Korach and his family are swallowed by the earth followed by the demise of his followers, Numbers 16:31-35.
      Korach is the spirit of division and the spirit of strife. God is of course the spirit of peace. The Spirit of Strife and the Spirit of Peace are two definite spirits; however, Numbers 16:22 states that God is the creator of all, “Then they fell on their faces, and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and You be angry with all the congregation?” The Hebrew is אל אלהי הרוחת לכל בשר El Elohey haruchoth lechol basar.    Ha- The   Ruchot- Spirits   Lechol- of all    Basar-flesh/meat.  This same Hebrew sequence is repeated in Numbers 27:16. 
     The spirit of strife plays on discontentment.  People with a grudge are more intent on overthrowing the current leader than on any constructive plan or action of their own. “Hate defeats rationality,” the sages teach.  Injured pride, the feeling that honor should have gone to them has led to destructive and self-destructive action for as long as humans have existed on earth.  We see a picture of this type of jealousy when Peninnah would provoke Hannah, when Saul was against David, when the brothers assaulted Joseph, and when the Sanhedrin came against Yeshua.
       The spirit of Korach is also a stumbling block to those with approval addiction. Rather than come humbly before God, they rally around the loudest. They take sides of the ‘victim’, however false that may be. A stumbling block is a circumstance that causes difficulty or hesitation. Synonyms are: obstacle, hurdle, barrier, hindrance. Stumbling block in Hebrew is the word: miḵšōl (מִכְשׁוֹל‎).
     Luke 17:1: ‘He said to His disciples, "It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!”  
      Korach believed that his spiritual wisdom made him more special than others. This is also known as spiritual narcissism. We see this when someone approaches us with ‘God gave me word for you.’ Immediately the person stating this just tried to elevate themselves above you by stating that they had received a word directly from God about you yet you were not in the loop.
     Korach and his followers came from three different groups: Korach from the tribe of Levi. Dahtan and Abiram from the tribe of Reuben, plus the 250 rebel leaders from various other tribes. Each had a specific grievance. The 250 leaders resented the fact that leadership roles had been taken from them after the sin of the Golden Calf and given instead to the tribe of Levi. Dathan and Abiram were jealous that their tribe – descendants of Jacob’s firstborn – had been given no special status. Moses’ reply to Korach – “Now you are trying to get the priesthood too … Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?” – makes it clear that Korach wanted to be a Kohen, and probably wanted to be Kohen Gadol, the High Priest in place of Aaron.The three groups had nothing in common except that were tied together because they opposed the same leader. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
     Alone, they would turn on each other, but for that moment they thought there was strength in their opposition and hate. Through reading this parsah, we see how these rebel’s understood leadership. Their claim against Moses and Aaron was “Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?” Later, Dahtan and Abiram said to Moses, “And now you also want to lord it over us!” if you want to understand people’s resentments, just listen to what they accuse others of, and you will then know what they themselves want. 
     When one seeks power or revenge but not the truth, they will attack the messenger, not the message. They attempt to destroy the standing and credibility of those they oppose. They go after the leader, the one sending the message instead of listening and understanding the truth. They attack. That is what Korach and his fellow rebels tried to do. 
    It appears that their goal was to discredit Moses, damage his credibility, status and raise doubts among the people as to whether he really was receiving his instructions from God by swaying people to listen to them and their message instead of the leadership.     
     Notice the downward spiral in Numbers 16:1-3: ‘Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men; ² and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. ³ They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”  
     They separated themselves from leadership. They rose up against. They gathered others and swayed them, and then falsely accused. 
     Resentment leads to bitterness, but there is a root cause, a gate that must be opened first. As Cain and Korach opened the gate to jealousy, which led to anger, then rage then vengeance and finally death, (Korach’s own and Cain’s brother, Abel’s death), another gate is self-pity. One feels sorry for themselves, seeing themselves as the victim, which can also lead to vengeance. 
     A good example is found in Jonah 4:1-10 and Job 19:21: ‘Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me.’
     When we indulge in self-pity, we have elevated ourselves in our importance in own eyes and we are actually lying to ourselves. Self-pity involves no repentance, while godly sorrow produces repentance. Repentance from sin is the difference between self-pity and godly sorrow. Jeremiah 30:15 ‘‘Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you.’ This verse shows us that it is repentance that is important.
     Proverbs 16:28 ‘A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.’