June 14, 2026

One day three men—Korah, Dathan, and Abiram—decided they’d had enough of Moses and his brother, Aaron. Now God had chosen Moses to lead, and Aaron
to be the high priest. But Korah, Dathan, and Abiram gathered 250 important men and said to God’s chosen leaders, “What makes you so special? We are all
God’s holy people. Aaron isn’t more holy than us! We are tired of you. We want someone else to lead!” God does not it like when his people rebel against his plan. And Moses knew that. So Moses said to them, “You have gone too far! Why are you grumbling? It is not against us that you have gathered, but the Lord. I know how to settle this matter. Tomorrow, everyone must show up at the tabernacle and God will settle this argument. Aaron, the high priest, will come with burning incense in his censer (a golden pot). And everyone who thinks they could be the high priest must do the same. God will make clear who he has set aside to lead and
sacrifice” (see Num. 16:4–7, 11). Dathan and Abiram replied, “Who made you boss? Why would we listen to the man who almost killed us in the wilderness? Why would we listen to the man who has not brought us into the promised land?” (see 16:12–14). Their response pushed Moses over the edge. He was mad. The Lord was mad too—they had rejected his chosen leaders and laws. The next day, Korah and his 250 followers showed up to prove they knew better than God’s leaders (and, really, God himself). But God showed up and proved he was the boss. The ground under Korah (and Dathan and Abiram too!) “opened its mouth and swallowed them up” (16:32). Then “fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense” (16:35). Aaron, God’s chosen high priest, stood untinged. The next day, the people gathered and accused Moses and Aaron of killing the people of the Lord! This made God so angry that he began to destroy them with a plague. (After all, they were acting like the Egyptians.) God warned Moses and Aaron to flee, but instead Moses told Aaron to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people so God’s anger would be turned away. And in that moment, our merciful God stopped the plague.