but, like truly humble nnd holy men, they were occupied with intense pity for the- great mult!tude suddenly exposed to the full wrath of God. Was there any in thBt great multitude who would thus have thought of them 1 Their position towards God and men comes out in something like its completeness. If Moses had much on be- half of God to say to men, so he had much on behalf of men to eay to God. And Jesus is put before us as the great High Priest. If the sinful Aaron could be touched with a feeling of the infirmities of his brethren, not Iese is the same true of the sin- l~s Jesus. Amid the threatening penalties of sin, and with the growing con- sCJousness of ~mr own helplessness, we. can look to him for intercessory services, even those which he came to earth specially to render. His Father who is God of the spirits of all flesh, sent him not to destroy men's lives, but to s~ve them (Luke ix. 56). . II. THE AWFUL PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCE. 1.---Jtorah, Dathan, and Abiram are tJ,evotei/,_ t? r:kstrudi:ȣ: . The intercession of Moses and Aaron, earnest and prevail- mg as 1t 1s, has a hm1t m the request and the result. "If a.ny man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin n?~, unto death. There i,s a si,n unto death: I c!o not sa'!/ that he sha/,l pray for it (1 John v. 16). The people are first of all mcluded m menace with the three chief rebels that presently they may be separated from them. Leaders and followers are both guilty, but there are degrees in wickedness as in holiness. It is perhaps of great significance, if only we will consider that God in this mani- festation of his wrath came not only with three separate punishments, but three different modes of punishment. He seems to shadow forth something of degrees of punishment in the eternal world. If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the pit ; but surely the woe of a deeper fall is to those presumptuous blind who drag others with them. Here were those who would not admit that Moses and Aaron had been Divinely separated for a peculiar service, and now in their to,vering pride they are separated for a peculiar doom. If they had not climbed so high they would not have fallen so far. 2. As we see the people falling away from Korah, we notice what a feeble bond unites the wicke,d. Only a few minutes ago the people were pressing admiringly on him as he bearded Moses in the very door of the tabernacle ; now they flee from him and the other two as if they infected the air with death. The bond that looks so firm is but a rope of sand. It will not hold when anything appears that looks like a peril to individual selfishness. We may be reminded indeed of "honour among thieves," but this at the most can only mean that wicked men may act together till the last, not that they may be trnsted to do it. There ie no such coherency possible amongst the wicked as amongst the good. They have no entirely common purpose ; each has his own advantage to seek, and so one may easily thwart all the rest. The Jews in the hour of their triumph over Jesus are chagrined by the inscription which obstinate Pilate pnts on the cross. 3. Notice the reference to the elders in ver. 25. They had been appointed, seventy of them, to help Moses in the burden which had become so grievous ( eh. xi. ). Where then had they been all this time ? Men with the Spirit of God upon them should surely have sided boldly with Moses, even before the glory appeared. Perhaps indeed they were on his side ; and we must not infer too much from silence, elee Caleb and Joshua would appear in a dubious light. But this much at all events may be said, that even though they were select and judicious men, and God took of the spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon them, all this was in- sufficient to help Moses in his extremest needs. We may take their appointment rather as an expression of regard and sympathy, something fitted to teach the elders themselves to be full of consideration aud attention towards Moses. The great crowning needs of life cannot be met by human help, even when sanctified ; we must still, like Moses, fall on our faces before God. Not until God hae appeared, vindicated his servant, and scattered the unfriendly crowd, do we hear that the elders of Israel followed him. 4. The carrying out of the judgment on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Moses announces that the mode of their death was to have great evidential value with respect to himself. Those who had been foremost as accusers a:1d ~landerers shall now be chief witnesses on his side, speaking more loudly for him 1D their death than ever they had spoken against him in their life. It had been Oil. XVI. 41-50.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 219
their charge against Moses that he hnd assumed undue authority; therefore, to show how much he was in the secrete of the Divine government, he announces, not only that God himself would take in hand the execution of a righteous sentence, but would execute it in a way hitherto unheard of. And this very way Moses proceeds to indicate. What a point of faith he here reaches I what a perfect community of thought with God I for scarcely has he spoken when that happens which he said would happen, and in exactly the same way, Death and burial are included in the same act. No one was made unclean by these three men or any of their belongings.-Y.