The Great Test: Whom Would God Acknowledge?

On the morrow, the two hundred and fifty princes, with Korah at their head, presented themselves with their censers, while the people gathered to await the result. It was not Moses who assembled the congregation to behold the defeat of Korah and his company, but the rebels, in their blind presumption, had called them together to witness their victory. A large part of the congregation openly sided with Korah.EP 280.5

Korah had withdrawn from the assembly to join Dathan and Abiram when Moses, accompanied by the seventy elders, went down with a last warning to the men who had refused to come to him. Moses, by divine direction, bade the people, “Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.” The warning was obeyed, for an apprehension of impending judgment rested upon all. The chief rebels saw themselves abandoned by those whom they had deceived, but they stood with their families in defiance of the divine warning.EP 281.1

Moses now declared in the hearing of the congregation: “Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men ... then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.”EP 281.2

As he ceased speaking, the solid earth parted and the rebels went down alive into the pit, with all that pertained to them, and “they perished from among the congregation.” The people fled, self-condemned as partakers in the sin.EP 281.3

But the judgments were not ended. Fire flashing from the cloud consumed the two hundred and fifty princes who had offered incense. These men were not destroyed with the chief conspirators. They were permitted to see their end and to have opportunity for repentance; but their sympathies were with the rebels, and they shared their fate.EP 281.4

The entire congregation were sharers in their guilt, for all had, to a greater or lesser degree, sympathized with them. Yet the people who had permitted themselves to be deceived were still granted space for repentance.EP 281.5

Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, sought to save them from destruction. The judgment of God had come very near and appealed to them to repent. Now, if they would respond to God's providence, they might be saved. But their rebellion was not cured. They returned to their tents that night terrified, but not repentant.EP 282.1

They had been flattered by Korah until they really believed themselves to be a very good people, wronged and abused by Moses. They had fondly cherished the hope that a new order of things was about to be established in which praise would be substituted for reproof, and ease for anxiety and conflict. The men who had perished had spoken flattering words and professed great interest and love for them, and the people concluded that Moses had by some means been the cause of their destruction.EP 282.2

The Israelites had proposed to put both Moses and Aaron to death. Yet that night of probation was not passed in repentance and confession, but in devising some way to resist the evidence which showed them to be the greatest of sinners. They still cherished hatred of the men of God's appointment and braced themselves to resist their authority.EP 282.3

“On the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” And they were about to proceed to violence against their faithful, self-sacrificing leaders.EP 282.4