Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 16-18.

This is my third attempt at starting to write today’s blog.  Yesterday, I wrote about the danger of taking a position just because the majority of the “experts” on the subject take that position.  And then trying to silence those experts who argue against that position without listening to their arguments.  Today’s passage contains a warning about rebelling against God’s chosen leader(s).  Korah attempted to usurp Moses’ authority by claiming that all people were equal (and therefore the people should follow him instead of following Moses).  Dathan and Abiram refused to make their case against Moses before the people, arguing that Moses had no authority to demand that they do so.   In a way, this rebellion was much the same as the one I discussed yesterday.  Those in the wrong appealed to emotions and feelings, refusing to make their case with reason and logic (although in today’s case, they refused to stand before God and the people and ask God to make His will known between them and Moses).

I would like to expand on this by taking note that I often seek to see if there are natural explanations for miraculous happenings in the Bible (not that I do not believe in miracles, merely that God often chooses to use the laws of nature to display His power).  In this case, I often wonder if this rebellion started with Moses telling those involved not to camp on the area which they chose, and their rebellion initially resulting from their belief that he had no right to tell them where to camp.  Moses had spent about 40 years as a shepherd in the Sinai region and I could easily see him knowing that the ground upon which they camped only appeared to be stable, that it would collapse under the weight of their numbers and goods after a short period of time.  When Moses told them to move their camp they got angry because, being a busy man, he did not take to time to explain and show them why it was not safe to camp there.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.