Atonement for the Undeserving

Psalm 106. Psalm 106. We're going to just touch

it real briefly for just a second to remind ourselves

what we're talking about tonight. Psalm 106.

We started there last Wednesday, and we were

introduced to a story, but we had to flip back

to number 16 to really look at the story. I felt

like it was worth us looking at. It's a good

story. We looked at part of it last week, and

we'll wrap up this portion of the story. But

in Psalm 106, it's talking about Israel's unfaithfulness

to God. God had been faithful to his people many

times, but God's people were often unfaithful

to him. And one of these stories is being recalled

here in Psalm 106 in verse 16. We'll just refresh

ourselves with this. story and then we'll flip

back to Numbers 16 and talk more about it. Let's

pray and we'll get started. God, we come to you.

I thank you for your word. I pray that you would

help us to learn something from what we are about

to read, that we would pay attention to the actions

of your people, that we would pay attention to

your actions, dear Lord. Maybe what we see here

tonight would cause us to think a little bit

about the things that we are tempted to do and

the complaining that we are tempted so often

to complain about, all the things that may come

into our mind. And I pray that you just would

free us from distractions and worries and let

your Holy Spirit be among us tonight as we look

at these words. In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen.

Alright, Psalm 106 verse 16. In the camp they

Psalms 106:16

were envious of Moses and of Aaron, the Lord's

holy one. The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan.

It covered the assembly of Abiram. Fire blazed

throughout their assembly, and flames consumed

the wicked. So that brief three verses we see

in Psalm 106 has a whole big story that goes

with it. And we talked about that last week in

Numbers 16. I'll refresh you a little bit about

what was going on. Last week we read through,

oh, I don't remember what verse we read through

last week, through about verse 14. We read number

16, verses 1 through 14. And there were a few

folks that really didn't like the way things

were going with Moses and Aaron. And so Korah

and Dathan and Abraham and some others that they

gathered up were going to... do this rebellion

against Moses. They said, hey, why do we have

to follow you? Why do we have to listen to you?

And they said, you know, we left a land flowing

with milk and honey to come out here where we

are now. Well, the reason why they were in the

shape they were in was because of their disobedience.

They certainly could have really been in a land

flowing with milk and honey. It's interesting

that they remembered their time enslaved in Egypt.

With such fond memories, obviously the time that

had elapsed from when they were freed, they were

kind of thinking back that things were a little

better than they were. But they had saw the land

that God had promised them, and based on the

report of some of the ones that went in to check

out the land, the people were afraid and didn't

want to go in. So the Lord said, okay, you don't

want to go in. You're not going to go in. Well,

the people didn't like what was going on. They

didn't like the way Moses and Aaron was leading.

And so these three guys and some others, 250

other leaders in the community, were planning

this rebellion to say, look, we're not going

to follow you, Moses. We don't have to listen

to you. We can do this our own self. What makes

you so special? So that's what we saw last week

in the beginning part of the story. Now, as you

can imagine, this did not sit well with Moses,

and it did not sit well with the Lord. And so

we're going to see the conclusion. of that story

tonight in Numbers chapter 16, starting in verse

Numbers 16 · chapter mention

15. We'll cover a lot of verses, but we'll try

to get through them quickly because we really

need to see most of these to understand the story.

All right, Numbers 16, verse 15. Then Moses became

Numbers 16:15

angry and said to the Lord, Don't respect their

offering. I have not taken one donkey from them

or mistreated a single one of them. So Moses

told Korah, You and all your followers are to

appear before the Lord tomorrow, you, they, and

Aaron. Each of you is to take his fire pan, place

incense on it, and present his fire pan before

the Lord. 250 fire pans. You and Aaron are each

to present your fire pan also. Okay, so Moses

says, look. I haven't done wrong by you guys.

You guys are going to come out against us. You're

going to come out against the Lord. You're coming

out against me and Aaron. So tomorrow we're all

going to gather with our fire pans before the

Lord, and we're going to let the Lord sort this

out. We're going to let the Lord decide who's

in the right and who's in the wrong here. Is

it going to be Moses and Aaron, or is it going

to be Korah and Dathan and Abraham and all these

who are... Calling Moses out, okay? They call

Moses out. They're calling out the Lord essentially

in this. And so Moses says, we're going to go

before the Lord. We'll let the Lord sort this

out. All right, verse 18. Each man took his firepan,

placed fire in it, put incense on it, and stood

at the entrance of the tent of meeting along

with Moses and Aaron. After Korah assembled,

the whole... All right, didn't take the Lord

long to make a judgment on this case right here.

These guys are coming against Moses. They all

go before the Lord. The Lord says, Moses, you

boys get out of the way. I'm about to send fire

down. I'm about to consume this whole community

of people. The Lord says, I'm done with them.

I'm going to consume them. So the Lord had already

made his decision on who was in the wrong here.

All right, verse 22. But Moses and Aaron fell

face down and said, God, God of the spirits of

all flesh. When one man sins, will you vent your

wrath on the whole community? All right, that's

a good thing we see of Moses here. Now, we see

this throughout Moses as he leads the people.

Moses intercedes for the people. He steps up

for the people when they've done some pretty

evil things. Now, if God would have chosen to

have wiped them all out, the whole bunch of them,

he would have been right in doing so. He had

given them some conditions. Hey, you need to

do these things. And if you don't do these things,

you're going to experience my wrath. Well, they

did not follow the instructions of God. They

did not live in obedience to him. And God says,

I'm going to take care of them. But Moses intercedes

and says, hold up, God. Not everybody's bad.

There's some of these folks in your community

that are bad, sure enough. These guys that are

wanting to start this rebellion, they're not

doing a good thing, but don't take out your anger

on the whole group of your people, God, just

because there's a few folks that are doing wrong.

So Moses intercedes on behalf of the people.

Verse 23, Then the Lord replied to Moses, Tell

the community, get away from the dwellings of

Korah, Dathan, and Abraham. Moses got up and

went to Dathan and Abraham, and the elders of

Israel followed him. He warned the community,

Get away now from the tents of these wicked men.

Don't touch anything that belongs to them, or

you will be swept away because of all their sins.

So they got away from the dwellings of Korah,

Dathan, and Abraham. Meanwhile, Dathan and Abraham

came out and stood at the entrance of their tents

with their wives, children, and infants. Okay,

now God had just told Moses and Aaron, hey, get

away. I'm going to destroy everybody. And Moses

intercedes and says, hold up, God. There's some

bad eggs in this group, but don't punish everybody

because there's a few bad guys in this group

that are doing wrong. So the Lord hears Moses'

request. And so Moses goes out and tells the

community, all right, these dudes here, Korah,

Dathan, and Abraham, they're up to no good. And

if y 'all know what's good for you, you need

to get away from them. Don't be anywhere close

to them, nothing they own, not their family.

You need to get away. You need to get out of

God's path because God is about to bring his

wrath on these who have done wrong. So Moses

gives the people a warning. All right, let's

continue on in verse 28. Then Moses said, This

is how you will know that the Lord sent me to

do all these things and that it was not of my

own will. If these men die naturally, as all

people would, and suffer the fate of all, then

the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord brings

about something unprecedented and the ground

opens its mouth and swallows them along with

all that belongs to them so that they go down

alive into Sheol, then you will know that these

men have despised the Lord. Okay? So Moses says,

all right, we need to figure out who's in the

right and who's in the wrong. If I'm in the wrong,

Moses says, if God did not send me, then these

men who are coming against me, then nothing's

going to happen to them. Then they're just going

to live a long, normal life. There will be no

more problems. They'll go on their way. I'll

go on my way. And if nothing happens to these

men, then you'll know that God didn't send me.

But Moses says, if God did send me, then the

ground, may it open up and may it swallow these

men and everything they got. May it be brought

down to Sheol. May it be brought down to the

grave with them. All right, let's see what happens

after Moses speaks these words. Verse 31. Just

as he finished speaking all these words, the

ground beneath them split open. The earth opened

its mouth and swallowed them and their household,

all Korah's people and all their possessions.

They went down alive into Sheol with all that

belonged to them. The earth closed over them

and they vanished from the assembly. At their

cries, all the people of Israel who were around

them fled because they thought, the earth may

swallow us too. Fire came down from the Lord

and consumed the 250 men who were presenting

the incense. Sure enough, we see who was in the

right. It was Moses. Moses was sent by God. He

was doing exactly what God said. He was giving

the commands of God to the people. They didn't

always like it. They didn't like the results

that they were getting, which was pretty much

their own fault. God told them what to do. They

didn't do it. God would bring consequences, and

then they'd complain, and then Moses would intercede,

and then they'd complain some more. It's just

this cycle that we see over and over. But Moses

was just doing the Lord's work. And Moses said,

okay, if I'm doing the Lord's work, ground's

going to swallow these dudes up, ground open

up. swallowed these dudes up, all their family,

everything, and the ground closed over them.

So you can imagine there was great fear among

the people. It got their attention, at least

for a second, that God had brought judgment on

these people, on Korah and Dathan and Abraham

and their families, and these other 250 men,

fire consumed them. Boom. Now this is the event

that we see described in those three short verses

in Psalm 106. This is what's being talked about

here. This type of disobedience and complaining

and rebellion among God's people, those three

little verses have a big story behind them that

helps us to understand just how serious God was.

God didn't take these things lightly. He was

pretty serious about his people and about them

living in obedience to him. And when these guys

tried to come and thwart his plan and tried to

overthrow Moses, God said, no, this isn't the

way it's supposed to be. And even though God

desired to destroy them, praise the Lord that

Moses was a good intercessor there for the people

that God only destroyed those who were trying

to cause the rebellion and not the whole community.

Now let's skip down a few verses to verse 41.

All right, so this right here should be the end

of the story because God has done a pretty powerful

thing. Like if all of a sudden today you saw

the ground open up, and people do an evil fall

into it and the ground's shut behind them, you'd

think that would probably get your attention

so that you'd live in obedience and stop complaining.

Verse 41, The next day the entire Israelite community

complained about Moses and Aaron, saying, You

have killed the Lord's people. What in the world

is going on? We just saw this same thing in Exodus

Exodus 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15. Right when God got them out of slavery,

right when they crossed the Red Sea, they sung

a praise to the Lord, and then three verses later

they complained about how bad things were. They

had just saw the power of God swallow up these

men who spoke against Moses and Aaron, and you

don't have to skip down but a handful of verses,

and the next day the community complained about

Moses and Aaron. Now how do you think God felt

about that? He had just swallowed up all these

guys for what they were doing. Well, guess what?

The Lord's attitude hadn't changed. The next

day, he was still just as angry about that kind

of action that he was the day before. The next

verse, verse 42. When the community assembled

against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the

tent of meeting, and suddenly the cloud covered

it, and the Lord's glory appeared. Moses and

Aaron went to the front of the tent of meeting,

and the Lord said to Moses, Get away from this

community so that I may consume them instantly.

Same thing we just saw. Isn't that pretty hard

-headed of God's people that they had just saw

him destroy these families for complaining about

Moses and Aaron, and the next day they complain

about Moses and Aaron, and God says, all right,

I'm ready to do it again. Watch out, Moses. Watch

out. Let me be done with these people. But what

does it say at the end of that verse? But they

fell face down. Verse 46. Then Moses told Aaron,

take your fire pan, place fire from the altar

in it and add incense. Go quickly to the community

and make atonement for them because the wrath

have come from the Lord. The plague has begun.

What does Moses and Aaron do here? What did they

do before? God said, I want to destroy everybody.

And Moses says, hold on. Hold on, dear Lord.

Moses says, look, we've got to make atonement.

He tells Aaron, go get your fire pan. We've got

to make atonement for these people. God's going

to wipe them out. So Aaron does just that in

verse 47. So Aaron took his fire pan and Moses,

as Moses had ordered, ran into the middle of

the assembly and saw that the plague had begun

among the people. After he added incense, he

made atonement for the people. He stood between

the dead and the living and the plague was halted.

But those who died from the plague numbered 14

,700 in addition to those who died because of

the Korah incident. Aaron then returned to Moses

at the entrance of the tent of meeting since

the plague had been halted. Now we don't know

what kind of plague this was. We don't have any

details other than it was a plague. That God's

people still hadn't learned their lesson? that

they still complained, that they still called

out Moses and Aaron. God says, it's done. I'm

going to destroy them. Moses and Aaron intercede

for the people, and in the middle of their intercession,

because they make atonement for the people, some

of them are spared. Some of them die. 14 ,700,

plus all those others that the ground swallowed

up. There was a lot of people that died. God

was bringing destruction on them, and rightfully

so. God was right to pass judgment on them. He

was doing no wrong there. Praise the Lord that

Moses and Aaron interceded to make atonement

for the people. It says in verse 48 that Aaron

stood between the dead and the living. Now, this

is a pretty good story for us to consider tonight.

One... We see how serious God takes sin. And

God was pretty serious about this. I mean, he

opened up the ground and swallowed these folks.

And they continued to complain, and they continued

to live in disobedience. They should have learned

their lesson. But maybe there are some times

in life that we need to stop and look at our

own life and say, well, are we living in some

kind of disobedience? Maybe we turn a blind eye

to it, or maybe we think, oh, that's okay, it's

2026. Maybe it's not something that God turns

a blind eye to. Maybe he takes our sin a little

more seriously than we do. And maybe we need

to pump the brakes a little bit and think, okay,

we're not any better really than these Israelites.

How many times have we done wrong again and again?

How many times should we have learned our lesson?

But we didn't. And we keep on doing things that

we shouldn't do. We see this time and time again.

for the people of Israel, and we're really no

better. There are things in our life that we

should have learned our lesson, and we should

have stopped doing things that we are doing,

and we should stop our complaining. But we see

God work one day, and we complain the next day.

And so really, we're no better than these folks.

And we're just as deserving of God's wrath. I

mean, based on what we do, God has every right

to strike us down. If he wants to look down on

us and say, I'm done with them, I want to destroy

that community, God would have every right to

do so. But the beautiful part about this story

is it really kind of foreshadows what's going

to come in Jesus Christ. That even though we

are a people deserving of God's wrath, that there

is one who stands up for us. That as we are those

who are dead in our sin, that Jesus Christ stands

between the living and the dead, and he says,

look, I want to save those who are dying. I want

to save those who are going to experience God's

wrath, and it's Jesus who makes atonement for

us. Now Aaron made atonement for those people,

and those who were atoned for are the ones who

survived. Those are the ones who were spared.

Now praise the Lord for us tonight that Jesus

has come to stand between us and God to make

atonement for us. That we don't get the wrath

that we deserve, but that Jesus took that wrath

by dying on a cross to give us atonement so that

we may be spared. Even when we look at this story,

as we've gone through the Psalms, you may recall

when we got to, I believe, Psalm 44, we saw a

little section that started a few of the Psalms

that were Psalms that it said were written by

the sons of Korah. That's just who he talked

about. So Korah didn't do right by the Lord and

the ground opened up and swallowed him, but somebody

from Korah's line ultimately must have learned

from Korah's mistakes. Because some of the very

Psalms that we've been reading over the last

couple of years were Psalms that were written

by the descendants of Korah. Perhaps they knew

of this story of Korah. Perhaps that got their

attention, that they realized, I don't want to

be the one who goes against the Lord. I want

to be the one who's atoned for by the Lord. What

about us tonight? Have we found that atonement

in Jesus Christ? Do we know that tonight our

sins separate us from the Lord? That we may look

at our life and we may think we're better than

we are, but really we're just as bad as these

Israelites in this story. Time and again through

the Old Testament, we see them doing the same

types of things that we do. And it's not good.

But God is gracious to us. And praise the Lord

that he doesn't just strike us all down today.

He could strike everybody on the planet down

today if he wanted to. But God is patient, not

wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance

through Jesus Christ, who is our intercessor.

In the same way that Moses continually interceded

for the people, Jesus Christ intercedes for us

today. And just as Aaron made atonement for the

people, so Jesus has made atonement on the cross.

Hopefully we've been covered by Jesus' blood

and we've experienced that atonement tonight.

Let's pray. God, we thank you for this good story

and may it get our attention, dear Lord. Maybe

there are some things in our life that we realize

that we're just as stubborn and hard -headed

and just as bad as the Israelites, dear Lord.

We don't want to be okay with that. And so I

pray, dear Lord, that you'd help us to check

our own life. We thank you for your mercy, dear

Lord, and I ask that you would be merciful and

gracious to us. We thank you for Jesus for being

our atonement, dear Lord, to take care of us.

God, we know we don't deserve your grace and

there's nothing we can do to earn it. There's

no amount of good works or anything we can do

or say. So I pray, dear Lord, that we always

just trust in Jesus and what he's done for us

and never become proud, but always humble ourselves

before the cross and the one who offered atonement

for us. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.