Daily Devotional Details

Date

They assembled themselves together against Moses. Numbers 16:3

Picture three men sitting around a fire beside their tents in the desert. Their names are Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. They are talking about Moses. Somehow whenever they got together, he was the subject they always got back to. Moses was their common interest.

This was a strange alliance. Korah was a Levite and it seems, from what Moses says to him later, that he was not happy that the priests only came from Aaron’s family. Dathan and Abiram were Reubenites. Reuben was the first of Jacob’s twelve sons, and it would not be surprising that the Reubenites would feel that leadership should come from their clan. So, they had different agendas, but they found common ground in their frustrations over Moses and Aaron.

As far as they were concerned, Moses was a disaster. “Of course, he doesn’t know what he is doing,” Korah would say. “He is out of touch,” Dathan would add, rolling his eyes. “And just who does he think he is?” Abiram would protest.

Whatever Moses did, they had a negative spin. When he appointed elders to help him, they would say, “Well, of course! He can’t handle the responsibility.” And when he went up the mountain to meet with God, they would say, “How come he gets six weeks on a spiritual retreat? He should be here leading the people instead.”

Moses couldn’t do anything right in their eyes. They didn’t like him. And the fact that he had so much authority just added to their animosity. That’s where the trouble began.

Have you ever been (or are you now) part of a strange alliance like this?