Study in the Epistle of Jude # 60: Verse 11

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are currently in the book of Jude. We have come to the last part of verse 11, which speaks of those who “perished in the gainsaying of Core.” We have looked at the word “gainsaying,” and we have seen that it means “to speak against” or “to contradict.” When the Jews heard the Apostle Paul declaring the Gospel and saw the Gentiles responding, as we read about in Acts 13:44-45, they “spake against” those things that Paul was teaching, and they contradicted and blasphemed. That is what gainsaying is—when someone is of a mind to be contrary to the truth of the Word of God. That is the nature of unsaved people. Galatians 5:17 tells us that those who are in the flesh are contrary to those who are in the spirit, so they will speak against spiritual things, as the believers declare them from the Scriptures.

God discusses Korah in Numbers. We have looked at the first few verses, but we have not gotten into much detail. Let us turn to Numbers 16:1-2, which says:

Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:

This is quite a gathering, quite an assembly of men. These are not just anyone; they are not your typical Israelites. These men were princes in the congregation. In Numbers 1:16, God gives us a little information regarding a prince and the type of power he would have and the authority he would possess. It says there:

These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.

A prince in the nation of Israel could be a head of a thousand or thousands of individuals in his particular tribe. Therefore, as we are reading about 250 princes, these men are representing a large portion, if not a majority, of the people of Israel.

These 250 princes are coming to Moses and Aaron. They would not dare to come alone or only by two or three. They recognized that Moses has been mightily used of God, and that Aaron was his spokesperson. They recognized that God had worked through these men. Who knows what they truly thought of Moses—we really do not know. We do know, though, that these men were not saved; they were not born-again believers. They saw the miracles and the power of God, but whom did they literally see? They saw Moses raising his staff or Aaron casting down the staff to swallow up Pharaoh’s serpents. They saw Moses and Aaron going before Pharaoh telling him about the plagues. “Could it be that Moses is the man who possessed the power?” they perhaps wondered. We do not know what they thought, but we do know that there would have been some fear of the man Moses himself because of the tremendous miracles these Israelites had witnessed. Therefore, they would not dare go by themselves before Moses and Aaron.

“There is strength in numbers”—that is what the world thinks. They think that if you can get quite a number of people to agree on something, then this strengthens you. “You then have allies, others to back you up,” they think. “Maybe Moses and Aaron would not budge at one or two or three or ten individuals, but what if 250 men came, and what if they were not just any men. What if we brought, not the normal, everyday Jews who had your basic occupations, but the princes, the rulers, the authorities, the leaders of Israel, those who were heads over thousands? If anything happened to them, they would have one or two or three thousand men behind them. What if Moses saw a collection of individuals approach unto him who represented thousands upon thousands of Jews, so that basically it was the whole of Israel rising up in rebellion against Moses and Aaron? What if these men, famous in the congregation, men of renown, stood before him and dared to speak back to Moses? If they dared to not obey the voice of Moses and Aaron, could they get away with it?”

Man is often encouraged by his fellowman to travel down wicked paths. He is greatly strengthened when many join him on the same road. All we have to do to understand this is to look around. We see a world of six billion souls. Because man sees so many who care nothing for God or for the Gospel and who live their lives recklessly as though there will be no Judgment Day or God to face, they are strengthened and emboldened to go on in their wicked ways, day after day without fear of God. Their fellowmen are with them, so they are encouraged and strengthened to be set against God in this manner, as long as they have allies who will back them up.

So it is here with these 250 princes. They are strengthened and emboldened to approach unto Moses. In Numbers 16:3-11, we read:

And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD? And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face: And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company; And put fire therein, and put incense in them before the LORD to morrow: and it shall be that the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi: Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also? For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the LORD: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?

The situation is very serious. Moses is saying, “Take censers, Korah and all his company; put fire and incense in them, and tomorrow we will come before the Lord and we will see whom God has chosen and whom is holy.”

Moses indicates that these men were Levites. He says three times that they were sons of Levi because so many of these princes must have been Levites. Yet, they were not in the line of the priesthood. They did not come through the line of Aaron, the line of those who should minister in the priesthood, but they were Levites. They were of the line of Kohath, many of them.

Kohath’s line was commissioned to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord. They were to minister in the tabernacle and perform their duties in that fashion. They were not to offer sacrifices or to be priests, but they were Levites, helpers to the priests. They were servants to the tabernacle. This is what God had commissioned the Kohathites to do, as we can see in Numbers 3:27-28. It says there:

And of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izeharites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are the families of the Kohathites. In the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were eight thousand and six hundred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary.

In the next chapter, it goes on to say in verses 1-4:

And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers, From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy things:

This was the job, the task, that God had assigned the Kohathites. Now Korah was a Kohathite, a son of Kohath. He was to be busy ministering in service to the tabernacle of the Lord. He was to minister alongside the priests, but he was not a priest. He was not to offer sacrifices or to perform priestly duties or functions, and neither were any of the other Levites who were the sons of Kohath. They were to do the job that God had assigned them to do.

Yet, we see that there was discontent. There was displeasure with what God had given them to do. Perhaps they looked upon their duties as menial, as though they were a servant and not the chief. It was the priest who got all the publicity, they thought; it was the priest who was the star attraction as these offerings and sacrifices were performed. The Levites who ministered in the tabernacle would have only been in the background. They would have been servants. They were essential servants and necessary servants, but they were not the main ones in view. It was Aaron and the priests, especially the high priest and the sons of the priesthood, who really received all the focus and all the praise. At least, that is how it must have seemed in the eyes of these men, since they were ungodly and unsaved men. The focus was upon the priesthood, so they envied those who were in the priesthood.

We are not just saying this—the Bible itself indicates this in Psalm 106:16-17. We read there:

They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.

They were envious at the priest. That is why Moses said what he did to these sons of Levi in Numbers 16:10-11. We read there:

And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also? For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the LORD: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?

They were gathered together against the Lord because they desired the priesthood. They wanted to be the chosen ones. As Moses said, once they take these censers and put incense therein and offer fire, the Lord will indicate tomorrow who are the chosen ones and who are not the chosen ones.

Already, we can see the spiritual dimension here. We can see the spiritual meaning that God is getting at just from this language of God showing whom He has chosen.

What does that language mean? When God speaks about choosing certain ones over others, it has to do with His program of election, His salvation plan. These sons of Aaron, the priests, the ones who are chosen by God to offer up the sacrifices—they are typifying the elect of God, those whom God has saved from before the foundation of the world and predestinated to salvation (Ephesians 1:4). Those whom God has saved are viewed by Him as a spiritual priesthood. In 1 Peter 2:4-5 we read:

To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Each child of God, each believer, each one whom God has saved, enters into the priesthood of believers—we are priests. God views each one of His people as being a prophet, a priest, and a king, spiritually speaking. That is what is in view here with Korah and Dathan and Abiram. Korah is a son of Levi. Dathan and Abiram are actually sons of Reuben, but they rise up and are envious and jealous that God has limited the priesthood to a certain family of the Levites, the family of Aaron. “Are not all the Lord’s people holy?” as they say in Numbers 16:3. We read there:

They are saying, “You are puffed up and prideful, Moses and Aaron. You have taken this honor to yourself. Are not all of us the people of God? Is not every member of the congregation holy? Is not God amongst us? Is He not in our midst? Are we not all the people of God?”

Spiritually, we can see that these are the unsaved in the church who are envious of the saved. They have heard the doctrine of election; they have heard the true believers declare that God saves only a remnant, a portion of the whole of mankind, and they will have none of that. They are saying, “No way—we are all the congregation of the Lord. We are all holy. We are all Christians. We have all accepted Christ.” They are saying that God is in the midst of them all. “It does not matter how we live our lives; it does not matter how the church deals with the Word of God, whether it is faithful or unfaithful—we are all the congregation. We are all professing Christians. We all recognize that Jesus is Lord.”

Yet they fail to realize that God indicates a great many who say that they are Christians will end up in Hell. A great many who say, “Lord, Lord,” will be forsaken by Christ on that Day as He will say, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23). No, it is not true that the whole congregation is a holy congregation. It is not true that everyone who professes the name of Christ is truly saved. Rather, there is a limited priesthood, a limited number of those whom God will save and who will become spiritual priests.

On the morrow, when these men take censers and fill them with fire and put incense thereon, God is going to show them and prove to them whom He has chosen and whom He has not chosen. God is going to make a separation in Israel. He is going to reveal those who are truly His people and those who are not His people, and He will do it with these censers.

The censer is a very interesting item of worship that was used in the Old Testament sacrificial system, and we are going to look at it. Why was it that Moses commanded Korah and his company to take censers, put fire there, put incense in them, and then come before the Lord? Why was that the particular test?

Lord willing, we will take a look at that in our next study. We will examine what these censers represent, what the fire in them represents, what the incense represents, and how this relates to the Gospel that the Bible is always concerned about.