Shabbot Shalom Everyone!

 

THIS WEEK'S SCRIPTURE:

 

 

The reading for this week 2-8 June is called Korach-"Korah").

TORAH: Numbers 16:1-18:32

HAFTARAH: I Samuel 11:14-12:22

NOTE: Because the coming Saturday and Sunday mark the beginning of a Hebrew month (Rosh Chodesh-Machar Chodesh), the following passages will, in many synagogues, be substituted for the Haftarah cited above: Isaiah 66:1-24, 23; I Samuel 20:18, 42

This week's Portion focuses on the rebellion of Korah.

 

*Numbers 16:3; 16:7b: Korah and His Followers to Moses: "You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" Moses: "Take censers, Korah and all your company; put fire in them and put incense in them before the LORD tomorrow, and it shall be that the man whom the LORD chooses is the holy one. You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi."

Perhaps we see here one reason for the severity with which the LORD dealt with Miriam and Aaron in Chapter 12. If those in the office of Prophet and Priest are discontent with their "place" in relation to the positions of others whom the LORD has chosen and appointed, will not their behavior be seen as license by their followers to do likewise. Moses had not appointed himself as leader over Israel, God had. Ironically, Korah was speaking a truth when he claimed that "all the congregation is holy, every one of them"-the congregation as a whole was holy (i.e. "set apart") from the other nations, and within that congregation individual tribes and families and individuals were also "set apart". Setting-apart implies boundaries both from without and from within which must be respected by those set apart to other responsibilities.

 PLEASE PRAY: for unity amongst believers in Israel-for humility, respect and honor towards the gifts and callings of each. For realization that it is the Holy Spirit who makes these distinctions; it is 'taking too much upon ourselves' when we criticize or envy them.

 PLEASE PRAY for Godly discipline in the love and fear of the LORD within the Congregations. It may be helpful to read the Book of JUDE in this respect (especially vss 8-11) which prophecies how "rejection of authority" and "speaking evil of dignitaries-the "rebellion of Korah"-will resurface in latter days, and the spirit in which it must be addressed when it does.

*Numbers 16:48: "Then Aaron took the censer as Moses had commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped." Even in the midst of a rebellious people, the LORD is longing to find those who will "stand in the gap" on their behalf and on behalf of His land ("So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found no one. Therefore, I have poured out My indignation on them." -Ezekiel 22:30).

PLEASE PRAY: For sensitivity and readiness on behalf of God's Intercessors-willingness, surrender and resolve to share His burden, so as to be released at just the right time to "stand between the dead and the living" (and to be able to differentiate between the two)-to "make a wall" and stand in the gap so that plague will be stopped.

Numbers 17:10. "And the LORD said to Moses, 'Bring Aaron's rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.'" "Rebels" is literally b'nei-meri-"sons (or children) of bitterness". Lest we be too quick to distance ourselves from those who fell in Korah's rebellion and the mutinous disruptions which followed, we would note that in the Hebrew translation of Ephesians 2:1-3, exactly the same words b'nei-meri are used to translate "sons of disobedience"-"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God."

I Samuel 12:21-22: "You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which cannot profit or deliver, because they are futile. For the LORD will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the LORD has been pleased to make you a people for Himself" (NASB). The word "futile" or "emptiness" is in Hebrew ("tohu") the same word used of the state of the earth (Genesis 1:2) before Elohim began breathing His Life into it (Psalm 33:6).

PLEASE PRAY: For Israeli believers and those who intercede for her, that our faith not be distracted into reasonings which are emptiness and void-but rather that we base our hope and prayers on God's faithfulness to honor His Name, that we be encouraged in the knowledge that it is "His pleasure" to make Israel a "people for Himself."