Hello Gordon,
NAB MAT 12:25"A kingdom torn by strife is headed for its downfall. A town or household split into factions cannot last for long."
Unequaled authority in one leader unites any group of people. This is why Jesus put one person, St. Peter, even above the other elleven Apostles.
God’s most fierce wrath is poured out on Korah who attacks God’s unequaled authority in Moses.
**NAB NUM 16 **
Korah, son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi [and Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, son of Pallu, son of Reuben] took two hundred and fifty Israelites who were leaders in the community, members of the council and men of note. **They stood before Moses and Aaron, to whom they said, “Enough from you! The whole community, all of them, are holy; the LORD is in their midst. Why then should you set yourselves over the LORD’s congregation?” **
When Moses heard this, he fell prostrate. Then he said to Korah and to all his band, “May the LORD make known tomorrow morning who belongs to him and who is the holy one and whom he will have draw near to him! Whom he chooses, he will have draw near him. Do this: take your censers [Korah and all his band] and put fire in them and place incense in them before the LORD tomorrow. He whom the LORD then chooses is the holy one. Enough from you Levites!”
Moses also said to Korah, “Listen to me, you Levites! Is it too little for you that God of Israel has singled you out from the community of Israel, to have you draw near him for the service of the LORD’s Dwelling and to stand before the community to minister for them? He has allowed you and your kinsmen, the descendants of Levi, to approach him, and yet you now seek the priesthood too. It is therefore against the LORD that you and all your band are conspiring. For what has Aaron done that you should grumble against him?”…
…Korah. Moses said to Korah, “You and all your band shall appear before the LORD tomorrow–you and they and Aaron too. Then each of your two hundred and fifty followers shall take his own censer, put incense in it, and offer it to the LORD; and you and Aaron, each with his own censer, shall do the same.” So then all took their censers, and laying incense on the fire they had put in them, they took their stand by the entrance of the meeting tent,
the glory of the LORD appeared to the entire community, and the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Stand apart from this band, that I may consume them at once.” But they fell prostrate and cried out, “O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will one man’s sin make you angry with the whole community?” The LORD answered Moses, “Speak to the community and tell them: Withdraw from the space around the Dwelling” [of Korah, Dathan and Abiram].
**Punishment of Dathan and Abiram. **Moses, followed by the elders of Israel, arose and went to Dathan and Abrim. Then he warned the community, “Keep away from the tents of these wicked men and do not touch anything that is theirs: otherwise you too will be swept away because of all their sins.” When Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing at the entrance of their tents with their wives and sons and little ones, Moses said, “This is how you shall know that it was the LORD who sent me to do all that I have done, and that it was not I who planned it: if these men die an ordinary death, merely suffering the fate common to all mankind, then it was not the LORD who sent me. But if the LORD does something entirely new, and
the ground opens its mouth and swallows them alive down into the nether world, with all belonging to them, then you will know that these men have defied the LORD.” No sooner had he finished saying all this than the ground beneath them split open, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their families [and all of Korah’s men] and all their possessions. They went down alive to the nether world with all belonging to them; the earth closed over them, and they perished from the community. But all the Israelites near them fled at their shrieks, saying, “The earth might swallow us too!”
**NAB JUD 1:10 **
These people, however, not only revile what they have no knowledge of but are corrupted through the very things they know by instinct, like brute animals. So much the worse for them! They have taken the road Cain took. They have abandoned themselves to Balaam’s error for pay, and like Korah they perish in rebellion. These men are blotches on your Christian banquets. They are wild ocean waves, splashing their shameless deeds abroad like foam, or shooting stars for whom the thick gloom of darkness has been reserved forever.
