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Chapter 16 deals with a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. A Levite, Korah, conspired with Dathan, Abi-ram and On, to rebel against Moses. 250, all members of the assembly, were involved. Korah went to Moses and Aaron and challenged their authority. Moses knew what was bothering Korah. It was not enough for him to have been chosen of God to attend the Tabernacle, he wanted to be a priest. Moses wanted to face Dathan and Abi-ram but they refused to come into his presence. Their complaint was that Moses had not brought them into the land of milk and honey as he had promised.
Moses told Korah to come on the morrow, he and his friends, to the Tabernacle. The next day when they arrived, the Glory of God appeared and He would have killed the whole bunch but Moses and Aaron begged for their preservation. "O God of all mankind, must you be mad at all the people when one man sins?" So God withheld his judgment upon the people and told them to get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and On. God sent a great earthquake and the earth opened and swallowed up the families and friends of these three men and fire from heaven consumed the 250 men who had joined in with them.
The censers of the 250 men were taken and fabricated into one sheet of metal and used to cover the Alter.
The next day the people gathered and again murmured against Moses and Aaron. This time God sent a plague upon them and 14,700 people were killed before Aaron could make atonement for them.
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