Today's DB from TRC w/ Lena's Journalin' to Numbers 16 ++

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Numbers 16:1-50
Korah's Rebellion
1One day Korah son of Izhar, a descendant of Kohath son of Levi, conspired with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, from the tribe of Reuben. 2They incited a rebellion against Moses, involving 250 other prominent leaders, all members of the assembly. 3They went to Moses and Aaron and said, "You have gone too far! Everyone in Israel has been set apart by the LORD, and he is with all of us. What right do you have to act as though you are greater than anyone else among all these people of the LORD?"
4When Moses heard what they were saying, he threw himself down with his face to the ground. 5Then he said to Korah and his followers, "Tomorrow morning the LORD will show us who belongs to him and who is holy. The LORD will allow those who are chosen to enter his holy presence. 6You, Korah, and all your followers must do this: Take incense burners, 7and burn incense in them tomorrow before the LORD. Then we will see whom the LORD chooses as his holy one. You Levites are the ones who have gone too far!"
8Then Moses spoke again to Korah: "Now listen, you Levites! 9Does it seem a small thing to you that the God of Israel has chosen you from among all the people of Israel to be near him as you serve in the LORD's Tabernacle and to stand before the people to minister to them? 10He has given this special ministry only to you and your fellow Levites, but now you are demanding the priesthood as well! 11The one you are really revolting against is the LORD! And who is Aaron that you are complaining about him?"
12Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they replied, "We refuse to come! 13Isn't it enough that you brought us out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us here in this wilderness, and that you now treat us like your subjects? 14What's more, you haven't brought us into the land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Are you trying to fool us? We will not come."
15Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, "Do not accept their offerings! I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, and I have never hurt a single one of them." 16And Moses said to Korah, "Come here tomorrow and present yourself before the LORD with all your followers. Aaron will also be here. 17Be sure that each of your 250 followers brings an incense burner with incense on it, so you can present them before the LORD. Aaron will also bring his incense burner."
18So these men came with their incense burners, placed burning coals and incense on them, and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle F58 with Moses and Aaron. 19Meanwhile, Korah had stirred up the entire community against Moses and Aaron, and they all assembled at the Tabernacle entrance. Then the glorious presence of the LORD appeared to the whole community, 20and the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 21"Get away from these people so that I may instantly destroy them!"
22But Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground. "O God, the God and source of all life," they pleaded. "Must you be angry with all the people when only one man sins?"
23And the LORD said to Moses, 24"Then tell all the people to get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram."
25So Moses got up and rushed over to the tents of Dathan and Abiram, followed closely by the Israelite leaders. 26"Quick!" he told the people. "Get away from the tents of these wicked men, and don't touch anything that belongs to them. If you do, you will be destroyed for their sins." 27So all the people stood back from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Then Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents with their wives and children and little ones.
28And Moses said, "By this you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things that I have done—for I have not done them on my own. 29If these men die a natural death, then the LORD has not sent me. 30But if the LORD performs a miracle and the ground opens up and swallows them and all their belongings, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have despised the LORD."
31He had hardly finished speaking the words when the ground suddenly split open beneath them. 32The earth opened up and swallowed the men, along with their households and the followers who were standing with them, and everything they owned. 33So they went down alive into the grave, along with their belongings. The earth closed over them, and they all vanished. 34All of the people of Israel fled as they heard their screams, fearing that the earth would swallow them, too. 35Then fire blazed forth from the LORD and burned up the 250 men who were offering incense.
36And the LORD said to Moses, 37"Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pull all the incense burners from the fire, for they are holy. Also tell him to scatter the burning incense 38from the burners of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives. He must then hammer the metal of the incense burners into a sheet as a covering for the altar, for these burners have become holy because they were used in the LORD's presence. The altar covering will then serve as a warning to the people of Israel."
39So Eleazar the priest collected the 250 bronze incense burners that had been used by the men who died in the fire, and they were hammered out into a sheet of metal to cover the altar. 40This would warn the Israelites that no unauthorized man—no one who was not a descendant of Aaron—should ever enter the LORD's presence to burn incense. If anyone did, the same thing would happen to him as happened to Korah and his followers. Thus, the LORD's instructions to Moses were carried out.
41But the very next morning the whole community began muttering again against Moses and Aaron, saying, "You two have killed the LORD's people!" 42As the people gathered to protest to Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the Tabernacle and saw that the cloud had covered it, and the glorious presence of the LORD appeared.
43Moses and Aaron came and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle, 44and the LORD said to Moses, 45"Get away from these people so that I can instantly destroy them!" But Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground.
46And Moses said to Aaron, "Quick, take an incense burner and place burning coals on it from the altar. Lay incense on it and carry it quickly among the people to make atonement for them. The LORD's anger is blazing among them—the plague has already begun."
47Aaron did as Moses told him and ran out among the people. The plague indeed had already begun, but Aaron burned the incense and made atonement for them. 48He stood between the living and the dead until the plague was stopped. 49But 14,700 people died in that plague, in addition to those who had died in the incident involving Korah. 50Then because the plague had stopped, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the Tabernacle.
FOOTNOTES:F58: Hebrew Tent of Meeting; also in 16:19, 42, 43, 50.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

~Lena’s Journalin’~
Why does rebellion seem to be the deepest rooted and most prevalent sin? It IS the root of all sin. Pride was its culprit. Notice how pride rises up, it says things such as, “I know how to do that better, who do they think they are telling me what to do?”, and things like, “I know how to run my own life just fine thank you”, and a BIG one, “I’m ok by myself, leave me alone”! After pride voices her opinions then rebellion executes the self deemed rights of action.
Korah means to make one’s self bald. We have to think of this spiritually today, put on Christ’s mind and discern the word by the spirit, not the flesh. Being bald is being without cover, without hair on top of the head that covers. Without covering on the head. In battle, which all of us are engaged in, in this world. It is God’s victory in a hostile environment where enemies hate God. Pride has risen and taken action against His Divine images- us. So, we find ourselves daily in battle.
Inside of battle the head is usually covered for protection of a vital body part, so vital a part that one cannot live or function without it, and so enemies are after it (there’s a revelation there about our thoughts!), in fact if they can’t injure it, they’d like to remove it. If it is injured the body does not function right, if taken the body dies. If we believe we are God’s chosen messengers and we love and serve Him, we protect what is His in battle, we cover our heads with what He’s provided as armor.
Pride may say: “I’m my own man, I don’t belong to anyone, I’m not gonna be told what to do, leave me alone”….This person just uncovered their heads willingly. They are a prime target, whether they acknowledge it or not. They’ve taken off their “hair”. Their name is Korah. What comes against God comes against them, yet rather than being covered, they lose their heads and their body has no function, they are dead in sin and trespasses.
Pride and rebellion love to recruit others into their suicide battalion.
We have got to see the greater picture, we have got to give ourselves wholeheartedly to the work of God to the victory of His spirit, no matter who the “commanders” are. Who they are, those who rule us or are over us etc, are only tools in the Lord’s hands to help bring us into perfection and accountability before God and to hone us into tools in the hands of God. Who or what type of personality of a person, stands in the place of rule is irrelevant, it is the victory in Christ that is relevant, and that can only come by being covered.
The presence of God is holy. God is right-eous, Almighty, Glorious, a God of order. He is Great and greatly to be praised and feared, loved, served.
We do not call the shots, we cannot have anything of God on our own terms in our own way. What He says is what He means. The world dilutes His words, by reason, saying, well He must have meant this or that, or I’ll think about it, then maybe I’ll move a few steps towards doing it, but when I do I’ll do it the way I think is best..
If you are ever brought into the council of the disgruntled, especially against the people and leaders of God, be very careful, try to put out the fire of contention, no matter the reason. God is not looking at reason, He’s looking at His word and the order of the Divine.
We will never be able to say, “Well I wouldn’t come to Jesus because the person who was trying to lead me there was a person I didn’t agree with”. That is a cop out. Do you agree with God and His word? That’s all He’ll be asking you. You will never be able to say, “Well I was mistreated”, or “it didn’t feel right” or “they were mean to me”, and “Well, they were stupid and uneducated and did not know what they were doing in being a leader”. Those are excuses keeping men and women on the pathway of death and hell’s fire. The head is uncovered.
When men and women complain against leaders, it is as though they strip the hair off of the heads of the leaders, making them bald in their eyes.
It’s kind of like the emperor with new clothes. Some saw what was and some saw what wasn’t; to each the appearance was different. To one their leader’s head is covered, to another they are bald. If your spiritual leader is “bald”, being uncovered by your criticisms, they’ve been uncovered by you, you are in serious trouble. Your body is about to die. If you do not have a leader and will not come under command, you are in death’s zone. The Bible says submit your self to God, then resist the enemy, then he will flee. God sets people under other people for discipleship sake, if you’re not under, are you over? Now one over is not under or submitted and accountable to someone. Are you accountable, or do you rebel saying, no one needs to tell me what to do? That person is a baby, a very immature person. They’re either young and being taught and raised up or they are old handicapped and led by their rebellious nature, which is trying to take their life.
Plagues, ever hear of outbreaks of disease? Outbreaks. When one is covered there is not a breaking out or opening for disaster, but when one is uncovered or uncovers it opens up places for all types of destruction. Notice how disease easily spreads, so does a contentious person’s attitude. It is a ploy of the enemies of God, to rise from within, making enemies within, to tear down within and conquer.


Daily Repetitive Verses:

Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored.
19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.