The seriousness of sin

 

Numbers 16:23 Then the LORD said to Moses, ²⁴ "Say to the assembly, 'Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.'" ²⁵ Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ He warned the assembly, "Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins." ²⁷ So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents. ²⁸ Then Moses said, "This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: ²⁹ If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt." ³¹ As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. ³³ They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. ³⁴ At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, "The earth is going to swallow us too!" ³⁵ And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense. ³⁶ The LORD said to Moses, ³⁷ "Tell Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, to take the censers out of the smoldering remains and scatter the coals some distance away, for the censers are holy-- ³⁸ the censers of the men who sinned at the cost of their lives. Hammer the censers into sheets to overlay the altar, for they were presented before the LORD and have become holy. Let them be a sign to the Israelites." ³⁹ So Eleazar the priest collected the bronze censers brought by those who had been burned up, and he had them hammered out to overlay the altar, ⁴⁰ as the LORD directed him through Moses. This was to remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before the LORD, or he would become like Korah and his followers.

A teacher told me once about a student who was misbehaving in her classroom. The teacher gently warned the student that she would count to five, and if the student continued in her misbehavior, then the student’s name would be written on the board. (Having your name written on the board as a young student can be pretty traumatic.) She ignored the warning and continued to misbehave. The teacher wrote her name on the board. The student began to bawl! It seemed to be a bit of an overreaction, so the teacher asked her about it. The student said, “I didn’t think you were actually going to do what you said! My mom counts to five all the time but doesn’t do anything!”

This child overreacted to discipline because she wasn’t used to discipline. Our children don’t know how to react to discipline, because we are so poor in correcting, rebuking and training our children. Instead of using proper discipline to correct misbehavior with a timeout, grounding or even a spanking, we mollycoddle, we pamper, we indulge, we cater to our children’s every whims, we try to be their friends and make them like us instead of being their parents and make them respect us.

The fall-out from a lack of discipline is seen in the ever-increasing number of broken homes, academic failure, vandalism, resentment, out-of-control teenagers, and emotional despair. If discipline is not applied from the very beginning, the end results can be eternally disastrous.

On the other hand, proper discipline encourages order. Along with order comes productivity, self-confidence, growing in the favor of God and people, and the ability to raise a family in happiness and security.

This morning we hear a story that may bother some of us. God appears very harsh. His punishment is very strong. His actions put authority behind the words of Jesus in the Gospel lesson: “Repent or perish” (Luke 13:3)! God expects respect! He expects respect for His chosen leaders and called workers. And if He does not get that respect, then we’d better watch out. God takes sin very seriously, even if we don’t.

The children of Israel were still in their wilderness wandering. Korah was a Levite, an assistant to the priests in the Tabernacle, the tent used for worship. Korah was jealous of Aaron, who was the high priest over Israel. Korah figured that since he was a relative of Moses and Aaron, there was no reason why he should not occupy the post as high priest. He was able to enlist members of the tribe of Reuben – Dathan and Abiram – in his conspiracy. But most ominously of all, they succeeded in persuading 250 well-known leaders of the tribes of Israel to join with them in lodging a complaint against Moses and Aaron.

They accused Moses of deliberately exposing them to a slow death in the desert. They insisted that Moses was a tyrant who made them do their bidding while he lived a life of ease. They sneeringly implied that Moses had not kept his promises about the Promised Land. Although this rebellion was openly directed at Moses and Aaron, it shows clearly that their sin was really a rebellion against God.

The next day, the company of Korah appeared with their censers for burning incense for worship (which only the high priest was supposed to have). They stood with Moses and Aaron in the doorway of the Tabernacle. But the whole congregation of Israelites assembled as well, for in the meantime Korah and his men had stirred up all the people, so that they sided with the rebels against Moses, Aaron and the Lord.

But at once the Lord showed that He would intervene on behalf of His chosen servants. The glory-cloud of His visible presence appeared among the assembly. The Lord ordered Moses and Aaron to put a distance between themselves and the people, because He was going to consume them instantly. Moses and Aaron acted as mediators, prostrating themselves before the Lord and pleading, “O God, … will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?” (Even though the whole nation was guilty of the sin of rebellion.)

The Lord commanded Moses to order the people away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. As this order was being carried out, Dathan and Abiram with their families stood at the doorway of their tents, as if to challenge Moses to punish their rebellion (16:12-14). (It should be noted though, that the sons of Korah are not mentioned, and their silence says much. They did not approve of their father’s apostasy. They later wrote hymns recorded in the book of Psalms.)

Then came a brand new judgment upon those who had made themselves enemies against God. The ground yawned open and swallowed whole Korah, Dathan and Abiram, their household, their followers and their possessions. They were literally wiped off the face of the earth. Meanwhile, back at the Tabernacle, the Lord acted in judgment upon the 250 leaders who were offering incense. Flames shot out from the “glory of the Lord” of the pillar of cloud. It was more powerful than a laser beam or nuclear blast. Nothing remained of their bodies to bury. The only remnants were the censers they had used - for were consecrated to the Lord for His Tabernacle.

The punishment of Miriam’s leprosy her complaints against her brother’s leadership; the punishment of stoning Achan for stealing bounty from the defeat of Jericho; and the punishment of total annihilation of Korah and the rebels demonstrates that God acts justly. God takes sin seriously, even if we don’t.

God is patient with sinners, but we should never mistake His overlooking of our sin as acceptance of the sin. He is merely allowing us time to repent. We dare never consider God as some white-haired grandfather in the sky who will always give, but never scold; who will always comfort, but never correct; who will always be patient and loving and accepting. No, He is a Father who disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12:6).

How often don’t we take our sin lightly? We indulge our sinful nature. We think, “I’ll go ahead and sin now because I can just be forgiven later.” We believe, “God won’t punish me for my actions because He already punished His Son in my place.” We mistake our freedom from sin as a license to sin. We consider our harsh tongues as expressing our feelings; our gossip as gaining consensus; our unfinished homework assignments as just laziness; our lack of worship as me-time; our outbursts of anger as blowing off steam; etc. We don’t see these things as sins – sins which hurt, sins which kill, sins which damn to hell.

I believe the hymnwriter puts it well as he points to the cross of Jesus:

“If you think of sin but lightly

Nor suppose the evil great,

Here you see its nature rightly,

Here its guilt may estimate.

Mark the sacrifice appointed;

See who bears the awful load –

‘Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,

Son of Man and Son of God.” (Christian Worship: 127 – “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted”)

If you think your sin is not serious, then look at God’s Son on the cross. Look at Him! Every thought, every word, every action you commit in sin is just another stripe on His back, another thorn in His brow, another nail in His hands, another punch in His gut, another slap in His face, another spear in His heart.

We should never ask: “Why does God deal so harshly with sin?” Instead, we should thank God that He has not dealt with us harshly, as our sins deserve. Every time you put down a classmate on the bus, God should send a lighting bolt from heaven right on your head. Every time you have an angry outburst at your children, God should call down fire from heaven to consume you. Every time you complain or are bitter or are resentful, God should open up the earth to swallow you whole.

But God doesn’t do that. And why not? Because He did all that to Jesus.

As Moses and Aaron pleaded for the sinful Israelites and served as their mediators, so Jesus is our mediator between a righteous and just God and we wretched sinners. He intervened to save us. Jesus was stricken, smitten and afflicted so we would not be. The crown of thorns on His head, purges the sinful thoughts from our minds. The nails in His hands and feet sanctify our hands and feet for service to Him. The cup of God’s wrath was poured out on Him so God’s grace could be poured out on us. The stripes across His back removed the punishment we deserved. The blood that poured from His riven side washes away our continual, pet sins.

Jesus is the refuge of the lost. He is the Lamb of God who was wounded for sinners. He is the sacrifice who cancels our guilt. Our sins pierced Him, but the deepest stroke that pierced Him was the stroke that God’s Justice gave. In His love, God punished His Son so that He would not have to punish us. But in His love, God will still discipline us.

I had a member in Kentucky who was a recruiter for the navy. He was a tough military dad. After church one morning, during the fellowship time, I overheard the dad warn his 5-year-old son to stop his misbehavior. The dad warned, “Donnie … one.” “Donnie … two.” Spank! I asked the dad later about the incident. He seemed rather swift with his justice. The dad replied, “I offered Him two warnings to receive grace. I said his name twice. He wasn’t getting a third time.” When you think about it like that, there was grace.

Where is the grace in this story of Korah’s rebellion? The grace is shown in that God counted to more than two with Korah and his followers. He gave them to the next day to repent and return. Instead Korah used that time to gain more rebels. Dathan and Abiram stood stubbornly in front of their tents expecting nothing to happen to them. Grace was shown in Moses and Aaron pleading for the people. Grace was God not punishing the whole assembly, for they, too, had grumbled and complained against God and His chosen leaders.

Grace is shown to us every day we remain alive. Grace is God holding off His anger by pouring out that anger on His Son. Grace is God allowing us time to repent and return to Him.

But grace is also shown in the way God disciplines those He loves. All of us know children who are wild and out of control. That’s because their parents refuse or are unable to properly discipline their children. We also know children who are well-mannered and well-behaved. That’s because their parents do the difficult job of correcting, rebuking and disciplining. The bad parents may appear loving, lenient and tolerant, but that leniency allows their children to disregard rules and disrespect authority. By not being able to say no, those parents are indulging their children’s sinful nature. In the end, those parents are actually being unloving to their children.

The good parents may appear hard and harsh, quick with a stern look or a snap of the fingers or a swat on the behind. But their intolerance for misbehavior and their zealous devotion to God’s commandments are actually very loving. They carry out the hard job of disciplining their children so those children are kind and gentle and a benefit to society. They take their children’s sin seriously.

God is a perfect Parent. He will be respected – either through Law or Gospel! God knows exactly how to discipline those He loves. That’s because He is serious about sin. And if you still don’t believe He’s serious, then just look at His Son hanging on the cross. There is seriousness. There is salvation. Amen.