“So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children” (Numbers 16:27).
TEXT — Numbers 16:23-35
Message
The name Stalin which means ‘steel’ was not the real name of Joseph Stalin, the authoritarian and maximum leader of the defunct Soviet Union during World War II. It was given to him by his contemporaries who fell under the steel-like determination of his will. Historians estimate that the number of Russians killed during the regime of Stalin was over 20 million.
Many died by summary executions, and in the Gulag – a system of labor camps maintained in the Union from 1930 to 1955. As Stalin lay dying on March 5, 1963, his one last gesture was a clenched fist toward God, his heart as cold and hard as steel. Those who knew how brutal and wicked he was, could not believe he was truly dead and gone forever.
From our text, we see the attitude of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who led a civil rebellion against Moses, the servant of God. They remained defiant till death. When Moses asked the Israelites to separate from their tents, there was no sign of repentance in them, even in the face of death. They came out with members of their families and stood in front of their tents in a perilous display of rebellion.
The judgment of God eventually came. The earth underneath them opened and they went down into hell. While we ponder on this incident, we must ask ourselves what we think was behind their defiance. Perhaps, they simply believed they were doing the right thing. They took the support they got from the public as justification for their actions.
We see the same attitude today as some campaigners fight for the legalization of same-sex marriage and abortion rights. Others want schools to be free to teach young children that they could change their gender anytime they feel like it. This is the mindset of the depraved, whose feelings have been perverted and whose minds are completely possessed by Satan. But our God cannot be mocked.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
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