Korach “Korah”
It is customary for religiously practicing Jews to read from an annual cycle of weekly Old Testament readings called Torah Portions. This is said to be the same reading schedule that was taught every Sabbath in the Synagogues during the times of Jesus in the first century.
As Christians exploring the Torah portion cycle we must maintain a balance of including the Old Testament, the prophets, and the gospels in our weekly bible study.
Torah Portion Name and Readings-
Korach is the Hebrew word for the name “Korah”, this is the name for the weekly Torah Portion reading for the Numbers starting in chapter 16 verse 1 and going through chapter 18 and verse 32.
Prophets and New Testament-
It is also important to point out that along with the Torah portion readings and teachings, there are what are called Haftarah portions which are readings from the Bible in the books of the prophets. This week’s haftarah readings come from the book of 1 Samuel in chapter 11 verse 14 through chapter 12 verse 22.
The gospel readings incorporated with the weekly Torah portion readings come from the book of Matthew in chapter 26 with verses 13 through verse 24.
Torah Portion Overview-
In this torah portion we get the rebellion, not just of Israel, but of it’s leaders! Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On rebel against Moses in a play for the priesthood. Korah, was not just a leader of Israel, he was a cousin of Moses and Aaron. This makes the betrayal more severe, because it was not just the betrayal of the clan or tribe, it was the rebellion of a close family member! However, Yahweh responded in a way that made clear who He had chosen. They and their families are swallowed by the earth (except the sons of Korah who did not stand with their father) and the Levites who rebelled are consumed by fire. The censers of the rebels were then considered holy, because they had been offered to the Lord and consumed by His fire. They are made into hammered plates to cover the altar. The children of Israel rebel because of the death of Korah and the others and God wants to destroy Israel. Moses and Aaron intercede for Israel and Aaron goes among the people with incense to stop the plague and make atonement. Then 12 of the leaders, 1 from each tribe, give Moses their rods. He places them in the Tabernacle and the next day Aaron’s rod buds with almonds to prove that he is chosen by God. The family of Levi is instructed to care for the Tabernacle, the Levites everything outside, and the Priests everything inside the Tabernacle. As provision for their service, since they cannot own land, the portions that belong to the Lord are given to the Priests. However, the tithe belongs to the Levite but the Levites tithe of the tithe to the Lord.
Today I want to talk about the budding of Aaron’s rod when it was placed overnight into the Tabernacle and then in the morning, it had sprouted and had grown ripe almonds. This was to show that Aaron, not any other leader, had been chosen as a priest. It was his family that was to make up the priesthood that would serve The Lord and Israel.
“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff, and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house. Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant, where I meet with you. And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you.” Moses spoke to the Israelites, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs. So Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the tent of the covenant. When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the LORD to all the Israelites, and they looked, and each man took his staff. And the LORD said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die.” Moses did so; just as the LORD commanded him, so he did.”
Numbers 17:1-11 (NRSVue)
This priesthood was chosen by God. This is important to understand, because today we don’t see many examples of a “priesthood”. The family of Aaron was set aside by God to serve Him and Him alone. They were to instruct the people in the law, and to lead them in worship of Yahweh. In other words, they were supposed to guide the people to the Lord. The priesthood was to be the leaders that Israel looked to in order to understand how they should approach God. They were to be their instructors and leaders.
However, eventually the priesthood failed. For when Jesus came they did not lead the people to Him. The Messiah did several miracles aimed at the priesthood, that were to get their attention. When He healed the lepers He sent them to the priests. They were to be a testimony to them that the Messiah had come.
“On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
Luke 17:11-19 (NRSVue)
This would have been a great sign to the priesthood. No one can heal a leper except for God. The fact that these 10 men were healed at once was an amazing miracle. The Jews considered leprosy to be like death. Thus the healing of a leper was like raising the dead. 10 at once was amazing! Coming to the priests they would have been a great testimony. We have been healed, the Messiah has come.
Yet the priests did not proclaim that the Messiah had come! Instead, they came to test and challenge Him over and over. It was the priests who were to keep and cleanse the temple. Yet they did not, allowing profit off of the sacrifices that were to be holy to God. Because of this Jesus entered the temple and cleansed it, the work that should have been done by the priests. This led to the priests challenging Him and asking Him by what authority He had done this, in other words, who gave Him the right to act as a priest?!
“When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
Matthew 21:23 (NRSVue)
After He had healed and raised Lazaris, the chief priests allied with the Pharisees in an attempt to stop Him. Here again, the priests should have seen the Messiah, but instead they just saw a challenge to their power and authority. When the authority of Aaron was challenged God always stepped forward and destroyed those who were challenged. Yet here we see not God, but man, stepping forward to take Jesus out. The authority of God had been given to Jesus but the authorities fought it and sought to overthrow Him, the Son of God!
“So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death.”
John 11:47-53 (NRSVue)
All this to say, that the priests did not accept Jesus nor recognize Him. They should have been those who led the people in recognizing the Messiah, the great Son of God, who had come. Instead, they placed themselves in opposition to Him. It was because of this that the temple was destroyed and the priesthood lost. The priesthood withered away and has been lost to us today.
But what of us today? What about Christians. There is a sense where Christians, corporately, are priests.
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
1 Peter 2:9 (NRSVue)
It is important to understand that the focus was not on individualism. We, collectively, are a temple. In the same way, we too, collectively, are a priesthood. This does not mean that a man, alone at home, neglecting the body, is a priest. Indeed, a priests service is always connected to the community. In the same way, our service, as priests, is connected to the whole body. Being a priest we are to serve God by gathering together with the church. We are not to be alone, for then we are an errant priest. We are instead to always gather together. As Peter H. Davids explains in The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament,
“These titles, which are used elsewhere in the NT as well, particularly in Revelation (Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6; cf. 1 Pet. 2:5), are woven together with a phrase taken first from Exodus (“But you”), then from Isaiah (“chosen people”), then Exodus again (“royal priesthood” and “holy nation”), and finally Isaiah (“God’s own people … deeds,” the grammar changed to suit the new context in 1 Peter), indicating a long period of meditation on and use of these texts in the church. The emphasis throughout is collective: the church as a corporate unity is the people, priesthood, nation, etc., rather than each Christian being such. This emphasis is typical of the NT in contrast to our far more individualistic concern in the present. The West tends to focus on individuals relating to God, while Peter (and the rest of the NT; e.g., Paul’s body-of-Christ language) was more conscious of people’s becoming part of a new corporate entity that is chosen by and that relates to God.
The terms themselves are particularly significant in this context. First, they are a “chosen [or elect] people,” a term that joins them with Christ (used of him in 2:4, 6) and that Peter used of them in his greeting (1:1). This sense of chosenness pervades the book. Second, they are a “royal priesthood.” 30 This means both that they are a priesthood and that they belong to the king. In the ancient world it was not unusual for the king to have his own group of priests. In our writing surely the kingdom of God is referred to, which indicates that they serve, not the earthly cult of Israel or any other such cult, but that which belongs to the inbreaking kingdom whose king is Christ. Their priestly duties have already been indicated in 2:5, namely, the offering of spiritual sacrifices. The priest has the privilege of serving in the presence of the deity, of “coming near” where no one else dares (cf. Heb. 9:1–10:25). Thus together the words indicate the privileged position of the Christians before God: belonging to the king and in the presence of God. Furthermore, they are a “holy nation.” The idea is not their moral holiness (although it is a call to that; cf. 1:15–16), but their separation to God. God has set Christians apart to be his people just as Israel was in the OT. This is underlined in the final phrase, “God’s own people” or “the people of his possession,” which indicates that they belong particularly to him (indeed, he has bought them, 1:18; cf. Acts 20:28, which uses the same Greek verb).”
Let us not stop gathering together, as Scripture says, we must not neglect the gathering together with other believers.
“not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Hebrews 10:25 (NRSVue)
Torah Portion Scriptural Highlights-
Numbers 16:1 Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On rebel against Moses in a play for the priesthood. They and their families are swallowed by the earth (except the sons of Korah) and the Levites who rebelled are consumed by fire.
Numbers 16:36 The censers of the rebels are made into hammered plates to cover the altar.
Numbers 16:41 The children of Israel rebel because of the death of Korah and the others and God wants to destroy Israel. Moses and Aaron intercede for Israel and Aaron goes among the people with incense to stop the plague and make atonement.
Numbers 17:1 Aaron’s rod buds with almonds to prove that he is chosen by God.
Numbers 18:1 The family of Levi is instructed to care for the Tabernacle, the Levites everything outside, and the Priests everything inside the Tabernacle.
Numbers 18:8 The portions that belong to the Lord are given to the Priests.
Numbers 18:21 The tithe belongs to the Levite.
Numbers 18:25 The Levites tithe of the tithe to the Lord.
Haftarah (Prophets) Scriptural Highlights-
1 Samuel 11:14 Samuel offers sacrifices to renew the kingship of Saul.
1 Samuel 12:1 Samuel gives a farewell speech and encourages the people not to forsake the Lord.
Brit (Gospel) Scriptural Highlights-
Matthew 26:13 Judas makes an agreement with the High Priest to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (the price of an accidentally hurt slave (Exodus 21:32).
References-
Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), 91–92.
To Watch an overview of this week’s Torah Portion CLICK HERE