This post is Day 4 in a series of studies about “Suddenly”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today. (The form is at the bottom of the page).

Suddenly – Day 4

What a shock this must have been for those rebellious Israelites who were getting fed up of wandering through the desert. They began to grumble and rebel against the leaders. The rebellion by Korah, told earlier in this chapter, resulted in many deaths. Suddenly God Himself protected Moses and Aaron.

Numbers 16:42

But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the tent of meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the Glory of the Lord appeared.

The Thought

What a shock this must have been for those rebellious Israelites who were getting fed up of wandering through the desert. They began to grumble and rebel against the leaders. Korah’s rebellion told earlier in this chapter resulted in many deaths (Numbers 16:31-33). The rest of the Israelites then accused Moses and Aaron of killing the people who had disappeared. But they got another surprise as our verse today tells us. Suddenly God Himself protected Moses and Aaron and everyone witnessed it.

Once more the opposition arose and Moses pleaded for the lives of the whole tribe of Israel, but it was too late for many as the Bible tells us that 14,700 died from the plague God sent as a punishment (v49)!

The God we read about in this chapter reminds us of His description of Himself earlier in the Exodus. He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming: The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:6-7).

Action

Read Numbers 16 today and ask yourself which group you would be in. Are you one who shouts about what is happening around you? Are you a leader? Like Moses, or like Korah?

God is talking to each of us today, reminding us that Jesus took all our sins and rebellion to the cross, so that we don’t have to live in fear of these things.

Pray for God to guide you to be helpful in your local community, and not one who grumbles and does nothing.

For a full list of online studies available on this site, please click here.

If there is a subject you would like to see on this site, please use the comment section below or drop us an email (there’s a link at the very top of the page). We can’t promise to cover them all, and our studies are usually prepared a month or two in advance, so please be patient.

For a full list of physical resources available through this site, please click here.