Numbers 16:8-14: a reflection

8Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi! 9Is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the LORD’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them; 10and that he has brought you near, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? Do you seek the priesthood also? 11Therefore you and all your company have gathered together against the LORD! What is Aaron that you complain against him?” 12Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; and they said, “We won’t come up! 13Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, but you must also make yourself a prince over us? 14Moreover you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We won’t come up.”

Korah and his followers are Levites, men God has set apart for the sacred service of his tabernacle, brought near to him in a way most Israelites were not. And they are not satisfied. They want the priesthood too. Moses puts his finger on the heart of it with a piercing question: is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you and brought you near to himself? You want the priesthood also?

Notice the shape of their discontent. It is not that they have nothing; they have a real and holy privilege. It is that having been given much, they resent not being given more. The gift they already hold, nearness to God, service in his house, has come to feel like a small thing to them because their eyes are fixed on the role they do not have.

That is a temptation worth naming in ourselves. It is possible to hold a genuine blessing, a place, a gift, a nearness to God, and let it feel small because we are busy coveting someone else's portion. Moses' question is one to sit with: is it a small thing that God has brought you near? The cure for the grasping discontent of Korah is not more status; it is to look again at the gift already in your hands and to stop despising it. What has God given you that you have been treating as small?

Lord, keep me from Korah's discontent, despising the real gift you have given because I covet more. Open my eyes to how much it is that you have brought me near to yourself, and make me grateful rather than grasping.