The Story of Still More Complaining

Numbers 16:1-50

Beth was upset that her mother had been spending so much time away from home ever since she joined the PTA. It made Beth lonely after school, and on nights when her mother was at meetings, she got bored sitting in her room while her father worked with his friend Clora. But Beth was afraid to complain to her mother because she knew how much God disliked complainers.
After a few months of this, Beth had had about enough. When her mother got home from her PTA meeting and came in to check on Beth in bed, Beth asked, "Mother, was there ever a time that the Israelites complained and God didn't get mad?"
"I know a story that will answer your question, Dear One," her mother said. And this is the story she told:

One day Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On got a bunch of men together and went to Moses with 250 famous Israelites. They decided that they weren't going to cooperate with Moses and Aaron and said, "You've got too much responsibility. We're all holy and God hangs around with us. Where do you get off saying that you're better than God's friends?
When Moses heard that, he fell on his face and said to them, "Tomorrow God will show you who he likes and who is holy. I'll tell you what to do: set fire to some incense for God tomorrow and we'll see who God likes, we'll see who is holy. You've really puffed yourselves up."
Then Moses said to Korah, "Listen, people in Levi's family, isn't it a big deal to you that God asked for you to work in the temple and preach to the people? Do you want to be priests, too? Why are you all here to go against God? What did Aaron do to make you so mad at him?"
Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram but they wouldn't come. They said, "Isn't it a big deal to you that you took us away from the land where there are rivers of milk and honey so that we could die in the forest just to make yourself our prince? Even worse, you didn't bring us to the land where there are rivers of milk and honey or give us fields and vineyards. Are you going to poke out our eyes? We won't come."

"Dathan and Abiram aren't making much sense, Mother," said Beth.
"They're very upset, Dear One," said her mother. "Just listen to what happens to them."

Moses was really upset. He said to God, "Don't pay any attention to their incense. I haven't stolen a donkey from them or hurt even one of them."
Moses went to Korah and said, "You and your friends should stand in front of God along with Aaron tomorrow. All 250 of you should burn incense and offer it to God. Aaron will do that, too."
They were all so excited that they didn't even wait for the next day. They all set fire to incense and stood at the door of the temple and offered it to God.
Then God appeared and said to Moses and Aaron, "Get away from everyone else so that I can eat them."
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces and said, "Oh God, are you going to be mad at everyone because someone did something bad?"
God answered, "Tell them to get away from Korah, Dathan, and Abiram."
Moses got up and told everyone, "Get away from the tents of these nasty men, and don't touch any of their stuff or God will eat you just like he's going to eat them."
Everyone went away, and Dathan and Abiram came out of their tents with their wives, their sons, and their little children.
Moses said, "Here's how you'll know that God sent me to do things. I haven't done anything that I thought of on my own. If these men die like most people die or if they see God, then God didn't send me. But if God does something new, and the earth opens up and swallows them and all their stuff, then you will understand that they made God mad."
Just after Moses got done talking, the ground opened up and ate the bad guys and all their stuff. Then the earth closed up again and they were gone, buried alive.
All the Israelites ran away when they heard the screaming because they thought that the ground was going to eat them, too.
Then God sent fire and burned alive the 250 men who had offered him incense.
After that, God said to Moses, "Tell Eleazar the priest to throw away the bad incense and make an altar covering out of the dishes that it was burned in." After that, the altar covering was a sign that nobody had better offer incense to God that wasn't supposed to.
The next day, the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron saying, "You killed some of God's people." While they were talking like this, a cloud with God in it appeared over the altar.
Moses and Aaron went to the altar and God said to Moses, "Get out of here so that I can eat everyone."
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces.
Then Moses told Aaron, "Burn some incense for God and while he is distracted, go to the people and get them to apologize. God's mad and he's going to make everyone sick so that they die."
Aaron did what Moses told him to, but by the time he got to the people, they were already starting to die. He set some incense on fire and apologized for the people and that stopped the disease, but 14,700 people were already dead (aside from the people who were eaten by the ground and the ones who had caught on fire).

Beth thought about this for a moment. "Boy, the Israelites never do learn their lesson," she said, "but I sure have! I'll never complain again." Then she smiled and hugged her mother. All her questions had been answered, and the answer was "No."