Hebrew Word Study – Soul – Rauch – Resh, Vav, Cheth
Numbers 16:22: “And they (Moses and Aaron) fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?”
Many translations will say “the God who gives breath to all flesh.” However, many commentators, including Jewish commentators believe this is a reference to the spirit of the human creature. The word that is used is rauch in Hebrew which is often associated with that part of us that is eternal as opposed to the nephesh which is the part that bears the yetzar hara’ evil inclination or what we call the sinful nature and will pass with our physical bodies. In many places in the Old Testament the word rauch is not used for the Holy Spirit – Rauch Kodesh is used for the wind, breath, or our soul. The context determines how it is used and I agree with the commentators that the context suggests this is a reference to the soul of the human creature. Thus, this would read: “The God of the souls of all flesh.” This is an idiom for saying that, unlike pagan gods, God Jehovah knows our souls, our hearts cry. He knows if our motives are pure or not.
As a Christian who believes in a place called hell, where unbelievers will spend eternity if they do not accept God’s gift of salvation, I believe Moses and Aaron were pleading with God to not send the righteous who are going to be caught up in this conspiracy to hell. He knows their hearts and does not let the pure in their heart go to hell. You see there were two groups of people involved in this revolt. There were, of course, the conspirators, the rabble-rousers who started this rebellion. That would be Korah from the priestly tribe of Levi and Dathan and Abiram who were from the tribe of Reuben. Korah, the ringleader was the father of the sons of Korah later known as the Korahites. They were like the janitors of the Tabernacle and later the temple. According to the Midrash, Korah was a very wealthy man, a man of great influence who influenced the two Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram to join the conspiracy.
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However, he went further beyond Dathan and Abiram and went to other tribes to recruit two hundred and fifty other leaders. The word used in the Hebrew is nasi’ which means the exalted ones, the ones lifted up. The word is used for chieftains, influencers. They were the patriarchs of their community, usually Godly men who sought to follow God’s commands. Scripture also calls them shems, men of a name or men of good reputation. They would have been the eldest sons of each family. The eldest son up until a few months earlier, prior to Mt. Sinai and the giving of the law would have been the priest of the family. After the Mt. Sinai experience, Moses established the Levites as the priestly tribe and all the firstborn sons were to pay five shekels of silver to the high priest to redeem him from the service of priesthood.
People were quite fine with this arrangement until Korah started to be upset that Moses chose Aaron, his brother as high priest. This sparked accusations of nepotism and Moses setting himself up as a king and giving his family the plumb jobs where nonfamily members like Korah got the scrappy jobs like performing janitorial services. Aaron’s sons got to carry the holy fire of God, that is the fire from the altar that was lit by fire coming from heaven, to the altar of incense and scattering the incense in the fire of the altar where Aaron prayed. After offering the sacrifices, the Korah and his family got to clean up the mess. They had the privilege of getting on their hands and knees and cleaning out the ashes, fat, and grease from the bottom of the altar. For a wealthy, influential man like Korah, that was a hard nut to swallow.
So Korah started a whispering campaign. “Just who does this Moses think he is, a king? He appoints his own brother as high priest, he decides that the tribe of Levi is the priestly tribe and then his own brother and nephews get the plumb jobs in the temple. On top of that, they get to move close to God in the temple around the sacred objects and carry the holy fire to the altar of incense which brings them closer to God than anyone while the average Hebrew Joseph watches from a distance. I say no fair, we are a holy people, we are just as holy as Moses and Aaron, why can’t we share in the ministry of the Tabernacle and get close to God?” Of course, Korah was the author of fake news. The first thing is that Korah could care less about being close to God. He just wanted the honor and bonus checks of a high priest. Secondly, Moses did not choose Aaron, God did. Moses did not set the rules as to who could draw close to God, God did. So these two hundred and fifty leaders really believed they could right a wrong and stop Moses in this wild climb to power.
This plays out when they confront Moses who tells them, “Ok, you saw what happened when Aaron’s sons brought the strange fire to the altar of incense. God took them. If you believe you are as much chosen as Aaron, then come here tomorrow with censers filled with the holy fire and let God show you who is chosen and who is not.” The two hundred and fifty knew full well what happened to Aaron’s two sons but they apparently were so convinced that they were called to the priesthood role that they felt they could bring the fire and hear from God who the chosen were.
They showed up the next morning censers filled with the holy fire ready to enter the Holy place and offer up the incense of prayer. All but Korah, Dothan, and Abiram. Their motives were not pure, they were looking for the honor and respect of Aaron and his sons. When Moses summoned them they knew they would end up as crispy critters if they tried to carry the fire to the altar of incense. So they used the excuse that Moses can’t be trusted and refused to show up saying: “Moses said he would take us from Egypt to the Promised Land and where are we now? We are still in the desert. Moses is a big liar and we are not trusting anything he has to say.” So Moses and Aaron went to the tents of Korah, and Dothan and Abiram told them to come out as God was going to show them something. When they came out there was a great earthquake, the ground split and sucked the rebellious men and their families down under.
Meanwhile, the two hundred and fifty men with the censers went right ahead to offer the incense and were struck down like Aaron’s two sons. Here is the question. Why did they not suffer the same fate as their rebel leaders and get sucked underground by an earthquake?
I believe the rebellion of the two hundred and fifty was a righteous rebellion. They were sucked in by Korah’s lies and believed they were doing a service to God. Their only real crime was that they too wanted to be close to God like the priest. You can’t fault someone for that. So why did God destroy them with a fire? If you read the story of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, they passed from the world by fire. The Talmud teaches however, they passed by Divine Kiss. That is as they drew closer and closer to God with the strange fire, their spirits were drawn by the racham love of God, and their spirits desired to be joined with God such that their spirits just left their bodies. Then their bodies were consumed by fire.
I believe the same thing happened to these two hundred and fifty men who, as they drew closer and closer to the face of God, the racham love, their spirits just left their bodies to be joined with God and God sent a fire to destroy the bodies. But they did not die by fire. They passed away by the Divine Kiss.
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There are a number of points in this piece which are confusing, or which are troubling, to me.
You say, “all the firstborn sons were to pay five shekels of silver to the high priest to redeem him [sic] from the service of priesthood.”, This is not so.
When the Levites were counted there were 22,000 of them. When the firstborn were counted there were 22,273. It was only the 273 who paid the five shekels to be redeemed, the others were swapped, one for one, with the Levites. (Numbers 3)
You greatly reduce the role of Korah and his family by saying they had to clear up the mess. They had many other duties besides that. As non-priestly Levites they were responsible to serve the priests, a type of those not chosen for specific leadership roles, today, serving the leaders, and, thereby, the whole body of Christ. This calls for a major dose of humility, on both the parts of the non-priests and the priests. I’m also rather confused as to why you would say, “They had the privilege of getting on their hands and knees and cleaning out the ashes, fat, and grease from the bottom of the altar.” Fat, which is grease, would have burned completely in the temperature of the fire on the altar and all that would have been at the bottom would be ash.
Then you say, “The first thing is that Korah could care less about being close to God. He just wanted the honor and bonus checks of a high priest. ”
I am lost here. If Korah could care less, then he does care, at least to some degree, about being close to God, which his behaviour puts to the lie. Therefore, he does not just want honour and ‘extra ticks’ (whatever that means) of a High Priest. That makes no sense to me at all.
Why would he want ‘bonus checks’? Come to that, what are they? Why are you drawing attention to how much less Korah could care about being close to God, when it is fairly clear he does not care at all?
Finally, this paragraph, ” I believe the rebellion of the two hundred and fifty was a righteous rebellion. They were sucked in by Korah’s lies and believed they were doing a service to God. Their only real crime was that they too wanted to be close to God like the priest. You can’t fault someone for that. So why did God destroy them with a fire? If you read the story of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, they passed from the world by fire. The Talmud teaches however, they passed by Divine Kiss. That is as they drew closer and closer to God with the strange fire, their spirits were drawn by the racham love of God, and their spirits desired to be joined with God such that their spirits just left their bodies. Then their bodies were consumed by fire. ”
Yes, you can fault the 250. There is no such thing as a righteous rebellion against God. God had told the people how they were to be close to him and how he would be close to them, these people were taking matters into their own hands and declaring that their way was better. They were in rebellion to God and they died, as all rebels will, by fire. NOT a divine kiss. Fire is, throughout the Scripture, the manner in which God destroys the impure; be it within a man who is being perfected for His service, or, in the end of all time, when sin, death, and the world itself are consumed in fire.
Why would you quote the Talmud any more than the Mishna? These documents are unbelieving man’s attempts to explain what they do not understand.
This last paragraph is the very kind of reasoning that is so prevalent in the church today. If I think it is a good thing, then God should do so also; this is rebellion. God said that all these people who were consumed by fire were to hold positions HE ordained and that should have been enough for them, but it was not. It is the refusal to accept God’s word which lead to the creation of the Talmud and Misha, as people attempt to explain away what they do not understand, or justify the inexcusable. Today we see this in the widespread inclusion of all that God said was not to enter his house, under the justification that God is inclusive and loves everyone. This is dangerous.
We must be very careful not to put human reasoning, emotion and action on to the Almighty, they don’t fit and we will, in the end, find ourselves in the same place as Nadiv, Avihu, Korah, Datan, Aviram and the 250.
Remember that these writers of the Talmud don’t believe who Jesus is.
In the time of Jesus, there were those who believed the the body would be lost and they would be saved. So would you say that as long as my intention is to get close to God I can pray to Mary?
The Divine Kiss. Gods Racham love.
Maybe that is what He laid on my heart about the Christian families that went into the arenas with their children to be eaten by lions to satisfy the blood lust of the Romans,,, That He took their spirits from their bodies, but allowed the Romans to see the blood of the flesh. Witnesses said the came into the arenas singing praises to God. I think HE inhabited those praises and took their spirits to Him.