Now, if you would, this morning, take your copy of the scriptures. Turn with me to the book of Numbers, please. Like I said, the Psalm that we read, Psalm 35, could have been written by Moses. It wasn't, but could have been, in the sense that Moses went through the exact same experience. Here we have a schism. in Israel, just split amongst the people of God, and that could have been much worse than it was. So, number 16, verse number 1, now Korah, that's a name you'll all be familiar with, I'm sure. Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the sons of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. Verse two. And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face, and he spake unto Korah, and unto all his company, saying, Even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto him. Even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. This do take you censors, Korah and all his company. and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow, and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy. "'Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.' And Moses said unto Korah, "'Here, I pray you, ye sons of Levi, "'seemeth it but a small thing unto you, "'that the God of Israel hath separated you "'from the congregation of Israel, "'to bring you near to himself, "'to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, "'and to stand before the congregation "'to minister unto them. And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, with thee. And seek ye the priesthood also? For which cause doth thou and all thy congregation, all thy company, are gathered together against the Lord? And what is Aaron that ye murmur against him? And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram. the sons of Eliab, which said, We will not come up. It is a small thing, is it a small thing, that thou hast brought us up out of the land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness? "'Except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us. "'Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land "'that floweth with milk and honey, "'or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. "'Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? "'We will not come up.' "'And Moses was very wroth. "'And said unto the Lord, "'Respect not thou their offering. "'I have not taken one ass from them, "'neither have I hurt one. I don't know if we'll just move over, please, to verse 20. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell, and that's Moses and Aaron, and they 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 the whole, with the congregation? And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get ye up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses rose up, and went unto Dathan, and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins. And if you move over, please, at the verse 31. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking, all these words, that the ground cleave asunder that was under them. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that appeared, appertained to them, went down alive into the pit. And the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation. Amen. Number 16 is our text this morning, and please have your Bible open there. Now, Israel, for 40 years, you will know, wandered in the wilderness, walking in a circular shape. Literally, they walked in a circle Killing time. That's a phrase you'll be perhaps familiar with, or maybe not. Killing time means you want to just get rid of a few hours. You have time to waste, as it were. But really, there's no such thing as time to waste. There's always something we can be doing. Even if you're sitting, waiting, and you're waiting in a queue or whatever, waiting for something to happen, you can be praying. You can be seeking the Lord. There's never really time to kill. But in a real way, Israel spent 40 years literally killing time. until all that were numbered had died, left the scene of time. And we can say that quite quickly without thinking on how severe that actually is. That is not the way any believer wants to finish their life. The last 40 years, just waiting to die. You don't want to spend the last years or months or weeks just waiting to die, killing time until God takes you home. No, believer, we want to be serving the Lord fervently, passionately, and well. We're not living just waiting to die. We're marching home to glory, doing all that we can before we hear that call to come home. Sad, sad for these people, how they finish their days. Now, during this 40-year walk, You'll remember what happened they came to the promised land and they refused to enter in and they well wouldn't go in so the Lord caused them to walk in circles and for 40 years there's not a big lot really said of those 40 years considering The whole book of Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers up to this point takes in about a year and a half of Israel's journey from when they come out of Egypt and they come the first approach in the promised land. There's three books that cover the events. But during those 40 years, we'll do those few chapters in the next few weeks. What a way to finish up. Little really been said of your final years accomplishing nothing for the Lord. But there is number 16, which gives one narrative, one story, one lesson that happened to the people of Israel when they were wilderness, walking in the wilderness. And unfortunately, it's not a good one. It's a sad event. It's a schism. It's a division. We have four men here. Verse 1, Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and on. And they rise up as rascals to lead a divided company against Moses and against Aaron. Why? It was out of pride. They wanted a promotion, as they saw it. They wanted Moses' position. It sounds very like Lucifer. When Lucifer wanted to rise up to be as God, what happened to Lucifer? Well, he failed. God cast him out. And that's what's gonna happen to these men. You would think they would know by now that Satan's strategies never work. They always fail. Here was a rebellious spirit. Here were four men and others, as we'll see in a minute, who were motivated by pride and jealousy. Here's the core of this. It's as simple as this. They wanted to be the center of attention. They weren't happy of the periphery. Now, I wonder today, is anyone here, they know what it is to struggle with that Proud desire, not desire to be the center of attention. Maybe that's the way it is in the home. Maybe that's the way it is in the workplace. Maybe that's the way it is in church. There's just that gnawing pride, proud inclination in your heart, and it wants you to be more, to be in the limelight. And you'll attack. and you'll jibe at people that you think steals a little bit of your glory, a little bit of your limelight. If that's the case, I want to ask you to read and consider carefully what happened to these four men and their company. The Lord dealt with them and the Lord cast them to the side. This, this morning, is a schism in Israel, a schism amongst the people of God. You know what a schism is. It's a division where two groups, two factions are in disagreement and they break up, they fall out, as it were. This chapter, I've split it into two sections and there's kind of a similarity. The first section, verses 1 to 11, just listen carefully here, I outline this for you and then we'll get into it. The first 11 verses deal with firstly the accusers, and then the accusation, and then the accused. The next section, verses 12 to 15, follows that same pattern. We have the accusers, the response. We have the accusation, enlarged upon. And then we have the accused response. So that's the structure of the passage. Now let's begin to work through it right now. Let's do section 1 first of all, verses 1 to 11. Firstly, what you have in verse 1 here and 2 are the accusers. There's a schism. There is a division. And there's men who are accusing Aaron and Moses of things that are not true. Here are the people who are stirring the pot, as it were. Let's look at these accusers for a moment here, and the first one in verse 1 is Cora. Now Cora, the son of Isaur, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi. Here's a man, Cora. He's from the tribe of Levi. That was the priestly tribe. Just keep that in your head. The priestly tribe. That's where the priests came from. That's where the servants of the tabernacle came from. But look at this just for a moment with me. Go back to Exodus, please. Exodus chapter 6. If you have a margin in your Bible, it'll take you to this very passage because this is where we read of Korah. Exodus 6. the verse 16. I want to show you something about these accusers. There's a reason why they're in this position. Let's read it. So Exodus 6, we're early into the book of Exodus, so we have a list here of names and families and people. Now Exodus 6, the verse 16, And these are the names of the sons of Levi, the priestly tribe. This is Korah's family. And these are the names of the sons of Levi. According to their generations, Gershon and Kohath and Moriah. Now, there you have Kohath, all right? Let's just move down to verse 18. Verse 18, and the sons of Kohath Amram and Izhar. Izhar was Korah's father. Kohath was his grandfather. Now follow me closely here. Here is Korah's family tree. Verse 18, and the sons of Kohath, Amram and Izhar. If you go then to verse 21. And the sons of Ishar, Korah, Nepheg, and Zechariah. Here's his family tree. Why am I taking you to this? There might have been another name you noticed there. Go back to verse 18. Korah's father, Ishar. Ishar had a brother. And his brother was called Amram. Verse 18. And the sons of Kohath, Amram and Ishar. Who's Amram? Think, who's Amram? Moses and Aaron's father. Go to verse 20. So Korah is a cousin to Moses and Aaron. And I'm putting it to you right now, his nose was out of joint. Here's his cousins, and they're in the limelight. They're leading Israel. And what's Korah? Hardly even mentioned. Hardly even mentioned. And I can take you to another verse, and we'll not do so, perhaps just for the sake of time, but in Numbers chapter 3. You have the other side of Korah's family, okay? You have, what I mean by that is there were three sons there, and you have Amram's sons who were leaders. You have the other brother and their children who were Younger than Korah, they became captains in the tribe of Levi. So Korah here had leaders on one side of his family, on the other side he had captains, and here's Korah, he feels, what about me? I'm a nothing. I'm a nobody. That's Korah. Let's go down to the next two here, next three actually. Go to number 16. Verse 1, you have the other three Amram, the other three conspirers here. You have Amram. Abiram, and you have On. You see their names there, verse 1? Dathan, Abira, and On. And these three men were from the tribe of Reuben. And again, I think that's important. We've been told from what tribe they come from, and Reuben was the prince tribe, or it should have been. Levi was the priest tribe. The priests came from there. But Reuben should have been the prince tribe, because Reuben was the firstborn. But remember how he sinned? He committed a grievous sin with his father's wife, and therefore, he was taken away from the firstborn's rights. I was taken away from him, and all of a sudden, Reuben was relegated on down the list. So here's these four men, and they're from tribes, well, Cora and the tribe of Reuben here, these men knew what it was to miss out on some of the positions that the limelight shines on. Here's four discontent men ready to stir trouble because they're not happy with their lot in life. I'm going to go on to verse number two now, because these were not four isolated men whose nose was out of joint, had an axe, a chip in their shoulder to grind. But verse two, and they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 priests. sorry, princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. There were 250 princes who joined these four men. Cora, Nathan, Abiram, and on were simply the leaders in this rebellion. Here were a group of dissidents rising up against rightful authority in God's work. Now, I will not turn to it, but Jude in the New Testament talks about this very occasion. He spells Korah's name different, spells it with a C. That's because it's not Hebrew. It is Greek. But anyway, Jude speaks about that. He makes a reference to apostasy. He makes a reference here to schisms in the churches, and it's just exactly as it was with Korah. This is a breaking up of the work of God. Now, here's the thing. All of these men had roles. All of these men had the privilege of serving God in some way. Korah, although he was not a priest himself, he was part of Levi. And they were responsible for looking after the temple, the tabernacle there. They had rules and work to do. These other men, Dathan, Abiram, Onn, and these 250 princes, they already had a sphere of service. They already had something to do for their Lord, but they were not satisfied. They wanted more. And let me tell you something. Usually, nine times out of 10, people who want a role, who have ambition and desire to be in a particular role, are usually the ones least able to fulfill the role. And we see that here this morning. These men have a desire for more authority and for a greater position, but they're not capable of it. And here's the thing. The reason people like, or at least they look at positions of influence or whatever, and they look at the limelight and they think, boy, I would love that. But they've no idea of the workload. They've no idea of the responsibility and they have no idea of the accountability before God because anybody who understood those three things wouldn't want the position. They'd run for a mile. But if someone can't see the workload, if they can't see the responsibility, and if they can't see how they'll be accountable before God on the judgment day, if they can't see those three things, they are not fit for the office. And these men, They were not fit for office. That's clear in the following verses. This is why God didn't give it to them. So that's the accusers. Let me show you now their accusation. Verse 3, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. and said unto them, so here's the company now, these four men and their 250 princes and whoever else, and they gathered themselves together unto Moses and against Aaron and said unto them, now listen to this, ye. Moses and Aaron, ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. That's almost laughable. They come to Moses and Aaron, and they first of all say, ye take too much upon you. Moses and Aaron didn't take anything upon themselves. They are simply doing what God commanded and called them to do. One man commenting on this verse, he put it very well. He said, Korah and company may well have said to the sun, sun in the sky, you take too much upon you being the chief light. That's daft. The Son is simply doing what God has commanded and called it to do. Moses and Aaron are just doing what God commanded and called them to do. This was an unfair accusation. They're lying. Moses and Aaron did not take this upon themselves. But when you have a schism, when you have rebels, when you have a group of people who are set against you, they don't need truth. They're happy to fabricate lies, twist things, distort truth for their own advancement. But look what else these men say. The error just, you know, pours out of their mouth. Look at verse three, in the middle of it there. Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. And what they're saying is simply this. All the congregation are holy. Moses, Aaron, who do you think you are? Everybody's holy here. We should have, here's a phrase you're well aware of today and you hear plenty, we should have equal rights. Equal rights. Moses and Aaron, you're setting yourselves up as leaders, but we're all equal. There's a few problems here because they said the whole congregation are holy. No, they are not. They are wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because they are far from holy. So that's certainly not the case. They are not all holy. And furthermore, they are not all equal in regards to their right to rule. That's just not the case. You see, men and women, what was the early chapters of Numbers all about? Order. Order. God has set an order. He puts different people and different tribes in those days in different positions to serve Him there. The Lord has a position and a place for everybody. And the Lord called Moses and Aaron to their position. Nobody else was qualified for it. Nobody else was qualified for it. You see, what's Korah doing here? And you get this to this very day, people will call for equal rights, not because they genuinely want everybody to be on the same level. No, Korah and company here want to bring down the position of leadership so that anybody can get into it, including them. They're trying to take away the qualifications required for leading so that it's low enough that they can jump in and get on board. That's all it's about. It's about pride. It's about their personal desire to achieve more in their minds. What happens when you lift down the qualifications, all of a sudden anybody and anybody will be in positions of leadership, and that is always a disaster, always. And you find that in secular places of employment, There's different schemes and ideas that seek to say equal rights for everyone, there shouldn't be any rules and regulations, there should be an equal amount of different ethnicities and whatever you care to mention. That's a disaster. What happens there? What you have is a society or a body which is just trying to get an equal number of people rather than the people best suited and best qualified for the job. And that's always, always, always a disaster. That's what CORE is doing here. Let's do away with this idea of a call of God. Let's do away with the idea that somebody should be a leader. Let's just leave the door open for anybody. Again, you know, you think about the work of God in the church. Listen, the Lord has said he will call man to be elders and man to be the teaching elders and so on and so forth. And this very day, this still creeps in the church. There are groups that will say, well, why can't women be ministers? Why can't women be elders? And will simply explain, well, that's what the Bible says. And the accusation then comes, well, do you think women are less useful? Do you think women are inferior? That's a really stupid question. It's daft. Simply saying that a minister should be a man, and elders should be men, and deacons should be men does not in any way indicate that women are inferior. And I must say that really irritates me, that stupid question. What we're simply stating is this. God has a position for men and for women. It doesn't make anyone inferior or greater. It's simply a position. And there's reasons for that. You can take the family role. You can take the workplace. There are simple, it's a simple fact. There are facts that show there are jobs that women do better than men. And there are jobs that men do better than women. That's it. That's because how God has designed us. It's got nothing to do with inferiority. Anyway, that's what Cora's doing here. Everybody's the same. There shouldn't be any qualifications. And it always leads to disaster. Anyway, let's go back to verse three for time is pushing on more than I would. More than I anticipated. Verse 3, so he said, And nothing could be further from the truth. Moses and Aaron did not lift themselves up before the congregation. Indeed, you can go back to Exodus 3, and Moses made every excuse he could think of not to leave Israel. He would have ran a mile! In fact, he ran far more than a mile. He ran from Egypt to Midian to try and get away from it all. God called him. That's it. He did not set himself up. The Lord placed him there. So, this approach is typical of dissenters and dissidents. They'll make up whatever they want to advance their schism or to advance their personal desires. And again, have you noticed how Korah and company address this issue? In verse number three, It says, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron and said unto them. What's the problem with that? If Korah and company had a genuine concern, they would speak to Moses and Aaron in private. They didn't. They did it in the most public manner possible to get as much publicity as possible. These men are devilish. They're set on discord. They're fools, fools. Man, I wonder what you said at this point because it's not often we visit chapters like this. As a congregation, we must be watchful for those who would cause schism. We must be watchful for those who would cause division like this. Maximum attack, seeking to promote themselves. Not only be watchful, that others may not do it, but that we ourselves would not be involved in such ungodly behavior. Thirdly here, as we try to find this first section, the accused. Verse number four. Moses and Aaron were the men being accused here. And look how Moses responds. And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. Now when you read of that in the Bible, it's always a reference to prayer. Moses gets to prayer, that's his response. There are men like dogs barking at him, the same as David experienced. These are men that Moses would have looked after. Men he would have cared for when they were sick. He wept for them. And now they're fighting against him. These are his, as Demas said, they're like my brothers. This indeed is a cousin, a blood relative of Moses leading this. What does he do? He prays. He prays because Moses knows the potential here that this could tear Israel in half. Here's a man of humility. I believe I believe Moses prays here, and we'll see in a minute or two that God shows him what to do, but he prays here, and if the Lord would have said to Moses, Moses, Korah and company are right, you step down. I don't doubt for one single moment that Moses would gladly have stepped down and given all authority to those men. He'd want what's right for God's work, not personal promotion and pride. But, he prayed, and then comes the plan. Because the Lord didn't say to Moses, step down. Here's what the Lord told him to do. He told him to go and get them all, and gather them, and get censors, and let's put it to a test. Verse 5. And he spake unto Korah. Moses now tells him the Lord's plan. And he spake unto Korah, and unto all the company, saying, even tomorrow the Lord will show you will show who are his and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto him. Even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. This do, take you censers, Korah and all his company, and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow, and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose shall be holy, and so on and so forth. And so what happens here is Moses says, everyone take their censers and God will show you. God will show you. who the leaders are, who should be in a position. And what I want you to see is this. Moses rightly commits the task of leadership into God's hands. He says, well, let's see who God says should be the leader. He doesn't defend himself. He doesn't fight for himself. He says, let's see what God says. He commits it to the God. That's a good idea. When it comes to particularly God's work, we need to discern who has different positions in God's work. We don't decide that. We let the Lord decide. How do we do that? You read His word. And what God's word says goes and there is no discussion about it. He calls and makes it clear who's in roles of leadership and who does what. That's why it's so important to study God's word and work out what everyone's place is in God's work. We find that in his word. But these men, yes, Moses prays about the situation, God gives a plan, but now Moses gives these men some perspective. Look at the end of verse... Number seven. Look what he says at the end of verse seven. He takes their words and he says, ye, Korah and company, ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. Isn't that what Korah said to him? Moses, Aaron, you take too much upon yourselves. But Moses turns that right around and says, you take too much upon yourself. And that was true. Here was some perspective, you see. Korah, like I said, was of the priest tribe. His three conspirers were of the prince tribe. They all have their jobs and they all have their privileges in their particular locations, but they want more. They're taking too much upon themselves. It wasn't God's will for them to have it. And you'll notice how Moses really calls out the real issue here. Look at verse number 10 with me for a moment. Moses begins to speak to him, he addresses him. Verse 9 actually, first of all, And what he's saying here is this, listen Corey, you already have a great job. Essentially, he was like a caretaker in the work. That's what he was. They were responsible for the cleaning and the lifting up and the breaking down when they were going to walk the tabernacle. That was their job. Maybe he felt that was mundane. Doesn't matter. That's a job God gave him. And that was a privilege. That's what Moses is saying here. You've been separated, Korah, to do the work of God. Verse 10. and he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, with thee, and seek ye the priesthood also? You want to be the priest as well? You take too much upon yourself, Korah, that is not God's will. Do your own work and do it well. Verse 11, for which cause both thou and all the company are gathered together against the Lord? You see, Moses is given some perspective here. He nails it. He says, listen, Korah, you're not content with what God's given you. And then he says in verse 11, you're against the Lord, not against me, not against Aaron, you're against the Lord. You're not satisfied where God has placed you. Discontentedness will always lead to disaster. If they'd have sat and did their own job well, they would have had reward enough in their own sphere of service. That brings them to section two, and all I'm going to do is just mention it. You can read it yourself when you go home. But section two follows the same pattern, the accusers, the accusation, and the accused. The accusers, you find them in verse 12. Because for whatever reason, Dathan and Abiram here did not come to stand in front of Moses. Korah was there, but Dathan and Abiram wasn't. So verse 12, And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. On isn't even mentioned. He seems to be gone now, which is strange. Maybe he fell out with them. They took cold feet, maybe seen some sense, we don't know. But anyway, and Moses sent to call Dathan the Byron, the sons of Eliab, which said, we will not come up. They refused to come up. Here's these men, and all they're doing now is defying, defying God's will, God's choice of man to lead the work, they are defying God. That was a problem. Furthermore, they begin to insult. Look at verse 13. They say, is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of the land that floweth with milk and honey to kill us? What are they saying? You brought us out of Egypt, the land that floweth with milk and honey? I don't recall Egypt being so spectacular. When I was reading about it a few months ago with you, I remember them killing their firstborn sons. I remember them, or sorry, killing all sons under five, rather. I remember them starving them and beating them and driving them. That's what I remember, not milk and honey. But again, who needs truth? When you're a rebel, make up whatever you want. Verse 14, they shift the blame now onto Moses. Verse 14, moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey. You haven't brought us in the promised land. That's not Moses' fault. The people refused to go in. Not Moses' fault, but they blame him. That's the accusers. That's their accusation enlarged. And then again, you have the accused response. That's Moses. How did Moses respond this time? Verse 15, and Moses was very rough. He prayed again. He prayed this time with righteous anger. And let's move swiftly to bring this to a conclusion. Because all the accusations now stop. And the King of all glory steps in. Go with me to verse number 20. Jehovah, the omniscient, all-knowing judge, now speaks. And the Lord spake unto Moses, unto Aaron, saying, separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And the Lord says, I'm going to wipe them out, wipe out Israel. But the Lord had a man there to pray, and that was Moses and Aaron. Verse 22, and they fell upon their faces. Again, there's that phrase, fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of spirits, of all flesh shall one man sin, and wilt thou be rocked with the whole congregation. So they pray in the will of God, and the Lord pardons Israel, but the Lord does go on. Verse 23, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. He said to the people of Israel, get away from these men's houses, their tents. Why? Because God was gonna judge them. And here's what happened. This really is sad men and women. And this should cause anyone great fear that they would never be guilty of this kind of ungodly descent. Verse 31, here's what happened to them. And it came to pass As he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground cleave or tore open a sunder that was under them. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses. And all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods, they and all that appertained to them, that means their children and their wives, their families, were destroyed because of their contention. This is sad, men and women, because these men destroyed not only themselves, but their little ones. That's a sad and sorrowful story to stand before the judgment throne with. Just look at verse 33. And all that appertained to them, verse 33, went down alive. They were alive. Went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished. They perished there. So you think about this. As they were standing, the earth opened up, they all fell down in, they were all living, they would have felt all the pain and agony of banging their heads and broken bodies off the edge, they fell down in, and then they were swallowed up and they perished down there. Now, it's easy to jump from this to hell, but minimum that's not suggesting that they fell into hell because Well, who stated that hell was in the middle of the earth? Okay. All we've been told here is that the earth opened up and they were swallowed and they were consumed and they perished, they died. Did they end up in hell? Well, I think there's very good arguments to say beyond any shadow of doubt they did. But it wasn't only the leaders. That was Dathan, Abiram, And Korah, look at verse 35. And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the 250 men that offered incense. There's that fire of the Lord again. It consumed them all who were involved in this. It didn't end well for the conspirers. It didn't end well for the schism leaders and those involved in this. You see the Lord dealt with them and it's so sad. Therefore, we must run with great caution from such behavior. Just to bring this to a swift close here, anyone therefore tempted by pride, with desires to be the center of attention, whether it's in the home or in the workplace or in church, and you attack and you jive at people to try and ascend the ladder as you see it, well, I want to warn you from this passage, pride comes before a fall. The Lord places everyone where he would have them to be, and where we're placed, serve God faithfully and fervently there. Work hard and labor, pray over every task, ask the Lord to bless you and use you. And if the Lord moves and gives you other tasks, Well, so be it. It's more responsibility for you. It's a greater burden upon you. You'll be held accountable on the day as you stand before God, for if God so plays that upon you, be ready, and no matter what you're doing, serve God the best you can, where you're at, and be faithful. Be content. Call upon the Lord for help, that he would help you where you are. Love the Lord who blessed you at all and saved your soul. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we are conscious that indeed the work of God will always have its trials and tribulations and troubles. We pray for our little congregation here. Lord, surround us, we pray. Set a shield, as it were, a Hedge about thy people truly, Lord. Cover us in the merits of thy blood. And Lord, give us unity as a congregation. Help us, Lord, to press forward, to complement one another, to serve thee as faithful as we possibly can where you've placed us. And Lord, every one of us will be held to account for how we have lived before thee someday. So Lord, give us passion. Give us wisdom. And Lord, give us the ability to serve thee well. And Lord, build the work, cause the work to be more effective, and it's witnessed for thee in this time. Undertech, we love thee. Thank you for saving our souls. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.