Numbers 15

v1-21: The resident alien who embraces “the faith and worship of the true God” is placed on the same level as the native Israelite. This showed that “believing foreigners should be counted as Israelites,” as part of God’s people; and that “unbelieving Israelites should be counted as foreigners,” outside of God’s people. A person’s birth or background is of no advantage or disadvantage when it comes to acceptance with God.

v22-29: Sins committed ignorantly or unintentionally, by the whole nation or by an individual needed to have atonement made for them, and “will be forgiven through Christ, the great sacrifice, who, when he offered up himself once for all on the cross,” prayed ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’

v30-36: Those who wilfully sin against knowledge and intentionally against God’s will and glory “arrogantly say that eternal truth is not fit to be believed, the Lord of all is not fit to be obeyed, and almighty power is not fit to be feared or trusted.” The judgment they face of being excluded “from Christ’s great sacrifice” is the same as those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit and completely turn away from Christianity.

v37-41: The Israelites were told to make tassels to remind them of their duty, so that they would not sin through forgetfulness. We have not been told to do the same, but “if we believed more firmly, and more frequently and seriously considered, that God is the Lord and our God and Redeemer, we would see ourselves committed by duty, right, and gratitude to keep all his commandments.”

Numbers 16

v1-11: Korah, along with Dathan and Abiram, led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron because they thought they had taken too much on themselves, even though “they had done no more than what God had given them.” It is in fact “those who try to control and contradict what God has appointed who take too much on themselves.” Let us submit to God and trust His ways, “instead of worrying about any who have greater honour, power, possessions, or a share of his gifts, graces, or usefulness, than us.”

v12-22: Even “if others fail in their duty to us,” we are still required to do “our duty to them.” When people reject us, it does not “remove the obligation we are under to seek their welfare.”

v23-34: Moses, having prayed for the rebels, then preaches to them and warns them to flee from the wrath that was coming. “We cannot expect to gain benefits from the prayers of our friends for our salvation,” if we do not use “the means of salvation” God has provided. “Those who do not want to die with sinners must come out from among them and be separate.”

v35-40: “God’s wonderful works, both of mercy and of judgment, should be remembered.” It was necessary for this judgment to be recorded, because memories “do not always last long,” and so “the Levites who served at this altar might learn to keep within their limits of the service appointed for them and that they might be afraid of going beyond them, so that they would not suffer the same punishment as Korah and his followers.”

v41-50: “How necessary the grace of God is to bring about powerful and definite changes in human hearts and lives.” Having seen the rebels being punished, and with “the shrieks of those falling sinners… still sounding in their ears… and the gapping earth had hardly closed up,” the warning was completely ignored and “the same sins came out again.”