Moses won’t argue for his God-given position, but he will give the rebels something to think about.
So Korah and his complaining crowd had thrown down the gauntlet. Who do you think you are, Moses? they said in derision. “Why…do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” (Num 16:3). And Moses, the man accused of exalting himself, what did he do? “When Moses heard it, he fell on his face” (v 4). Can you imagine that? Two men squaring off, and one insults the other. Then suddenly—where did Moses go? Oh, he’s down on his face in the dust! He certainly isn’t going to boast, or insist on his rights. Let the Lord handle this, he says. “Tomorrow morning the Lord will show who is His and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to Him” (v 5). It will be a trial by ordeal: “Do this: Take censers, Korah and all your company; put fire in them and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow, and it shall be that the man whom the Lord chooses is the holy one” (vv 6-7). Ironically, the censer was the instrument used to fill the Holiest of All with smoke to hide the High Priest from God’s glory; now it would be used to expose those who are jostling for what God had never given them. Now Moses speaks: “You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi!…Is 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 work of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to serve them…?” (vv 7-9). Likewise, the Lord has given the women much to do for Him—bringing lives into the world, raising children for God, teaching women and children the ways of the Lord, showing us all what it means to happily submit to Christ, taking the gospel into the world, performing good works, hospitality, and so much more! It is no “small thing.”