Numbers chapter 16 highly symbolizes how God uses His consuming fire as the final means to separate all of His goodness that He created from its defilement by sin.
Korah and all his company who were in rebellion against Moses and Aaron symbolized all sins of rebellion toward God. Rebellious sins started with Lucifer, and they are totally evil. God will never forgive these types of sins. God can never forgive them because they persist in hatred toward God forever. Sins of rebellion were born from an excessive pride which seeks to murder God. John 8:44. God gave Satan his chance when He went to the cross. John 14:30.
In Numbers 16:16-19, Moses ordered Korah and his company and Aaron and his followers to appear before the tabernacle with censers filled with incense and fire. God accepted for His worship only the burning of certain types of incense. The right incense symbolized those whom God accepts because they obey Him, and the wrong incense symbolized His rejection of those who rebel against Him. Every censer had fire within it which symbolized God's consuming fire as His method for His final separation of all His perfect goodness from all rebellious total evil. Hebrews 12:29.
In Numbers 16:20-35, God separated Moses and Aaron and their followers from the rebels. The Lord then burnt the 250 rebels with fire and caused the earth to swallow them up. These rebels symbolized total rebellion against God, and His consuming fire and the earth swallowing them symbolized God's final judgment when He will consign all total evil to the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15
In Numbers 16:36-40, God told Moses to order Eleazer, the son of Aaron, to scatter the fire and recover the censers left behind by the rebels. Because these censers were hallowed, they symbolized God's goodness within these rebels that He separated from them and recovered by His use of His consuming fire. These censers were made into plates to cover the brazen altar. The brazen altar symbolized the judgment of God covered by the blood of sacrificed animals. The brazen altar and the sacrificed animals, in turn, symbolized the judgment of God falling on Christ to save all humanity from the penalty of sin which is eternal separation of humanity from God. Some of humanity God saves by His grace when they believe that the shed blood of Jesus will cleanse them of all sin. All others God saves by His mercy when He uses His consuming fire to separate His goodness within them from their total evil and recreates them to live on His recreated earth. But God's grace and mercy cannot be effective except through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Through His sacrifice on the cross, Christ saves some humans by His grace. By His descent into hell, He saves the rest of humanity by His mercy. Through His resurrection, He gives eternal life to all humans to whom He has ever given life in the first place. Romans 3:25; I Corinthians 3:12-15; I Timothy 4:10; Luke 20:38; Revelation 21:1-5.
In Numbers 16:41-50, the rebellion of the congregation symbolized the fact that some total evil exists even within the people of God. God wanted to destroy the entire congregation, but Moses ordered Aaron to put incense and fire into censers and go among the people tp placate the wrath of God. God killed 14,700 of the people with a plague which symbolized the total evil within His people. God stayed the plague because Aaron used fire and incense to symbolize that God will forever preserve the goodness He has put into His people, and He will certainly also separate all their total evil from His people. Verse 48 is especially significant because it prophesies that God's final project in the end will be to completely separate all living humans which He created to be good from all dead humans who are totally evil. Life is always good because God created it, and death is always totally evil because it equals the sin which is eternal spiritual separation from God. Hebrews 12:29; Luke 20:38.
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