God Will Exalt You!

SCRIPTURE

Numbers 16:1-19 (NRSV)

Korah's company rebels

Now Korah son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth - descendants of Reuben - took two hundred fifty Israelite men, leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men, and they confronted Moses. They assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, "You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?" When Moses heard it, he fell on his face. Then he said to Korah and all his company, "In the morning the Lord will make known who is his, and who is holy, and who will be allowed to approach him; the one whom he will choose he will allow to approach him. Do this: take censers, Korah and all your company, and tomorrow put fire in them, and lay incense on them before the Lord; and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You Levites have gone too far!" Then Moses said to Korah, "Hear now, you Levites! Is it too little for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to allow you to approach him in order to perform the duties of the Lord's tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation and serve them? He has allowed you to approach him, and all your brother Levites with you; yet you seek the priesthood as well! Therefore you and all your company have gathered together against the Lord. What is Aaron that you rail against him?"

Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab; but they said, "We will not come! Is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also lord it over us? It is clear you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come!"

Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, "Pay no attention to their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed any one of them." And Moses said to Korah, "As for you and all your company, be present tomorrow before the Lord, you and they and Aaron; and let each one of you take his censer, and put incense on it, and each one of you present his censer before the Lord, two hundred fifty censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer." So each man took his censer, and they put fire in the censers and laid incense on them, and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. Then Korah assembled the whole congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole congregation.

DEVOTION

Oh my heavens! Today’s scripture reading makes me very nervous because I know how the story ends (see tomorrow’s devotion).

But, let’s suffice it to say that it is never a good idea to imagine that your plan is better than God’s plan, or that your leadership is better than God’s leadership.

I want to share something with you that I learned the hard way. Perhaps you can learn from my mistakes.

If you want to be a good leader, you must first learn to be an outstanding follower!

Followership is not something that we often teach our children to aspire to. Everyone wants to be a leader! And in principal that sounds great until you try to go somewhere and everybody is pulling in a different direction!

Sometimes, we need to learn to be followers. We need to learn to humble ourselves and pray. We need to learn to take direction and accept mentorship.

The best leaders that I know learned to be so at the feet of another! Most people, who now enjoy high profile positions of power, started on the lowest rung and worked their way up!

There is no shame in being a follower until the Lord exalts you to leadership. The Bible says, “If you are faithful over little, God will make you ruler over much (Matthew 25:21).”

It seems that Korah and his pals failed to learn this lesson. They were Levites with special privileges. One would have thought that they would be proud that they got to stand before the Lord in the temple; but instead they coveted the positions of Moses and Aaron. Perhaps they felt that Moses and Aaron’s positions of power looked more glamorous than theirs and so they demanded what they imagined was being denied to them.

My friends, we must be very careful what we wish for! Often the positions of power that we think are so glamorous are really stressful, high anxiety, enterprises for which one would need years of preparation—and a call from God--in order to be a success!

I believe that God’s word to us today is HUMILITY. Psalm 37:34 says, “Wait on the Lord and keep His way and He will exalt thee.”

God will exalt us! We do not need to exalt ourselves. We do not have to jockey for power. We do not have to topple good leadership. We do not have to stage a coup. All we have to do is quietly and humbly “wait on the Lord and keep His way and GOD will exalt us!”

Now, ain’ta that good news?!

Please pray with me.

Holy One, thank you that the Bible says that it is you who establishes leadership (Romans 13:1). Please help me to be a good follower until the day that you choose to exalt me. Please forgive me for any spirit of pride that has kept me from being a good follower and please fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I will have the wisdom to follow your plan and your leadership. I love you and I only want to be used by you to share the good news that you gave Jesus to die on the cross to save us from our sin and gift us with eternal life. Thank you for this good news that breaks into my life each and every day. I pray this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE INVITATION

If you have questions about how to become a friend and follower of Jesus, please see the devotion entitled, “Come to Jesus” @
http://aintathatgoodnews.blogspot.com/2009/03/come-to-jesus.html