In this parashah, we read of the great rebellion, which Korach led along with Abiram and Dathan. Korach was a Levite and Abiram and Dathan were of the tribe of Reuben.
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We all know what happened: the 250 leading men of Israel whom Korach convinced to follow him, along with Korach were all destroyed when they took their censors to the Tent of Meeting, and Abiram and Dathan, with their family and possessions, were swallowed alive by the earth.
Then the people accused Moses and Aaron of killing God’s people, so God ordered that the 12 tribal leaders should put their staffs into the Tent of Meeting, and the one that has buds the next morning will be proof of who God wants to lead. Aaron’s staff not only had buds but flowered and also had ripened almonds.
One last thing that God ordered was that the Levites were to surround the Tent of Meeting so that no one may come close to it without proper authority.
There is so much to talk about here, but what I want to do is deal with is with one verse, one verse that represents the way Israel treats all people fairly and respects all life, even the lives of those that hate us.
In Numbers 16:21, God tells Moses that he will destroy the entire congregation, but Moses prays that God will only deal with the ones who are sinning. God relents and tells Moses to tell the people who are close to the tents of Abiram, Dathan, and Korach to move far away from them, for their own safety so that they will not be destroyed along with those sinners.
In other words, get away from where the battle is coming so you aren’t collateral damage.
In 1 Samuel 15:6, after God has Samuel tell Shaul that he must completely destroy the Amaleki for the evil they did against Israel, Shaul warns the Keni living with the Amaleki to go away from them or they will be destroyed along with the Amaleki.
In other words, get away from where the battle is coming so you aren’t collateral damage.
Just recently, Israel defended itself from further rocket attacks by bombing the tunnels that Hamas and PIJ used to launch rocket attacks at Israeli civilians. The Hamas / PIJ tunnels and military headquarters were placed in civilian areas, so Israel dropped millions of pamphlets and made millions of text messages and cell phone calls to the people living there, warning them of the coming attack and telling them to flee before Israel takes out these military targets.
In other words, get away from where the battle is coming so you aren’t collateral damage.
For the record, hundreds of Gaza Strip resident deaths were not caused by Israel but by the rockets that Hamas and PIJ launched falling short of their target; instead of killing Israeli civilians, Hamas and PIJ rockets fell right on the heads of their own people.
From the time of Moses, some 3500 years ago to this very day, God’s people have respected the lives of all people, treating them fairly and with compassion. Even our enemies have been given way more leeway to attack us before we take defensive actions. And all the attacks Israel has ever made against their neighbors, who refuse to just leave Israel alone because they say they won’t settle for anything but the total destruction of Israel, have been defensive.
The media wants to show Israel as an apartheid and invasive country, and the world seems to want to go along with that lie. The truth is that Israel takes up such a small percentage of the land that is Arab controlled and occupied that it is almost insignificant. Historically, before the state of Israel existed, the land Israel now occupies was wasteland-undeveloped, uncultured, uninhabited except by nomadic people who came and left as the fodder for their herds was used up.
The Jews, even though we are (still and forever) God’s people, have constantly done wrong throughout our long history, yet we have also constantly done right. God has punished us for our sins, and forgiven and saved us from our enemies when we do right. One thing the Bible shows we have always done right, and still do to this very day, is to respect the lives of others in accordance with God’s commandment in Leviticus 19:18.
In Israel, Arabs and Jews live and work together without animosity, each receiving equal pay, equal opportunity for advancement, and mutual respect for each other.
Can we, in the United States of America, make that claim? Does our history show racial equality and mutual respect between religions? Do women have the same opportunity as men? Do different races co-exist well together?
Korach and his followers were jealous of the authority God gave to Moses and Aaron, and I believe that the Arab people are no different. The Media and the United Nations, just like the 250 men who went along with Korach, because of their own sense of self-importance accept these lies and want, instead, to destroy the country that has shown itself superior in every way, especially in the arena of human rights.
The sad fact is that Israel, being accused by the world of being a violator of human rights, is the only country in the world today that truly treats all people in the country with the same rights and privileges, just as God said they should way back when he first gave us the Torah (Exodus 12:49.)
The next time you hear some idiot say that Israel is unfair to the Palestinian people (who aren’t really a people, but a propaganda creation of Yasser Arafat), please correct them with the truth. There are no “Palestinian people”; Hamas and PIJ have hidden behind women and children to attack Israel’s women and children; Israel has always tried to defend only against military targets (which the Arabs hide among schools, hospitals, and civilian homes), and that when Israel takes action, before doing so they do something NO ONE does or ever did- they warn the innocents to get out of the way!
God’s people have made many mistakes, but we have always come back to God and done many of the things God wants us to do, and that is why we are still here; for nearly 6, 000 years everyone in the world has tried to destroy us, but they can’t because God protects us, and through Israel the world is blessed.
One day Yeshua will rule from Jerusalem, the truth will come out, and the world will be ashamed.
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That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!
