Numbers 16:16-38 (NIV)

¹⁶ Moses said to Korah, “You and all your followers are to appear before the LORD tomorrow—you and they and Aaron. ¹⁷ Each man is to take his censer and put incense in it—250 censers in all—and present it before the LORD. You and Aaron are to present your censers also.” ¹⁸ So each of them took his censer, put burning coals and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ¹⁹ When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the LORD appeared to the entire assembly. ²⁰ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹ “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” ²² But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?” ²³ Then the LORD said to Moses, ²⁴ “Say to the assembly, ‘Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’” ²⁵ Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ He warned the assembly, “Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.” ²⁷ So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents. ²⁸ Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: ²⁹ If these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the LORD has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.” ³¹ As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. ³³ They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. ³⁴ At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!” ³⁵ And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense. ³⁶ The LORD said to Moses, ³⁷ “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, to remove the censers from the charred remains and scatter the coals some distance away, for the censers are holy— ³⁸ the censers of the men who sinned at the cost of their lives. Hammer the censers into sheets to overlay the altar, for they were presented before the LORD and have become holy. Let them be a sign to the Israelites.”

Reflection:

Once again, we see Moses dealing with opposition from some of the Israelites.  It would seem the natural human response to this wrongdoing would be to put an end to it and all those who are responsible, but once again we see Moses’ heart as he cries out to the Lord.  Rather than asking for their destruction, he is asking God for mercy on the people; for God not to be angry with the entire assembly for the sin of one man.  Once again, we see his heart for God’s people.  In the midst of the sin and the difficult circumstances, his heart is to cry out for God to preserve His people.

Response:

Let’s spend some time reflecting on/receiving Moses’ heart in crying out to the Lord.  Let’s pray for our missional groups and campus ministries; that we would receive this heart before God and for His people even as we experience things going wrong or in the midst of opposition.

Piotr Gwiazda, associate professor of English, has published a review in the Times Literary Supplement.

Gwiazda says that in his new book, “Unseen Hand” (translated by Clare Cavanagh), Polish poet Adam Zagajewski “shares his fascination with transience and metamorphosis” and “celebrate[s] the twofold pleasures of recollection and meditation”

“Now in his sixties, [Zagajewski] finds solace in the world’s capacity for self-renewal,” Gwiazda writes, noting that “realm, often epitomized by the change of seasons or images of birds and trees, serves as the gateway to epiphany.”

Councilman William Cole argues that the Grand Prix will change how people view Baltimore and Tom Noonan, president and CEO of Visit Baltimore, hopes it will draw 100,000 visitors to the city, but Dennis Coates, professor of economics, suggests the economic benefits of the event are far from certain. “If you think the goal of government is to convince people that they live in a quote-unquote world-class city—whatever that means—then it will probably be a success,” he told the AP. “Will people have a good time? No doubt about it. But in terms of actually creating jobs, creating a better business environment? No.” In the past, similar events have under-delivered, he noted, calling into question organizers’ estimate that the Baltimore Grand Prix will have a $70 million impact on the region.

“Fear-inspired hyperbole about the so-called ‘debt crisis’ and ‘explosion of government spending’ has twisted the public discourse about fiscal policy,” argues David Salkever, professor of public policy, in the New York Times. “The upshot is a feeling that our long-range fiscal problems must be solved today, lest we descend into ‘ruin’ (as Jeffrey Manns warned in an August 10 Op-Ed article).”

Salkever has been a health policy researcher for three decades, focusing on determinants and regulation of hospital cost inflation, access to health care for the urban poor, economic impacts of children’s disabilities and public benefit activities of non-profit hospitals. His New York Times letter suggests that approaching changes to Medicare and Social Security from a perspective of extreme urgency could have negative repercussions. He writes, “It’s too bad that we’re in the midst of a ‘crisis’ and cannot address these problems in a more thoughtful way.”

Composer Will Redman ’98, music, was profiled by Tim Smith in the Baltimore Sun.

He went to University of Maryland, Baltimore County to study percussion with notable composer and percussionist Stuart Saunders Smith, who encouraged his student to listen to recordings of jazz pioneer John Coltrane and pathbreaking 20th-century classical composer Luciano Berio.

“I didn’t know anything about avant-garde music or free jazz,” Redman said. “I decided I needed to do both things. I thought of free jazz as sort of like the punk-rock of jazz.”