A Power Struggle
Tensions mount as reality closes in. Cracks begin to appear, with the fearful on the one hand and the potential leaders who think they can do better than the present crew on the other, giving a direct challenge to authority and leadership on two fronts.
In the first case, two Reubenites, backed by 250 ‘well-known men‘, confront Moses and Aaron on the grounds that they are too big for their boots. What is in question is not their policies but their attitude. They came from nowhere, set themselves up as leaders and a struggling people were happy to follow. But on the journey attitudes had changed. People had noticed, reflected and talked, and when things went wrong felt they needed to be consulted. Moses and Aaron have lost touch with their constituency, think they know best and at least convey the impression that they think they are a cut above everybody else, whereas too many people 'just managing' feel discredited, left behind and some treated like dirt. A typical and not unfamiliar pattern.
In the second case, the Levites (led by Korah) are claiming more territory and Moses thinks they are getting too big for their boots. Already with a privileged position among the tribes with responsibility for the tabernacle, they now want to move in on the priesthood as well.
One question is how better might the parties have handled it. Probably little is to be gained by digging into their situation, but in order to glean some light from Numbers it may be more profitable try to identify the ingredients of the struggle for that moment when we find ourselves suddenly walking into a similar situation since the ingredients repeat themselves again and again. These include murmurings, minor dissatisfactions, feelings of not being heard, being bypassed or outright rejection, spotting the possibility of change and going for it. Then follows confrontation, judgement, repentance and (hopefully) resolution, followed finally (but rarely) by an objective examination of what has changed. What was it worth? Who has gained and who has lost? Failure adequately to address these issues at this point may simply simply sow the seeds for a repeat performance.