Numbers 16:31-33 And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground split asunder that was under them:… Some things are very much dreaded because so destructive. E.g., locusts, war, pestilence. But there is nothing so destructive as sin. As "no man liveth," so no man sinneth, "to himself." Of Korah, as of Achan or of other transgressors, it may be said, "That man perished not alone in his iniquity" (Joshua 22:20). The destructive effects of sin are twofold - I. PERSONAL, II. SOCIAL. I. PERSONAL: on the sinner himself, as in the case of Korah the Kohathite, honoured as one of the ministers of God's ark. lllustration - Infection, taken unawares, may not be suspected by friends, hardly by the victim; but its effects (fever, eruption, &c.) will be seen by and by. Sin cannot always be kept secret (Isaiah 59:12; James 1:15). "Evil shall slay the wicked." If the consequences are not as fatal as in Korah's case, moral destruction is going on. As Alpine granite may be reduced by frost and damp to a kind of mould, so sin - some sins especially - seems to break up the moral nature and reduce it to ruins. From the personal consequences of sin the destroyer we can only be delivered by Christ the Savior (Titus 2:14). II. SOCIAL: on others. In the case of Korah and his conspirators, sin was fatal to their families. So perhaps in the case of Achan (Joshua 7:24-26; Joshua 22:20); if not, how terrible for them to see the husband, the father, killed, and to know that he had caused the loss of thirty-six men at Ai! "Curses, like chickens, always come home to roost." We cannot sin with impunity to our family any more than Adam did. Sin propagates sin. It involves others, directly or indirectly, in its fatal consequences. Illustration - King Saul, and the catastrophe to both family and nation at Gilboa. Unrighteous statesmen. Men of high social position who are immoral or infidel. Each sinner a center of contagion (Ecclesiastes 9:18). The fate of the children of Korah's company a warning to sinful parents. The children of the godless may be expected to become the parents of godless children, and thus the evil may be perpetuated from generation to generation. Mournful epitaph for a sinner's grave: "That man perished not alone in his iniquity." "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Romans 5:20, 21; Romans 8:2, 3). - P. Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: |
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