–2 Timothy 2:20 (NKJV)
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“Woe to them!  For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.”  –Jude 11, NKJV

       I want to look at Korah today, but before I do there is a question I want to ask.  I often asked it in my classroom.  Is everyone equal?  I would get the nods, the affirmations, and some even became vocal saying, “of course we are.”  I would then proceed to ask one of them to come up and teach my class.  Once in a while one of them would venture forward and stand behind my podium with a smile on his face.  Here is the lesson you are to teach:  the Battle of Gettysburg.  The smile left, and they would go back to their desk.
       I ask again, is everyone equal?  Are some not the head, while others the toe?  Some are the neck, and others the leg.  We all have our particular and specific place in the kingdom of God.  Some are chosen to be a grand vase, others a pot in which to cook, while, gross as it may seem, some may be a chamber pot.  It is up to the potter.  
      Before I go further, I will say that YES!  all are equal before the Lord.  We are made in His image, we have been given the dignity of mankind.  However, all have not been given the same position.  There is a movement today to equate the pastor with the parishioner.  They are equal in God’s sight as His creation, but their office and calling are much different, therefore much responsibility is laid upon the pastor.  Study the prophets and you will see that one of the major issues in Israel was the decline of the priesthood.  As the pulpit goes, so goes the nation–so to speak.
       Let’s look at Numbers 16.  “Now Korah…rose up before Moses.” (1-2)  He openly defied the leadership of Moses, the position in which God had placed him.  He challenges Moses, and by doing that he challenges God.  “You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them.  Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?” (vs 4)
       This shocked Moses, and he fell to his knees.  Looking at Korah and his followers Moses spoke to them telling them that the challenge was wrong but it was accepted.  It ended with the following result, “So the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  ‘Speak to the congregation, saying, “Get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”‘  And he spoke to the congregation, saying, ‘Depart now from the tents of these wicked men!  Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins.’  Now as it came to pass, as he [Moses] finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods.  So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly.”  (Numbers 16:23-24,26,31-33, NKJV)
       This isn’t all, those who were with Korah who carried censers, which was the duty of the priests faced a similar fate, “And a fire came out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense.” (16:35)  This still isn’t the end of the story for the next day “the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘You have killed the people of the LORD.'” (16:41)  These people had been so duped and deceived that even after seeing the hand of the Lord against Korah they still held on to their falseness.  “Now who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident.” (vs 49)
       No we are not all equal as far as position.  We need to prepare ourselves so when the Lord calls we are ready to answer.  We have the preparation to take up His divine calling, but we do not all have the same position or office.  Even in the Millennial reign there will be some who rule over ten cities, some over five, and others over one.  God knows what we can handle, He knows what He wants us to do.  Our job is to answer His calling and recognize where we are in the Kingdom. Korah was not satisfied with his position and desired more–hmmm, sounds like Lucifer who wanted the throne.
       Be thankful that God has called you by His grace.  Be thankful to serve in whatever position He has placed you.  And be careful about wanting to be higher than where you are, and try to usurp or undermine another’s position.

                         –Nehemiah 7:3 (NKJV)
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Sometimes it galls me!  When I see someone disrespecting the flag of our country my jaws tighten.  Whether it’s within their right to do so, it is not respectable.  Of course the same people who would trample and spit on the flag don’t know or care anything about respect.  They care only about self-centeredness, and of mockery.  I’ve known people who fought for that flag, and some who died.  I served that flag with honor, and when I see it I still get feelings deep inside me.  I love to see it waving in the breeze for it is a symbol, no matter who may say different, of the greatest nation on earth.  Today, Flag Day, I want to share something with you written by Robert C. Winthrop, “The Flag of Our Country.”

     There is a national flag.  He must be cold indeed who can look upon its folds, rippling in the breeze, without pride of country.  It he be in a foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself, with all its endearments.
     Who, as he sees it, can think of a state merely?  Whose eyes, once fastened upon its radiant trophies, can fail to recognize the image of the whole nation?  It has been called a “floating piece of poetry,” and yet I know not if it have an intrinsic beauty beyond other ensigns.  Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes.  It is because it represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence.
     It is a piece of bunting lifted in the air; but it speaks sublimely, and every part has a voice.  Its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen states to maintain the Declaration of Independence.  Its stars of white on a field of blue, proclaim that union of states constituting our national constellation, which receives a new star with every new state.  The two together signify union past and present.
     The very colors have a language which was officially recognized by our fathers.  White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice; and all together–bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky–make the flag of our country to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands.
     I have said enough, and more than enough, to manifest the spirit in which this flag is now committed to your charge.  It is the national ensign, pure and simple, dearer to all hearts at this moment, as we lift it to the gale and see no other sign of hope upon the storm cloud which rolls and rattles above it, save that which is its own radiant hues, dearer, a thousandfold dearer to us all than ever it was before, while gilded by the sunshine of prosperity and playing with the zephyrs of peace.  It will speak for itself far more elo-quently than I can speak for it.
     Behold it!  Listen to it!  Every star has a tongue; every stripe is articulate.  There is no speech nor language where their voices are not heard.  There is magic in the web of it.  It has an answer for every question of duty.  It has a word of good cheer for every hour of gloom or of despondency.
     Behold it!  Listen to it!  It speaks of earlier and later struggles.  It speaks of victories and sometimes of reverses, on the sea and on the land.  It speaks of patriots and heroes among the living and among the dead; and of him, the first and greatest of them all, around whose consecrated ashes this unnatural and abhorrent strife has been so long raging.  But, before all and above all other associations and memories, whether of glorious men, or glorious deeds, or glorious places, its voice is ever of union and liberty, of the Constitution and of the laws.

       It’s easy to see when this was written, but it stands true today.  The violent and deadly Civil War was tearing this nation apart.  Think what it would have been like if there had been no United States of America.  Think of the missionaries that would never have been sent, think of the tyrants who would never have been defeated.  Problems, many of them, but the flag represents a people who try to overcome and to make right those problems, and spitting or stomping on the flag will only increase the hatred and the issues.
       We are at a crisis in our country.  Our leadership is poor and weak, and is not trusted.  Justices tout their agenda contrary to the Constitution.  People who do not want or understand due process of government threaten Justices of the Supreme Court.  There is as much a schism in this country today as it was during the time of the Civil War.  It is a time of a civil war of values, of morality, and of right and wrong.  However, when we look at the flag, there is hope.  As the country would rally back to God, there is hope.  If the people would repent, there is hope.
       Let us gaze upon the flag this day and every time we see it let us remember, and look with hope to the future.  I recall the words of General Douglas MacArthur upon his return to Corregidor.  “I see the flagpole still stands.  Have your troopers hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy every haul them down.”  We have many who seek a globalist approach, many who would give in to the demands of other countries and ideologies, but long may the flag–Old Glory–fly over the land of the free and home of the brave.

                         –Louis L’Amour  (The Mountain Valley War)

       “But the LORD your God will hand them over to you.  He will throw them into complete confusion until they are destroyed.”

                         –Deuteronomy 7:23(NLT)
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What did Jesus do after he calmed the storm and rebuked the disciples?  Did He go back to sleep?  Hmm, maybe even with a little smile on His face.  The storms of our life will come; that is one thing of which you can be assured.  With that being said, I will also say that there are many different types of storms, many different sizes.  When the storms come we are called upon to remember the story of Jesus calming the storm.  He was with the disciples all the time, and they knew He was there.  They just could not understand why and how He could sleep in the storm.
       Some people don’t remember how God helped them through previous storms or battles.  In the second portion of Psalm 78, we see that Ephraim ran from the battle.  When the foe advanced, they did not just retreat, they “turned their backs and fled.”  Verse 11, “They forgot what he had done…” (NLT)

           9 — The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
         10 — They did not keep the covenant of God; they refused to walk in His law,
         11 — And forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them.
         12 — Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
         13 — He divided the sea that caused them to pass through; and He made the waters stand up like a heap.
         14 — In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
         15 — He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
         16 — He also brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.  (NKJV)

When going into a possible battle one thing that you depend on are your fellow men.  They had the same training, took the same oath, were facing the same enemy, so they should be ready.  However, when the shooting starts and the fight ensues they take off.  They want nothing to do with the battle, with the chance of dying and leave you and their fellowman to defend yourselves.  Ephraim was a deserter.  In the time of trial he deserted, refused to carry out his vows, and left the battle.
        Why?  Were they cowards?  Possibly.  Were they traitors?  I doubt that, they were still Israelites, and they practiced their religion diligently.   It seems from the verses above that they forgot the power of God.  They did not remember how He had delivered them in the past.  They forgot His keeping power; they forgot His deliverance; they forgot how He provided for them every day.  They let fear grip them, and the enemy deceive them.
       Don’t be angry at them.  How many times have each of us forgotten the mighty deeds God has done in our lives?  Remember, the times He kept you, provided for you, kept you safe.  That’s one reason the past is so important–it is for us to remember the hand of God working in our lives.  The other tribes stood their ground, Ephraim fled even though they were armed for battle.  We, too, have the armor of God, and we are armed for battle.  Let us stand against the foe and not turn back.  Our brothers and sisters in the Lord need us.  Our family needs us, for the battle and also that in the future they can look back at how the hand of God used us and kept us and gave us the victory.