How a group of men, 250 in all, imagined they could stand before God and supplant Moses is unfathomable to me.

These men hiked through the dry bed of the Red Sea. These men shielded their eyes when Moses, his face too bright to look upon, sat with them. These men filled their bellies with manna and quail, and astoundingly, these men woke up every morning and checked a pillar of cloud for their marching orders.

Despite all those experiences, these men dug into their hearts and lifted out a dark, stinking prideful mess and splatted it before Moses and the Lord.

Fire consumed the 250 men, getting off easy. The Lord reserved a particularly dramatic finish for their leaders, Dathan and Abiram. A deep rumble from below, and the earth split apart and swallowed them whole.

I can’t believe the things I read in the Bible sometimes. But these stories exist for any number of lessons for me to take to heart.

One of which stands out today – don’t mess with the Living God.

Numbers 16 in week ten of reading the Bible cover to cover