Here begins the story of perhaps the strangest and most fully organized opposition that Moses had to encounter. Two elements were at work. The first was ambition and the second was dissatisfaction.
The plea of the elders was for equal rights and consequent independence of action. The reply of Moses was a reassertion that his authority was divinely ordained. Sudden and terrible discipline fell upon the people. The whole incident is a warning for all time and for all men against any attempt on the ground of popular right to violate the crown rights of Jehovah.
The last movement in the story is a startling revelation of the blindness of the people and of how far the dissatisfaction had spread. The whole congregation charged that the death of those who had been punished rested on Moses Again the divine voice threatened the extermination of the people, and immediately a fierce and swift plague afflicted them. Directly it commenced, however, at the instigation of Moses, Aaron, the appointed priest, whose right it was to swing the censer, filled it with fire and sprinkling the incense thereupon passed into the midst of the afflicted people. The mediation prevailed, the plague was stayed, and by that fact and with renewed emphasis, the right of Aaron as priest and the right of Moses as leader were indicated.