The Fire of Atonement

‎Not yet was this grim punishment ended which Korah had up-stirred. The dissatisfaction had been widespread; and though the leaders had been slain and all active rebellion checked, yet “on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” Doubtless many felt, as Dathan had, that Moses had brought them to no pleasant life. They forgot that it was their own cowardice and disobedience which were being punished.

‎So they murmured; and God, seeing that punishment must extent yet further, sent a plague among them, so that many fell and died where they stood. “And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun.” Aaron ran as he was bidden; and wherever the holy fire came, the plague was stayed. Yet there fell dead of that plague before Aaron reached them, over fourteen thousand men.