William H. Kelley (RLDS), in his Presidency and Priesthood, wrote the following concerning Numbers 16 and the rebellion of Korah et al:
It is also written concerning
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, that they were Levites and had been selected for the
service of the tabernacle and to administer to the congregation. (Num. xvi.;
also iii. 41, and viii. 14; Deut. x. 8.)
In Num. xvi. 10 Moses is made to
say: --
“And he hath brought thee near to
him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the
priesthood also?” (Or, “seek ye the high priesthood also?”—Inspired
Translation.)
The latter rendering is evidently
the true sense. For Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were already separated to the
service of the tabernacle and held the lesser or Aaronic priesthood, but they
aspired to still higher honors. They were jealous of the high honor conferred
upon Moses, and sought to turn away the congregation from him. Said they to
Moses and Aaron : --
“Ye take too much upon you, seeing
all the congregation are holy; . . . wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above
the congregation of the Lord?” – Num. xvi. 3.
How could Moses be esteemed as
above or over them unless he held a higher priesthood and office than they?
Moses would not permit Aaron to be included with him. Said he, “And what is
Aaron, that ye murmur against him?” (Num. xvi. 11.) This is equivalent to
saying that Aaron did not hold the same priesthood.” Moses held the higher
priesthood, or that of Melchisedec, for he was a priest and officiated at the
altar. He, moreover, consecrated Aron to the highest office in the Aaronic
priesthood, and yet he was superior to Aaron and presided over him. This could
not have been had he held the same priesthood in kind. (William H. Kelley, Presidency
and Priesthood: The New Testament Church, Apostasy, Reformation, and
Restoration [2d ed.; Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing House, 1908; repr.,
Independence, Miss.: Price Publishing Company, 2004], 12-14)
Elsewhere, in an appendix, we read the following in defense of
Moses being a High Priest:
Moses a High Priest.
Moses, in his character of
official position and authority, was the type of the Christ.
The Lord says: “I will raise them
up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words
in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”—Deut.
xviii. 18.
The new law-giver was to be the
complete antitype of this Moses in the wilderness—combine in his official right
all the authority incident to the meek man who led Israel from the first
bondage. This antitype in his priestly office was in the “similitude of
Melchisedec.”—Heb. vii. 15.
“Behold, I have given him for a
witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.”—Isa. lv. 4.
He was prophet, priest, and king. “Who
was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his
house.” Heb. iii.2.
“And Moses verily was faithful in
all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were
to be spoken after.”—Ibid., iii. 5.
Moses too, then, was a “witness”—that
great typical priest of his time. “For when Moses had spoken every precept to
all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats,
with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all
the people.”—Ibid., ix. 19. The priest, also, must have been “in the
similitude of Melchizsedek,” for he was greater than Aaron in his official
standing.
This purification by Moses
foreshadowed the purification of the heavenly things by Christ.
“It was therefore necessary that the
patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the
heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not
entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”—Ibid.,
ix. 23, 24.
Moses in his service in the tabernacle
on earth typified in his act of purifying and entering the holy places made
with hands, the figures of the true,--that of the Christ as he entered heaven
itself,--offering the better sacrifice; not to so enter makes the type untrue, if
Christ entered heaven.
In the performance of this work
Moses officiated in his priestly character, because there was no perfect representation
of the “true,” unless “the holy places” were purified and entered by
such a high priest.
So it is written, “Moses and Aaron
among my priests”; but Moses takes precedence of Aaron in all things as a high
priest. “Moses himself, as the representative of the unseen king, is the consecrator,
the sacrifice throughout these ceremonies” (setting Aaron and his sons apart to
the priestly offices); “as the channel through which the others received their
office, he has for the time a higher priesthood than that of Aaron. (De Syneder,
i. 1-16; Ugoline, xii. 3)”—Smith’s Bible Dictionary, by
HACKETT, Vol. III., page 3575.
“If there be a prophet among you,
I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him
in a dream.
“My servant Moses is not so, who
is faithful in all mine house.”—Num. xii. 6, 7.
Thus the high priest who entered
yearly into the “holy place” (Heb. ix. 7) was not equal to the one who set up
or purified the tabernacle, and first entered, who was the type of the
true.
Moses was not only in his prophetic
and priestly character a true type of the Messiah, but also in his kingship. “He
was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel
were gathered together.”—Deut. xxxiii. 5. Priest, king, judge, and ruler.
“Faithful in all mine house.” His
authority permitted him to act in all the offices of the house of God, and he
performed his work faithfully as a prophet, high priest, and king.
And the son of Moses and the Lamb
(Rev. xv. 3) is to be sung by those who stand on the sea of glass, having the
harps of God, saying, “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty;
just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints.” (ibid., 381-83)
