The Lord is in full psychopath mode today. The people who He told Moses to set up as a council start questioning Moses’ rule, and He tells Moses to “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” He will kill them all. Moses manages to convince Him not to.

Instead, the Lord kills the ringleaders, and then kills the 250 representatives of the people. The truly evil parts of killing them was that he didn’t like their incense offerings that Moses told them to perform. But he does have their censers beaten into decorations for the altar as a reminder for everyone else. It appears He forgot to put their heads on stakes outside the tabernacle.

Te next day, everyone complains that the Lord killed all these people for no good reason. So after Moses stops him from slaying them all, He only sends a plague that kills 14,700 people.

I could see the spittle coming out of His mouth during this whole chapter. The Lord is a petty tyrant with omnipotence.

Late tonight: Numbers 18-20.