The way in which God acts is sometimes just as important as the fact that God acts at all.
For instance, when Jesus heals people in the New Testament, sometimes He speaks (Matthew 8:3). Sometimes He touches them (Mark 5:41). Sometimes He spits on the ground and puts the mud across the eyes of a blind man (John 9:6-7).
I’m not smart enough to understand the significance behind these different miracles, but I do know that they demonstrate God’s limitless ability to do whatever He wants whenever He wants to do it. God is not bound by creation, time, or resources. The variety of miracles proves that.
The punishment of Korah in Numbers 16 is another moment that demonstrates God’s power. When Korah and his co-conspirators leave their tents, God passes judgment and the earth opens up to swallow them—and everything associated with them—into the earth (Numbers 16:31-34).
The Text uses the word “Sheol” here, which sometimes refers to the place of the dead (2 Samuel 22:6), but it can also simply mean the grave (Genesis 44:31). The ideas are mostly interchangeable, which is why it’s used here in Numbers 16:30.
Whether you’re talking about the literal belly of the earth where Korah will descend to, or the afterlife that he will go to once he dies, the end result is the same: Korah is gone.
But the Text doesn’t just say that Korah will die—the Bible also says that his death will be unique. Moreover, it’s the fact that his punishment is an “entirely new thing” that shows Korah was wrong in his accusation of Moses.
This gives us trouble though, because the earth opening up and swallowing Korah wasn’t new. Earthquakes themselves were known, even if they weren’t particularly common. Moreover, this exact event happened later to Achan in Joshua 7 (although one could make the argument it was “new” at the time of Korah).
Besides the earth opening up then, what made Korah’s punishment so unique?
For one, the fact that it happened right when Moses commanded it to happen. Had it occurred even an hour later or an hour before, it wouldn’t have been a sign of God’s judgment. It would’ve just been a natural phenomenon.
Second, it was unique because the earth closed back up over the top of them. Earthquakes generally don’t do that. The earth splits and stay open. This one ate Korah like a mouth opening and closing—literally “swallowing them up.”
The effect on the people was one of shock, just as it Jesus’ miracles did to all the onlookers two thousand years later. What they witnessed wasn’t just a miracle, it was total command over the elements of nature.
If Korah could suffer a fate like this, what else was God capable of?