John Calvin Commentary Numbers 16:41

"But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of Jehovah." — Numbers 16:41 (ASV)

But on the morrow all the congregation. There is something more than monstrous in this madness of theirs. The conflagration was still smoking, in which God had appeared as the awful avenger of pride; the chasm in which the leaders of the rebellion had been swallowed up must still have been almost before their eyes. God had commanded the plates to be melted, which would record that severe judgment through many succeeding ages. All had confessed by their alarm and hasty flight that there was a danger that they themselves might also be exposed to similar punishments.

Yet, on the next day, as if they desired deliberately to provoke God, who was still, as it were, armed, they accused God’s holy servants of having been the authors of the destruction, though they had never lifted a finger against their enemies. Was it in the power of Moses to command the earth to open? Could he draw down the fire from heaven at his will? Since, then, both the chasm and the fire were clear signs of God’s wonderful power, why do these madmen not reflect that they are engaging in fatal warfare against Him?

For what purpose was this extraordinary mode of punishment, except that in their terror they might learn to humble themselves under God’s hand? Yet from this they only derived greater wildness in their audacity, as if they desired to perish voluntarily with these sinners, whose punishment they had just been shuddering at.

They betray their senselessness in two ways:

1. By substituting Moses and Aaron, instead of God, as guilty of the murder.
2. By sanctifying these putrid corpses, as if in defiance of God.

They accused Moses and Aaron of the slaughter, of which God had plainly shown Himself to be the author, as they themselves had been compelled to feel. But such is the blindness of the reprobate with respect to God’s works, that His glory stupefies them rather than excites their admiration.

The foulest ingratitude was also added, for they did not consider that only a very few hours had elapsed since they had been preserved from impending destruction by the intercession of Moses. Thus, in their desire to avenge the death of a few, they called those the killers of the people of the Lord to whom they ought to have been grateful for the safety of all.

Again, what arrogance it is to count among the people of God, as if against His will, those reprobates, when He had not only cut them off from His Church but had also exterminated them from the world and from the human race! But thus the wicked grow rebellious against God under the very cover of His gifts, and especially they do not hesitate to mock Him with empty titles and outward signs, as masks for their iniquity.