At this juncture, Moses and Aaron did something as an emergency measure. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces (v. 45b). Aaron put fire from the altar in the censer, placed incense on the fire, carried the censer quickly to the assembly, and stood between the dead and the living, to make propitiation for them. Then the plague was stopped. Nevertheless, fourteen thousand seven hundred of the people were killed. This was God's judgment from within the rebellious people.
By reading chapter seventeen we can see that the remainder of the people still were not subdued. There had been a threefold, miraculous judgment by God. God had judged them by the earth, by fire from heaven, and by the plague that issued from the germs within them. Any one of those judgments should have been sufficient to subdue them and to cause them to fall down before God and worship Him. They certainly should have been subdued by the third judgment. However, even after the third judgment the people still complained (17:13). How terrible was their situation! They were so bold in their rebellion, not caring if they went to Sheol or the lake of fire, that they risked their lives, even their souls. They rebelled against Moses and Aaron, and eventually they rebelled against the very God, Jehovah. From this we see how perverse is the rebellious nature of fallen humankind.
If we consider God's way of judging, we will see that He executes His judgment from three directions: from the earth, from heaven, and from within the rebellious ones. Rebellious people, however, are not subdued by this. Actually, according to the record of the Bible, God never has subdued people by judgment. After the thousand years of purifying in the millennium, the human race will still rebel (Rev. 20:7-9). God's judgment does not subdue people; rather, it consumes them.
After reading a portion such as Numbers 16, some of us may have questions about God's love, mercy, kindness, and forgiveness. Why did God forgive the sinning Israelites yet still punish them? To answer this question we need to realize that, according to the teaching of the Bible, God's forgiveness is of different kinds. One kind is forgiveness through punishment. For God to forgive is one thing, and for Him to punish is another. In a particular situation God forgives, but He forgives through punishment; hence, this is a forgiveness with punishment.
We need to have a holy fear before God. We should bow down and humble ourselves before Him and pray, "Lord, have mercy on me. Only Your mercy can preserve me and keep me in Your grace."