Why are God’s judgments in the Book of Numbers so spectacular?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1990.

You ask about the judgments of God in Numbers, and why they are so spectacularly awesome.

My answer would be, because the rebellions which brought down those judgments upon the rebels were not minor deviations from the true pathway, but were assaults on and a denial of the very heart of the gospel.

Perhaps the most 'spectacular' judgement followed the rebellion of Korah in Numbers 16.

Korah's 'gainsaying' or 'contradiction'—that is to say, his rebellion against Moses the apostle and Aaron the high priest of the Jewish faith—was the Old Testament equivalent of the Jewish nation's behaviour at Calvary when they likewise 'contradicted' and rejected the claims of Jesus to be God's apostle and high priest.

Jude verse 11 uses Korah's rebellion to warn us that in the last days there will be teachers in the church who similarly deny both the apostleship and high priesthood of our Lord (see Heb 12:3).

Yours truly,