"Let Me Take a Dead Piece of Wood and Bring Life Out of It Overnight. Will That Do It?" -- God

Numbers Chapter 17: Confirmation of the Divine Call

Numbers 17:1-13

Day 69. Well, thanks to my IT friend we were able to make sure you can leave comments again once you click into a specific blog. Then you’ll see the comment box. Leave us a comment or a question. We love interaction and that’s what the study of God’s Word should be like – all of studying together.  The lockdown continues. Nothing new of significance to report. Except we did find we were unable to purchase tomato and cucumber plants for our vegetable garden. Perhaps everyone in Michigan bought them all up to spite their governor who tried to ban the purchase of seeds for planting.  Oh well, judgement day is ‘a-coming’.  Meanwhile we press on.

The Passage

17 ^[a]Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel, and get from them a rod for each father’s household: twelve rods, from all their leaders according to their fathers’ households. You shall write each name on his rod, ³ and write Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi; for there is one rod for the head of each of their fathers’ households. ⁴ You shall then deposit them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony, where I meet with you. ⁵ It will come about that the rod of the man whom I choose will sprout. Thus I will lessen from upon Myself the grumblings of the sons of Israel, who are grumbling against you.” ⁶ Moses therefore spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a rod apiece, for each leader according to their fathers’ households, twelve rods, with the rod of Aaron among their rods. ⁷ So Moses deposited the rods before the Lord in the tent of the testimony.

⁸ Now on the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds. ⁹ Moses then brought out all the rods from the presence of the Lord to all the sons of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod. ¹⁰ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony ^[b]to be kept as a sign against the ^[c]rebels, that you may put an end to their grumblings against Me, so that they will not die.” ¹¹ Thus Moses did; just as the Lord had commanded him, so he did.

¹² Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we perish, we are dying, we are all dying! ¹³ Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, must die. Are we to perish completely?”

Footnotes

1. Numbers 17:1 Ch 17:16 in Heb
2. Numbers 17:10 Lit for preserving
3. Numbers 17:10 Lit sons of rebellion

Thoughts on the Passage

God, using Moses and Aaron as intercessors, stops the plague from killing more Israelites who had rebelled against him, and the approaches Moses with some more instructions. The people were about to see another miracle proving the that God was indeed behind Aaron as the High Priest of the congregation.

God told Moses to have each of the twelve tribes bring a leader’s “rod” to him, Moses. Remember these rods were symbols of authority. And that’s what God wanted to establish here – the appointed Authority over His house.  On each rod, Moses was to write the name of the tribe’s leader, including the name of Aaron on the rod from the tribe of Levi. Once that was done, all 12 rods were to be put into the tent of meeting in front of the place where God normally met with Moses. Then just watch. These rods were, according to Robert Jamieson, of dry sticks or wands, probably old, as transmitted from one head of the family to a succeeding.

One of the rods would actually sprout (something very difficult with old dried out rods) – the owner of that rod was to be the one that God had chosen. It is interesting that the text says that God was doing this in order to lessen the amount of grumbling that the Israelites were undertaking against Moses. Again, God was acting on behalf of His servant, not Himself. That is something that we often forget about our God. He acts on our behalf, not His.

And Moses got the rods from the Israelites, put their names on them, and on the same day placed in the tent of meeting as instructed, near the ark. He left them overnight and went in again the next day to find that Aaron’s rod had sprouted, produced buds and blossoms, and if that’s not enough, bore ripe almonds – in one day. Can you imagine one old dry (Guzik says ‘dead’) rod, bearing three stages of development at the same time, in one day?  He took all the rods out to the sons of Israel, and each man took his rod.

All except Aaron’s rod as God asked Moses to put it back and to keep it there as a sign “against the rebels” to end the grumbling against God – and I love this next phrase, “so that they would not die.” To put it in modern human talk, God was ready to kill them; He was so angry with their repeated grumblings. David Guzik says God wanted to give them (again) another unmistaken display of evidence that would end their grumbling once and for all. And Moses obeyed.

Now of course the sons of Israel were scared and asked Moses, “Are we to perish completely as it seems we are all dying and it appears that everyone who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, must die?”  So, if you were Moses, what would you do?  How would you answer them now?

We should point out here that Robert Jamieson tells us that some see this as a new springing forth of more grumblings and others see it as an indication of a reverential and submissive spirit. I don’t know the answer to that one, but if you look at verse 13 in the passage, clearly there is hint at “hey, that’s not fair; is God going to punish us for every little offense we make?” For that alone, I would agree with those that say this is more grumbling. But I’m open if our readers see it differently. By the way, Matthew Henry in his commentary, says the answer is that the verse indicates both dismay at God’s insistence and an indication that they finally understood. To be seen as we continue our study in Numbers.

Now Guzik also raises a question that many of us may be asking and he answers it: “If God demonstrated His choice of Aaron [from the tribe of Levi] and his descendants as priests for Israel, how can Jesus be our high priest, as Hebrews 2:17 says? Because Jesus is a high priest of the order of Melchizedek [from way before the Levi], not Aaron (Hebrews 7).”  For more on this you may want to check out Who Was Melchizedek.

Gems we can take from this chapter:
i. God often acts on our behalf, not His.
ii. God is very insistent on His way, not ours.
iii. When God goes to establish or prove something to us mere humans, He does it in technicolor.

That’s our God. Hang in there. Please take the time to comment in the blog and to share this blog with your friends. Next time we take a look at how the priests were to be paid. Interesting.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.