<\/p>\n
\nNum 17:1<\/b>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,\u00a0\u201cSpeak to the people of Israel, and get from them staffs, one for each fathers’ house, from all their chiefs according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. Write each man’s name on his staff,\u00a0and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each fathers’ house.\u00a0Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you.\u00a0And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you.\u201d\u00a0Moses spoke to the people of Israel. And all their chiefs gave him staffs, one for each chief, according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. And the staff of Aaron was among their staffs.\u00a0And Moses deposited the staffs before the LORD in the tent of the testimony.\u00a0On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds.\u00a0Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the LORD to all the people of Israel. And they looked, and each man took his staff.\u00a0And the LORD said to Moses, \u201cPut back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die.\u201d\u00a0Thus did Moses; as the LORD commanded him, so he did.\u00a0And the people of Israel said to Moses, \u201cBehold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.\u00a0Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the LORD, shall die. Are we all to perish?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The\u00a0rod\u00a0<\/b>is also a picture of God\u2019s authority over man (Psalm 2:9<\/span><\/a>,\u00a023:4<\/span><\/a>,\u00a089:32<\/span><\/a>;\u00a0Isaiah 10:24<\/span><\/a>,\u00a011:4<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Ezekiel 20:37<\/span><\/a>). Jesus, in His divine authority, was given the title the\u00a0Rod\u00a0(Isaiah 11:1<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Micah 6:9<\/span><\/a>). The rod was also an emblem of an apostle\u2019s authority in the church (1 Corinthians 4:21<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Murmurers (complainers) are rarely satisfied by evidence or the resolution of one issue. Complainers are usually not issue-motivated, though they may claim to be and appear to be. More often they are heart-motivated. They sometimes murmur because they have complaining, discontented hearts. The complaining heart is demonstrated when people murmur about one issue after another, never being satisfied. So, God would give them an unmistakable answer to this matter of contention \u2013 then\u00a0rid\u00a0<\/b>Himself\u00a0of the complaints<\/b>.<\/p>\n
When Moses checked on the rods the next day, Aaron\u2019s rod \u2013 and only\u00a0the rod of Aaron<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 had\u00a0sprouted<\/b>.\u00a0But God gave, as in the words of\u00a0Acts 1:3<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0many infallible proofs, to demonstrate His approval of Aaron\u2019s leadership. God gives us\u00a0more\u00a0than enough evidence; our problem is a lack of willingness to see what He has made clear. The clear choice of Aaron meant that he was God\u2019s chosen priest and the nation was required to recognize it.<\/p>\n
Each murmurer from the different tribes took his rod, and clearly saw that his\u00a0had not\u00a0budded or borne fruit, and that Aaron\u2019s had. We can imagine Moses carefully inspecting the other rods, noting that there was nothing on them resembling a sprout, bud, or blossom. This confirmed God\u2019s choice of Aaron, Aaron\u2019s authority as assigned by God, and that the authority of God\u2019s appointed high priest is fruitful. The difference between Aaron\u2019s rod and the others could be attributed to\u00a0God alone. It was a miracle that only God could do. This should have made Aaron humbler; what God did to affirm the choice of Aaron was something that had\u00a0nothing\u00a0to do with Aaron himself. The\u00a0unfruitful\u00a0rods were given back to their owners. The\u00a0fruitful\u00a0rod was kept before the LORD.<\/p>\n
Aaron\u2019s rod was to be kept in the ark of the covenant, as another example of Israel\u2019s failure and rebellion. When God looked down from heaven into the ark, He saw emblems of Israel\u2019s sin: The tablets of the law that they broke, the manna that they complained about, and Aaron\u2019s rod which was the answer to their rebellion. The covering blood of sacrifice was applied to the lid covering over these reminders of Israel\u2019s sin, so God \u201csaw\u201d the blood \u201ccovering\u201d their sin, and atonement was made.<\/p>\n
God noted that their murmuring and complaining against Aaron was actually murmuring and complaining against Himself. At the same time, there was not another direct rebellion against Aaron\u2019s authority as the high priest in Israel after this. \u201cThe sign was efficacious; for while the spirit of rebellion manifested itself subsequently in other ways, it may safely be said that any complaint against the rights of the God-appointed priesthood ceased from this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Considering the miraculous confirmation of Aaron\u2019s priesthood, the people feared they were next to be judged and destroyed, and this was not an unreasonable fear. This kind of feverish fear doesn\u2019t necessarily mean their hearts were changed. (Guzik)<\/p>\n
Hearts are only changed by God in the willing hearts and minds of those who\u2019s hearts are soft to things of God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Num 17:1\u00a0\u00a0 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,\u00a0\u201cSpeak to the people of Israel, and get from them staffs, one for each fathers’ house, from all their chiefs according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. Write each man’s name on his staff,\u00a0and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one … Continue reading “47.n. “Wilderness” – 11.t. “Grumblings of the people””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5417,17282,17281,16674,17287,2916,17279,17278,4936,17284,7968,796,219,1040,8767,17283,9392,17280,8100,10932,10931,17118,17285,17286],"class_list":["post-175545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-aaron","tag-blossoms","tag-buds","tag-chiefs","tag-comes-near","tag-commanded","tag-grumblings-of-the-people","tag-i-will-meet-with-you","tag-israel","tag-lest-they-die","tag-levi","tag-lord","tag-moses","tag-perish","tag-rebels","tag-ripe-almonds","tag-shall-die","tag-sprouted","tag-staff","tag-tabernacle","tag-tent-of-meeting","tag-tent-of-testimony","tag-undone","tag-we-are-all-undone"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175649,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175545\/revisions\/175649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}