"The Lord said to Moses, 'Speak to the Israelites and get twelve staffs from them, one from the leader of each of their ancestral tribes. Write the name of each man on his staff. On the staff of Levi write Aaron's name, for there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral tribe.'" (Numbers 17:1-3) In Chapter 16 we found men who were of the tribe of Levi but not of the family line of Aaron insisting they were just as worthy to be priests as Aaron and his descendants. Also Dathan and Abiram, of the tribe of Reuben, felt the same way about their own tribe when they joined a rebellion made up of Levites. The presence of Reubenites among the rebels indicates that they felt any man of any tribe of Israel should be considered for the priesthood. The Lord is going to use these shepherd staffs to do a presentation to prove what He has already said before: He has chosen only the tribe of Levi to serve Him at the tabernacle and He has chosen only the family line of Aaron to serve Him as priests.
Moses is to take each staff to the tabernacle. The Lord says, "Place them in the tent of meeting in front of the ark of the covenant law, where I meet with you. The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will ride myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites." (Numbers 17:4-5) Earlier in the Bible we were told that Moses would go into the tabernacle to consult the Lord and the Lord would speak to him from between the two cherubim on the top of the ark.
"So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their leaders gave him twelve staffs, one for the leader of each of their ancestral tribes, and Aaron's staff was among them. Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant law." (Numbers 17:6-8) The Lord has announced His intention to cause one of these staffs to sprout, though all the staffs are made of dead wood. The leaders of each tribe have likely used their staffs for years. We know Aaron has, for we saw him using his staff in Egypt when the Israelites were still being held there as slaves.
Shepherds used staffs to guide their flocks onto the right paths and to scare away or fight off predators. Because of the way a shepherd used a staff, the staff had become a symbol for protection and leadership, so in ancient times a man who was the head of his family or clan or tribe would carry a staff. In our day a person of authority might wear a badge or insignia on a uniform to demonstrate his authority or rank. In ancient times a staff served the same purpose.
Moses places the staffs in front of the ark just as the Lord told him. On the following day he goes into the tabernacle to check the staffs and finds that the Lord has done what He said He would do. "The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron's staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the Lord's presence to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each of the leaders took his own staff." (Numbers 17:8-9) The God who is able to do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:30) goes above and beyond what anyone expected. Not only does He cause a long-dead branch of an almond tree to sprout, He causes it to bud and bear almonds overnight! This is a process that normally takes months. For example, Californian almond trees tend to bud out in February or March but almonds aren't harvested until August and sometimes as late as October. But here in Numbers 17 the Lord, in His unlimited power, makes a dead piece of wood not connected to any tree sprout, bud, and produce ripe almonds in a single night. If our God can do that, can He not also handle your problems and mine? If He can bring fresh new life out of something that is unquestionably long dead, can He not meet the needs of the living? This reminder of God's unlimited ability to do all things speaks to my circumstances today and perhaps it speaks to your circumstances or to those of someone close to you. All things are possible for God and He will meet all our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)
Moses hands each man's staff back to him. Each man can see, without a doubt, that his staff has not sprouted. This tells the head of each tribe that God has not chosen his tribe to minister as priests. Each man can see, without a doubt, that Aaron's staff has sprouted, produced flowers, and produced almonds. This tells them that God has only chosen Aaron and Aaron's descendants to minister as priests in Israel. What can any man say to this? Nothing, so each of them takes his staff and makes no argument.
Aaron's staff with his name on it is to be kept as a perpetual reminder to anyone who dares question whom God has chosen to serve as priests in His house. "The Lord said to Moses, 'Put back Aaron's staff in front of the ark of the covenant law, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against Me, so that they will not die.' Moses did just as the Lord commanded him." (Numbers 17:10-11) What caused many men to die in our previous chapter? It was their grumbling against the Lord. This grumbling was far more than a complaint, although questioning the Lord's goodness and authority and sovereignty is a sin in itself. Their grumbling turned from words into action. Their grumbling turned into a rebellion which was about to lead to violence against Moses and Aaron and against anyone who took the side of Moses and Aaron. In verses 10 and 11 the Lord tells Moses to keep the rod forever as a reminder to the Israelites that grumbling against Him might lead to actions that will cause them to lose their lives.
At some point in Israel's history the rod was placed inside the ark along with a jar of manna, according to the author of the book of Hebrews, who was probably the Apostle Paul. We don't know when or why it was placed inside but it happened after the writing of the books of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles because these two books state that when the temple was built there was nothing inside the ark but the two tablets of the covenant law. Hebrews 9:1-4 says that the ark contained the two tablets of the covenant law, a jar of manna, and Aaron's staff that budded. Since the ark itself has disappeared from the pages of Scripture and from history, we can't say when or why the staff was placed inside it. All we know for certain is that the ark, the two tablets of the covenant law, the jar of manna, and the staff all disappeared at the same time, presumably together. The ark is no longer mentioned as being present after Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. The ark is not said by the Bible to have been seized by King Nebuchadnezzar and it does not appear in a list of the items the king says he took, so it's highly possible that the Jewish people hid the ark before the city fell. Some scholars and archaeologists believe the ark was taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar but if so he never boasted about it and he was a very boastful man. It's difficult to see why he wouldn't say a word about having it in his possession, for in ancient times it was believed that to take items used in the worship of the gods of your enemy meant your own gods were more powerful than the gods of your enemy. The Babylonian soldiers laid siege to Jerusalem for some time before they were able to conquer the city (the siege is estimated to have lasted anywhere from eighteen months to three years) and I personally feel the best explanation for the ark's disappearance is that the priests hid it in case the city fell. As the most holy object of their religion, the ark was the last thing they would have wanted to fall into the hands of a pagan king.
Moving along, now that they have witnessed the power of a God who can cause a dead and disconnected tree branch to bear fruit, the people become fearful. Their words indicate not a holy, reverent fear of God but a fear borne of panic. "The Israelites said to Moses, 'We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all going to die?'" (Numbers 7:12-13) They are saying, "It's hopeless! We can never be close to God! What's the use in trying?" But that's not what God is saying. God has made a way for the people to come close to Him. It was His idea to build the tabernacle so the people could come and meet with Him. It was His plan to provide a means of atonement for them through the sacrificial system. The only people in our study the past few days who died were the people who rejected the Lord---not only rejected Him, but blasphemed Him by accusing Him of not having their best interests at heart and by suggesting their wisdom is as valid as His when it comes to selecting the right men to lead the nation. If a person comes to the Lord in the wrong attitude, he can't expect to have his attitude blessed. But at no time has the Lord said that a person who wants a relationship with Him will be prohibited from knowing Him.
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