Numbers 17--Aaron's Staff Buds

Numbers 17
English Standard Version

Aaron's Staff Buds
17  The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak 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, 3 and write Aaron's name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each fathers' house. 4 Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you. 5 And 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.” 6 Moses 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. 7 And Moses deposited the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony.

8 On 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. 9 Then 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. 10 And the Lord said to Moses, “Put 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.” 11 Thus did Moses; as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

​12 And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. 13 Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, shall die. Are we all to perish?”

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While a short passage this is a REALLY significant passage.  This symbol of Aaron's budding rod is put in the Ark of the Covenant alongside the the stone tablets that contain the Law of God and an omer of manna that symbolizes the provision of God.  So then, what is so special about this rod and about it budding that it also gets given a place in the Ark of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies that represents the very throne of God?  This is no ordinary miracle we see here.

This is going to be an end to the question of who God had chosen to lead the people.  God had each tribe submit a staff--a symbol of power and authority--with the name of one of their leaders on it that they were offering for consideration, but there is only one name that God told Moses to make sure was put into the mix--Aaron's name had to be the on the staff from the tribe of Levi.  It seems obvious that God didn't really care about the other 11 names because He knew He was going to chose Aaron's name when we read it now, but we see the doctrine of Election at play here.  First the entire nation of Israel is chosen, then each of the 12 tribes chooses a representative in what seems to be a system of fair choice...but the election is rigged because God has already chosen the winner before the election even happened and it is just to reveal to everyone else the choice that He has already made and to get them to stop grumbling and complaining about it.  But there's WAY more to this imagery.

Each of those staffs is also a piece of dead wood that has been separated from a tree at some point.  Surely no one expect that such a piece of wood could come to life!  That's silly.  You'd have to at least get it connected back to a tree and even then you usually can only do that immediately after it is separated.  At some point it's just dead and beyond hope.  Or is it?  Notice how God takes something (more like a people) that was dead and makes it alive (regenerates them and takes them from death to life).  And not just temporary life--but this rod is going to eternally but to show the power of the gospel to give eternal life, and a life that is from outside of the thing that is alive--there is nothing inside the rod to make it alive.  Yet, it would continue to bud to show that it was forever alive, like those of us that have been born again.

Everyone gets to examine the staffs after God made His choice.  His choice is clear.  All of their staffs are returned to them--they are all still dead.  God has only chosen one man to be the High Priest and that is Aaron, just like there is one Mediator between God and Man, the God-Man Christ Jesus.  There is to be no grumbling or strife that we imagine there should be some other way or that any of us could do what was necessary.  God has made His choice and it is in Christ whom we have everlasting life.  Though Christ was not from the tribe of Levi, the priesthood did represent His ministry of atonement and intercession.  It would be in this role that Messiah would come, not as King (at first), but as our Great High Priest who would bear our sins and our shame and make atonement for all of God's people.

The people realize their rebellion and that they deserved to die because they had nearly rioted and tried to kill Moses and Aaron and to destroy the Tabernacle.  They realize that anyone that approaches the Tabernacle in such an attitude of rebellion and insurrection deserves to die because they have not just sinned against their leader, or the priesthood, but against God who has selected both Moses and Aaron and has chosen to let His Presence dwell in the Tabernacle among His people.

So then this is one of the clearest images besides the Valley of Dry Bones in the book of Ezekiel that I can point to in the Old Testament that shows the doctrine of Regeneration, and that we are born again into eternal life by a power and source that is unnatural and outside of ourselves--it is only by the Election of God and by His power that it takes place.