The Budding of Aaron’s Staff
‘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. 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 rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites.”
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.
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 17:1-9, NIV)
Do you remember how Elijah called upon God to prove that He was the only God by lighting a fire to burn the offering that was being presented on Mount Carmel? The Baal priests had called and pleaded to Baal to come and light the fire but nothing happened. Then Elijah drenched the offering with water until it filled a ditch around the soggy animal offering; after Elijah asked God to accept the offering, in a split second fire came from heaven and consumed the meat offering, lapped up the water and incinerated the stones! God was not messing around when it came to making His point clear to the Israelites. He is not subtle when it comes to defending His chosen ones or doing the impossible/incredible.
God’s point with Aaron’s staff was to put down the grumbling about who was in charge: was it the ones God elected, or the ones that wanted to be in charge! The challenge was to see whose staff sprouted some leaves—i.e. came back to life! I have no idea how old those dusty sticks were, but they were very dried out, very “dead” and nothing on earth was going to bring them back to life! But God did the impossible—-He brought something cut off and dead back to life—and not only caused it to sprout leaves, but also made it bud with flowers and caused it to bear fruit!! It was covered with leaves, flowers and almonds!
God does all things excellent! And if He can cause an old, beat-up piece of wood to become a vibrant and fruit bearing branch, imagine what He can through you and me if we are ready to be used for His glory—-and live as evidence of His power to restore life from death. You are not useless, dried out and of no use to Him—-unless you decide to ignore His voice and deny His Lordship.
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