Numbers 17:1-13 (NLT)
1 Then the LORD said to Moses,
2 “Tell the people of Israel to bring you twelve wooden staffs, one from each leader of Israel’s ancestral tribes, and inscribe each leader’s name on his staff.
3 Inscribe Aaron’s name on the staff of the tribe of Levi, for there must be one staff for the leader of each ancestral tribe.
4 Place these staffs in the Tabernacle in front of the Ark containing the tablets of the Covenant, where I meet with you.
5 Buds will sprout on the staff belonging to the man I choose. Then I will finally put an end to the people’s murmuring and complaining against you.”
6 So Moses gave the instructions to the people of Israel, and each of the twelve tribal leaders, including Aaron, brought Moses a staff.
7 Moses placed the staffs in the LORD’s presence in the Tabernacle of the Covenant.
8 When he went into the Tabernacle of the Covenant the next day, he found that Aaron’s staff, representing the tribe of Levi, had sprouted, budded, blossomed, and produced ripe almonds!
9 When Moses brought all the staffs out from the LORD’s presence, he showed them to the people. Each man claimed his own staff.
10 And the LORD said to Moses: “Place Aaron’s staff permanently before the Ark of the Covenant to serve as a warning to rebels. This should put an end to their complaints against me and prevent any further deaths.”
11 So Moses did as the LORD commanded him.
12 Then the people of Israel said to Moses, “Look, we are doomed! We are dead! We are ruined!
13 Everyone who even comes close to the Tabernacle of the LORD dies. Are we all doomed to die?”
Unity and Honor- our God is a God of order. The chapters prior told of the murmuring and rebellion among others who wanted to lead and serve according to what they perceived and desired and the ruin it lead to for them and their families. God wants to do things on this earth and again He speaks to harmony, order, unity with those He has assigned the leading. Wow, wow, no man could have made a seemingly dead stick bud, blossom and produce fruit overnight! This was God’s plan confirmed, His order reinstated and a reminder placed, for in His mercy, He doesn’t want a single one to perish. He has plans and those plans and the territory to take require Unity. How amazing and patient He is with human mess ups but wow, He does care for how things get done.
It was by a staff that Moses and now Aaron were shown to be the ones who were set apart to lead Israel. It was with the tool most utilized in their hand, the one that would be represent the true nature of its owner, that God demonstrated His intended purpose and its voice. Though the eleven others were adequate leaders of their own tribes, assuming parity with God’s chosen as if they could lead independent of him was a dangerous and grave error.
The significance of Aaron’s budding staff wasn’t just for that moment in establishing God’s authority through His chosen servants, but it became a very integral representation of God’s very presence in the Ark. This demonstration of His wisdom and authority through His designed order was to become an ingrained understanding from that moment on. Following God’s will and His ways in leading those under one’s own responsibility, but assuming a greater role in defiance of what God established was never to even be considered. His ordination of a servant to represent Him could not be self-determined or claimed. There would be a demonstration of God’s power and validation in the tool nearest to the heart of that individual in the context of God’s setting that would identify the legitimate from the posers. Those who He would anoint for His own leadership would not have a mail-order certification. It would come from the demonstration of a power no human assessment could claim.
As this was an established understanding for Israel, taking a place in the place where God’s presence was, it is yet to be recognized by those who would approach a true understanding of God’s heart. Ordination to God’s service in leading others will be a God-initiated and God-validated reality over the many attempted self-appointments. Claims of parity with those in positions of authority will go unfounded and dangerously in opposition to divine order when the heart is anything other than humble submission to what God has ordained. He will make to bud the thing that is in the hand of His true servant, setting him/her apart from the posers of self-reliance.