We are about to see another miracle preformed by God.

Numbers 17:2 "Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man's name upon his rod."

We have twelve tribes, twelve sons of Jacob, and this patriarch of each tribe will have a task to do. So here we will see who God has chosen to lead His people in the priesthood.

A "rod" in the Hebrew is "meta" and has two meanings, for one is a staff or a scepter, and it is used for correction, or leaning on for support. The other meaning is in the "staff of life", this is what we refer to as bread, for it gives support to our physical bodies. So we are talking about a scepter here, that the head of each tribe that will carry their people or families. The rod is also a type of the High priest, and that being our Lord Jesus Christ.

Numbers 17:3 "And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi: and one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.

Aaron is the great grandson of Levi, the son of Jacob and the father of the Levites. Kohath was the grandfather and Amram was Aaron and Moses' father. So at this point in time, Aaron is marked to be the head of the whole house of Levi, and marked as the High priest. Notice that only twelve rods are chosen, and in that Levi will have one rod, the two tribes of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh will have one rod between them.

Numbers 17:4 "And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you."

And thou shalt lay those twelve rods up in the tabernacle. This is the place where God will meet the people. In Exodus 25:21 we learned that the "Testimony" are the actually tablets that the Commandments are written. "And thou shalt put the mercy seat above the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee." So these twelve rods representing each of the tribes of Israel, will be placed in the holy of holies.

Numbers 17:5 "And it shall come to pass, that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from Me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you."

YHVH our heavenly Father is speaking here and saying that He is the one that shall choose which of these rods will blossom. God is tired of all the complaining one to another as to who is the leader, and who should be chosen to lead. Today we like to run our nation as a democracy, where the people select the leader, but that is not the way that God works. He is the one that chooses who leads His people. The method that is chosen, is that each leader of each tribe has its leader already selected, as recorded in numbers 1:4 - 16, with the Levites leader being Aaron. This man's name is is written on the rod that represents his tribe, and all the tribe's rods are brought into the holy of holies in the tabernacle and left. God will make the selection by causing the rod of the leader to bud.

The people will know then absolutely who God's selection for their leader will be by which rod has budded.

Numbers 17:6 "And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods."

So each tribe is represented, and each leader from each of the tribes has a rod representing that prince. Now God is going to make the selection as to who will be speaking on His behalf. Aaron was representing the tribe of Levi. Aaron was just an ordinary man, who happened to be the brother of Moses; and when Moses was all tongue tied to stand before Pharaoh, God told Moses to take Aaron, and let him do the speaking for him. So God told Moses what to say, then Moses told Aaron, and Aaron spoke to Pharaoh, and also to the People. God wants us to know that it is not a natural ability that you are born with that determines whether you lead other in the Word, but its a matter of having the presence or givet of the Holy Spirit, and being open to God's Spirit that gives in wisdom to speak. If that gift is not there, then what is given is not real.

Numbers 17:7 "And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness."

So Moses brought all the twelve rods into the tabernacle, and placed them before the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies.

Numbers 17:8 "And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds."

The next morning when Moses went into the Tabernacle, into the holy of holies, to get the rods, The rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was the only one that was budded, in fact it had bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. Our rod today, the the Word of God, it also never ceases to blossom as we read and study the Word. It grows in our minds, and yields fruit as we yield to its instructions. The Word is the Living Word, Jesus Christ, as we are told in John 1:1-3. So not only did Aaron's rod bud, but it gave forth almonds.

This word for "Almonds" in the Hebrew text is # 8247, from the prime rood 8245 in the Strong's Hebrew dictionary; "Shaqad, to be alert, sleepless, awake, to be on the lookout, earliest bloom, almonds." The almond tree is the first tree to bloom in the spring, to bring forth fruit. Before all the other trees start to come to life in the spring, the almond tree comes away, and brings forth its fruit, to alert that spring has arrived. The Almond is also representing the firstfruits. Aaron administered the full power of his office in the Spirit of God. Aaron brought for the fruit that was expected of him. So now God Himself has reaffirmed Aaron as His choice for the High priest office.

Numbers 17:9 "And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod."

As all the congregation of Israel met at the Tabernacle, Moses brought out the rods from the Holy of holies, and the people looked on as each of the princes went forth to take his rod. What we are seeing in this miracle of the selection process, is God presenting Himself before the people so there can be no doubt who will represent him, before the people. So after each prince retrieved their rod of authority, it was time for Aaron's rod to be brought out. We saw in the prior chapter where Aaron ran and got the censor, to stay the plague that was killing the people because of their unbelief.

Numbers 17:10 "And the Lord said unto Moses, "Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels: and thou shalt quiet take away their murmurings from Me, and they die not.""

God told Moses to take Aaron's rod and put that budding rod in the ark of the Covenant as a reminder, a token against those that would rebel in the future against God's priesthood and Moses. The next time they rebel it will not be as well with them, so this will be their reminder that may save their life. Remember that this generation that was rebelling here was a condemned generation, for God told them that not one of them, other than Caleb and Joshua would enter into the promise land, but would die out in the wilderness. It would be their children under age 20, and those born in the wilderness that would enter into the promise land, and this will be a reminder to them and their future generations.

This also would be a pledge from God to Aaron of the continuation of the priesthood to his sons and their sons to future generation. The things that went into the ark of the covenant were only those dear things to God's heart.

Hebrews 9:3, 4 "And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;" [3] "Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;" [4]

Each of these things were over shadows of things to come, that are represented in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It is through His spiritual food that God sustains His children. The rod that budded is in the ark of the covenant representing the Spirit of God, and the two tablets, representing the law of God. Moses didn't just grab the rod of Aaron and put it in the ark, but God wanted even to our generation to be aware of those things that were very precious to Him. God's priesthood was very important to YHVH our Heavenly Father.

The sacrifices that were presented to God as God had ordained by the priests in that first tabernacle were accomplishing the service of God. God told the priest what to do for the offering from the people, and the priest followed that instructions.

Hebrew 9:7 "But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people:" [7] "The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle wa yet standing." [8]

These blood sacrifices were offered year in and year out, every year the high priest entered into the holy of holies with his blood sacrifices, first for himself, then for the people. This is what is called the first, and it was to continue until the second took place. The second being the Sacrifice of the Lamb that will take away the sins of the Word that would be offered for one and all times. The things that are part of the first, are shadows of those things that will come to be part of the second.

Hebrew 9:11, 12 "But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;" [11] "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." [12]

God gave the plans of that first tabernacle that was built there at the foot of Mount Sinai, and taken down and moved as the Israelites moved; but each part of that first tabernacle was a sample of what would come later. That second tabernacle spoken of here is the body of Christ, made up of the believers that by faith have become saved under the redemptive blood of Christ. Our Lord went to the cross but once, and shed His perfect unblemished and unspotted blood as the perfect sacrifice. Those sacrifices of goats and calves were for a year, but under the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have salvation for an eternity. Our salvation is not in a building, or in a ritual, but it come by faith, by our commitment to accept that gift that is offered to those that will reach out and take it by faith. Then you become part of the building block in the temple of Christ, the body of Christ. My friend, can you see how each part of our study in Numbers, and the books of Moses are shadows of things that were yet to come, in our Lord Jesus Christ? They are ensamples, or examples to us living in these latter days.

So after Moses has brought out Aaron's rod, and the people have seen this miracle take place, so how did this miracle impress them? I don't think that we will be surprise by these people reaction.

Numbers 17:11 "And Moses did so: as the Lord commanded him, so did he."

Moses did a great job, following God's instructions to the letter. On the whole, Moses was a faithful servant to God.

Numbers 17:12 "And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, "Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish."

Remember that these people that were standing by and looking at this budded rod of Aaron, had been condemned by God to die off in the wilderness, and this was their reaction. So what! We are all going to die, we are all going to perish, So what! I can almost see this rag tag bunch of losers that sent out their spies, and then set out to overthrow Moses and Aaron, as Moses presented this budded rod to them.

These people had just seen the earth open up, and all the ring leaders and their families drop into that hole, and now they feel that this is some sort of a show to get them to cooperate.

Numbers 17:13 "Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?"

Right along with this demonstration, came a warning against any other outbreaks, or riots and rebellion. God told Moses to tell them that if any one came near to the tabernacle of the Lord, near the holy of holies, they would die. To the point, and no more messing around.