Aaron And His Blossoming Rod

Numbers 17: 1 – 13

Aaron and his blossoming rod

17 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and get from them a rod from each father’s house, all their leaders according to their fathers’ houses—twelve rods. Write each man’s name on his rod. 3 And you shall write Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi. For there shall be one rod for the head of each father’s house. 4 Then you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before the Testimony, where I meet with you. 5 And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom; thus I will rid Myself of the complaints of the children of Israel, which they make against you.” 6 So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each of their leaders gave him a rod apiece, for each leader according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods; and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. 7 And Moses placed the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness. 8 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds. 9 Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD to all the children of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod. 10 And the LORD said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.” 11 Thus did Moses; just as the LORD had commanded him, so he did. 12 So the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Surely we die, we perish, we all perish! 13 Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD must die. Shall we all utterly die?”

Over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend the TV network was running the Indiana Jones movies. There were four of them produced. I find it interesting that they have actually made a fifth one scheduled for release in the year 2020. It seems that the 5th movies will be called Indiana Jones and the Throne of Atlantis. I would like to offer some new titles for the producers to consider. How about Indiana Jones - in search of a good doctor or perhaps Indiana Jones and the misplaced wheel chair?

I did not like two of the movies. The two that I enjoyed are The Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

If you have ever watched the Raiders of the Lost Ark then you will I am sure will agree with me that the end is spectacular. Evil Nazi’s have taken the Ark from Indy and traveled to a remote island to open it a see what is inside.

The evil treasure seeker Belloq who works for the Nazi’s responded to Indy who had threatened to blow the Ark up with a rocket launcher says this to Indy, ‘All your life has been spent in pursuit of archaeological relics. Inside the Ark are treasures beyond your wildest aspirations. You want to see it opened as well as I. Indiana; we are simply passing through history. This, this ‘is’ history.’

According to scripture we know that the 10 Commandments, a sealed bottle of Manna, and from what we will learn today, the rod of Aaron the High Priest were placed in it.

Today we are going to see an Israelite version of Indiana Jones and I would like to call it, High Priest Aaron and his blossoming rod.

One more thing I want to make clear to you and that is to describe what a ‘rod’ is. In Psalm 23 we read, “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

When the shepherd is afield with his flock in the high country, it is customary for him to carry a minimum of equipment. In the Middle East the shepherd carries only a rod and staff. These are the common and universal equipment of the sheep men.

Each shepherd boy, from the time he first starts to tend his father's flock, takes special pride in the selection of a rod and staff exactly suited to his own size and strength. He goes into the bush and selects a young sapling which is dug from the ground. This is carved and whittled down with great care and patience. The enlarged base of the sapling where its trunk joins the roots is shaped into a smooth, rounded head of hard wood. The sapling itself is shaped to exactly fit the owner's hand. After he completes it, the shepherd boy spends hours practicing with this club, leaning how to throw it with amazing speed and accuracy. It becomes his main weapon of defense for both himself and his sheep. ...the rod, in fact, was an extension of the owner's own right arm. It stood as a symbol of his strength, his power, his authority in any serious situation.