Numbers chapter 17.
The people continued to grumble against God's leadership even after he destroyed those who rose up against Moses and Aaron. So God had the leaders of each tribe write their name on a staff that was presented before God. Aaron's name was on the staff representing the tribe of the Levites. The 12 staff were placed before God and the staff representing God's anointed leader would sprout like a Bush or tree. God chose Aaron's staff which not only sprouted but also produce buds and produced almonds. God made it very clear to all Israel that he was behind Aaron and Aaron was his anointed one. This placed much fear on the people because they realized their sin of rebellion and feared God would destroy them. But God's wrath did not fall on them because they quit the rebellion against God and His anointed ones.
To rebel against God is to face consequences. No one can rebel against God without experiencing God's wrath. And when people or a person rise up against God's anointed, God will defend his anointed ones. His anointed, though accused of evil, will be justified by God. The accusers will be condemned. Even though we may rebel against God, we are always invited to return to the Lord. He always welcomes us with loving and forgiving arms. Forgiveness is always available to those who repent from their previous sins and turn back to God. When forgiveness comes, it's followed by restoration and fullness with God. When restoration occurs, God's Holy Spirit will again use us for his purpose in reaching lost and hurting souls so as to build God's Kingdom. Aaron is the perfect example of this as he had rebelled against God and Moses in the previous months. He was punished by God previously, he repented before God, God restored and God was again using him. That's great hope for me as I often turn my heart from God and get caught up on pleasures that are not pleasing to the Lord.
Lord, help me fall more and more in love with you so that I desire more of you and less of this world and the sinful desires of this world. I want more of you and desire to be used more and more by you to impact lives for you!
We wonder how the Israelites could still complain and rebel after witnessing all the miracles in their exodus and even experiencing the presence of God! Yet we often do the same, don’t we? We have the written Word, the gift of the Holy Spirit living within us, and the knowledge of what He has done in our lives and others around us. But many today continue to disobey God and go their own way. I don’t want to be more concerned with my physical condition (as the Israelites were) than my spiritual condition. To prevent this, I need to pay attention to all the signs of God’s presence that I’ve been given. If I focus my thoughts on all that God has done, rebellion becomes unthinkable.
The blossoming of Aaron’s staff showed the people that he was clearly chosen by God to be the High Priest. How do we know Jesus is the One to whom we should be linked and follow? – by His blossoming, His life. When asked by the pharisees and scribes to give a sign, Jesus responded in Matthew 12:38-40 that the only sign He would give them was the sign of Jonah. As Jonah was in the belly of the whale for 3 days and nights, so would He be in the grave. The one sign that proves Jesus is the One who has all authority is His resurrection from the grave – His blossoming back to life. God has told us in His Word that we can recognize those we should be linked with, to listen to, to submit to by the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. (Exactly what Jim included in his comments yesterday.) If a person is walking with the Lord, full of the Spirit, their life is expressed in love – good fruit. Look for the budding, the blossoming, the fruit.
Lord, help me to walk this way and bring glory to Your name in everything I do and say.
Grumbling had become a real problem for the people and there were significant consequences. We just saw in chapter 16 how 14,700 people died from a plague and this was besides those who died in the affair of Korah. God now showed everyone that He chose Aaron out of the 12 by causing his staff to be the only one to sprout and produce buds as well as almonds. This was a sign for the rebels to stop their grumblings or else they would be killed too. (Note: Aaron’s budding staff is included with the other items that we read about that are listed in Hebrews 9.) Chapter 17 ends with the people of Israel realizing that they deserve to die and they ask Moses if that’s what’s going to happen to them.
I find it interesting that this realization of sin is also the first step that we must take before we can be saved. We have to first recognize that we are sinners. Our sin separates us from God and leads to death (Romans 6:23). A person can’t receive salvation if they think that they actually don’t need it. Even with all of the rebellion and strife that happened, it looks like the Israelites have finally reached the right point by at least coming to the place of understanding that they deserve to die.
We have all been like them to some degree. Our hearts would all be dirty without Jesus. I’m thinking today about what we read in Jeremiah 17: 9-10. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Just as Jeanine has shared, let’s look for the budding, the blossoming, the fruit. Let’s also examine our own hearts. What does our fruit look like? Well, it won’t look good if our hearts aren’t clean. Only God can change our hearts to make us clean and help us to show the good fruit. I agree with and echo the prayers of my brother and sister in Christ and also what David wrote in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
This chapter makes me reflect on my own life. I don’t currently hold major roles in leadership in the workplace, but in my household I am a wife and a mother. It makes me question am I a leader amongst those who are in my life and am I a leader who has a staff of budding and sprouting gifts? To answer it honestly, no. I fall short in being a strong leader that fully relies on God and puts my worldly desires aside to fully focus on desiring the Lord. It is so important to recognize this, and just like Korah and those with him, our poor choices and lack of fruitful leadership effects our families and those we love the most. If not us to lead them to the cross, than who? Jim, I have never heard of that verse before, about the heart being deceitful and sick… but it makes so much sense! In society we see the mindset of “follow your heart” “listen to your heart” but that is the opposite of what we should be doing! We must follow God and His heart, which is the Word and His son Jesus Christ! Just like everything else in the fallen world our hearts are flawed! How quickly they can turn our choices and our lives away from God. I pray we can all focus more on the desires of God’s heart, than the desires of our own and become leaders who staff would sprout and bud!