WE HAVE a strange title before us today, but it is one that speaks in a very special way of God’s power. Aaron’s rod was used to teach Israel a lesson, and to show, without question, who was God’s choice. Korah, in his wickedness, had raised a rebellion against Moses their leader, and Aaron their priest, on the plea that he and his company were as holy as they, while in his heart envy was at work, and he was desiring the priesthood.
The outcome of this uprising was that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram miserably perished; then God showed in a remarkable manner who was the one of His choice. He told Moses to take of the children of Israel twelve rods according to the house of their fathers—each one a rod—and to write upon the different rods the name of the head of the house. And Aaron’s name was to be written upon the rod of Levi. Then these rods were to be laid up in the tabernacle, before the ark, where God, had promised to meet with Moses and commune with him. He told Moses that one of these rods would blossom, and the man, whose name was written on that rod, was the man whom He had chosen. In this way He would make to cease, the murmurs of the children of Israel against Moses and Aaron.
When Moses spoke to the people, their princes gave him a rod apiece, “according to their fathers’ houses,” and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses took them in and laid them before the Lord in the tabernacle.
With what anxious hearts the people must have waited to learn what tribe, and what man the Lord would choose! But they did not have long to wait. On the morrow, Moses went into the tabernacle and brought out the rods to all the children of Israel; and each prince selected his rod according to the name written on it. But oh! wonder of wonders, God had put life into one of the dead rods, and in one night it had “brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.” And on this rod, Aaron’s name was written. What could they think! Ah! by this gracious sign of God’s power they were awakened to a sense of their wickedness in rebelling against Him, as they had not been when He sent the plague upon them. They said, “We die, we perish, we all perish.”
It is God’s goodness, not His judgments, that leads men to repentance. Do not, dear reader, despise. the goodness of God; those who do will probably blaspheme, later on, under His judgments.
The Lord told Moses to take Aaron’s rod back and put it in the ark where it was to be kept for “a token against the rebels.” Let us learn from this, what a dreadful thing rebellion is. God tells us it is “as the sin of witchcraft.” May we go on quietly with Him, content to fill the place in which He sets us.
ML 06/26/1904