A Rod Which Grew Almonds Numbers 17
BECAUSE the people of Israel did not believe God’s promises about Canaan, they lived in their tents in the wilderness many years, moving to different parts.
But God always kept His cloud over them, and each morning sent manna for their food. He told them to make fringes on the edges of their garments with bands of blue. Does it seem strange they should make trimming for clothes to be worn in a desert? It was because the blue color would remind them of the sky above, from which God had spoken to them, and He wanted them to remember His words and do right (Chapter 15:37-41).
Yet they forgot God’s words, and so often spoke wickedly against Moses and Aaron, that once God sent sudden death by an earthquake to the leaders. Then He said He would show whom He had chosen for the service in the Tabernacle, and said for one chief man of each tribe to bring his rod to Moses; and the rod of the man He had chosen should blossom. These rods were of wood, used in walking, or to give directions.
Moses took the twelve rods, each marked with the name of the tribe, Aaron’s for the tribe of Levi, and placed them in the Tent of God.
The next day Moses brought out the rods for the people to see. On one rod were buds of the almond tree, which blossomed and became almond nuts! It was Aaron’s rod; none but God could cause a bare stick to blossom, and surely the people then believed Aaron to be the one God had chosen.
You remember God had made Moses’ shepherd’s rod to become a snake to show His power, and that rod was used in Egypt and at the Red Sea when God freed them from the cruel king (Ex. 4:2-62And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. 3And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. 4And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: 5That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. 6And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. (Exodus 4:2‑6) and 14:16). But Aaron’s rod taught them even greater power of God—to make what is dead to live.
Aaron’s rod was kept in the ark after this as a proof of God’s choice.
ML 10/10/1937