About Jesus Steve Sweetman

About Jesus Steve Sweetman

Chapter 17

The Budding of Aaron's Staff (ch. 17:1 - 13)

Once again God responds to the complaints of His people here in verses 1 through 5. God tells Moses to provide a staff for twelve men, the leaders of each of the twelve tribes of Israel . The leaders names are to be on the staffs and placed in front of the Tent of Meeting.

Over and over again, God says that He is very patient and long suffering. We can certainly see that here. Israel had just seen whole families swallowed up by the earth. They had just seen more than fourteen thousand people die from a plague sent by God, and now they complain again, and now God proves Himself again to them.

The staff that would sprout buds would be the staff of the leader that God chose. You see in verse 5 that this was meant to stop the complaining of Israel against Moses. God was greatly bothered when Israel complained against Moses. He took that as a complaint against Himself, which is only natural. God chose Moses, so if someone complained about Moses, they complain about God. This is important for us to know today.

This raises an interesting issue. Who are God's appointment men today? Do we respect them for the office they hold or for the work they do. I believe we respect them for the work they do, and not merely the office they hold. I've written about this elsewhere, so I won't involve myself in the discussion here. I will only say that the New Testament emphasizes the work of the leader over the office of the leader. Therefore, if the leader is not doing the work in accordance with the Bible, we have a responsibility to challenge the leader. For those who are doing the work as the Bible states, we respect them. The leader isn't the final authority. The Bible is always our final authority on all matters, both personal matters and church matters.

Verses 6 and 7 simply state that Moses did as the Lord required.

In verses 8 and 9 we see the results. Aaron's staff not only sprouted buds, it also produced almonds. Thus another miracle was done by the God of Israel in the process of extending patience to a rebellious people.

In verse 10 God had Moses place Aaron's staff "in front of the Testimony", meaning, the ark of the covenant. Later, this staff would be placed in the ark. This was to be a sign to the complainers so that they would no longer complain and die as a result. Once again, God uses something as a sign, something He often does. This sign or symbol was to be a reminder not to complain. The reason for the sign is so the complainers won't die from God's wrath. We see that God is motivated out of love.

Moses did as God asked in verse 11.

Verse 12 closes this chapter with a pity party on the behalf of Israel . The complainers have turned into a "poor me" group of people. They say they will die anyway. They say they are lost in the desert. They simply paint a gloomy picture of their circumstances. They fail to acknowledge though that the circumstance in which they find themselves in is a product of their own making, not God's, and not Moses'. This is true with us today. Many people complain and question the very existence of God based on the suffering in the world. They fail to realize and acknowledge that this suffering is a product of man's own folly and not God's.

If there is one thing that really bothers me about people is when they have pity parties for themselves. The "poor me" attitude in some people is disgusting in my thinking, especially among Christians. The apostle Paul had many reasons to feel bad for himself, but he didn't. We should follow his example.

Next Section - Chapter 18

Previous Section - Chapter 16

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