#304 Almonds

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man's name upon his rod.

3 And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.

4 And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you.

5 And it shall come to pass, that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you.

6 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.

7 And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness.

8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.

9 And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod.

10 And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not.

11 And Moses did so: as the Lord commanded him, so did he.

12 And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.

13 Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying? Numbers 17 KJV

To recap, the people have murmured against the rule of Moses as prophet, leader, and against Aaron as high priest. Moses is as the head of government and they feel he has chosen to appoint Aaron to his position rather than accept that this is from God. The things they do not like about God are grievances they direct towards his messengers. They have witnessed the rebellion of Miriam and Aaron, the death of Aaron's sons for dishonoring their office, now Korah's death and still after, the death of thousands more. Human pride has tried vainly to elevate itself, to position for power, maybe politic for the approval of the masses based upon the promise of a better system, but they fail to acknowledge the inherent problem. Leaders that tell the simple truth are somehow less charismatic, preachers who place themselves under the authority of scripture and the whole counsel of God, are never very popular. They can never attain the super church, the nod from celebrities, or the endorsement of much of the so called evangelical   population. One more sign, and they take the rods from all of the heads of tribe and carve their names upon them. When the rods are retrieved, Aaron's displays all three stages of the fruit, the bud, the flower and the almond. In the last two verses it appears that they have resigned themselves to the fear of God, but not that sort of fear produced by love that does not wish to disappoint.

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” 39Jesus replied, “A wicked andadulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given itexcept the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.…Matthew 12: 38-40

This is My command to you: Love one another. 18If the world hatesyou, understand that it hated Me first. 19If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.…John 15:18 & 19