Today’s passage is Numbers 17. God tells Moses to get a staff from each of the leaders of the 12 tribes and put them beside the ark overnight and the owner of whichever one sprouts leaves is God’s choice of leader. Aaron is be the leader of the Levites. Aaron’s staff sprouts, blossoms and bears almonds and once displayed the Lord tells Moses to put it by the ark as a sign so that the people will stop grumbling and not die. But they continue to complain, saying they’ll all die.
Buds, Blossoms, and Fruit
God gives yet another miracle to convince the Israelites that he is the Lord and they are in good hands with him and his appointed leaders. Each of the leaders writes his name on his staff and then the staves are put beside the ark overnight to see which one sprouts.
Not only does Aaron’s sprout, it blossoms and produces fruit! God doesn’t want there to be any mistake about his choice of leader and in doing so he shows his amazing creativity. A dead piece of wood comes alive in the desert!
Nothing is impossible with God. He can turn water into wine, he can heal a woman bleeding for 12 long years, he can feed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes, he can walk on water, he can bring sight to the blind, he can make the lame walk, he can raise the dead.
He can give us salvation and eternal life with him.
It’s spring here in Seoul. After my wife and I got home from work yesterday, we made a picnic supper and walked a hundred metres up the main trail on our mountain to a picnic table under a blossoming cherry tree.
We munched sandwiches and ate a salad garnished with cherry blossoms fluttering down in the breeze. No one else was around. We sat there until it got dark praising God and thanking him for a beautiful moment in his creation.
Even though yesterday’s passage was not the budding staff of Aaron, I had already read it and it filled my mind and my picnic moment was like that blossoming staff. God grew love between my wife and me years ago and has nurtured it in us. He grows love in nature.
I believe he blossomed love for the Israelites in that staff of Aaron, showing the fruitful life he had in store for them.
All they had to do was trust in him and follow his leaders who were following him and they would get to the promised land where they too could blossom and bear fruit.
But instead they complained again about the rules and focused fearfully on punishment instead of the promise.
Despite my picnic moment of Aaron’s amazing staff and God’s stunning creativity and life-giving love, I too grumble about times and procedures at church because I want things arranged for my own convenience, not the community’s. Like the Israelites in today’s passage, I don’t fully accept God’s signs to trust in him and accept his love.
Easter is coming and Jesus is the first fruit of the new life, the truly resurrected life. He was as dead as Aaron’s staff but then he budded, blossomed and became our eternal hope of new life, a little here on earth and then a lot more in heaven. Hallelujah!
Application: take some of the kids to the park to admire some special blossoms and teach them to say thank.
Lord, thank you for loving me and giving your love to me to give to others. I cannot make anything new, only serve and care for what you give me. Let me blossom, I pray, with your love, not grumble or complain in fear and resentment.
