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In this message we come to the matter of the budding rod (Heb. 9:4; Num. 17:1-10). Not many Christians have realized the full significance of the budding rod. Many simply regard the record of the budding rod as an interesting Bible story of a piece of dried wood that budded, blossomed, and yielded fruit overnight. But this incident is not a small point in the divine revelation.
Many Christians pay attention to the tabernacle. We have seen that with the tabernacle there are the altar and the laver in the outer court; the showbread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar in the Holy Place; and the ark of testimony in the Holy of Holies. The ark of testimony, the unique unit in the Holy of Holies, signifies Christ as the unique testimony of God. The contents of the ark comprise three items: the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the tables of the law. In the three previous messages, we have covered the first item, the hidden manna. Many Christians can understand something of the manna, for they know that it is a heavenly food signifying Christ as the bread of life. It is difficult, however, to understand the significance of the budding rod.
The children of Israel had many experiences in the wilderness, and the Lord commanded them to place in His presence symbols of three of the experiences through which they passed. These symbols were the tables of testimony, the manna, and the budding rod. After the Israelites had received the law at Mount Sinai, the Lord told them to put the two tables of the law into the ark (Exo. 34:1, 29; 25:21; 40:20). An omer full of manna was put in a pot and laid up before the Lord to be kept (Exo. 16:32-34). In the wilderness, the children of Israel also passed through some experiences of rebellion. Numbers 16 is an account of the most serious rebellion. Out of that rebellion came the budding rod, which was put before the testimony, which was in the ark, as a sign (Num. 17:10-11). By this we see that each of these items came out of the experiences of the Israelites. They were not teachings, but the issue, the outcome, of their experiences. Thus, if we try to understand these three items by our mentality and for the purpose of acquiring knowledge, we shall not succeed. We can only understand them in, with, and for our experiences.
If we would understand the budding rod, we must have a little background. God’s purpose is to gain a collective people to be His corporate expression to express and represent Him that He might have a dominion, a kingdom, in which to carry out His eternal economy. Many people think that God had a partial love for the Jews, working for them and doing things for them, and that He did not care for the Gentiles. This is a religious concept; it is not the focus of the divine revelation. The focus of the divine revelation is that the eternal God has a purpose. This purpose is to gain a people as a corporate unit to contain Him, to be one with Him, and to let Him be one with them that they might be the living expression of the invisible God, and that God might have a kingdom on earth to carry out His economy for His glory and to deal with His enemy. This was God’s purpose when He called the children of Israel out of Egypt, making them a chosen and a called people.
As such a people outside of Egypt, the Israelites were walking in the wilderness toward God’s goal. The children of Israel were at least a few million in number, for the male warriors alone numbered more than six hundred thousand (Num. 1:45-46). Since the number of the Israelites was so great, there was certainly the need, as there is today, for the building up of God’s people. For the building up of the people of God, there was, in turn, the need for some authority. Using today’s term, there was the need of leadership. As we shall see, God did not only raise up this leadership — He built it up. The leadership among the children of Israel was a corporate leadership comprising at least two men: Moses, representing the aspect of dominion and kingship, and Aaron, representing the aspect of image and priesthood.
In order for God’s people to express God and to represent Him, there must be both the priesthood and the kingship. Even the New Testament tells us clearly that in God’s redemption He has made us priests and kings (Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10). Thus, we have the priesthood and we are in the kingship. We have the priesthood so that we may express God. This is related to the image of God. The kingship is for God’s dominion. God created man in His image and gave him dominion over all the creatures (Gen. 1:26). This is the kingship for God’s kingdom. In the church today there is still the need of the priesthood to express God and the kingship to represent God. In the coming millennial kingdom, we shall also be the priests expressing God and the kings representing God (Rev. 20:6). Furthermore, for eternity in the New Jerusalem we shall be priests and kings (Rev. 22:3-5) expressing God through our priesthood and representing Him with His dominion in our kingship. From the first chapter of Genesis through the last chapter of Revelation, the Bible is very consistent about these two aspects of God’s corporate people.
Moses, representing the kingship, and Aaron, representing the priesthood, were put together for God’s leadership. As we have already mentioned, they were both raised up and built up. God did not take Moses and put him into the leadership immediately after he had completed his education in Pharaoh’s palace. No, after Moses had been educated, God brought him into the wilderness where He built up his leadership. Moses was born into a Jewish family and thus received the knowledge concerning God. Since he did not have a worldly education, God raised up the circumstances to enable him to receive the highest education in Pharaoh’s palace (Acts 7:22). I believe that his education was higher than that of a Ph.D. Although he was so well educated, he was still not qualified to be the leader. During his first forty years, Moses learned of God and gained the world’s best education. After that, he had to spend another forty years in the wilderness in order to be built up as a leader. The Bible does not afford us a clear record regarding the leadership of Aaron, but, in principle, Aaron must have also been under God’s building hand. When Moses told the Lord that he was not eloquent but was “slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” (Exo. 4:10), the Lord said that Aaron, his brother, who could speak well, would be unto Moses “instead of a mouth” and that Moses would “be to him instead of God” (Exo. 4:14, 16). Only after Moses and Aaron had been built up as leaders were they able to take the lead.
The journey through the wilderness was a test to the Israelites. When the Lord sent Moses to the children of Israel, He told him to speak to the people, saying on His behalf, “I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto...a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exo. 3:17). This was a good promise. The children of Israel were delivered out of the land of Egypt and they should have entered into the land of milk and honey. But due to their unbelief, which is recorded in Numbers 14, they could not enter in. Eventually, in Numbers 16, the rebels blamed Moses and Aaron, and not their own unbelief, for their not entering into the good land. The rebellious ones said, “Is it a small thing that thou has brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey” (Num. 16:13-14). Numbers 17:10 refers to these rebellious ones as “the rebels.” The Hebrew word rendered rebels means “sons of rebellion.” These sons of rebellion seemed to be saying to Moses and Aaron, “You promised to bring us into a land flowing with milk and honey, but you have not done it. Don’t you know that the land out of which you brought us was a land of milk and honey? You have not fulfilled your promise.” These sons of rebellion even said that Egypt was the land of milk and honey. What rebellion!
Who were these rebels? The first was Korah. Korah, who was a Levite (Num. 16:1), considered himself to be the same as Moses and Aaron, who also were Levites. Korah might have said within himself, “You two are Levites. How about me? Am I not also a Levite? Why must you take the lead, while I have no share in it?” Two of the other rebels were Dathan and Abiram, descendants of Reuben, the first son of Jacob. Considering themselves to be the tribe of the birthright, they might have said, “You Levites are number three, but we, the sons of Reuben, the first son of Jacob, are number one. Since you came after us, why should only the two of you take the lead?” Eventually, they all said to Moses and Aaron, “Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” (Lev. 16:3). This was the subtle, devilish argument and condemnation within those rebels. What a rebellious root we see here!
Moses and Aaron were not young men. Both of them must have been about a hundred years of age. According to Psalm 90, which was written by Moses, the span of a human life is seventy years. If one’s health is good, he might live to be eighty years of age. Hence, according to Moses’ own writing, he should have been dead. But he was serving God after the age of death, and Aaron was even older than he. What was the good of their being so aged? The fact that it was not easy for them to lose their temper. The rebellion in Numbers 16 was serious and terrible, but it did not cause Moses to lose his temper. When the rebels gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron, Moses “fell upon his face” (Num. 16:4). As we shall see in the next message, God came in to judge this rebellion.
In Numbers 17 God seemed to be saying to Moses, “Those sons of rebellion were fighting with you over the leadership. Tell them that I shall do something to vindicate the leadership. I shall show them who the real leaders are, and their mouths will be shut.” In Numbers 17:2 the Lord said to Moses, “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.” A rod is a piece of dead and dried-up wood. Its nature is that of dead wood. What is the function of a rod? It is to rule over others. A rod is different from a staff. A staff is for helping and supporting those who are weak and crippled and who have difficulty standing or walking. But a rod is not for supporting; it is for ruling and beating. According to the book of Proverbs, a father must use a rod to discipline his children (Prov. 23:13-14).
Our God is very wise, and He had the best way to vindicate the leadership. God did not argue. Rather, He seemed to say, “Since you have been arguing about the leadership, I ask you to bring your rods in before the testimony. You thought that you had the rods and could rule over others, and that Moses and Aaron assumed too much. You said that since you are all the people of God you all have the same authority. Do you have authority? Every tribe has a rod. Bring your rods to Me and put them in front of My testimony for a night, and let us see what will come out.” In Numbers 17:5 the Lord said, “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.”
Twelve rods were laid up before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness (Num. 17:7). Numbers 17:8 says, “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.” This signifies that the real leadership, the real authority, is in the budding life. This life not only buds and blossoms; it yields fruit that we might feed others, not that we might beat them. Although the rod is for ruling, this ruling is for feeding, not for beating.
The leadership among God’s people is different from that found among the Gentiles. All the Gentile kings use their rods for ruling. No rod among the Gentile leaders is useful for feeding, because none of their rods is living. Every rod is just a piece of dead wood. Only with the proper leadership among God’s people is there a rod budding with resurrection life and yielding fruit to nourish others.
The almond tree is the first tree in the year to blossom, blossoming in either January or February. The first fruit which comes out of a tree is the almond. This signifies resurrection. Hence, the budding, blossoming, fruit-yielding rod signifies the resurrection life of Christ. The leadership among God’s children must be Christ Himself as the resurrection life which buds, blossoms, and bears almonds to feed God’s people.
Some may say, “I am not an elder and I don’t want to be a leader among the Lord’s children. I want to be free, take it easy, and not be bothered by this kind of thing.” Although you may say this, I do not believe it, for everyone likes to be a leader. If you say that you do not like to be a leader, you are a liar. Deep within, you enjoy being a leader. When the service groups are arranged, you like to be number one. You do not want to be the last. The sisters may say, “As females, we don’t care for the leadership.” Sisters, do not say this. Suppose a piano service group is formed which includes five sisters. Every sister on the group will be concerned about the order in which the names are mentioned. When the fifth sister hears that her name is mentioned last, she may be so bothered that she will be unable to pray for a week. She may say, “If I can’t be the first, I should at least be the third, but I’m not even the fourth. I have been saved for over fifteen years. Why should I be the last? What have the elders done? Don’t they have any discernment?” This is the ambition for leadership.
I thank the Lord for this ambition. It is a good ambition, far better than the ambition to be the President of the United States. It is good that Christians have such ambition. If we had no ambition, we would be like chairs and benches, and God could do nothing with us. But because we are so ambitious, God can do something with us. Probably only those who are aged are no longer ambitious. A brother who is close to eighty years of age may have no ambition, but a young man may desire to be today’s Apostle Paul. I encourage all the young people to be like this. I would be happy if all the young people would desire to be today’s Peter or Paul.
In our life-study of Genesis, we have seen that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob plus Joseph are aspects of one complete person in the experience of life. In like manner, we should not consider Korah as being separate from Moses. In our nature, we have the same ambition Moses had. When Moses was forty, he was ambitious to take the lead to rescue God’s people from the tyranny of the Egyptian king (Acts 7:23-27). However, in Moses there was also the rebellious element of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Young brothers, I know that you have both the positive nature of Moses and the rebellious nature of Korah within you. Even worse, the negative elements of Dathan and Abiram are also in you. In the following message, we shall see that God has judged the rebellious nature and resurrected the positive element, the element of resurrection life.
If you had never been saved, you would have no ambition among God’s people. Why are you so ambitious in the church life? Simply because you love the Lord. If you did not love the Lord and if you had no ambition, you would be like the street people, wandering about aimlessly, having no ambition to be anything for God. But today, as those who are in the church loving the Lord, you are ambitious and expect that one day you will be qualified for the leadership. This is a good ambition, yet it must be resurrected. But we must also realize that within us we also have Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and all the rebellious elements. At the same time that we are ambitious for God’s goal, we are also rebellious. I understand this very well because I have been sick of this disease myself.
Not only is there within us the rebellion against other leaders, but many times our soul rebels against our spirit. Often our mind says, “Spirit, why cannot I serve God? Why cannot I, the mind, do something for God?” Have you not had this kind of rebellion within you? Many times my soul has rebelled against my spirit, saying, “Spirit, I don’t agree with this. I am smarter than you are and I can do a great deal. You are a part of Witness Lee. Am I, the soul, not also a part of Witness Lee? Are we not all the children of God? Why do you, the spirit, take so much upon you?” Many times in functioning we have used our soul in a rebellious way to show that our soul can do something for God and that we, the natural man, can do some service for God without exercising our spirit. This is a type of rebellion.
Do not consider the children of Israel in Numbers 16 as being separate from one another. We must look at them as a collective person, a corporate person, who includes Moses, Aaron, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Within us, there are both Moses and Aaron and Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Both ambition and rebellion are in our being. Sometimes we cannot help laughing at ourselves, for we are so ambitious for God, yet we are so rebellious. I believe that everyone of us has experienced being ambitious and rebellious at the same time. Unless you have no heart for God, you have experienced this. As soon as you began to have a heart for God, you found that both ambition and rebellion were within you. The first rebellion is the rebellion of the soul, the mind, against your own spirit. The second rebellion is your rebellion against those who are over you or before you.
Although you may not admit it, this rebellion is in you. You may say, “Brother So-and-So, I love you and I submit myself to you.” But while you are saying with your lips that you submit to Brother So-and-So, deep within you are rebellious, saying to yourself, “Brother So-and-So, you have taken too much upon you. You are altogether too much! In some aspects you are not as qualified as I am. One day my qualifications will be vindicated by God.” This is the rebellion within you.
Thank God for ambition and, in a negative sense, thank God for rebellion. The rebellion in Numbers 16 brought in God’s judgment and vindication. Firstly, God judged the rebels. After judging the rebellious element, the Lord commanded that the brass censers of the rebellious ones be made into plates for the covering of the altar as a sign to the children of Israel (Num. 16:36-40). After this, God told Moses to have twelve rods laid before His testimony. This was not for judgment; it was for vindication. Out of this vindication, the budding rod came forth. God then told Moses to bring Aaron’s rod before the testimony “to be kept for a sign against the rebels” (Num. 17:10). Hence, there were two signs — the brass plates covering the altar, which came as a result of God’s judgment, and the budding rod before the testimony, which came through God’s vindication.
Ambition and rebellion are both within us. We all have them, for we are the real Israel. Among and within the Israelites there were both ambition and rebellion. Firstly, God judged and burned the rebellious element. This judgment was then followed by God’s vindication. As a result of this judgment and vindication, two signs came forth — one at the altar in the outer court and the other in the ark in the Holy of Holies. These signs indicate that our natural, rebellious nature must be judged and burned, and that resurrected ambition must be vindicated, and made to bud, blossom, and yield fruit. In this way we have the proper leadership.
In the ark in the Holy of Holies we experience Christ as the real leadership. Concerning the leadership, there are two aspects. The first is that the natural, rebellious element must be burned on the altar. The second is that in the Holy of Holies whatever has been regenerated into us and whatever belongs to the resurrected life must be enriched, strengthened, and made to bud, blossom, and bear almonds. Here is real leadership.
A leader among the Lord’s people is a serving one. Although you may not be an elder or the leader of a service group, you are still a serving one. In principle, you are the same as a leader in the Lord’s service. Every member of the church is a serving one. God’s building depends upon the serving ones. As a serving one, there is in you the rebellious element which must be judged and burned on the altar as a sign to the universe that your natural man has been dealt with. But there is also another element within you — the regenerated element, the life element which is Christ Himself as the resurrection life. When you get into the ark in the Holy of Holies and touch Christ as the resurrection life, this element will become your leadership. It will bud, blossom, and yield almonds for the nourishment of others.
Even the youngest brothers and sisters are serving ones. But their rebellious nature must also be burned, dealt with, and judged, and the resurrection life within them must bud, blossom, and yield almonds to feed others. Even within the youngest brothers and sisters are both ambition and rebellion. Even they have criticized the elders.
Praise the Lord for our proper ambition. Nevertheless, we must recognize that we also have the rebellious element. As long as these two things, the ambition and the rebellion, are fighting within us, the building can never go on. Thus, there is the need to judge the rebellion and to vindicate the ambition. The element of Christ within us must be vindicated, strengthened, enriched, uplifted, and made to bud, blossom, and yield almonds. The judgment is upon the rebellion, and the vindication is upon the ambition. We do have such a proper ambition. As we walk the path from the altar to the budding rod, the rebellion must be eliminated and the positive ambition must be released. Then we shall have the proper leadership and the proper service which are for the building up of God’s people. God’s building depends upon this budding rod, which can only be experienced within the ark in the Holy of Holies. For this, we must come forward to enter the Holy of Holies and enjoy the very Christ who is the unique ark of God’s testimony.
