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Scripture Reading: Num. 17
In Numbers 17 we have God's vindication. Before we consider this matter, I would like to add a word concerning the descendants of Korah.
Numbers 16 seems to indicate that all of Korah's family, including his children, perished. But Numbers 26:11 tells us that the sons of Korah did not die. Either they did not take part in that conspiracy and rebellion, or they took Moses' word in 16:26 and departed from the tent of their father and thereby escaped the tragedy that took place when the earth opened and swallowed Korah and his company.
In 1 Chronicles 6:33-37, a record of the genealogy of Samuel, we are told that Samuel was a descendant of Korah. Korah aspired to have a higher position in the priesthood. He did not attain it and he became rebellious. However, one of his descendants became a priest, not by struggling for power but by being offered as a Nazarite. (See Messages Eight through Ten on being sanctified to be a Nazarite.) Samuel was not only a priest but also a great prophet.
Furthermore, as the title of Psalm 88 indicates, this psalm was written by Heman, a descendant of Korah and a grandson of Samuel (1 Chron. 6:33). Heman was not only a psalmist but also a singer in the temple under David's arrangement.
In God's sparing Korah's descendants, we can see His mercy. One of Korah's descendants became a great prophet and took part in the priesthood. Another became one of the psalmists, a writer of one of the best psalms and a temple singer and musician. Thus, from the history recorded in the Old Testament, we can see that God is severe to some but merciful to others. Whether we experience His mercy or His severity depends on how we behave ourselves.
Numbers 17 is a chapter on God's vindication. God's vindication always goes along with His judgment. Hence, His judgment and His vindication cannot be separated. Actually, God's judgment is a form of vindication. But judgment is mainly on the negative side, and vindication is mainly on the positive side. On the negative side, in chapter sixteen God judged Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and the other rebels, including not only the two hundred fifty leaders of the assembly but also the company of Korah. In carrying out this judgment, God exercised His righteousness. In chapter seventeen God went further to vindicate Aaron and Moses, His deputy authority, in a positive way.
After His judgment, God commanded that twelve rods be laid before the testimony (the Ten Commandments in the ark), which typified Christ and was the place where God met with His people (vv. 1-7). This signifies that everything had to be brought into the presence of God to let God deal with the real situation by speaking the truth to all the people through His vindication. In typology a rod signifies authority (cf. 1 Cor. 4:21). In Numbers 17 the rods represented the leaders of the twelve tribes (v. 2), and Aaron's rod represented the tribe of Levi (v. 3).
Jehovah said, "The rod of the man whom I choose shall bud; thus I will make to cease from Me the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they murmur against you" (v. 5). A rod is a piece of dead wood. It has not only been cut, but it is also dead and dried up. Yet such a dead and dried up piece of wood would bud. A bud is something organic, something of life. It was God's intention that this budding of a dead rod would cause the murmurings of the people to cease.
The rods were to lie before God in the tent of meeting through a whole night. It is not likely that Aaron slept well that night. He probably thought about his rod, wondering if it would bud. For Aaron that night was truly a dark night. Sometimes, for His vindication, God puts us into a dark night, a dark tunnel, through which we must pass.
Moses must have been the first person to see the budding rod. "On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds" (v. 8). What a miracle that was! Aaron's dead, dried up rod budded. This was an organic miracle.
Moses brought all the rods to all the sons of Israel, and they all looked (v. 9). The record indicates that, without saying a word and without praising the Lord for His vindication, each man took his rod.
The budding rod of Aaron was put back before the testimony (v. 10). This was done according to God's commandment to Moses (v. 11).
The budding rod of Aaron was to be kept as a sign for the sons of rebellion, that their murmurings against God might be ended, lest they die (v. 10). Verse 5 refers to the murmurings as being against Moses, but verse 10 refers to them as being against God.
In Numbers 16 and 17 two signs were produced through the rebellion of the sons of Israel. One was a negative sign, made of the censers of those who had been judged (16:36-40). One was a positive sign, produced by the budding rod of Aaron. The budding rod was contained in the ark with two other things — the hidden manna and the testimony of God, the law. All three items are types of Christ. The budding rod, the hidden manna, and the testimony, the law, of God all signify Christ. By this we can see that whatever happened in the Old Testament on the positive side was related to Christ.
The budding rod of Aaron typifies not a dead Christ but the resurrected Christ, the budding Christ, who imparts life to others. Christ always flows out life to enliven others. Christ is the greatest budding rod in the universe. Today He is still budding, and we are a small part, the fruit, the almonds, of His budding.
The rebellious nature of the people of Israel was exposed to the uttermost. After God's vindication through Aaron's budding rod, they said, "Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. Everyone shall die who comes near at all to the tabernacle of Jehovah. Shall we not all end up perishing?" (vv. 12-13). This indicates that even after seeing God's judgment and vindication, the people were not subdued. The earth had opened to swallow Korah and his company, fire had come down from God to consume the two hundred fifty leaders, and fourteen thousand seven hundred of the people had been slain by the plague in one day. All these were miracles on the negative side. The next day, God did a miracle not on a large scale but on a small scale, causing Aaron's rod to bud, blossom, and bear fruit, even ripe fruit. This was altogether positive, a matter of mercy and grace, with no thought of judgment. It was a vindication to indicate who and what were of God and on God's side. Everyone should have been convinced and subdued, but the people of Israel still spoke words of rebellion to Moses.
It is no wonder that these children of Israel were not permitted to enter the promised land. In their rebellion, they had gone too far. Some of the rebels had said to Moses and Aaron, "You have gone too far!" (16:3). Moses said the same thing to them: "You have gone too far, sons of Levi!" (16:7). Actually, the rebellious ones had gone too far, yet they accused Moses and Aaron of going too far. They condemned Moses and Aaron for doing what they themselves were doing. Similar things have happened through the generations, with the ambitious ones falsely accusing others of being ambitious. In Numbers 16 and 17 God's judgment and vindication clearly indicated that the rebels, not Moses and Aaron, had gone too far.
As chapter seventeen reveals, this case ends with the punished people not being subdued. Therefore, even God gave them up and let them go. If we had been there and had been able to do something about the situation, we probably would have punished the people further for their rebellious words. But God was God, and He did not do anything. Neither did Moses or Aaron do anything. They simply let the people be as they were. It is good to have such a picture in typology.
Do not expect to see an ending of turmoil. Every "storm" will surely come to an end. In history there has never been an endless storm. Although a particular storm will end, those who become involved in that storm may not cease their rebellion.
The rebellious nature in man is Satan himself. Satan has been rebellious, he is rebellious, and his rebellion will not end until he is thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). He may not be subdued even when he is in the lake of fire. Do not forget that this rebellious one is in us, and in ourselves we do not have a way to overcome him. Only one person, Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God and also the Son of Man, can defeat this evil one, and He has defeated him (Heb. 2:14).
We need to be continually on the alert by watching and praying. We have not only the Devil as the enemy on the outside but also Satan as the adversary on the inside. We should remember the word of the Lord Jesus to Peter: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you to sift you as wheat" (Luke 22:31). On one occasion, Peter told the Lord that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Lord praised him, saying that he had been blessed by the Father (Matt. 16:16-17). Immediately after that, the Lord Jesus rebuked Peter, calling him Satan (Matt. 16:23). Within a very short period of time, a person who had been blessed by the Father became possessed by the Devil, and even became Satan. Since this is the situation with fallen human beings, we should not expect to see the ending of man's rebellious nature. There is no end.
When Paul was about to be martyred, he wrote to Timothy, in his last Epistle, saying that all the people in Asia had left him (2 Tim. 1:15). This is the sad, dark portrait in 2 Timothy. Nevertheless, Paul was triumphant (2 Tim. 4:17-18).
We have emphasized the fact that, even after God's judgment and vindication, the children of Israel continued to speak words of rebellion. Numbers 17 portrays a sad picture concerning this rebellion. After seeing such a picture, we can only worship God, and worship Him as the Lord.
