“The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites.”
– Numbers 17:6
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you save things? Do you save things that have special memories attached to them? Where do you put the things that you are saving? Do you put the things that you are saving – if you are saving things, in a place or places where other kids – and guys or gals, can see them? Your grandpaa saves things. Ever since your dad was a little kid, your grandpaa saved stamps. When your grandmaa and grandpaa moved a year and a half ago into the house where they now live in in Gainesville, Georgia, your Aunt Lynn filled two large glass jars with stamps that your grandpaa spent over 40 years collecting. In the closet in the room that your grandpaa is using for an office, there is a box that your grandpaa has filled with stamps that he is planning to put in another large glass jar. On top of a bookcase that is in the room that your grandpaa is using for an office, your grandpaa has a chunk of mica that he found not far from Tambo – which is the name of the boarding school that New Tribes Mission has in Bolivia. Tambo is located near the town of San Isidro. The town of San Isidro is situated between the city of Santa Cruz – which was where your grandmaa and grandpaa lived during their first four-year term in Bolivia, and the city of Cochabamba. Your dad spent his ninth, tenth and eleventh grades at Tambo. Your Aunt Lynn spent her fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades at Tambo. Your grandpaa also has on top of the same bookcase a small sheet of mica that he found on a Lake Lanier shore. Lake Lanier is large dammed reservoir in Georgia that is close to where your grandmaa and grandpaa now live. Your grandpaa also has on top of the same bookcase a piece of petrified wood that he came across in a field near the house near Lodgepole, South Dakota where one of your grandpaa’s Dordt College classmates’ lives. Your grandpaa also has on top of the same bookcase a round piece of white coral that one of your dad’s cousins took back with him from Jamaica – when Barrett went there years ago on a short-term ministry team, for your grandmaa and grandpaa. Your grandpaa also has on top of the same bookcase a small, dark brown ceramic cup that had in it a slightly fermented, grapelike drink – that was served before the meal – that your grandpaa took back from Chile as a memory of one of the best tasting meals that he has ever remembered eating – the food being a variety of pork cuts – such as a whole leg, chops, ribs, etc. that were served in a large ceramic pot – that he and a Guatemalan co-worker – Hector Pivaral, and three Chilean church leaders devoured in a rustic, thatched roof eating dive that is in an area that sells ‘artesanias’. Your grandpaa also has on top of the same bookcase two doorknob size amethyst chunks that were randomly handed to your grandpaa by a guy who knew the driver of the truck that was passing through Concepción, Nuflo de Chávez – which is a Bolivian town where your grandpaa and grandmaa lived in for three years, that had been filled with amethyst chunks.
God had Moses save three things in the ark of the covenant. The three things were to be put into the solid gold coffin like small box that the Israelite people group guys and gals – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, were to carry with them wherever they went. The three things were the two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments had been written, a jar of manna and Aaron’s staff that budded. Numbers 17 reports the history of Aaron’s budding staff. After Korah led an ill-advised rebellion of about 250 grumblers and gripers from many – if not from all of the twelve Israelite people group tribal clans, God had Moses collect a staff from each one of the other twelve tribal clan leaders. God told Moses to write on the other tribal clan leader’s staff the name of the tribal clan leader. Because Aaron was the ascribed leader of the Levi tribal clan – Aaron’s staff was added to the twelve staffs that Moses had collected and on which Moses had written each Isrealite people group’s tribal clans guy’s name. God told Moses to place the thirteen staffs in the Tent of Meetings – in front of the Testimony. God told Moses in verse 5 His purpose for what He had him do with the thirteen staffs, “The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites.”’ When Moses went into the Tent of Meetings the next day to check on the thirteen staffs, Moses saw that Aaron’s staff had not only sprouted during the night but that it had budded, blossomed and produced almonds. God made it very plain to His specially chosen guys and gals through what He did with Aaron’s staff that He was completely capable of doing whatever He wanted to do with them – that He had had enough of them – and probably their kids, too, who were continuing to grumble and gripe about having left the country of Egypt – where they were now thinking that they had had it really good living there.
When God’s specially chosen people guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, saw Aaron’s sprouting staff, they knew that more rebellion on their part would quite possibly result in their death – which had them seriously wondering if they were going to immediately die. God’s motive through what He did – which was the third time that He had singled out Aaron to be His advocate on planet Earth to sacrifice sacrificss to Him, was to affirm Aaron’s role. God expected His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, to see the Ten Commandments, the jar of manna and Aaron’s budded staff, as symbols of His omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent presence with them. What are you saving that symbolizes to you what God has already specially done in your lives? What memories to you already of what God has done in and accomplished through your lives?
Numbers 17 (980)