- On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds. Numbers 17:8 – Seeking to put an end to the complaining and murmuring, the Lord used a unique method to prove to the people that Aaron’s house was the one that was selected by the Lord as the priestly house. Other houses had roles, even important roles, but Aaron and his sons were the ones God chose to serve Him within the Tent of Meeting. All the tribal leaders would give their staff, Aaron included, and these staffs would be placed at the Tent of Meeting. The next day only Aaron’s staff sprouted, and not only that but had blossoms and ripe almonds on it. An old, dried up staff blossoming and producing fruit is a miracle, yet such ought to be the life of those selected by the Lord. Like with Aaron, now all believers are chosen as God’s royal priesthood. We are to be the ones serving the Lord, speaking with the Lord, and spreading the messages of the Lord to the world. With our story today we see exactly what God desired Aaron’s ministry to be amongst the people…fruitful. In a community of grumbling and rebellion, Aaron’s ministry was to be producing ripe fruit and God was going to do that through him. In our world of sin and rebellion, God has called us to have a ministry that is producing ripe fruit for Him and to allow Him to be doing that work through us. You may feel as if you’re all dried up, much like Aaron’s staff, unable to bear fruit. Yet what God did with Aaron’s staff He can do in you. He can take our exhausted, empty self and cause life to grow where there is none, to where blossoms and fruit are seen where they haven’t been seen for a long time. God’s heart is for you to be fruitful for Him, let Him show you what He can do with your life when you give it to Him. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3367
- And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you. Numbers 17:5 – Grumbling caught the attention of God. God knows the toxic effect even something as simple as grumbling can have between people. This is why He stepped in and did what He did with Aaron’s staff, to quiet the grumbling and allow peace to be found. Where then is grumbling present in your story? Is someone not at peace with you? You not at peace with them? What can be done to seek out peace if possible? God teaches us to seek peace with one another as much as we can, the opposite of entertaining grumbling in our mind. Maybe peace today begins with you ceasing your own grumbling about someone. Rather than speaking ill of them, or even just letting your mind dwell on them in a negative way, start by choose to find peace with that person. Pray for them, speak to them if possible, stop complaining about them. If grumbling wasn’t something God entertained we shouldn’t either. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1433
- Numbers 17 – Pastor Mac Daily DEVO And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. 13 Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, shall die. Are we all to perish?” Numbers 17:12-13 – These two verses conclude the passages where we see a retelling of the disobedience and unfaithfulness of God’s people to God and His servants. They complained about food, leadership, and the whole exile in the wilderness, and now God is settling once and for all who He has put in charge and who they are to follow. Yet instead of a humble bending of the knee in obedience to the Lord, their obedience is one birth out of fear of death. And the answer to their question of if they were all to perish? That all depended on how they handled the message the Lord had given them from then on. They had been given direction of who is in charge, direction on how to live obediently to the Lord, and now was their opportunity to follow. When reading passages like this keep in mind how similar our story is to this. We too were in a life once of walking away from Jesus, disobedient and unfaithful. Yet even in that season God spoke into our story and gave us the pathway to a life with Him and to salvation. What we do now with that message from the Lord is up to us. We can live a life remaining in our sin and find death like we’ve seen over and over within Numbers. We can choose to live in fear of God and see His power as a condemning force. Or we can see the grace of God weaved within His power and His words to us and choose to move forward in a faithful life towards Him. Not because of fear of death but because of gratitude for life. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2298
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