Numbers 17:1-13
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 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.
3 And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.
4 And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you.
5 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.
6 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a roda apiece, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.
7 And Moses laid up the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness.
8 And 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.
9 And Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD unto all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod.
10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels;b and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not.
11 And Moses did so: as the LORD commanded him, so did he.
12 And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.
13 Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the LORD shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
AND the LORD spake unto Moses, [chapter seventeen] says, Speak to the children of Israel, to take every one of them a rod (Numbers 17:1-2)
That is, one for each tribe.
according to their tribe: put the name of their leader of their tribe on it and tonight we're gonna bring it in and set it before the Lord in the tabernacle (Numbers 17:2-4).
And we'll let the Lord declare who is to be the one who serves in the sanctuary. And so they brought-each prince brought a rod for his tribe and his name inscribed upon it and they put Aaron's name on the tribe of Levi. And in the morning they went in and the rod that had Aaron's name on it had budded and blossomed and had ripe olives on it, I mean almonds. Almond blossoms and almond buds and all and almonds on the thing, and thus, they kept the rod. They put it then into the Ark of the Covenant as a signifying thing that God had chosen the family of Aaron for the priesthood.
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