The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 244

things of the world "mighty through God " (l Cor. i. 27 ; 2 Cor. x. 4). The rod of the lowly Jesus is "a rod of strength," or" of iron" (Ps. ii. 9; ex. 2; Isa. xi. 4). II. The rod of Aaron, a tribal sceptre, a symbol of power, as the shepherd's staff was not. This symbol of authority used for remedial and spiritual purposes. (l) For the confutaJion of presumptuous upsta~ ; (2) for the preservation of the tempted from further sm and consequent destruction (ver. 10); (3) for a type of the fruit- fulness of every institution ordained and sustained by God. See further under ver. 8. Thus God make.'! his mightiest power the means of attaining spiritual ends for the welfare even of sinners. "Christ the power of God'' is "the power of God unto salvation." The" Prince" is also the'' Saviour" (Acts v. 31).-P. Vers. 1-9.-.Aaron's rod that budded. The priesthood of Aaron, as a solemn reality, and no mere arrogant pretence, had already been amply shown. It had been shown, however, in a way which left behind terrible associutions. Those who im- pugned it had died by a sudden and fearful death. And though the priesthood appears differently when it becomes the means of staying death from the living yet even this was not sufficient to glorify it before the eyes of the people. Thea~ illustrations of its validity had arisen from the urgent pressure of circumstances. If the people had not sinned against God by despising his ordinance, that ordinance would not have been manifested in such awful power. It becomes God now to glorify the priesthood by a new and independent testimony, the way of which had been prepared by the judgments they had 11\tely seen and suffered. I. AARON IS EQUALISED WITH THE REST. He had been equalised before in voluntary humility ( eh. xvi. 16, 17). Now the thing is specially commanded. Aaron is taken as a simple member of the tribe of Levi, and Levi itself is considered as but one of the tribes of Israel. Thus to any one disposed to complain of Aaron exalting him- self, God, as it were, gave for answer: "Aaron does not exalt himself; he is nothing more than any of you. Let there be a rod for each of the tribes, and nothing to make his better than the rest. It shall then be made manifest that whatever his power, his holiness. his honour, they do not come from anything inherent in himself as a simple Israelite." And so in a certain sense Jesus was equalised with men (Philip. ii. 6-8). He grew to manhood among the poor and lowly. He had been so like the rest of the simple Nazarenes in outward form, so unpretending, so little fitted to excite attention and wonderment, that his brethren did not believe in him. There was everything in him but sin to show his community with men. He became in all things like his brethren ; and one of the results of this full, demonstrative humanity is to make clear how highly God exalted him (Philip. ii. 9-11) 11 The objects taken to represent the tribes ONCE HAD LIFE IN THEM. They were Dot stones of the wilderness which God was about to turn into living, fruitful branches. The work was one of restoration, not of creation altogether fresh and original. But for sin, all these IRraelites, Aaron included, would have been like branches, full of beautiful and fruitful life rejoicing in God's presence, instead of being, as they were, dead to him, alive to sin. These rods, were significant/or their past as well as their future. The Israelites used these rods doubtless for some purpose to which dead wood could be put, and thinking nothing of the life that had once been in them. Dead wood is useful, but the state and service are low as compared with those of the living tree. So Israel was now in an utterly humiliated state, quite ignorant and careless as to the glory and joy of man's first unfallen days. These tribes were now as dead rods, but if all had gone according to the original purpose, they would h'!'ve been as living, fruitful branches. It is part of the priestly office of Christ to bnng back that which is Jost, and to swallow up in a new and glorious creation the ruin that has befallen the old one. Ill. Hence the CAPACITY OF RESTOBATION is indicated to the people. Ask an Israelite if a rod, a dead, sapless, long-separated branch, shall live age.in, he will reply, " No." In one sense he is right, for such a thing is outside of his experience i 1n another sense he is wrong, as not knowing the power of God. Aaron's rod alone lived, but it is plain that the same power which revived it could have acted on the rest with a like result. When Jesus was raised from the dead, this was an indication that ell dead ores might come back to life. "Because I live, ye shall live also" Cll, XVII, 1-13.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 227