Aaron's Rod

Ark of the Covenant and the House of God
Today’s Focus: Aaron’s Rod
Scripture: Number 17:1-13

Greetings Kingdom Citizens
Aaron’s Rod was the second item within the Ark of the Covenant. Now I want to show you how it got there, why it was there and what it means to the Body of Christ in receiving the mercy of God.

Numbers 17:1-5: And the Lord spake to Moses, saying Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod. 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. And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you. And it shall come to pass, that the man’s rod whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you.

Now this passage is so loaded so let’s start with this statement.

The rod represents theocratic leadership

Now let’s back up and explain. The children of Israel were murmuring against Moses but what they did not realize was, because they were murmuring against Moses they were murmuring against God. So God asks Moses to take a rod from each of the tribes of Israel and write the name of their father’s on the rod and for Levi, write Aaron’s name. God instructs them to take every rod and lay them in the tabernacle of the congregation. Now here is the kicker, the Lord will choose which rod He desires to blossom (verse 5). In God selecting the rod or family he desires to lead, it was to cease the murmurings to the Lord that they were making to Moses. Now let’s back up because we have a huge principal being exposed here and it is the selection of leadership. I might not finish this message because of this topic but we must get this out and expose it.

If the rod represents theocratic leadership and that leadership is selected by God then the spirit of democracy is not of God as it pertains to the Body of Christ. With the spirit of democracy comes voting, opinions and elective process and last I check God did not require a vote from the people for anything that He commanded us to do. No one voted for Abraham to be the father of many nations. No one voted for David to be king of Israel. No one voted for Jesus to be the King of the Kingdom. No one voted for Paul to carry the grace of God to the Gentiles and no one voted for the original 12 apostles to be the original 12 spiritual fathers of Israel. No voting at all but God anointed and ordained. In other words all of these democratic processes that we do in the Body of Christ is not of God. God sets a man or father over a household and ordains him. No one voted for him to be father. Because if they can vote you in, they can vote you out and that is the voice of the people and this was a major issue with the church of Laodicea which means “rulership by the people”.

Theocratic leadership is leadership ordained by God. I know this may be hard to wrap our heads around but yes, God selects leadership, not an executive board, or executive council, or search committee, but God. We are to fast and pray and whomever God sends we are to receive them and follow them. This is the biblical model and the way the Father ordained the church to handle such matters. We have allowed democracy to creep in and when that happens the people’s voice matters more than the Father’s.

In the next message we will look at the symbolic representation of the rod used in scripture.

Peace, Love and Grace from the Father,
Calvin Calhoun, Jr.