Num 17.1-13 tells us that God is going to settle the issue of who was called to the priesthood and who is not. It is about the vindication and reaffirmation of Aaron and his priesthood, and that of his sons. This alludes to the vindication and the reaffirmation of Yeshua because of his resurrection, and a picture of the resurrection is presented in this chapter
v 1…And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
v 2…”Speak to the sons of Israel, and get from them a rod (“shevet”, and it can mean “scepter” and term for the Messiah in Zech 6.11-13) for each father’s household; twelve rods, from all their leaders (princes) according to their father’s households. You shall write each name on his rod,
v 3…and write Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi; for there is one rod for the head (rosh) of their father’s households.
v 4…You shall then deposit them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony (before the ark that contained the commandments), where I meet with you.
v 5…And it will come about that the rod of the man I choose will sprout. Thus I shall lessen from upon myself the grumblings of the sons of Israel, who are grumbling against you (when people do this against us and our calling from God, it is good to go back to your anointing and remember you are not doing this because it was your idea, but because God called you, and let them see that).”
v 6…Moses therefore spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave them a rod apiece for each leader according to their father’s households, twelve rods, with the rod of Aaron among their rods.
v 7…So Moses deposited the rods before the Lord (the ark) in the tent of the testimony (in the holy of holies).
v 8…Now it came about on the next day that Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod (a dead branch) of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted (alluding to the fact that Yeshua through his mother descended from Levi because she is related to Elizabeth from the daughters of Aaron in Luke 1.5) and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore almonds (almonds are called the “hastening fruit” because it is the first tree to blossom in the spring-Jer 1.12-13; this alludes to the resurrection of Yeshua as the “first fruits in the spring” when he arose from the dead on Hag Ha Bikkurim, or the festival of First Fruits; Yeshua is the dead branch that came “alive” in the spring-1 Cor 15.20).
v 9…Moses then brought out all the rods from the presence of the Lord to all the sons of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod.
v 10…But the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony (not in the ark-1 Kings 8.9; Heb 9.4) to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put an end to their grumblings against me, so that they should not die.”
v 11…Thus Moses did; just as the Lord had commanded him, so he did.
v 12…Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we perish, we are dying, we are all dying (or ” shall we ever have finished dying?”; they had a sense of their sin and they thought they were still in danger).
v 13…Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, must die. Are we to perish completely (after the previous rebellion where people thought they had a right to be priests, and now Aaron’s rod was placed in the Mishkan, the people are now so afraid that they thought that they must not approach the Mishkan at all).
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