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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
17:1-13 Aaron's Blossoming Staff. This experiment is a symbolic reenactment of the Korah episode, which showed who had the right to approach God (16:5). The chief of each tribe puts his staff in front of the ark for a night to see what will happen to it. Nothing happened to the staffs, except for Aaron's, which "produced blossoms" and "bore ripe almonds" (17:8) overnight (hence miraculously). It may well be that flowering almonds are significant. Their white blossoms symbolize purity, holiness, and God himself, which are all associated with the priesthood.
17:6 The twelve staffs probably do not include Aaron's. There are
17:10 The miraculous staff was kept in the ark (which seems to be what before the testimony is meant by) as a sign and a warning (cf. note on Heb. 9:4).
17:12-13 The miracle of Aaron's staff seems to have finally convinced the people about the status of the priests and prepares the way for a statement of the priestly tribe's rights and privileges in ch. 18. The mediatorial role of the Aaronite high priests foreshadows the even greater role of Christ, the ultimate high priest (Hebrews 4-10).
