The Rod Of Reconciliation

Num 17:7 ASV - And Moses laid up the rods before Jehovah in the tent of the testimony.
Num 17:8 ASV - And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and put forth buds, and produced blossoms, and bare ripe almonds.
Num 17:9 ASV - And Moses brought out all the rods from before Jehovah unto all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod.

Lesson of the Almond tree

It is amazing to see beautiful almond trees blossoming all over Israel every winter. They are the first tree to blossom and yet the last to bear fruit.

The almond tree is associated with one of the earliest prophecies of a young Jeremiah. “Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Jeremiah, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a branch of an almond tree.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watching to perform My word.’” (Jeremiah 1:11-12)

This prophecy uses a play on words that carries a vital truth for Israel as well as for us. The Hebrew word for almond, shaked, is also translated “to watch”. By seeing the almond branch, God assured Jeremiah that He is watching over His word to bring it to pass, no matter the passage of time.

In context, God had just given Israel a warning. “I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:9-10)  Then after Jeremiah sees the almond tree, God shows him a boiling pot over Jerusalem which portends “calamity”. (Jeremiah 1:13-14)  While the almond is a sign of hope that God will eventually fulfill His wonderful promises to Israel (or to us), the context is more ominous.

Later, God repeated the warning through Jeremiah: “Behold, I will watch (shaked) over them for evil, and not for good…” (Jeremiah 44:27). God’s message to Israel was that sin has consequences and there will come a time of reckoning – namely the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of Israel.

Years later, Daniel would pray: “Therefore has the Lord watched (shaked) upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He does: for we obeyed not His voice.” (Daniel 9:14)

The lesson of the almond tree, therefore, is that God in heaven watches a sinful nation walking away from Him and declares it will have consequences. His message to humanity today is still the same: God is watching! He will watch over His word either for curse or for blessing. When sin and immorality engulf nations and even penetrate the Church, we should remember: God is watching! When nations assail Israel and seek to divide her land, we can be sure: God is watching!

Still, the message of the “almond” does carry a strong encouragement. Jeremiah also foresees a miraculous restoration for Israel. “And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them, to destroy, and to afflict… so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 31:28)

If we decide to consecrate our lives to God, then He promises to watch over us for good. Even with our weaknesses and frailties, His eyes are always upon us!

Some may say this word was for the rebellious house of Israel its the old testament we live in the new testament .    Jesus said he came not to do away with the Law but to fulfill the Law . Your savior is the fulfilling of the old Law and in him we are free from the Law of sin and death.   Jesus is the mercy and the grace that we live under not the Law . The word says the law was weak through the flesh ,     Rom 8:3 ASV - For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4 ASV - that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.             If you see Gods word in the letter only than the life in his word has no effect on your soul.  Jesus was that word made flesh the old testament was an example unto us to understand the consequences of being rebellious to Gods commands.  Jesus said he was with the father before the dust was place upon the face of the earth .  All of the bible points to Jesus and his blood sacrifice.     Rom 7:6 ASV - But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

1Co 10:11 ASV - Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.
1Co 10:12 ASV - Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Jhn 5:43 ASV - I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.    The word name   Greek: onoma     for all that a "name" implies, of authority, character, rank, majesty, power, excellence, etc., of everything that the "name" covers:   Jesus was the rod of Aaron he was the rod that budded and brought forth blossoms and the fruit of the almond . The first and the last the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end .  He was that rock that followed the children through the desert .

Mar 16:17 ASV - And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues;   Its not just the name of Jesus its all that his name implies .  The power and the character the complete  authority of who Jesus is and he gives us that grace to us who believe , the authority and power to manifest those signs, Jesus said greater works shall you do in my name . 

1Co 10:1 ASV - For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;   They were spiritually born again in the crossing of the red sea ,  and it is fitting the sea they crossed would be Red a type and shadow of his blood. The cloud being the spirit of God
1Co 10:2 ASV - and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
         Moses being a type of Jesus
1Co 10:3 ASV - and did all eat the same spiritual food;   Jesus said he was the manna  that came down from the father
1Co 10:16 ASV - The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ?
1Co 10:17 ASV - seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we are all partake of the one bread.
 Jhn 6:49 ASV - Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
Jhn 6:50 ASV - This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
Jhn 6:51 ASV - I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.

1Co 10:4 ASV - and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ.
Jhn 6:55 ASV - For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.   His flesh being the word of God and his blood being the nature and character of God himself.  He came to show us the father .
Jhn 14:8 ASV - Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Jhn 14:9 ASV - Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Show us the Father?
Jhn 14:10 ASV - Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works.
Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works.   For God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
2Co 5:19 ASV - to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
If you are born again as Jesus told Nicodemus of the water and the spirit , than you must ask God to fill you with his spirit .  Asking with an honest heart a broken contrite heart God will not despise.  Being born again is a walk unto righteousness ,  The water is the word of God that brings separation of your soul from the world and into his kingdom ,  the spirit is the power to overcome in this world. The promise Jesus spoke of Gods salvation in no other name, is a life's walk and enduring unto the end .
Rom 8:9 ASV - But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.   The same Holy Ghost that fell in Acts 2 is the beginning of this promise from the father for the equipping of  the saints his called out ones with his authority his understanding his power unto sanctification unto holiness.


Ecc 12:7 ASV - and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.    And God created man in his own image that Image was not the body we have now , that image was his very being his power and strength his life was in his breath and the breath is his spirit , The ZOE of God ,  Adam and Eve were created perfect ,they were a perfection of God made absolutely complete in every way.  But sin came and with that the fall of man.    
Rom 5:14 ASV - Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come.
1Co 15:22 ASV - For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:45 ASV - So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.   Jesus has come to restore back to the father what the first Adam lost.
To be reconciled to something you must first have been a part of that experience to be reconciled back to it . A separation took place between God and man through sin and rebellion unto Gods commands. 
Rom 5:11 ASV - and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
2Co 5:18 ASV - But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation;
2Co 5:19 ASV - to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
When Jesus rose from the dead on the third day he brought you and I with him to life everlasting.