AARON’S ROD:

We have forgotten its important meaning

(This is an excerpt from AOR chapter H2.)

KORAH AND AARON’S ROD: God’s special people resigned themselves to living in the wilderness the next forty years. They had been humbled by God and had good intentions about spending more time in the Bible, learning to discern, and accepting the will of God. That’s what we’d all do under similar circumstances. But the carnal Christian, once set in his ways, has a hard time being able to filter all the daily events of life through the Bible in order to see what God wants him to do. And even if he has it pointed out to him – chapter and verse – by a good Christian, he cannot believe the “little Sunday-school lesson” in the Bible should actually govern his actions in this particular situation because mortal life and its events seem more real, more pressing, and more important to his leavened brain than the stuff in the Bible.

The Bible doesn’t give us a hint as to what Moses and Aaron were up to this time but you and I already know it doesn’t matter. The Christians in the wilderness, though, were living the event and it seemed like such a big and important matter to them. Many Christians were indignant and outraged at what Moses and Aaron were doing, so some of the prominent, well-respected men known for their Bible knowledge, pious Christian walks, and fine Christian families, held discussions and prayer meetings. Korah was accepted as the leader of this democratic Christian reform movement, and he and two hundred and fifty dedicated Christian leaders agreed to approach Moses and Aaron to represent the fervent wishes of the people that some changes be made (Nu 16:1,2). In v.3 we see what the foundation of this rebellion was – equality. These carnal Christians were infected with equality; they were at least as good and qualified as Moses and Aaron. And there may very well have been men among them who knew more Bible, had more intelligence and education, had better leadership qualities, and lived less sinful lives than Moses and Aaron. (Just like many Christians were not as sinful as King David.) And those irrelevant facts caused God’s people to ignore the biggest doctrinal issue in the Bible – authority. Moses and Aaron were the authorities, and God says authorities are not to be reluctantly, sullenly, half-heartedly, marginally, and insincerely obeyed. God also says we are not just to please our authorities with our obedient service; we are to please God with the 100% dedicated, enthusiastic, obedient service with which we please our earthly masters. God is the Master we are trying to please whenever we obediently submit to earthly rule.

Moses was horrified at this latest rebellion because he thought God had done a good job teaching how He wants us to live. But he was faced with over two hundred and fifty of the most respected Christians in the whole world and they were filled with righteous indignation, so he fell on his face again and said, “We’ll see what the Lord says about this.” That is not what carnal Christians want to hear; they inwardly groan when a Christian answers them by opening the Bible and saying, “Let’s see what the Lord says about this.” What they want is a debate guided by carnal Reason; they want to proffer and defend their opinions against someone else’s opinions. They want to rise up and be equal.

It is important to stress that these men honestly had no idea they were sinning. The carnal mind does not make you wake up one day and say, “I want to do evil.” That is not what happened to Lucifer and that is not the way Satan is today. The carnal mind is not evil because of what it thinks. The fruit of the carnal mind is not bad or evil when viewed on its own. It is only bad and evil when it is viewed from the broad perspective of ideology, concepts, and principles. Only then can we understand that carnality is made bad by the issue of authority. But not just any authority; carnality is only bad when viewed from the perspective of God’s authority. It isn’t what the carnal mind thinks; it’s the fact that it is thinking independently from God. It is a usurpation of God’s authority as the one and only God, the one and only Head. For that reason I am not writing a Christian novel whose success depends on your liking it. I am writing a Bible study so when you come across something you don’t like or something that differs from modern traditional Christian doctrine you’ll have the opportunity to handle the situation like Moses: “Let’s see what the Lord says about this.” If that is your reaction you are demonstrating two qualities necessary for the development of discernment – humility before the authority of God and His word, and discipline, which is needed to overcome the Natural inclinations of the old man. For example, my values, beliefs, doctrines, and life are not based on what I think, want, or like; and I do not concern myself with whether something is right or wrong: I simply find out what the Lord says and accept it as what “my side” believes in and fights for. There are two opposing kings, two opposing kingdoms, two opposing armies, and two opposing ideologies in this war. I have chosen the Lord’s side. That means I have chosen the side of the Dictator Who wants to do the thinking and Who wants to decide what to do and Who wants to decree what is right and what is wrong. The side I’ve chosen requires me to suppress myself daily. If I don’t like that I can always go over to the other side where Satan’s religion encourages me to develop my Reason rather than stifle it, to express myself daily. The Lord’s side requires me to lose my identity; the Devil’s side allows me to keep my identity.

The shame is that many Christians would like to be on the Lord’s side but modern “Christian” doctrine is misleading them into serving Satan even while they think they are serving Christ.

It was just this sort of blindness that afflicted Korah when he moved up from being a member of the body to being another head. Nu 16:2 says he “rose up” against authority and made a nice little egalitarian speech in Nu 16:3. (Notice the rising and the equality in Is 14:13,14; Ezek 28:2,5.) These men certainly did not think they were opposing God Himself by resisting Moses, therefore when Moses told them they were not only taking too much upon themselves (Nu 16:7), but were actually going against God (v.11), they thought he was wrong. Imagine their surprise when God had the earth swallow Korah, Dathan, and Abiram – and their families (vv.30-33). The Christians who had prayed with and supported Korah turned and ran (v.34). And then fire from God caught and consumed the fleeing, screaming two hundred and fifty respected Christians who represented the congregation (v.35). The next day the congregation, having thought about the “rightness” of their cause overnight, “murmured” against their authorities (v.41) and were not happy when the Lord showed up again (v.42) because He was turning out to be a big disappointment Who always sided with the bosses – whether the bosses were right or not. They simply couldn’t understand it because, like most Christians in every era, they were carnal. God decided to shut their opinionated mouths with a deadly plague that killed 14,700 of His special people (v.49). And then God made Aaron’s rod blossom and told Moses to keep it as a reminder (Nu 17:10) of Ro 13:1,2. Christianity today has failed to understand that Ro 13:1,2 is better and more helpful than Aaron’s rod because the rod was but a silent token whose meaning – as we shall see – was quickly forgotten.