After His judgment, God commanded that twelve rods be laid before the testimony (the Ten Commandments in the ark), which typified Christ and was the place where God met with His people (vv. 1-7). This signifies that everything had to be brought into the presence of God to let God deal with the real situation by speaking the truth to all the people through His vindication. In typology a rod signifies authority (cf. 1 Cor. 4:21). In Numbers 17 the rods represented the leaders of the twelve tribes (v. 2), and Aaron's rod represented the tribe of Levi (v. 3).
Jehovah said, "The rod of the man whom I choose shall bud; thus I will make to cease from Me the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they murmur against you" (v. 5). A rod is a piece of dead wood. It has not only been cut, but it is also dead and dried up. Yet such a dead and dried up piece of wood would bud. A bud is something organic, something of life. It was God's intention that this budding of a dead rod would cause the murmurings of the people to cease.
The rods were to lie before God in the tent of meeting through a whole night. It is not likely that Aaron slept well that night. He probably thought about his rod, wondering if it would bud. For Aaron that night was truly a dark night. Sometimes, for His vindication, God puts us into a dark night, a dark tunnel, through which we must pass.
Moses must have been the first person to see the budding rod. "On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds" (v. 8). What a miracle that was! Aaron's dead, dried up rod budded. This was an organic miracle.
Moses brought all the rods to all the sons of Israel, and they all looked (v. 9). The record indicates that, without saying a word and without praising the Lord for His vindication, each man took his rod.
The budding rod of Aaron was put back before the testimony (v. 10). This was done according to God's commandment to Moses (v. 11).
The budding rod of Aaron was to be kept as a sign for the sons of rebellion, that their murmurings against God might be ended, lest they die (v. 10). Verse 5 refers to the murmurings as being against Moses, but verse 10 refers to them as being against God.
In Numbers 16 and 17 two signs were produced through the rebellion of the sons of Israel. One was a negative sign, made of the censers of those who had been judged (16:36-40). One was a positive sign, produced by the budding rod of Aaron. The budding rod was contained in the ark with two other things—the hidden manna and the testimony of God, the law. All three items are types of Christ. The budding rod, the hidden manna, and the testimony, the law, of God all signify Christ. By this we can see that whatever happened in the Old Testament on the positive side was related to Christ.
The budding rod of Aaron typifies not a dead Christ but the resurrected Christ, the budding Christ, who imparts life to others. Christ always flows out life to enliven others. Christ is the greatest budding rod in the universe. Today He is still budding, and we are a small part, the fruit, the almonds, of His budding.