Moses' authority and position had been confirmed by the earth opening up and swallowing the camp of Korah and the Reubenites on the south side of the Tabernacle. Now, there would be a miraculous sign presented to the people to justify Aaron's rightful claim to the priesthood that the Lord had given him.

This section begins with, “The Lord said to Moses,” which is one of over 150 times in the book of Numbers where the Lord speaks to Moses. The Lord cannot lead a group of people who are constantly grumbling against their leadership. So the Lord states very clearly what his intentions are for using this sign when he says,

“I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites.”
– Numbers 17:5

Each tribe’s leader, if they wanted a piece of the priesthood or if they were content with the Lord’s assigned authority, were to write their name on their staff and give it to Moses to lay in front of the Ark of the Covenant inside the Holy Place in the Tabernacle. The staff of the tribal leader represented the tribe’s identity and the authority of the tribal leader.

The result left no question because there was not only a bud on Aaron’s staff, but the bud also blossomed and produced almonds!! There should be no questioning Aaron’s authority after these events, because in chapters 16-17 the Aaronic priesthood is vindicated with three signs: the earth swallowed up the camp of the rebels, fire consumed the 250 men with Korah and, here, Aaron’s rod budded while the other eleven remained dead sticks. These dead staffs were given back to each individual owner and tribal head who by accepting their returned staff gave public assent to Aaron’s position of priestly authority and to the fact that their tribe had no rightful claim to the priesthood.

(Also, note that literacy existed among the tribes, at least, among the leadership since each tribe was told to write and not to simply mark the staff with an “X”.)

In 957 AD in Russia, Olga, the princess of Kiev, was baptized and asked German King Otto to send missionaries. Vladimir, Olga’s grandson, was cruel, built pagan temples, and had 800 concubines and five wives. He spent his time at war, hunting or feasting. But, when Vladimir’s men reported that Christianity in Constantinople and worship at the Church of Holy Wisdom there was as beautiful as heaven itself Vladimir converted to Christianity. Vladimir married the sister of Emperor Basil of the Byzantine Empire from Constantinople. Vladimir was baptized in 988 AD. Russia had embraced Greek Orthodox Christianity from Constantinople instead of Western Roman Christianity from Germany.