“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” (Hebrews 4:14)
This Sunday we continue our series on Israel travelling in the wilderness.
The budding staff – Numbers 17:1-11
The story’s told of a monastery where monks took a vow of silence and were only to say two words a year.
After his first year, one monk came before the abbot and said: ‘Better food’.
The abbot obliged, hiring a new chef and improving the food quality at the monastery.
A year later, the monk appeared again to speak his next two words: ‘Warmer blankets’.
The abbot got onto it and purchased new blankets for the monk.
The next year, the monk came in and said: ‘I quit’.
The abbot remarked: ‘Good riddance to him. All he’s done since he got here is complain!’
Over the past few weeks we’ve been thinking about grumbling. We use different words … complaining, moaning, whinging. It’s common enough, and you probably come across it every day. At Wednesday afternoon’s Prime Minister’s Questions, the leader of the opposition couches her moan in the form of six questions. The PM always replies, not with an answer, but with an extended moan about the mess the last government left us in!
It has always been thus. Moses experienced it. The older translations say the people ‘murmured’ against Moses. Lovely word! In Exodus & Numbers, they murmured on 15 different occasions, and that constant negativity must have worn Moses and Aaron right down. Two weeks ago we heard how the people moaned about the food God was providing (manna). They wanted meat, so God responded by deluging them with quail. Then last week we heard that they were moaning about the land God was giving them, because the people were too big and too strong. And this week we see them moaning about Moses and Aaron’s leadership.
The story of Korah’s rebellion, which is the background to Numbers 17, is told in the previous chapter, and it ends with a lot of people dying. You would have thought that after the miraculous deliverance from Egypt, everyone would have felt happy with Moses and Aaron leading them. They had been slaves all their lives, and now there was the prospect of a new home in a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’. But people have short memories and it wasn’t long before the complaints began and, with Korah and his cronies in particular, there was an aggressive challenge to the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
So, in an effort to make it clear to the Israelites whom God wanted to be the high priest, Moses instructed the leaders of each of the 12 tribes to bring their tribal staff or stick. We don’t know exactly what they looked like (maybe quite plain or alternatively with very ornate carvings), but each of them was then placed before the Ark of the Covenant with the name of its tribal leader on it. And God said to Moses, I will make one of those sticks flower, and whoever the stick belongs to, he will be my priest. Amazingly, overnight, one of the sticks did sprout leaves, flowers and even almonds, and it was Aaron’s stick! God had made it crystal clear that Aaron’s tribe, the Levites, would be responsible for overseeing the spiritual life of the nation in future.
Let’s be clear, Aaron is by no means perfect. When Moses was up Mount Sinai receiving the 10 commandments, Aaron failed to stop the people from creating an idol (a golden calf) to worship, yet God still affirms Aaron as high priest. And the importance of this moment is captured in Hebrews 9 where the writer tells us that the Ark of the Covenant contained three things – the stones on which the commandments were written, a jar containing manna, and Aaron’s budding staff.
Now let me just say a few words about leadership and authority. There are two kinds of authority – formal and informal. Formal authority is something we’re pretty familiar with. There’s often some regulatory body that validates someone. So if you want to be a teacher or an electrician or a gas engineer or a lawyer or a nurse or a physiotherapist or even an Anglican priest, you’ll need to be accredited by the relevant body. They authorise you to do your stuff, but usually after some rigorous training and evidence that you’re competent. Informal authority, as you’ve probably guessed, does not involve any regulatory bodies. It’s based more on personal charisma or charm, so you get all sorts of health gurus and even pastors who are personable and persuasive, but they don’t have a recognised qualification or certificate of competence. So you’re left wondering, do these people really know what they’re talking about?
In New Testament times everything was a lot less sophisticated. Those who had formal authority were people like the Teachers of the Law and Pharisees. They didn’t have regulatory bodies like we do now, but they wore a kind of uniform, and the people were encouraged to look up to them. By contrast, Jesus didn’t have any formal qualifications, so you might be surprised to hear me say that His authority was informal. In other words, this whole business of authority, of formal and informal, isn’t an exact science for us. For a whole range of things we very sensibly choose to use someone who’s qualified, but when it comes to spiritual leadership, it’s a bit more complicated. The Catholics and Anglicans are highly regulated, but there have been some scandalous cover-ups in recent years, most notably with the John Smyth case. And the independent, unregulated churches, many of which are currently experiencing huge growth, also have a mixed track record.
So let me make a few general observations about authority and leadership, and our theme of grumbling …
Leadership is necessary
We need leaders! We need people who can see where we need to get to and can chart a course for getting there. That’s true in every walk of life.
Back in 1913, Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, used the idea of an assembly line for building his cars. Along the conveyor belt the car was gradually built, each worker concentrating on one particular task. Ford managed to cut individual production times for his Model-T car from 12½ to 1½ hours!
In an age of decline (the Anglican Church in England has seen falling numbers year on year for 70 years), churches need to reconnect more than ever. People with ideas and vision are few and far between, so we need to pray that God will raise up good leaders.
Leaders need to be encouraged
For a few weeks now we’ve been thinking about the grumbling of God’s people, and this week we’re looking at their complaint that Moses and Aaron were self-appointed leaders. Complaints are always more numerous than compliments. When things go wrong, we look for someone to blame. In football it’s the manager, in business it’s the chief executive. And church leaders also come in for a lot of stick from time to time. We tend to expect good things to be the norm. We’re slow to say ‘thank you’ and quick to criticise. We’re very blessed to have someone in our vicar, Paul, who is a hard worker, not a shirker. And that’s not a given, I can tell you. I’ve seen how hard Paul works. Sometimes people don’t get the appreciation they deserve! Ministers often receive more criticism from inside than outside.
So it’s always worth bringing to mind the instruction of Hebrews 13:17: Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
Actually, on this occasion, Moses and Aaron had done nothing wrong. Korah and his mates were simply after the status Moses and Aaron enjoyed. But they cloaked it cleverly. In Numbers 16:3 they sound like pro-democracy campaigners: You have gone too far! All the members of the community belong to the Lord, and the Lord is with all of us. Why then, Moses, do you set yourself above the Lord’s community? In other words: Moses, you’re an autocrat, a dictator. You’re hogging the limelight. You think you’re more important than the rest of us. Actually, of course, Moses didn’t think that. It was God who had called him and his brother Aaron into positions of leadership, and Korah was simply jealous. There are echoes of this in life. Do you ever feel jealous of those people who’ve been more blessed than you? Maybe they’ve got higher-paid jobs, or their children are better behaved than yours, or they have a nicer house, or they’ve been lucky with their health – and it’s not fair. Life should be a level playing field for everyone, but it’s not.
That’s probably the main point of the Cain and Abel story in Genesis 4. Cain is just angry with God because Abel has been the object of His favour. God tells him to control his envy and anger before it controls him! Sadly he doesn’t. His real anger was against God, but he couldn’t hurt God, so he killed Abel instead.
Jesus is our supreme leader
Human leaders are flawed, sometimes a disappointment. No-one is perfect, and some Christian leaders have proved to be very imperfect. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the scandals.
But notice the parallel between this story and the resurrection of Jesus. In Numbers 17, a dead stick suddenly sprouts leaves and flowers and almonds, and in a similar way a dead Jesus emerges alive and triumphant from a tomb. In the way that God affirmed Aaron’s authority, God affirmed Jesus’ authority by raising Him from the dead. At the end of his Gospel, Matthew records Jesus’ words: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go, and make disciples. In the Book of Acts, the apostles spoke these carefully chosen words – you crucified Him, but God raised Him; you dismissed Him as a deviant, but God affirmed Him as Messiah; you said ‘NO’ to His life, God said a resounding ‘YES’! The NT affirms Jesus as ‘one greater than Moses’ and as the supreme High Priest who can bring us to God, hence our opening verse (Hebrews 4:14).
So in closing, two questions: will you …
- Be an encourager rather than a murmurer?
- Make Jesus Christ your supreme leader, embracing Him as the priest who can bring you to God?
Becoming a Christian is not that complicated. It begins the moment you say: Jesus, I believe that Your way is the right way for the world, and I’m going to follow You. For my part, I hope to do that for as long as I live, and I hope you will too.
St. George's Church Ramsgate 