Image: Almond blossoms.
When men enter their most bitter conflicts, how do they resolve them? When men fight over land, religion, power, and money, what tool do they use to determine the winner?
DEATH.
We’re talking about war, of course. Yes, we try to negotiate. We try to work out our differences. The worst of tyrants will often offer “terms of peace,” though the terms are often less like peace and more like naked theft. Before invading Poland, Adolf Hitler asked only a few things, notably the city of Danzig. You know, the old, Give me this one city, or I will take the whole nation. Countless tyrants have done the same. Such “peace terms” are nothing more than a land grab. The tyrant is met with armed resistance, and war is inevitable.
That is the way powerful old men settle their differences—by killing each other’s sons.
Men use DEATH to settle their differences. God uses LIFE.
When the Israelites rebelled against God’s leaders, accusing Moses of thinking too highly of himself, they were rebelling against God. The people shook their fists at God in a manner so egregious, the earth opened up and swallowed the worst of the rebels (Number 16:31-34), and others were consumed by fire (Numbers 16:35).
Then those who remained dared to blame Moses, saying “You have killed the people of the Lord!” Numbers 16:41. At that point, God was fed up and told Moses to step back. Suddenly a plague broke out, but Moses begged God for mercy and God stopped the plague. When the dust cleared, some fourteen thousand were gone. Some swallowed up by the earth, some killed by fire, and some killed by plague, Numbers 16:49.
This must look like an odd story to illustrate that unlike men, God does not use death to resolve conflicts or to settle differences. We will get to the conflict resolution. As for the dead, Numbers 16 is not a story of God waging war against His people. God is not an earthly general and He does not use death to force a vanquished nation to surrender. God is Holy and sovereign. He knows human hearts and He is motivated by love. Numbers 16 is a story of God, in His holy wisdom, removing from Israel the deeply evil influences who were spreading dissension and discord.
Once that was done, God offered conflict resolution to those who remained. The conflict was about leadership. People had begun to question whether Moses was really God’s man for the job. Of course, God had chosen Moses. Remember the burning bush? Remember Pharaoh and the miracles and the plagues? Remember the Passover? The parting of the Red Sea? The Ten Commandments?
But sometimes there is no convincing people. This is one of those cases where God’s people had rejected wisdom and common sense.
They would not listen to reason—and these were God’s people. (That is something to think about.) No amount of logic could persuade them. Not only that, even the earth swallowing up the rebel leaders did not convince them. Fire coming down from heaven did not convince them. The plague that killed 14,000 people in a matter of minutes did not convince them.
Death could not convince God’s people to trust Moses. Only life could do that.
God had a plan. He told Moses to collect one rod from each of the tribes of Israel. The leader of each tribe was to write his name on his rod.
“‘On the staff of Levi write Aaron’s name, for there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral tribe. Place them in the tent of meeting in front of the ark of the covenant, where I meet with you. The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites.’ …
“The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the Lord’s presence to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each of the leaders took his own staff. The Lord said to Moses, ‘Put back Aaron’s staff in front of the ark of the covenant, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die.’” Numbers 17:3-11.
Can you imagine life blooming out of an old wooden staff? Aaron’s rod came from Egypt. It had once turned into a snake in front of Pharaoh. This was nothing more than a dried-up old stick. A walking stick. For years, Aaron had been leaning on one end and punching the other end into the rocky ground. And then one night he carves his name into it and hands it over to Moses.
The next day, the worn-out old stick had grown branches, leaves, flowers, and fully ripe almonds! What an incredible miracle! What a miracle of LIFE! And no one questioned the leadership of Moses and Aaron again. The old dead stick that grew almonds convinced everyone.
Aaron’s “rod that budded” did what an earthquake, fire from heaven, and a plague could not. The rod that budded settled the conflict. God sent LIFE to win this argument. God settled a dispute with life, not death.
Later Jesus crafted this into a principle for sorting false teachers from true: look for people who create and nurture life. Look for those whose lives bear fruit.
You will know them by their fruit.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?” Matthew 7:15-16.
Who better to give us a principle about fruit than Jesus? He bore fruit every day, bringing healing and wholeness to thousands.
He raised issues with the Pharisees, then resolved those issues with life.
He healed on the sabbath.
He restored life to Jairus’s daughter.
He raised Lazarus from the grave.
He healed crippled hands and crippled feet, and blind eyes and deaf ears.
He healed leprosy.
He restored life and sanity and peace to the demon possessed.
He traveled the length and breadth of Israel, bringing life everywhere He went.
His ministry was a ministry of life. And He promised life to the thief on the cross. And He returned from death, “the firstborn among many brethren.” His own resurrection was the ultimate example: He settled conflicts not with death, but with life. With His own LIFE.
And we are part of that. We are to bear fruit.
Does your life bear fruit?
Do you abide in the vine, drinking of the Living Water so God can bear fruit through you? Just as He says about false teachers above, Jesus again compares life to a rich, healthy grapevine, and death to a dried-up branch, good for nothing but the fire:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” Matthew 15:4-6.
Dear God, show us how to abide in the vine—how to abide in YOU. May we bear fruit for Your Kingdom every day. May we bring life wherever we go. Use us to nourish and nurture, to plant seeds, water seeds, and reap the harvest for Your Kingdom. And God, grant us discernment, so that we truly will ‘know them by their fruits.’ Protect us from false teachers and wrong ideas. Sharpen our ability to sniff out Your life, Your truth among the opinions around us every day. And show us how to use life to resolve conflict. May we be ministers of life every day. Be glorified in us.
AΩ.
Household Words: 