A real-time blog: The Letter to the Hebrews – final post, VII, Aaron’s Rod
To summarise, the writer is addressing a problem that has occurred with the recipients of the letter, a group of Jewish believers who seem to have stopped growing. He reminds them of God’s dual purpose for them. Firstly that God is ‘bringing many sons to glory’ and, secondly, that they need to move on from milk to meat - to ‘move on to maturity’.
In the Old Testament the ‘glory’ was contained in the ark of the covenant held inside the Holy of Holies, the innermost room in the temple, this being an earthly copy of the heavenly original. The ‘ark’ was a wooden box (acacia wood) covered in gold. Inside the box were the Tablets of the Law, a pot of manna, and Aaron’s budding rod.
It is a picture of Christ and therefore of us, in Him.
Our bodies, souls, and our new human spirit given via the New Covenant, combine to make merely a container for His glory. We are overlaid not with gold – but the glory of God. And on our insides, in our spirit, are the Law, written not on stone but by the Spirit in our hearts, not a pot of mann but the bread of heaven, the word of God, and, like Aaron’s dead stick that budded, resurrection life.
We, who have become sons of God through Christ, are glory pots.
‘…we have this treasure in earthen vessels…’ 2 Cor 4 v 7
The glory residing in the most unlikely of containers. We have become mini temples with God dwelling inside:
‘Your body is the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you’ 1 Cor 3 v 17
There was only one occasion where He permitted a few of his disciples to see His normally invisible glory – the Transfiguration.
‘His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them’ Mark 9 v3
But the truth is, most of the time the glory of God resided in Christ unnoticed: lying as a baby in a stable, or as a refugee fleeing from Herod, or facing hostility from the synagogue in Nazareth, or the Pharisees as they opposed Him, or being whipped and crucified, and later lying dead in the tomb.
But death could not hold Him. Aaron’s rod budded.
It will be similar for us. We suffer, and as we operate as sons of God in this world in Christ, we move on to maturity through obedience to the leading of the Spirit. We may or may not have occasional glimpses of the glory, but finally, like Jesus, we enter into the glory that has been ours all along.