Today I want to talk about the three sacred objects that were eventually stored inside the Ark of the Covenant.
I’m talking about the budding staff, the jar of manna, and the stone tablets of the 10 Words (or 10 commandments).
In the Bible, the staff, also sometimes called a rod, represented authority.
When Moses announced that his brother Aaron was going to be the High Priest, the other tribal leaders just about lost their minds.
The High Priest held immense power and authority and was effectively the ruling head of the government over all of Israel.
It couldn’t have helped that Aaron was also Moses’ brother.
But another reason the other tribal leaders got so bent out of shape was because both Moses and Aaron were from the Tribe of Levi.
This meant that for quite some time, ruling power in Israel would have been dominated by the Levites.
The squabble between the tribes over this issue got so bad that God Himself had to intervene.
God commanded the tribal leaders to each give their staffs to Moses who carefully laid them out in front of the Ark.
Out of the 12 staffs, only Aaron’s staff sprouted almond blossoms indicating that the Lord had chosen him to be the next High Priest.
This settled the argument once and for all.
So understand that the budding staff symbolized not only the office of High Priest but also that one singular tribe from which all future High Priests were to come: The Tribe of Levi.
However, you may be thinking, “Hey wait a minute here. Yeshua is considered our High Priest but He’s not from the Tribe of Levi but Judah? What gives?”.
Sorry, but that’s a whole other huge topic we’ll have to get into at a later time.
Let’s move on.
The jar of manna represented life.
Of course, this hearkens back to the Israelite’s time in the wilderness when God sent them bread from heaven.
So literally, to the Israelites, manna symbolized the “Bread of Life”, to use a phrase we are all very familiar with.
Finally, the stone tablets containing the 10 DABAR or 10 WORDS of God are those foundational principles behind all of God’s Torah to redeemed mankind.
So to conclude, it is in these three objects that we get a picture of the characteristics of our Savior.
The staff symbolizes Yeshua’s authority as High Priest.
The jar of manna represents Yeshua as the Bread of Life.
And the stone tablets point to Yeshua as being the WORD of God made flesh.
In this way, the Ark shows us the three fundamental characteristics of who the Messiah was to be.
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