And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. (KJV)
Moses, in the wilderness, was speaking the Word of God over and over, and in the middle of the book of Numbers, Moses asks the prices of each tribe to each give him a rod (staff). This is a time before mass commercialization, before mass production, so each of these staves was hand-carved. It probably had symbols that we wouldn't recognize today, were likely of specific heft, and they all were likely specific to the individual who used them. Likewise, they likely each had a family crest of some sort.
It would have been a big deal to hand over the family staff - there were probably rituals that rose around the staves. Maybe they were only used in certain functions. Maybe they were under lock and key, or perhaps a minor hazing would result if one family's youth "borrowed" a family staff. Or maybe they were sacred objects, dedicated to that family's spiritual walk, with each staff being a kind of spiritual anchor for that family, an abstract representation of what that family was proud of, stood for, or most identified with.
In addition to being a kind of family crest, staves are weapons. And unlike most other weapons, they are every-day sorts of things - it is rare, while walking through the wilderness, that a staff would not be useful. Possibly it was used as a hangar, frame for carrying luggage, or other things, but staves are also useful in protecting the family, as well as general offense.
Another aspect to staves is they tend to be quite tall. The use, for a family travelling in a pack through the wilderness, would have been to provide a kind of guidon - a symbolic flag for the family to follow.
So we have an object that was both spiritual and physical protection and guidance of each tribe.
Thus, for Moses to ask for each family's staff, the setting must have been quite an amazing thing.
Do you have a staff of your own?
Do you have some object you hold dear, that you associate personal comfort, hope, guidance, satisfaction, or general well-being with?
Will you offer it to God?
Will you voluntarily hold it up and allow God to guide your hands and heart in the use of it?
I challenge you to draw near to Christ Jesus and ask Him to reveal what you might hold as your family's guidon.
And then I challenge you to offer it to Jesus, to do with as He will.
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