The Budding Rod: We are not Able, but what is Impossible with Man is Possible with God

It is so wonderful to be on a divine and mystical tour of the tabernacle with all its furnishings, especially the ark of the testimony! The ark is not merely something that God ordained to be made and put in the Holy of Holies but it is a type of how we can experience Christ as the embodiment of God, the testimony of God, the mingling of God with man, so that we may carry out His economy to establish His kingdom on earth!

The ark was made of acacia wood (a type of the proper, high, and strong humanity of Jesus) overlaid with gold (a type of the divinity of Christ); in Christ as the testimony of God we see the mingling of divinity with humanity to produce a God-man. We need to eat Jesus in His humanity and partake of His being, and He in us will live the God-man life to be God’s testimony.

In the ark of the covenant there is the golden pot with the hidden manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the law. The hidden manna is the center of the universe, and the way for us to experience the hidden manna is to eat Christ in the presence of God when there’s no distance between us and Him; when we enjoy Christ in a most hidden and intimate way in God’s presence, we eat Him as the hidden manna.

When we eat Christ as the hidden manna, we minister to the Lord and we do everything in direct fellowship with Him according to His heart and His intention. It is here, in God’s presence, that we are charged with Him, with His intention, and with all that He wants us to do.

Today we want to go on and see the spiritual significance and how we can experience the budding rod, the lifeless rod of Aaron that was put before God and it budded and even brought forth almonds in resurrection. It is only when we come to the end of ourselves, realizing our own inability, that God can come in and operate in us in resurrection to do everything through us and in us.

The Budding Rod: the Resurrected Christ is our Life and Living for our Service

In Num. 16 there was a big rebellion against Moses and Aaron: 250 men of renown with many others who followed them rebelled against God’s chosen ones; they thought that Moses and Aaron were too much, and they themselves also should be in the lead.

After God dealt with this rebellion, He told each of the leaders of the twelve tribes to bring their rod (with their name written on it) and put it before them in the tabernacle before the testimony, and the rod that God chooses will bud (see Num. 17). Each rod was a lifeless, leafless, rootless, and dry stick that was cut from the tree; it was humanly impossible for such a rod to bud, since there was no life in it.

However, the next day Aaron’s rod budded, blossomed, and even brought forth ripe almonds (see Num. 17:8). The budding rod of Aaron typifies not a dead Christ but the resurrected Christ, the budding Christ, the Christ who not only defeated death but buds, blossoms, and bears fruit to maturity in resurrection (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3). We are the fruits, the almonds, of Christ’s budding and bearing fruit in resurrection!

All the twelve rods were leafless, rootless, dry, and dead, and whichever one budded was the chosen by God; here we see that resurrection is the basis of God’s selection, and that the basis of service is something apart from our natural life.

The budding rod signifies our experience of Christ in His resurrection as our acceptance by God for authority in the God-given ministry.

Resurrection is everything that is not out of our natural life, not out of ourselves, and not based on our ability. Resurrection speaks of the things that are beyond us, which we cannot do in ourselves….If a man has never realized his own inability, he can never experience God’s ability….Resurrection means that God has given us something that we did not have in ourselves….Resurrection means that you cannot make it and that God is the One who has done everything. (Watchman Nee, Authority and Submission, ch. 15)

We may think that whoever is most powerful, eloquent, highly educated, and able is the one who should take the lead, but in God’s eyes the basis of service is our experience of Christ in His resurrection, and He manifests that those who go through death and experience Christ in resurrection are the ones qualified to have authority.

This should be the principle in serving God: doing everything in resurrection by seeing that we cannot make it so God is the One who can and should do it in us.

The budding rod signifies that Christ – the resurrected One – should be our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us, and that his life should bud, blossom, and bear fruit to maturity!

Leadership among God’s people is Christ Himself as the resurrection life which buds, blossoms, and bears fruit to feed God’s people (not to rule over them outwardly).

Lord Jesus, we want to experience You as the resurrection life within us so that You may bud, blossom, and bear fruit to maturity for feeding God’s people. Lord, we admit that in ourselves we are nothing and we can do nothing; we need You to come in and do everything in us and through us. Oh Lord Jesus, without You we are nothing and we can do nothing! Keep us turning to You in spirit to enjoy and experience You as the resurrection life and bear fruit to feed others with Christ in resurrection!

Realizing our own Inability: what is Impossible with Man is Possible with God!

The principle of serving God can be clearly seen in the budding rod: in ourselves we are nothing, we can do nothing, and we are dead, dried, lifeless, leafless, and rootless, but in resurrection we are full of life, blossoming, and bearing fruit to maturity for the manifestation of God’s authority and the feeding of God’s people.

The budding rod is the vindication of someone in resurrection, who is not in rebellion but experiencing Christ as resurrection life.

Resurrection means that everything is of God and not of us; it means that we are not able but God alone is able. We have a treasure in our earthen vessel, but the excellency of the power is not of us but of God, the treasure within us (2 Cor. 4:7).

God testifies again and again to His people that authority to serve God lies in resurrection, not in a person himself. All services to the Lord must pass through death and resurrection before they will be acceptable to God. Resurrection means that everything is of God and not of us. It means that God alone is able and that we are not able. Resurrection means that everything is done by God, not by ourselves. All those who think highly of themselves and who hold a misguided judgment of themselves have never realized what resurrection is. No one should be mistaken to think that he can do anything by himself. If a man continues to think that he is able, that he can do something, and that he is useful, he does not know resurrection….All those who know resurrection have given up hope in themselves; they know that they cannot make it. As long as the natural strength remains, the power of resurrection has no ground for manifestation. As long as Sarah could beget a child, Isaac would not come. What we can do belongs to the natural realm, and what is impossible for us to do belongs to the realm of resurrection. (Watchman Nee, Authority and Submission, ch. 15)

Sarah was past the time that she could naturally bear a son, and Abraham was 100 years old, but God came and promised them that they will have a son; Sarah then laughed – this was her first laugh, thinking in herself, “this is impossible with man!” Later, after Isaac was born, she said, God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me… – she laughed because “it is possible with God”.

What is impossible with man is possible with God, and the things that man says are impossible are possible with Him. But as long as we can still do things in our natural strength, the power of resurrection cannot be manifested; when we come to the end of ourselves and are convinced of our utter uselessness, God can come in to make all things possible and manifest His resurrection life.

If we have never realized our own inability, we can never experience God’s ability, but when we realize how short we are and how impossible it is to serve God or do anything for God in ourselves, God can come in and do everything to us and for us.

It was impossible for us to be saved, but God made it possible; it was impossible for us to come into the church life, but with God this was possible; now it seems to be impossible for us to still remain in the church life, but by His resurrection life God can make it possible.

Many times the Lord puts us in situations beyond our power so that we may not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, the One who is resurrection life itself (see 2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:7).

Praise You, Lord: what is impossible with men is possible with God! May we realize our own inability so that we may experience God’s ability! Lord, we cannot make it, we cannot do it, and we cannot be it: be the One in us who can make it, do it, and be it! Oh Lord, bring us fully in the realm of resurrection! May we realize and apply the principle of resurrection in our service to God so that we would do everything through death and resurrection by allowing God to do everything in us and through us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” ch. 15, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 1 (week 25), The Ark of the Testimony.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # When the resurrection life / Is made real in pow’r to me, / As the rod with sprouting buds, / I will then accepted be. (Hymns #769)
  # When I am in the natural man, / How very strong I feel I am. / I do not know, I cannot scan / How weak I am…. / I want to pray, but faith have not, / I fain would seek Thee as Thou art. / Oh, canst Thou e’er renew my heart, / Have mercy, Lord! (Hymns #430)
  # All things are possible to God; / To Christ, the power of God in man; / To me when I am all renewed, / In Christ am fully formed again, / And from the reign of sin set free, / All things are possible to me. (Hymns #535)