Come and study the Holy Scriptures with us as Father Stephen DeYoung teaches verse by verse on the podcast, The Whole Council of God.

Father Stephen holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies, and it's an Orthodox priest serving at Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Chapter 17. After this, the Lord spoke to Moses saying,

Speak to the children of Israel and get a rod from them, a rod from each of their father's

houses, from all their rulers according to their father's houses, 12 rods, write each man's name on his rod. You shall also

write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi, for there is one rod that shall be given according to the

tribe of their father's houses. Okay. So the rod, as we've talked about before, was the symbol of

authority. It got that from shepherding and herding,

which is what most of these people were doing

on a nomadic basis.

But the rod is what you used to

knock the sheep upside the head

and get it back in line.

It's what was used for discipline.

That's as opposed to the staff that was used that was sort of the

symbol of care sort of the other side of authority so i sawm 23 you get your rod and your staff

they come from me right both of them right both sides of that authority but so the rod is the

symbol of this sort of authority,

the authority to render judgment, right,

as a broader symbol.

And so God says,

get a rod from the leader of each tribe, right?

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