NOTES for Num 17:1-13
The most reliable testimony to a person's rightness or wrongness is a sign from God. Like those staffs, or rods, one of which blossomed. The staff of a tribal elder is a symbol of his authority. Of his power. In those days, power was inseparable from authority, as it is today, yet then power was not only physical, but also other, more than natural, supernatural. Without such power one could be neither a true leader, nor a true elder, nor a true warrior. And one could not be a priest either; that goes without saying, since a person connected with the world of gods and spirits had to be, above all, a person of power. Of course, the Levitical priesthood is not traditional priestcraft.
Moses' community was from the beginning more prophetic than priestly. Sacrifices and everything connected with worship were, for Moses and for those closest to him, more an addition to the main thing. The main thing was communion with God as such, those very meetings with God face to face about which the Pentateuch speaks so often. In such communion with God, power was not the main thing. A far greater role was played by a person's awareness of God's will as it was revealed to him in inner experience, and by God's love. Such revelation means more for knowing God and for communion with God than the experience of contact with God's power. Yet there were moments when the manifestation of God's power was precisely what could dot the i's.
Of course, God could not be forced; therefore the staffs are simply left in the Tabernacle, leaving God to do what He considers necessary. If a person possesses power, and if God Himself gives him that power, it cannot fail to show itself in the person's life. In his surroundings. Through his things, even though they are not a direct extension of the human body, they nevertheless touch it directly. A staff is something very personal; it is a symbol of the person. In those days people said that a person's soul was in his staff, just as samurai say that a warrior's soul is in his sword. In a person who possesses power, that power cannot fail to show itself even in his staff.
So it is in the story: to whom will God give power? The staff of each of the twelve elders is placed before God; He is to choose. The blossoming staff is an obvious sign, an undeniable miracle. No human being has enough power to make a stick bloom; only God can do that. The answer is obvious: God gives His power to Aaron, and the dispute is over.