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# Hope in Dry Places
- URL: https://www.chrisknightwrites.com/hope-in-dry-places/
- Published: 2026-09-10T10:30:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-10T10:30:12.000Z
- Author: Chris Knight
- Tags: Daily Devotionals, Book of Numbers

Numbers 17:1–11

There are some things you look at and think, “Yeah, I’m not sure anything is happening there.” Maybe it is a plant you forgot to water, a patch of grass that surrendered sometime around mid-July or that home improvement project you started with great enthusiasm three months ago and have been successfully ignoring ever since. Sometimes we look at something and simply cannot imagine anything new coming from it.

That is what makes Numbers 17 so fascinating. After Korah’s rebellion and all the conflict surrounding Aaron’s leadership, God told Moses to collect a staff from the leader of each of Israel’s twelve tribes. Aaron’s staff represented the tribe of Levi. These were not fresh branches sitting in a vase of water. They were walking sticks. Dry pieces of wood. Nobody was standing around wondering which one might bloom by morning.

Moses placed the staffs in the Tabernacle before the Lord. When he returned the next morning, something incredible had happened. *“Look! Aaron’s staff, representing the tribe of Levi, had sprouted, budded, blossomed, and produced ripe almonds!”* (Numbers 17:8, NLT).

I love that God did not just produce one tiny green sprout. That would have made the point. Instead, Aaron’s staff sprouted, budded, blossomed and produced almonds. God went all the way to fruit.

Maybe you have an area of your life that feels a little like Aaron’s staff right now. A relationship that seems beyond repair. A dream that did not turn out the way you hoped. A season you did not expect. A prayer you have prayed for so long that, if you are honest, you have stopped expecting much to happen. You look at it and see dry wood. God sees possibilities you cannot.

That does not mean God will restore every situation exactly the way we want. Sometimes His answer looks very different from ours. **Numbers 17 reminds us that our inability to see a way forward does not mean God has run out of options.**

So bring God the dry places. Bring Him the disappointment, the unanswered prayer, the exhausted hope and the situation you do not know how to fix. Aaron’s staff could not make itself blossom. It simply rested in the presence of God.

Maybe that is where you need to begin today. Stop trying to force the outcome and place it before the Lord. Trust Him with what happens next. The God who brought almonds from dry wood is still able to bring unexpected growth, renewed hope and beautiful fruit from places where you cannot yet see anything growing.