The dead rod has to be to laid up before God and to go through death.

The rod had absolutely no life in itself.

It was a dead thing.

We have to Acknowledge that we, like the rod, are dead things: useless – utterly useless, without anything whatever to give, without any hope, without the least little fragment to give to a needy world, without one atom of anything of value to God of which He can use.

But when God has taken this dead rod through death, it will Blossom.

It simply has to be Laid Up Before the Lord for Him to Put His Own Life into it.

Into the earthen vessel He Puts That Exceedingly Precious Treasure: His Very Own Life which itself has been through Death and Resurrection.