The instigators were buried alive. The collaborators died by the fire of their own ketores pans. The sympathizers, some of them, met their end in the plague that was put to rest by Aharon himself. At this point, would anyone ever again venture to question the divine direction that appointed Moshe and Aharon to their position?
Yet we are told (17:25) that we need one more miraculous validation to in fact free us of further questions and complaints. That is why Hashem directs each tribe to represent itself with a barren almond branch and place them in the Mishkan overnight. Only the "dead" branch of Aharon and the Levi tribe came alive with buds, flower and fruit. Surely, if any questioning observer who found the earthquake, the fire sweep and the plague all to be random, would hardly be won over by a flowering almond stick. So why bother? Why was it successful?
To be sure the miracle of the almond stick was quite nuanced and multi-tiered, displaying in quick succession the actual growth of the almond from bud to blossom to flower to fruit. There must more to this than one additional validation; there must be another message.
Indeed Harav Moshe Shternbuch, of Yerushalayim's Eida Chareidis, writes that the almond stick miracle addresses a new and unannounced question. Undoubtedly, after three acts of targeted and timely divine intervention no honest and sincere Jew held a shred of doubt regarding the appointment of Moshe or Aharon or any other of their appointees.
Quite the opposite. Entirely lionized and iconized by Hashem Himself, Moshe and Aharon were now beyond human grasp. Would anyone of us think that Hashem would defy natural order in order to defend any of us even once, and certainly three times?! Would any young member of the tribe harbor the dreams of becoming the next Aharon or Moshe? Even their finest students had to wonder whether they could take lessons from the lives of their rebbeim; maybe they were sui generis and had nothing to model for the rest of the people.
Here is where Hashem had to effect damage control and these were the "complaints" that had to be addressed before the parsha could be brought to a close. Every Jew had to learn that even the one who was defended thrice by Hashem was ultimately chosen because he was able to flourish even where no growth was expected, and could nourish further fruit and offspring in such a situation. And, even more directly relevant to the "complaints" that needed to be addressed, the "dead" branch/staff bearing fruit in the Mishkan teaches us that the Aharons and Moshes of our people are precisely those who can bear fruit, i.e. add new value, even in the most sacred places known to man where one might think that he can't possibly add anything. Every Jew had to recognize that even if they were not yet the staff, they could be the bud, the flower or the fruit.
The modern day rendition of Aharon's staff is the much celebrated letter (Pachad Yitzchak, letters, #128) penned by Harav Hutner (1904-1980) the rosh yeshiva of Mesivta Chaim Berlin. His words, written to a former student apparently disappointed that his youthful aspirations of greatness were now out of reach, have inspired many:
It is a terrible problem that when we discuss the greatness of our gedolim, we actually deal only with the end of their stories. We tell about their perfection, but we omit any mention of the inner battles which raged in their souls. The impression one gets is that they were created with their full stature.
For example, everyone is impressed by the purity of the Chafetz Chaim's speech. However, who knows about all the wars, the battles, the impediments, the downfalls, and the retreats that the Chafetz Chaim experienced in his fight with the evil inclination?!
As a result, when a young man who is imbued with a [holy] spirit and with ambition experiences impediments and downfalls, he believes that he is not planted in the house of Hashem. This is because this young man thinks that being planted in Hashem's house means experiencing tranquility of the soul, "in lush meadows beside tranquil waters" [Tehilim 23:2].
However, know my friend, that the key for your soul is not the tranquility of the yetzer hatov, but the war against the yetzer hara. Your letter testifies that you are a faithful warrior in the army of the yetzer hatov. There is a saying in English, "Lose the battle and win the war." You surely have stumbled and will stumble again, and you will be vanquished in many battles. However, I promise you that after you have lost those battles, you will emerge from the war with a victor's wreath on your head.