Chapter 17

Moses puts a staff with the name of each tribe before the Lord.  Aaron's staff is among them.  Aaron's staff buds, has flowers, and ripe almonds.  The others have nothing.  When Moses brings out the staffs, the people say "We are undone".  They believe that now, if any of them comes near the tabernacle, they will die.

2023 - It is like they finally realize how wrong they have been in the past, and they fear that God will still seek vengeance against them.  They are afraid that if they come to worship, he will use the "opportunity" to strike them down.  They see God as the pagans see their gods at this point.  They are still acting like Egyptians.

So they finally fear the Lord.  This demonstration was intended to stop their grumbling against the leadership of Moses and Aaron once and for all. 

It is interesting that Aaron is the one who fashioned the golden calf when the people rose up to play.  He had himself fashioned the graven images that the people worshiped instead of God, and he burned incense to these images.  Yet God still makes him High Priest and backs him when the people rebel.