What's That I See in Your Hands?

Has God ever told you to do something?  Did you hesitate? 

Who me?  Are You sure, Lord?  Could You tell me why?  What if they get mad?  What if they don't listen?  What if they think I am foolish?  What if they think that You couldn't possibly ask me to do that?  What if my family doesn't understand?  It's all I have, so what will I do then?

And the what if's go on and on and on.  We have all probably questioned God's ideas more often than we would like to admit.  Sadly, many times God has to talk us into obeying Him.

If you find yourself in this situation, take heart.  You are in good company because many of the heroes of the faith asked the same questions.

In Exodus 3-4, God told Moses that He had seen the misery of His people, the Israelites.  I have heard their cries and know their suffering; I will rescue them the bring them to a good place. 

So, God told Moses to go.  I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.

Moses' first response to God's directive was, "Who am I?"   Who? . . . gulp . . . Me?

God then began the difficult task of convincing Moses that this was His plan, that His plan was a good plan, and that the plan would work.

The dialogue went something like this.

God:  Be encouraged, Moses.  I will be with you. 

 

Moses:  Suppose I go and they ask who sent me?

What will I tell them?

 

God:  Tell them that, "I AM has sent me to you."

 

 

Again, God told Moses to go.  He even told him what to say and how both the Israelites and the Egyptians would react and how the Israelites would eventually plunder Egypt. 

 

Moses:  What if they do not believe me or listen to me?

What if they say that God didn't tell me to do this?

 

At this point, God turns the tables and begins questioning Moses. 

 

God:  What is that in your hand?

 

Moses:  A staff [stick].

 

God:  Throw it on the ground.

 

Hmmmmmm . . . seems simple enough.  So, Moses threw his staff/stick on the ground and it became a snake and Moses ran from it.  I run from snakes too.  God had transformed this ordinary staff/stick into something extraordinary.  Now reach out your hand and take it by the tail.  Since God had said this and had done the extraordinary, Moses had enough faith to do as God had asked.  He stooped and took hold of the snake by the tail.  Immediately, the snake was transformed again back into the staff/stick.  And God said, "This is so that they may believe."  It was also so that Moses would believe.  Now the stick was no longer Moses' stick; it was God's.

 

If you read further, you will find that Moses still wasn't convinced.  Finally, God provided a companion to go along with Moses to help him work the plan.

 

Sometimes, we too struggle with that which God would have us do.  We struggle to obey and question God's judgment.  We ask for confirmation in order to be convinced.  Hopefully, we will become quicker to obey in the future so that our first and only response will be an immediate "Yes, Lord."

 

In our struggle to obey, we need to look carefully at what we have in our hands.  Moses' staff represented who he was - a shepherd.  It also represented his life's work at that moment.  Furthermore, it represented all that he owned.  His identity, his career, his possessions - these were Moses' stick.  God asked for that stick and then transformed it into something extraordinary, something totally different, something that even frightened Moses at first. 

 

We can be encouraged by Moses' story.  We all have a "stick" in our hands - an identity, a career, a dream, possessions, talents, abilities.  God may one day ask all of us to throw down one or all of these things.  Then, in His great mercy, He will graciously transform all that we have given Him into something extraordinary, something that might scare us, too, at first.  

 

Take heart and do not be afraid.  Believe in God's plans, purposes, and goodness and pick it up and go in His grace so that all may believe.