Read with Me
Exodus 4:1-5 (HCSB)
Then Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
The LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. Moses ran from it, but the LORD told him, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. “This will take place,” He continued, “so they will believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
Listen with Me
Despite God’s assurances of His presence and His power, Moses was still doubtful that the leaders of the Israelites would believe that He had spoken to him or had sent him. He needed more persuasion.
God realized that this was not rebellion in Moses heart but simply fear. Moses had little knowledge of God or of His history with the Israelites. He only knew what he had learned from his father-in-law, the priest of Midian (Exodus 3:1), who had received what his ancestor, Midian, had learned from his father Abraham (Genesis 25:1) more than four centuries earlier. Abraham was faithful to what he knew of God, but he didn’t know a lot. So, the knowledge of the Midianites was limited as well.
God gave Moses three signs that would persuade the elders of Israel that God’s encountered with him was real, and that his message of deliverance was also real. The first was turning his shepherd’s staff into a snake.
The miracle needed three things from Moses in order to succeed. The first was the willingness of Moses to realize that something he had could be used by God in a miraculous way. His staff was simply a branch that had been broken or cut off from a tree. Most of the bark had worn off through long use, and the staff itself had become so familiar to him that he really didn’t see it as anything special. In fact, most of the time, even when he was holding it, he wasn’t really aware of its presence.
The second thing needed from Moses to make the miracle real was his willingness to give up what he had in God’s service. When God commanded Moses to throw his staff on the ground, He gave him no clue as to what would happen. As far as Moses knew, God could have been commanding him to throw the staff away for good. And at that moment, Moses became acutely aware of the reality of his possession, and the fact that God was taking control of it. Moses made the decision to comply, and he tossed the staff on the ground, where it immediately transformed into a snake.
The third thing needed from Moses was to be persistent all the way to the end. At first, Moses was completely freaked out by the miracle, and he ran away in terror. But God needed him to not allow the strangeness of the power that was being demonstrated to keep him from completing the work God had called him to do. So, God called him back and commanded him to pick up the serpent by the tail. And when he obeyed, the staff became a staff again in his hand.
Pray with Me
Father, I have seen you work several amazing miracles, and the same three things were needed in my own experience as they were in Moses’ experience. You needed me to realize that what I had could be used by you, even if it was myself. Then, I had to give You control of that resource, even if it was myself. And finally, I had to not allow myself to be so intimidated by what You were doing that I pulled back and failed to see Your work through to the end. Help me, Lord, to always keep myself open and obedient, so that You can continue to do mighty miracles through me. Amen.