DAILY DEVOTIONAL – December 5, 2019
“What’s In Your Hand?”
Prayer: Our Gracious God, not only have You freely given us Your forgiveness and salvation through the blood of Your Son Jesus, but You have also given us so many gifts and abilities with which to worship and serve You. We ask that You mercifully work Your power in and through us for the sake and glory of Your holy name. Amen.
Scripture: Exodus 4:1-5
Then Moses answered, “[Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? (3:11)] But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
Devotional – “What’s In Your Hand?”
So here Moses is, living in Midian as a shepherd tending to the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro. In the solitary life of a shepherd, Moses undoubtedly had much time to think and reflect. I imagine it was often that his thoughts drifted back to the days growing up as an adopted grandson of Pharaoh, enjoying the luxuries of palace life. I am sure it wasn’t long before those memories were rudely interrupted by the memory of what made him flee Egypt and settle in Midian; the memory of how he killed the Egyptian officer who Moses saw beating one of his fellow Hebrew people. The mental slide show continues with his fearful run through the desert until he reached the well at Midian where he rescued the daughters of Jethro from some other ill-intentioned shepherds, and then received Jethro’s daughter Zipporah as his wife and as a gesture of his father-in-law’s gratitude.
All of a sudden, Moses’ daydream is interrupted by the bright shimmering light of a bush engulfed in flames yet failing to be consumed by the fire. Though enthralled by such a marvel, the last thing Moses probably expected was to hear the voice of God boom forth from the burning bush and call him by name, “Moses! Moses!” What else was there to say when the Almighty calls you other than, “Here I am.”
Just moments ago, Moses was lost in the thoughts of a life that used to be, a life I am sure in his mind was never to return, and it certainly would be understandable if there was a part of Moses that was perfectly okay with that. Then, without warning, the next moment Moses hears God say:
“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
Can you imagine the thoughts that raced through Moses’ head at this point? “Egypt?! Okay, I must be dreaming here. Certainly, Lord, You don’t mean the same Egypt that I ran away from…the same Pharaoh that wants my head on a plate!” However, Moses knew this was no dream. Moses’ reply to the Lord certainly is understandable isn’t it? Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? They will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.” Moses’ own people would surely believe he had lost his mind. Not only did he kill an Egyptian and appear on Pharaoh’s most wanted list, but if they were to learn how Moses spent the last 40 years as a nomadic shepherd, they no doubt would conclude that his claims of speaking to God were a desert-induced hallucination.
It’s at this point that I think we often miss one of the largest miracles in this well-known story of the Bible. In order to quiet Moses’ fears and give him the assurance that God was in control even as He sends Moses to be His messenger, God says, “What is that in your hand?” “My staff” Moses replies. “Throw it on the ground” God commanded. Moses laid down his staff and ran afraid as God turned it into a serpent.
What’s the big miracle here? It’s not the fact that God turned a staff into a snake. The big miracle here is found in God’s question, “What’s that in your hand?” God didn’t drop a special golden staff out of the sky or give Moses instructions on how to go and make a fancier or more impressive staff that would stand a better chance of wowing and convincing the Israelites and convincing Pharaoh to let them go. God asked, “What is that in your hand?” Moses simply replied, “a staff.” No thrills or bells or whistles, just, a staff like every other average shepherd would have had.
Whether Moses realized it or not, God had already equipped him with everything needed in order to faithfully carry out the awesome task God had put before him. Whether or not Moses yet fully believed it was possible for God to use him to free the Israelites from Pharaoh’s tyrannical grip, God demonstrated to Moses that it would not be by his eloquence or power that Pharaoh would be convinced to let the Israelites go, but by God’s mercy and power. Moses could march back to Egypt with full confidence not because of the brilliance of his staff or of his own life that the staff chronicled, but because as God said to Moses at the burning bush, “The place on which you are standing is holy ground. I have come down to deliver the Israelites out of the hand of the Egyptians and bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Before the burning bush, I wouldn’t be surprised if, as Moses reflected back on the broken road that led Him from the palace halls of Egypt to the desert hills of Midian, he shook his head at the thought of ever being able to go back to see his family, his friends and his people. With a shepherd’s staff now in the same hands that used to partake of the finest things in life, I imagine it was impossible for Moses to imagine that someone like him could be used for such magnificent things by the Almighty God of the Universe. As Moses said in response to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh that you may bring my, people, the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
Little did Moses realize at the time the extent of God’s mercy and redemptive love. It was exactly because Moses knew of his own brokenness and put little confidence in himself that God chose him. As the Lord told St Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The same holds true for you and for me my friends. God’s grace is sufficient for us and His power is made perfect in our weakness.
Like Moses, I know we could all look back on our lives and shake our heads at many things. I am sure for all of us, in one way or another, we look at the staff in our hands and wonder how it is we got here. Maybe some of the relationships in your life aren’t where you had hoped they would be by now. Maybe you’re working a job that seems to you as shepherding did to Moses. Maybe you’ve fallen on difficult times that make you daydream of what used to be. My friends, do not despair! Regardless of where you are at in your life or what desert road brought you there, if God would appear to you in a burning bush this evening, He would say to you exactly what He said to Moses, “Take the sandals off of your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground!” God is with you.
God fulfilled His promise to Adam and Eve and to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses. God has in fact come down to deliver not just Israel but all of us by putting on our flesh in order that He would die our death on the cross and rise again from the dead in order to bring us into the heavenly home He has prepared for all who trust in Jesus Christ.
Just as God used the very ordinary staff that Moses held in his hands and that had his life story engraved into it, God wants to use your life as it is right now and wants to use what you hold in your hands right now in order to work His power and love in and through your life. Having life work out just the way you always thought it would or wanted it to be will never satisfy you. However, throwing down your life at the feet of the cross, as Moses threw down his staff, and allowing God to use you right where you’re at and use what you have right this moment is what will bring your life eternal purpose and fill your heart with all of the awe and wonder you could ever hope to experience as you watch the power of God be made perfect in your weakness.
God comes to you and I today and calls us to lay our life at His feet, our life that He bled and died in order to save. By His grace and power may we withhold nothing from His love so that as He did through Moses and his staff, God would work His will even through us.
Thanks for spending some devotional time with me today, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
