What Is That in Your Hand?

I love Wednesday nights at Grace. There’s always delicious food (thank you, Louise), great fellowship, and engaging Bible study. This season we have been studying the book of Exodus. It never stops amazing me how we discover new “nuggets,” even from familiar Bible stories we have heard from our youth and from Bible passages we have read many times before. This was true for me with the story of the burning bush and God’s calling of Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt.

We see in Exodus 3 and 4 that despite a personal encounter with God at the burning bush and a God-given commission to lead his fellow-Israelites out of Egypt, Moses was reluctant to go. Moses made excuse after excuse to the effect that he should not do it and God should pick someone else. “Who am I that I should go?” “They won’t believe me or listen to my voice.” “I don’t have the skills—I’m not eloquent.” Moses wasn’t perfect, and perhaps his reluctance was understandable. Nevertheless, as we see in the passage, God provided a response to every one of Moses’s excuses.

At one point in their exchange, God said to Moses: “What is that in your hand?” Moses replied, “A staff.” (Exodus 4:2). I can imagine what Moses may have been thinking during this exchange with God: I just told you the people will not believe me, why are you asking me what’s in my hand? I have an old staff in my hand—why does it matter? I’ve been using this old stick for the last forty years to shepherd sheep in this forsaken desert. Why do you care about this old stick?

We know, of course, what God wanted to do with Moses’s staff: He made it a sign of Moses’s authority by turning it into a snake when it was thrown to the ground. It was also used to part the Red Sea, produce water from a rock, and ensure victory in battle. Here is the interesting part: When God asked Moses what was in his hand in Exodus 4:2, Moses held only an ordinary staff. However, in Exodus 4:20, when Moses begins his return to Egypt, what does Moses have in his hand? It’s no longer an ordinary stick. He has the “staff of God.”

If you are like me, you are far from perfect, and we can make excuses—superficially legitimate excuses—for why we should not do the Lord’s work or spread the Good News. “I don’t know the Bible as well as others.” “I am not as eloquent as others.” “I’ve made too many mistakes in my life—people will think of me as a hypocrite.” But what do we learn from the story of Moses’s staff?

First, God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called to do his work. Second, God will take whatever is in our hand (whatever talent we have) and make it an instrument for his greater glory. In short, God takes us (warts and all) to do his work, and He takes whatever talents we have to make them his instruments to advance his Kingdom.

So, what’s in your hand?

Carter