Exodus: Here Am I, Send Someone Else
Part 4
“What is in Your Hand?”
Exodus 4:1-7
Let me read to you from Exodus Chapter 4. I am going to read the first five verses. And if you have been with us in recent weeks you will know that we have been looking into these early chapters of the book of Exodus, which focus on the person of Moses.
The whole theme of course is about taking the Israelites out of Egypt in order to take them to the land of Canaan where God is going to fulfill His purpose for them.
But the hero of the story is Moses, and this reading - I am going to read from Verse 1, picks up in the conversation Moses has with God at the burning bush that occupies the whole of Chapter 3 but continues here into Chapter 4.
“Moses answered, ‘What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
“Then the LORD said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’
“ ‘A staff,’ he replied.
“The LORD said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’
“Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.
“Then the LORD said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’ So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
“‘This,’ said the LORD, ‘is so 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.’”
And we are going to read only that far this morning.
God asks some interesting things of Moses when He met him here at the bush. And there are two primary things that God asked him for. The first, which we looked at last week when God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
He asked Moses for his shoes, and I suggested last week that seems a rather strange thing for God to be interested in. We would have thought He would have more important things to be concerned about than Moses’ shoes.
But immediately after that God said, “I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and Jacob. I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out. I am concerned about their suffering. I have come down to rescue them. I will bring them up to a land flowing with milk and honey. I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.”
Who is God talking about? He is talking about Himself; eight times: “I, I, I, I. I am going to bring you out and take you into Canaan.”
And I imagine Moses listened to this, got very excited; they had been slaves for many years. They had been there for 400 years. For many of those years they had been slaves in Egypt.
I imagine Moses was very excited. “That’s fantastic God. How are You going to do it?”
Next Verse: God said, Verse 10:
“So now, go. I am sending you.”
“I beg Your pardon?”
We talked about this last week – “I am sending you. Moses, it is I who is going to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. The only explanation will be that God has intervened and God has done something. But Moses, I am going to do it in your shoes. Take off your shoes.”
If you trace Moses’ shoes, it is a fascinating study – “wherever you place the soles of your feet, that’ll be yours.”
“Why?”
“Because God is in your shoes.”
After forty years Moses said, “Our shoes did not wear out. We had resources that lasted for forty years.”
Why? Because God was in his shoes. We talked about that last week.
But the second thing God asked him for is crucial to the rest of the story. He asked him for his staff. Verse 2:
“What is that in your hand?”
Now I imagine Moses probably turned and looked to remind himself, because this staff that was in his hand was the basic tool of his trade as a shepherd. He was out with his sheep when he saw this bush burst into flame and go on burning. And he went to see why the bush did not burn out.
And probably it was so second nature to him to be carrying this staff, a shepherd’s crook, no doubt a long one with a hook on the end with which he could herd his sheep and also he could put the hook around the ankle of a sheep and haul it in if he wanted to check it if it was not well or something else.
“What is it in your hand?”
“Well, it’s my staff, something that represents my livelihood for these past forty years, something that represents my income, that represents my security, that represents my well being and that of my family.”
It also, incidentally, represented his failure because forty years ago, being a prince in Egypt, he had an opportunity (he thought) to release the Israelites. He wondered why the people didn’t recognize that God was using him. But he killed an Egyptian, the body was found, he had to flee, ended up now in the backside, it says, of the Midian desert for forty years.
This staff also represented his failure. In fact, all that constituted Moses’ present life is symbolized by this staff.
“What is it in your hand?”
“It is my staff.”
“Throw it down,” said God.
And it says in Verse 3,
“Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.”
As you do when you meet a snake. It was something now of which to be afraid. Previously it had been a harmless tool in his hand; carried it with him every day, probably put it by his bed at night when he went to sleep (he probably wouldn’t do that again), let his kids play with it on Saturday afternoon.
Now it has become something deadly, something of which to be afraid. He ran from it.
And then in Verse 4 it says,
“The LORD said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’
Now I don’t know if you know very much about snakes. If you take it by the tail, the dangerous part, which is the head, is loose.
Moses knew all about snakes. Living in the Midian desert he would have encountered them often enough, which is why he ran when it turned into a snake, because he knew they were things to be afraid of and to treat with respect.
And now God says to him, “Take it by the tail”, the kind of thing you never do with a snake unless you are going to swing it around and with the centrifugal force keep it centered. I have done that once with a snake, and then you let is go, or you hit the ground with it. But normally you don’t take it by the tail.
And I want to show you what this is saying and I’ll show you why this is saying because of what happens to this staff in the course of time, that God is saying to Moses, in effect, “Moses, I have given you a shock. This harmless staff that you have held in your hand for forty years, put by your bed at night, having thrown it on the ground before Me, you have discovered it is potentially a snake. Now take him by the tail. You take the harmless bit; don’t worry about the poisonous bit. If you take it by the tail, I’ll look after the poisonous bit.”
And Moses took it by the tail and it had become a staff again in his hand - but not the same staff. If would have looked the same; it would have felt the same; would have the same grain of wood and the same knots in the wood. When he took it home that night his kids wouldn’t say, “Hey, Dad that’s a new staff you’ve got there.” It looked exactly the same as it did before.
But it’s a different staff, because in Chapter 4:20, at the end of this conversation at the bush, let me read you what it says,
“So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.”
Have you noticed that? It’s called the staff of God. It used to be the staff of Moses; now it becomes the staff of God.
Now initially this was to demonstrate that God had sent Moses and it was to demonstrate it to the Israelites although he uses it to demonstrate to Pharaoh when he goes to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh does not let the people go.
Moses casts his staff down again; it turns into a snake and Pharaoh’s magicians said, “Hey, that’s nothing”, and they did the same thing – threw their staffs down; they became snakes. The only problem was, Moses’ snake ate their snakes and then he took it in its tail and it became a staff again.
That flummoxed the Egyptian magicians a little bit.
But there is more significance than simply a demonstration to Pharaoh because the request was “How do the people of Israel know that God has sent me?” That’s who this is for.
And I want you to notice what happens to this staff. You see, back in Chapter 4 and Verse 17, when Moses leaves, it says,
“Take this staff in your hand so that you can perform miracles with it.”
“Take this staff, Moses, so that you can perform miracles with it.”
Go to Chapter 7 and Verse 15:
“Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes down to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.”
“Don’t take any old staff; take the staff that was changed into the snake.”
Verse 17:
“This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the waters of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.”
And that’s what he did in Verse 19:
“Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt – over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs - and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars.”
And this, of course, was the first plague at which we’ll look on another occasion, the first plague whereby God brought pressure against Pharaoh and against Egypt. And it was where Moses took his staff and he held it over the river, that the waters turned to blood – not just in the rivers, but the ponds and the lakes and even the buckets and the stone jars.
Look at Chapter 8 and Verse 5, next chapter:
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, “Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.”
Here he stretched out his staff again and the second plague: frogs appear everywhere. You go to make a cup of coffee and you find it doesn’t flow out of the pot. You wonder why; there’s a frog in there. There were frogs wherever there is water. There are frogs in the bath, frogs in the teapot, and frog in the –everywhere – a plague of frogs.
By the way, do you notice He says, “Tell Aaron?” We’ll look at that on another occasion because Moses said basically, “Here am I, would You please send Aaron?”
And God was angry and said, “Alright, I will send Aaron. Aaron will go with you. Aaron will do it for you. But you tell Aaron what to do.”
So you find Aaron figuring here; that’s Moses’ brother. And we’ll look at that on another occasion.
But then in Chapter 8 and Verse 16:
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, “Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground, and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.”
So he takes the staff and he strikes the dust, kicks up the dust and every part of the dust becomes a gnat. If you are in the desert, there’s a lot of dust, and they become gnats, and gnats are everywhere.
And by the way, up until now, Pharaoh’s magicians have come along and done the same thing. But here they run out of the ability and they say in Verse 19, the magicians say to Pharaoh,
“This is the finger of God.”
“We’ve gone so far.” You know you can counterfeit the work of God – we’ll look at this on another occasion too – so far. But now they are out of their depth.
Go to Chapter 9 and Verse 23 and 24. It says there,
“When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightening flashed down to the ground.”
And this is the plague of the hailstones, Moses holding up his staff; thunder, lightening, hailstones beating down.
Go to Chapter 10 and Verse 13:
“Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the LORD made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts.”
And then it describes how everywhere is just totally covered in locusts until it all looked just black and they devoured every bit of greenery and every bit of vegetation they could find. This was the plague of locusts. And it came when Moses held his staff toward the east and a wind began to blow.
And then eventually Pharaoh was ready to let them go from Egypt and everything went fine until they came, in Chapter 14, to the Red Sea. And they could not cross the Red Sea. And in Verse 16 God said to Moses, when they couldn’t cross the Red Sea,
“Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites will go through…on dry ground.”
And Moses, as you remember, held his staff all night over the Red Sea. And when the morning came and the sun broke on the eastern sky there was a pathway through the water. God had done it but it was Moses holding his staff.
Look in Chapter 17. They got then across the Red Sea; they are now in the desert; there is no water. And it says in Verse 5,
“Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.”
And Moses took his staff and he struck the rock and water came out of the rock and supplied water for the people.
Same Chapter 17 – they met their first enemy, the Amalekites. And it says in Verse 9:
“Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
And you know the story, many of you. As Moses stood there with the staff in his hand, the Israelites in the valley began to prevail against the Amalekites. And when Moses maybe got a bit tired and the staff began to droop or he stopped to scratch himself or whatever, the Amalekites would begin to gain ascendancy over the Israelites. He would raise his staff again; the Israelites would gain ascendancy over the Amalekites.
And the battle in the valley was in direct proportion to Moses holding the staff in the air. So his brother Aaron and his friend Hur stood on either side and propped him up. They sat him on a rock and propped him up so that he could hold his staff in the air.
I mean what an amazing way to fight a war. I am sure Moses had his fun. I am sure he thought, Well everything is fine. Relax. Just stretch a bit. Ooh, here’s an Amalekite coming, he’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming – whoop! Got him!”
What’s it teaching? It is teaching that victory over the enemies of God is never won; it is only ever received and appropriated by faith, as Moses, on the mountain, holds his staff in the air.
And later, when God had given to Israel the Ark of the Covenant, the most sacred place where God said, “There I will meet with you, there I will speak to you.”
There were three things placed in the Ark. One was the tablets of stone on which were written the Ten Commandments, one was a golden jar of manna, the other was, it describes it as Aaron’s staff that budded.
Aaron’s staff had been Moses’ staff. And what happened years later was this: that the people came to Moses and said, “Moses, who do you think you are?” (You read this in Numbers 16 and Numbers 17). “Who set you up over us? Who do you think you are to lead us? We have better ideas than you do, and if not better, certainly equal ideas to you. Who do you think you are setting yourself up to lead us?”
And Moses went to God and said, “God, the people are in a rebellion. What do I do?”
And God said, “Get a leader from each of the tribe to bring his staff to you, and for Aaron to bring his staff from the Levites, (the tribe of which Moses and Aaron were a part).”
They brought their staffs and they were to take them into the Tabernacle and place in a row the twelve staffs representing every tribe (Aaron’s representing the tribe of Levi in the Holy of Holies), close the curtain, go home, have your dinner, relax, go to bed, get up, have some breakfast and come back.
When they came back the next day, they opened the curtain. The eleven staffs were exactly as they had been when they left them the night before. But the twelfth staff, the staff of Aaron, had budded and blossomed and produced almonds.
And God said, in effect, “The staff that has life in it is the staff of the person I have chosen.”
You see when God chooses and God appoints, there is life in what they do. That life was not in Aaron; he could go to bed and sleep. The life was in the work that he and Moses were doing. And this demonstrates that.
And later God said, “Put that staff that budded into the Ark of the Covenant as a permanent reminder along with the Ten Commandments, along with the jarred manna, a permanent reminder of what this business is all about.
The Ten Commandments represent the purpose of God; it expresses His character. The manna represents the provision of God; He fed them on the journey. The staff represented the power of God.
I mean this is an impressive staff, wouldn’t you think? You hold it over the rivers and they turn to blood.
You strike the water and frogs suddenly appear everywhere.
You hold it in the air - thunder and lightening and hailstones.
You hold it out; in the east the wind begins to blow and in come the locusts.
You created dust with it and every particle of dust becomes a gnat.
You stand before a sea you cannot cross; it’s too deep and too wide. You hold your staff in the air and the waters would open.
You run out of water; you are in the desert; you strike a rock with the staff.
You are fighting your enemies and you stand with the staff of God in your hand and you win the victory.
Man, wouldn’t you like a staff like this? This is not a magic wand you know; this is the staff of God.
And let me tell you something: you can have a staff like this. But you will only get it the way that Moses got it. Do you know how Moses got it?
“What’s in your hand? Will you throw it down?”
“I want your shoes, Moses. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news so I want your feet. Now I want your staff; you throw it down and I want you to know that the staff in your hand is potentially dangerous. It’s a snake.
“If you take it by the tail, the harmless part, I’ll not only look after the dangerous part but this will become the staff of God. Make sure you take the staff when you go to see Pharaoh.”
How many times did God say, “Make sure you take the staff with you”? This symbolizes the transaction that has taken place between Moses and God. This is not Moses’ business – he has cast his business down at his feet and taken it up – cast down the staff of Moses; He picked up the staff of God.
If you think this is a rather strange exposition of this passage, (“you’ve twisted things a little bit”) I don’t think so at all. You follow the staff through and see how that in itself becomes the symbol of God’s activity.
So if you and I are going to have a staff like this, we need to answer the same question that Moses was asked: what is it in your hand? What is in your hand?
Can I ask you that question? What is in your hand? Would you throw it down?
You might say – I don’t know what’s in your hand, but you might say, “Well, you know what I’m holding tightly to is my job, my profession. You know we live in rather uncertain times. And I worked hard to get where I am. It’s a good job, it’s a noble job; it’s a respectable position.”
And God says, “Will you give it to Me? Will you lay it down? If it’s right for you, I will give it to you back but with a difference: you take it by the tail, you hold it lightly, take the harmless part.”
And it will become the job of God, the profession of God. This is God’s profession in your life. And you go back into the same office, the same workplace, you look exactly the same and nobody will notice anything different except the focus will become different. What is God doing with me here? What is His agenda for me in this situation? It will become the job, the task, the profession of God.
It doesn’t mean you are talking to people all the time; that isn’t always appropriate in a work setting. But it does mean that the presence of God and the activity of God will characterize your life.
Now of course, as with Pharaoh’s magicians, people will have another explanation for it; of course they will, at first. And they might even mimic it. But it will be the life of God.
But as you lay it down, He may not give it to you back because it is His prerogative to give it to you back or not give it to you back. He might give it to you back and say, “This is something I would like you to use on the mission field. This skill, this task, this profession is wonderful but will you take a cut in your salary and go to the mission field and serve in a need where this is not being met?”
Would you let Him do that with you?
“What’s that in your hand?”
Well, you might sight, “Well, it’s a piece of paper.”
“What kind of piece of paper?”
“Well, it’s my degree, my qualifications. I have worked hard at this, trained for this; I’ve looked forward to this. I am now qualified to do what I wanted to do for a long time.”
“Would you throw it down? Will you give it to Me? I may give it to you back, and if I do, go ahead, but this is God’s future, this is God’s purpose that is being worked out. If I don’t give it to you back, don’t worry; I’ve got something better, maybe somewhere else, but would you let it go? It’ll become the staff of God if you do. It’ll be just your staff if you don’t.”
“What’s in your hand?”
You might say, “Well, it’s my cheque book, it’s my credit card, it’s my bank balance, it’s my money, it’s my possessions; I’ve earned every cent; it’s legitimate.”
“Good. Would you lay it down?”
“You see there is not a place where the snake is more comfortable than within the love of money. The love of money can become a snake pit because it drives you and who you trample on the way is irrelevant to you. But if you lay it down and I give it to you back, it’s God’s money, it’s God’s resources.”
“What that in your hand?”
“Well it’s my future plan. I have got dreams, I have got ambitions, I have got goals. I have been working them out.”
“Would you throw them down in front of Me? If they’re right, don’t worry; I’ll give them back. But they’ll be mine. But if they are not, I will change them; that’s my prerogative. Will you give them to Me or will you keep it to yourself? Are they going to be your dreams, your vision or will you let it be God’s dreams for you?”
“What’s that in your hand?”
“Well, it’s my family. They are a gift to me from God – my wife, my husband, my children, my grandchildren. We have a lovely home.”
“Would you lay them down? Will you say, ‘Lord, if You want to help Yourself to My children to take one or two of them off to the mission field so I only see them once every five years, the grandchildren I will hardly know because of that. Painful as that would be Lord, help Yourself to my children. I lay them at Your feet.”
Because sometime the reason why people don’t go to the mission field is because their parents don’t let them - I know because I have talked with people in those situations. “I don’t want him to go. Stay at home, and send money instead.”
I have heard that argument more than once.
That’s God’s prerogative; not yours, if you lay it down.
Your marriage, your family, whatever it is; lay it down. I had a letter this week from a lady, a sad letter (and we have been in correspondence), longing to have children, and we understand that; that is a natural maternal desire. But after several years of IVF treatment, not able to have children and she is so discouraged, she said to me, “Should I leave my husband in order that he might find a wife who can bear him children, because it breaks our hearts that we can’t have children?”
I understand the pain of that but I said to her, “Will you release your life as it is to God with no strings attached? I have no idea what His plan for you is, nor is it my business to know His plan for you, except that He has one. It does not include children. You will one day be thankful that it released you to fulfill what is His plan because He does all things well.”
Don’t begrudge your lot in life; give it back to Him, lay it at His feet. And when He gives it back, it becomes His marriage, His family, His children.
“What’s that in your hand?”
You might say, “Well, it’s somebody else’s hand. It’s my girlfriend or my boyfriend. I love them very much. He’s a good guy. She’s a great girl.”
“Would you, not throw her down; gently put her down; would you give her to Me?”
You see there are a lot of Christians holding the wrong hand and while you are simply holding her hand it’s fun, but you shed the tears later. Would you lay her down, him down, at His feet?
You say, “But this may be my last opportunity. If I let her go, if I let him go, I may not get somebody else.”
And do you know something? God will never force you. He will never twist your arm and make you do what He wants you to do. If you want to keep the girl, keep the girl. But you will keep the snake as well. And you don’t know when that snake will uncoil, but it will.
And if she’s right, He’ll give her you back. But she’s God’s girl, God’s man for you. This is God’s marriage. We’re not in this to exploit each other; we’re in this together to serve God.
“What’s that in your hand?”
Well maybe it’s your Christian service. Maybe you are active in some form of ministry. Maybe you lead a small group or you teach a Sunday school class or you teach some other class or you are involved in the youth ministry, or you are an elder or you are on the board, or you are a member of staff of this or some other church or mission. You sit on a committee; you lead a short-term mission.
“Would you lay it down? Because if you don’t lay this down at My feet, it will be your small group, your Sunday school class, it’ll be your agenda every time you go to a board meeting or a staff meeting or a committee meeting.”
That’s the last thing any church needs. It needs men and women who will say, “What is God’s agenda, what is God’s purpose, what has God said about our function, what is the Spirit of God leading us and guiding us? And that, period, is our agenda and our interest. Otherwise every committee meeting you go to you will take the snake with you and he won’t sit quietly in the corner, you can be sure of that.
That’s why so many churches are riddled with conflict and dispute and antagonism, because there are snakes all over the place that no one has laid down at His feet and said, “Lord, forget about what I want or what somebody else wants or she wants and he wants; Lord, what do You want?”
That was the whole point of putting the staffs in the Holy of Holies and God demonstrating that Aaron’s would bud and blossom and produce almonds, because life was in that, because that was God’s agenda. Everybody else had their own agenda. And that’s why Israel spent so long in the wilderness.
And over the years I’ve sadly seen situations when God does a work and people start to take possession of that work as though it were their own. They try to take possession of their church as though it was their own little private fiefdom of some kind. And they begin to adopt their own plans and they begin to dream their own dreams and they begin to visualize their own visions.
As in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah says about the prophets and the shepherds who were the leaders of the people. “They dream visions from their own minds and not from the mouth” (the mouth, notice) “of God. But if they had stood in my council and listened…” Jeremiah 23; it’s a frightening chapter to read for those of us who are in ministry.
We put it down at His feet and what He gives back we take gently by the tail, hold it lightly. It’s not yours forever; hold it lightly. What He doesn’t give you back; He’ll give you something else.
“What’s that in your hand.”
Some of you may say, “It’s myself. I have never given myself to God. Let’s not deceive ourselves that because we received Christ as our Saviour we have the assurance of sin forgiven and the assurance of eternal life; let’s not kid ourselves that means that everything is okay.
Paul, writing to the Romans, presenting an explanation of the Gospel that’s as full as any explanation in the whole of Scripture, comes to the twelfth chapter: “Therefore,” (because of the gospel he has explained – Christian people) “therefore, present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. It is your reasonable service.” Some translations say it’s your spiritual worship.
And to assume that that can be taken for granted would be a great mistake. To assume because somebody is a pastor you can take for granted that his life is surrendered to God would be a great mistake.
We need to come back everyday, “Lord, here I am with all the flaws and all the frailties and all the weaknesses and all the errors and all the mistakes and all the lack of discernment and all the problems that I know make me what I am.”
All of us need to say, “Lord, here I am. I am available to You. It’s Your business. I know there is a snake who is very, very, very interested. I am not even going to fight him; I’ll take the tail. This is Your business. My focus is on You, not on him. My focus is on You, not on the enemy. You look after the serpent.”
And if you are not sure, by the way, who is the snake – you know who the snake is? It’s his most common guise or disguise. From Genesis to Revelation the devil appears as a serpent. First in the Garden of Eden – Genesis 3:
“The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say,’”
By the way, you look at the times Satan talks in the Bible, which isn’t very often, he always asks questions and the questions are designed to show doubt. “Did God really say”; that’s how he comes.
He is crafty, he is subtle; don’t think he appears, you know, with big horns, the kind of way that we depict him and you would be scared even if you saw him. No, no. He appears very beautifully, very attractively, with very reasonable questions.
“Is this really what God wants?”
And in the book of Revelation, Chapter 20, the end of the book, that ancient serpent, it says, who is the devil or Satan. I just give you those examples from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20. The serpent is the devil and he is always, always destructive. He is never, ever your friend, though you may like his arguments and you may like his scheming.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to eat bread after forty days in the desert?”
“No,” said Jesus.
It all looks good.
“If you are the Son of God, get yourself known.” Question: “If you are the Son of God?”
No. It looks attractive, but he’ll leave you destroyed.
Do you know why Moses was so used of God? Because he gave God his shoes. “You can walk anywhere in my body. It’ll be God in my body. You will walk in my shoes.”
And he gave Him his staff. And that staff became the symbol of a transaction that had taken place. “Take the staff when you go to Pharaoh. Make sure it is the staff that was turned into a snake – that staff. Through the staff you will perform miraculous signs; not because it is a magic wand; it’s a symbol only of a transaction between you and God.”
“So when you stand at the Red Sea, you say, ‘This is not my business; this is God’s business. I am not here to get us across the Red Sea. This is God’s business.’ That’s the symbol of it – this is God’s.” And God opens the water.
You are out of water?
“It’s not my business; it’s God’s.” Strike the rock.
You fighting the enemy?
“This is not my business; this is God’s business.” Hold the staff in the air.
When the leaders come and threaten him and say, “Who do you think you are setting yourself above the rest of us?”
“Well let’s see what God has planned. Who has God chosen?” And it’s Aaron’s staff that buds and blossoms. Same staff. Moses had given it to Aaron. It is now identified with Aaron. He gave it to Aaron in Exodus Chapter 5 – same staff.
I want to ask you as I finish this morning, what is it in your hand? Because it is likely to be something very precious to you that gets in the way of God; not something that doesn’t really matter very much. It is likely to be something very important to you that gets in the way of God because “I am clinging to this. God, I would be glad to give You that. I mean, take as much of that as You want - I don’t like it anyway. But no, no, not this, not this, not this.”
Would you lay it at His feet? And you can do that this morning. We are going to pray in a moment. I don’t know how it is that God has spoken to you but my prayer has been that He will. And how He speaks to you is entirely His business because the issues that He was talking to you about are between you and Him.
But would you say, “Lord, I lay this down?”
And unless He does something very different with it, you take it back and go home. But it’s His prerogative now to do what He wants. And go back to the same place of work tomorrow morning and everything will look the same, you will look the same, but it’ll be the staff of God. And just trust Him and see what His business is.
Your family can change, your marriage can change when you say, “Lord, I give it to You.”
Let’s pray together. I am going to pray a very simple prayer and if you are doing business with God this morning – and I mean, new business - there are many of you who live in a wholesome, surrendered relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing’s perfect of course because the old flesh fights the Spirit and we get discouraged often. But if there is something new in your life that you have been holding back, I am going to ask you to surrender that to Him this morning.
And if you do, I am going to pray for you. I am going to ask you to stand. It’s a physical act, which you will look back on and remember; “I outwardly showed that inwardly I have done some business with God.”
And I am going to pray for those who are standing.
Lord Jesus, I thank You for each person here.
Part 4
“What is in Your Hand?”
Exodus 4:1-7
Let me read to you from Exodus Chapter 4. I am going to read the first five verses. And if you have been with us in recent weeks you will know that we have been looking into these early chapters of the book of Exodus, which focus on the person of Moses.
The whole theme of course is about taking the Israelites out of Egypt in order to take them to the land of Canaan where God is going to fulfill His purpose for them.
But the hero of the story is Moses, and this reading - I am going to read from Verse 1, picks up in the conversation Moses has with God at the burning bush that occupies the whole of Chapter 3 but continues here into Chapter 4.
“Moses answered, ‘What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
“Then the LORD said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’
“ ‘A staff,’ he replied.
“The LORD said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’
“Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.
“Then the LORD said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’ So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
“‘This,’ said the LORD, ‘is so 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.’”
And we are going to read only that far this morning.
God asks some interesting things of Moses when He met him here at the bush. And there are two primary things that God asked him for. The first, which we looked at last week when God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
He asked Moses for his shoes, and I suggested last week that seems a rather strange thing for God to be interested in. We would have thought He would have more important things to be concerned about than Moses’ shoes.
But immediately after that God said, “I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and Jacob. I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out. I am concerned about their suffering. I have come down to rescue them. I will bring them up to a land flowing with milk and honey. I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.”
Who is God talking about? He is talking about Himself; eight times: “I, I, I, I. I am going to bring you out and take you into Canaan.”
And I imagine Moses listened to this, got very excited; they had been slaves for many years. They had been there for 400 years. For many of those years they had been slaves in Egypt.
I imagine Moses was very excited. “That’s fantastic God. How are You going to do it?”
Next Verse: God said, Verse 10:
“So now, go. I am sending you.”
“I beg Your pardon?”
We talked about this last week – “I am sending you. Moses, it is I who is going to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. The only explanation will be that God has intervened and God has done something. But Moses, I am going to do it in your shoes. Take off your shoes.”
If you trace Moses’ shoes, it is a fascinating study – “wherever you place the soles of your feet, that’ll be yours.”
“Why?”
“Because God is in your shoes.”
After forty years Moses said, “Our shoes did not wear out. We had resources that lasted for forty years.”
Why? Because God was in his shoes. We talked about that last week.
But the second thing God asked him for is crucial to the rest of the story. He asked him for his staff. Verse 2:
“What is that in your hand?”
Now I imagine Moses probably turned and looked to remind himself, because this staff that was in his hand was the basic tool of his trade as a shepherd. He was out with his sheep when he saw this bush burst into flame and go on burning. And he went to see why the bush did not burn out.
And probably it was so second nature to him to be carrying this staff, a shepherd’s crook, no doubt a long one with a hook on the end with which he could herd his sheep and also he could put the hook around the ankle of a sheep and haul it in if he wanted to check it if it was not well or something else.
“What is it in your hand?”
“Well, it’s my staff, something that represents my livelihood for these past forty years, something that represents my income, that represents my security, that represents my well being and that of my family.”
It also, incidentally, represented his failure because forty years ago, being a prince in Egypt, he had an opportunity (he thought) to release the Israelites. He wondered why the people didn’t recognize that God was using him. But he killed an Egyptian, the body was found, he had to flee, ended up now in the backside, it says, of the Midian desert for forty years.
This staff also represented his failure. In fact, all that constituted Moses’ present life is symbolized by this staff.
“What is it in your hand?”
“It is my staff.”
“Throw it down,” said God.
And it says in Verse 3,
“Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.”
As you do when you meet a snake. It was something now of which to be afraid. Previously it had been a harmless tool in his hand; carried it with him every day, probably put it by his bed at night when he went to sleep (he probably wouldn’t do that again), let his kids play with it on Saturday afternoon.
Now it has become something deadly, something of which to be afraid. He ran from it.
And then in Verse 4 it says,
“The LORD said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’
Now I don’t know if you know very much about snakes. If you take it by the tail, the dangerous part, which is the head, is loose.
Moses knew all about snakes. Living in the Midian desert he would have encountered them often enough, which is why he ran when it turned into a snake, because he knew they were things to be afraid of and to treat with respect.
And now God says to him, “Take it by the tail”, the kind of thing you never do with a snake unless you are going to swing it around and with the centrifugal force keep it centered. I have done that once with a snake, and then you let is go, or you hit the ground with it. But normally you don’t take it by the tail.
And I want to show you what this is saying and I’ll show you why this is saying because of what happens to this staff in the course of time, that God is saying to Moses, in effect, “Moses, I have given you a shock. This harmless staff that you have held in your hand for forty years, put by your bed at night, having thrown it on the ground before Me, you have discovered it is potentially a snake. Now take him by the tail. You take the harmless bit; don’t worry about the poisonous bit. If you take it by the tail, I’ll look after the poisonous bit.”
And Moses took it by the tail and it had become a staff again in his hand - but not the same staff. If would have looked the same; it would have felt the same; would have the same grain of wood and the same knots in the wood. When he took it home that night his kids wouldn’t say, “Hey, Dad that’s a new staff you’ve got there.” It looked exactly the same as it did before.
But it’s a different staff, because in Chapter 4:20, at the end of this conversation at the bush, let me read you what it says,
“So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.”
Have you noticed that? It’s called the staff of God. It used to be the staff of Moses; now it becomes the staff of God.
Now initially this was to demonstrate that God had sent Moses and it was to demonstrate it to the Israelites although he uses it to demonstrate to Pharaoh when he goes to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh does not let the people go.
Moses casts his staff down again; it turns into a snake and Pharaoh’s magicians said, “Hey, that’s nothing”, and they did the same thing – threw their staffs down; they became snakes. The only problem was, Moses’ snake ate their snakes and then he took it in its tail and it became a staff again.
That flummoxed the Egyptian magicians a little bit.
But there is more significance than simply a demonstration to Pharaoh because the request was “How do the people of Israel know that God has sent me?” That’s who this is for.
And I want you to notice what happens to this staff. You see, back in Chapter 4 and Verse 17, when Moses leaves, it says,
“Take this staff in your hand so that you can perform miracles with it.”
“Take this staff, Moses, so that you can perform miracles with it.”
Go to Chapter 7 and Verse 15:
“Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes down to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.”
“Don’t take any old staff; take the staff that was changed into the snake.”
Verse 17:
“This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the waters of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.”
And that’s what he did in Verse 19:
“Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt – over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs - and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars.”
And this, of course, was the first plague at which we’ll look on another occasion, the first plague whereby God brought pressure against Pharaoh and against Egypt. And it was where Moses took his staff and he held it over the river, that the waters turned to blood – not just in the rivers, but the ponds and the lakes and even the buckets and the stone jars.
Look at Chapter 8 and Verse 5, next chapter:
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, “Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.”
Here he stretched out his staff again and the second plague: frogs appear everywhere. You go to make a cup of coffee and you find it doesn’t flow out of the pot. You wonder why; there’s a frog in there. There were frogs wherever there is water. There are frogs in the bath, frogs in the teapot, and frog in the –everywhere – a plague of frogs.
By the way, do you notice He says, “Tell Aaron?” We’ll look at that on another occasion because Moses said basically, “Here am I, would You please send Aaron?”
And God was angry and said, “Alright, I will send Aaron. Aaron will go with you. Aaron will do it for you. But you tell Aaron what to do.”
So you find Aaron figuring here; that’s Moses’ brother. And we’ll look at that on another occasion.
But then in Chapter 8 and Verse 16:
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, “Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground, and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.”
So he takes the staff and he strikes the dust, kicks up the dust and every part of the dust becomes a gnat. If you are in the desert, there’s a lot of dust, and they become gnats, and gnats are everywhere.
And by the way, up until now, Pharaoh’s magicians have come along and done the same thing. But here they run out of the ability and they say in Verse 19, the magicians say to Pharaoh,
“This is the finger of God.”
“We’ve gone so far.” You know you can counterfeit the work of God – we’ll look at this on another occasion too – so far. But now they are out of their depth.
Go to Chapter 9 and Verse 23 and 24. It says there,
“When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightening flashed down to the ground.”
And this is the plague of the hailstones, Moses holding up his staff; thunder, lightening, hailstones beating down.
Go to Chapter 10 and Verse 13:
“Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the LORD made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts.”
And then it describes how everywhere is just totally covered in locusts until it all looked just black and they devoured every bit of greenery and every bit of vegetation they could find. This was the plague of locusts. And it came when Moses held his staff toward the east and a wind began to blow.
And then eventually Pharaoh was ready to let them go from Egypt and everything went fine until they came, in Chapter 14, to the Red Sea. And they could not cross the Red Sea. And in Verse 16 God said to Moses, when they couldn’t cross the Red Sea,
“Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites will go through…on dry ground.”
And Moses, as you remember, held his staff all night over the Red Sea. And when the morning came and the sun broke on the eastern sky there was a pathway through the water. God had done it but it was Moses holding his staff.
Look in Chapter 17. They got then across the Red Sea; they are now in the desert; there is no water. And it says in Verse 5,
“Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.”
And Moses took his staff and he struck the rock and water came out of the rock and supplied water for the people.
Same Chapter 17 – they met their first enemy, the Amalekites. And it says in Verse 9:
“Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
And you know the story, many of you. As Moses stood there with the staff in his hand, the Israelites in the valley began to prevail against the Amalekites. And when Moses maybe got a bit tired and the staff began to droop or he stopped to scratch himself or whatever, the Amalekites would begin to gain ascendancy over the Israelites. He would raise his staff again; the Israelites would gain ascendancy over the Amalekites.
And the battle in the valley was in direct proportion to Moses holding the staff in the air. So his brother Aaron and his friend Hur stood on either side and propped him up. They sat him on a rock and propped him up so that he could hold his staff in the air.
I mean what an amazing way to fight a war. I am sure Moses had his fun. I am sure he thought, Well everything is fine. Relax. Just stretch a bit. Ooh, here’s an Amalekite coming, he’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming – whoop! Got him!”
What’s it teaching? It is teaching that victory over the enemies of God is never won; it is only ever received and appropriated by faith, as Moses, on the mountain, holds his staff in the air.
And later, when God had given to Israel the Ark of the Covenant, the most sacred place where God said, “There I will meet with you, there I will speak to you.”
There were three things placed in the Ark. One was the tablets of stone on which were written the Ten Commandments, one was a golden jar of manna, the other was, it describes it as Aaron’s staff that budded.
Aaron’s staff had been Moses’ staff. And what happened years later was this: that the people came to Moses and said, “Moses, who do you think you are?” (You read this in Numbers 16 and Numbers 17). “Who set you up over us? Who do you think you are to lead us? We have better ideas than you do, and if not better, certainly equal ideas to you. Who do you think you are setting yourself up to lead us?”
And Moses went to God and said, “God, the people are in a rebellion. What do I do?”
And God said, “Get a leader from each of the tribe to bring his staff to you, and for Aaron to bring his staff from the Levites, (the tribe of which Moses and Aaron were a part).”
They brought their staffs and they were to take them into the Tabernacle and place in a row the twelve staffs representing every tribe (Aaron’s representing the tribe of Levi in the Holy of Holies), close the curtain, go home, have your dinner, relax, go to bed, get up, have some breakfast and come back.
When they came back the next day, they opened the curtain. The eleven staffs were exactly as they had been when they left them the night before. But the twelfth staff, the staff of Aaron, had budded and blossomed and produced almonds.
And God said, in effect, “The staff that has life in it is the staff of the person I have chosen.”
You see when God chooses and God appoints, there is life in what they do. That life was not in Aaron; he could go to bed and sleep. The life was in the work that he and Moses were doing. And this demonstrates that.
And later God said, “Put that staff that budded into the Ark of the Covenant as a permanent reminder along with the Ten Commandments, along with the jarred manna, a permanent reminder of what this business is all about.
The Ten Commandments represent the purpose of God; it expresses His character. The manna represents the provision of God; He fed them on the journey. The staff represented the power of God.
I mean this is an impressive staff, wouldn’t you think? You hold it over the rivers and they turn to blood.
You strike the water and frogs suddenly appear everywhere.
You hold it in the air - thunder and lightening and hailstones.
You hold it out; in the east the wind begins to blow and in come the locusts.
You created dust with it and every particle of dust becomes a gnat.
You stand before a sea you cannot cross; it’s too deep and too wide. You hold your staff in the air and the waters would open.
You run out of water; you are in the desert; you strike a rock with the staff.
You are fighting your enemies and you stand with the staff of God in your hand and you win the victory.
Man, wouldn’t you like a staff like this? This is not a magic wand you know; this is the staff of God.
And let me tell you something: you can have a staff like this. But you will only get it the way that Moses got it. Do you know how Moses got it?
“What’s in your hand? Will you throw it down?”
“I want your shoes, Moses. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news so I want your feet. Now I want your staff; you throw it down and I want you to know that the staff in your hand is potentially dangerous. It’s a snake.
“If you take it by the tail, the harmless part, I’ll not only look after the dangerous part but this will become the staff of God. Make sure you take the staff when you go to see Pharaoh.”
How many times did God say, “Make sure you take the staff with you”? This symbolizes the transaction that has taken place between Moses and God. This is not Moses’ business – he has cast his business down at his feet and taken it up – cast down the staff of Moses; He picked up the staff of God.
If you think this is a rather strange exposition of this passage, (“you’ve twisted things a little bit”) I don’t think so at all. You follow the staff through and see how that in itself becomes the symbol of God’s activity.
So if you and I are going to have a staff like this, we need to answer the same question that Moses was asked: what is it in your hand? What is in your hand?
Can I ask you that question? What is in your hand? Would you throw it down?
You might say – I don’t know what’s in your hand, but you might say, “Well, you know what I’m holding tightly to is my job, my profession. You know we live in rather uncertain times. And I worked hard to get where I am. It’s a good job, it’s a noble job; it’s a respectable position.”
And God says, “Will you give it to Me? Will you lay it down? If it’s right for you, I will give it to you back but with a difference: you take it by the tail, you hold it lightly, take the harmless part.”
And it will become the job of God, the profession of God. This is God’s profession in your life. And you go back into the same office, the same workplace, you look exactly the same and nobody will notice anything different except the focus will become different. What is God doing with me here? What is His agenda for me in this situation? It will become the job, the task, the profession of God.
It doesn’t mean you are talking to people all the time; that isn’t always appropriate in a work setting. But it does mean that the presence of God and the activity of God will characterize your life.
Now of course, as with Pharaoh’s magicians, people will have another explanation for it; of course they will, at first. And they might even mimic it. But it will be the life of God.
But as you lay it down, He may not give it to you back because it is His prerogative to give it to you back or not give it to you back. He might give it to you back and say, “This is something I would like you to use on the mission field. This skill, this task, this profession is wonderful but will you take a cut in your salary and go to the mission field and serve in a need where this is not being met?”
Would you let Him do that with you?
“What’s that in your hand?”
Well, you might sight, “Well, it’s a piece of paper.”
“What kind of piece of paper?”
“Well, it’s my degree, my qualifications. I have worked hard at this, trained for this; I’ve looked forward to this. I am now qualified to do what I wanted to do for a long time.”
“Would you throw it down? Will you give it to Me? I may give it to you back, and if I do, go ahead, but this is God’s future, this is God’s purpose that is being worked out. If I don’t give it to you back, don’t worry; I’ve got something better, maybe somewhere else, but would you let it go? It’ll become the staff of God if you do. It’ll be just your staff if you don’t.”
“What’s in your hand?”
You might say, “Well, it’s my cheque book, it’s my credit card, it’s my bank balance, it’s my money, it’s my possessions; I’ve earned every cent; it’s legitimate.”
“Good. Would you lay it down?”
“You see there is not a place where the snake is more comfortable than within the love of money. The love of money can become a snake pit because it drives you and who you trample on the way is irrelevant to you. But if you lay it down and I give it to you back, it’s God’s money, it’s God’s resources.”
“What that in your hand?”
“Well it’s my future plan. I have got dreams, I have got ambitions, I have got goals. I have been working them out.”
“Would you throw them down in front of Me? If they’re right, don’t worry; I’ll give them back. But they’ll be mine. But if they are not, I will change them; that’s my prerogative. Will you give them to Me or will you keep it to yourself? Are they going to be your dreams, your vision or will you let it be God’s dreams for you?”
“What’s that in your hand?”
“Well, it’s my family. They are a gift to me from God – my wife, my husband, my children, my grandchildren. We have a lovely home.”
“Would you lay them down? Will you say, ‘Lord, if You want to help Yourself to My children to take one or two of them off to the mission field so I only see them once every five years, the grandchildren I will hardly know because of that. Painful as that would be Lord, help Yourself to my children. I lay them at Your feet.”
Because sometime the reason why people don’t go to the mission field is because their parents don’t let them - I know because I have talked with people in those situations. “I don’t want him to go. Stay at home, and send money instead.”
I have heard that argument more than once.
That’s God’s prerogative; not yours, if you lay it down.
Your marriage, your family, whatever it is; lay it down. I had a letter this week from a lady, a sad letter (and we have been in correspondence), longing to have children, and we understand that; that is a natural maternal desire. But after several years of IVF treatment, not able to have children and she is so discouraged, she said to me, “Should I leave my husband in order that he might find a wife who can bear him children, because it breaks our hearts that we can’t have children?”
I understand the pain of that but I said to her, “Will you release your life as it is to God with no strings attached? I have no idea what His plan for you is, nor is it my business to know His plan for you, except that He has one. It does not include children. You will one day be thankful that it released you to fulfill what is His plan because He does all things well.”
Don’t begrudge your lot in life; give it back to Him, lay it at His feet. And when He gives it back, it becomes His marriage, His family, His children.
“What’s that in your hand?”
You might say, “Well, it’s somebody else’s hand. It’s my girlfriend or my boyfriend. I love them very much. He’s a good guy. She’s a great girl.”
“Would you, not throw her down; gently put her down; would you give her to Me?”
You see there are a lot of Christians holding the wrong hand and while you are simply holding her hand it’s fun, but you shed the tears later. Would you lay her down, him down, at His feet?
You say, “But this may be my last opportunity. If I let her go, if I let him go, I may not get somebody else.”
And do you know something? God will never force you. He will never twist your arm and make you do what He wants you to do. If you want to keep the girl, keep the girl. But you will keep the snake as well. And you don’t know when that snake will uncoil, but it will.
And if she’s right, He’ll give her you back. But she’s God’s girl, God’s man for you. This is God’s marriage. We’re not in this to exploit each other; we’re in this together to serve God.
“What’s that in your hand?”
Well maybe it’s your Christian service. Maybe you are active in some form of ministry. Maybe you lead a small group or you teach a Sunday school class or you teach some other class or you are involved in the youth ministry, or you are an elder or you are on the board, or you are a member of staff of this or some other church or mission. You sit on a committee; you lead a short-term mission.
“Would you lay it down? Because if you don’t lay this down at My feet, it will be your small group, your Sunday school class, it’ll be your agenda every time you go to a board meeting or a staff meeting or a committee meeting.”
That’s the last thing any church needs. It needs men and women who will say, “What is God’s agenda, what is God’s purpose, what has God said about our function, what is the Spirit of God leading us and guiding us? And that, period, is our agenda and our interest. Otherwise every committee meeting you go to you will take the snake with you and he won’t sit quietly in the corner, you can be sure of that.
That’s why so many churches are riddled with conflict and dispute and antagonism, because there are snakes all over the place that no one has laid down at His feet and said, “Lord, forget about what I want or what somebody else wants or she wants and he wants; Lord, what do You want?”
That was the whole point of putting the staffs in the Holy of Holies and God demonstrating that Aaron’s would bud and blossom and produce almonds, because life was in that, because that was God’s agenda. Everybody else had their own agenda. And that’s why Israel spent so long in the wilderness.
And over the years I’ve sadly seen situations when God does a work and people start to take possession of that work as though it were their own. They try to take possession of their church as though it was their own little private fiefdom of some kind. And they begin to adopt their own plans and they begin to dream their own dreams and they begin to visualize their own visions.
As in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah says about the prophets and the shepherds who were the leaders of the people. “They dream visions from their own minds and not from the mouth” (the mouth, notice) “of God. But if they had stood in my council and listened…” Jeremiah 23; it’s a frightening chapter to read for those of us who are in ministry.
We put it down at His feet and what He gives back we take gently by the tail, hold it lightly. It’s not yours forever; hold it lightly. What He doesn’t give you back; He’ll give you something else.
“What’s that in your hand.”
Some of you may say, “It’s myself. I have never given myself to God. Let’s not deceive ourselves that because we received Christ as our Saviour we have the assurance of sin forgiven and the assurance of eternal life; let’s not kid ourselves that means that everything is okay.
Paul, writing to the Romans, presenting an explanation of the Gospel that’s as full as any explanation in the whole of Scripture, comes to the twelfth chapter: “Therefore,” (because of the gospel he has explained – Christian people) “therefore, present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. It is your reasonable service.” Some translations say it’s your spiritual worship.
And to assume that that can be taken for granted would be a great mistake. To assume because somebody is a pastor you can take for granted that his life is surrendered to God would be a great mistake.
We need to come back everyday, “Lord, here I am with all the flaws and all the frailties and all the weaknesses and all the errors and all the mistakes and all the lack of discernment and all the problems that I know make me what I am.”
All of us need to say, “Lord, here I am. I am available to You. It’s Your business. I know there is a snake who is very, very, very interested. I am not even going to fight him; I’ll take the tail. This is Your business. My focus is on You, not on him. My focus is on You, not on the enemy. You look after the serpent.”
And if you are not sure, by the way, who is the snake – you know who the snake is? It’s his most common guise or disguise. From Genesis to Revelation the devil appears as a serpent. First in the Garden of Eden – Genesis 3:
“The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say,’”
By the way, you look at the times Satan talks in the Bible, which isn’t very often, he always asks questions and the questions are designed to show doubt. “Did God really say”; that’s how he comes.
He is crafty, he is subtle; don’t think he appears, you know, with big horns, the kind of way that we depict him and you would be scared even if you saw him. No, no. He appears very beautifully, very attractively, with very reasonable questions.
“Is this really what God wants?”
And in the book of Revelation, Chapter 20, the end of the book, that ancient serpent, it says, who is the devil or Satan. I just give you those examples from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20. The serpent is the devil and he is always, always destructive. He is never, ever your friend, though you may like his arguments and you may like his scheming.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to eat bread after forty days in the desert?”
“No,” said Jesus.
It all looks good.
“If you are the Son of God, get yourself known.” Question: “If you are the Son of God?”
No. It looks attractive, but he’ll leave you destroyed.
Do you know why Moses was so used of God? Because he gave God his shoes. “You can walk anywhere in my body. It’ll be God in my body. You will walk in my shoes.”
And he gave Him his staff. And that staff became the symbol of a transaction that had taken place. “Take the staff when you go to Pharaoh. Make sure it is the staff that was turned into a snake – that staff. Through the staff you will perform miraculous signs; not because it is a magic wand; it’s a symbol only of a transaction between you and God.”
“So when you stand at the Red Sea, you say, ‘This is not my business; this is God’s business. I am not here to get us across the Red Sea. This is God’s business.’ That’s the symbol of it – this is God’s.” And God opens the water.
You are out of water?
“It’s not my business; it’s God’s.” Strike the rock.
You fighting the enemy?
“This is not my business; this is God’s business.” Hold the staff in the air.
When the leaders come and threaten him and say, “Who do you think you are setting yourself above the rest of us?”
“Well let’s see what God has planned. Who has God chosen?” And it’s Aaron’s staff that buds and blossoms. Same staff. Moses had given it to Aaron. It is now identified with Aaron. He gave it to Aaron in Exodus Chapter 5 – same staff.
I want to ask you as I finish this morning, what is it in your hand? Because it is likely to be something very precious to you that gets in the way of God; not something that doesn’t really matter very much. It is likely to be something very important to you that gets in the way of God because “I am clinging to this. God, I would be glad to give You that. I mean, take as much of that as You want - I don’t like it anyway. But no, no, not this, not this, not this.”
Would you lay it at His feet? And you can do that this morning. We are going to pray in a moment. I don’t know how it is that God has spoken to you but my prayer has been that He will. And how He speaks to you is entirely His business because the issues that He was talking to you about are between you and Him.
But would you say, “Lord, I lay this down?”
And unless He does something very different with it, you take it back and go home. But it’s His prerogative now to do what He wants. And go back to the same place of work tomorrow morning and everything will look the same, you will look the same, but it’ll be the staff of God. And just trust Him and see what His business is.
Your family can change, your marriage can change when you say, “Lord, I give it to You.”
Let’s pray together. I am going to pray a very simple prayer and if you are doing business with God this morning – and I mean, new business - there are many of you who live in a wholesome, surrendered relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing’s perfect of course because the old flesh fights the Spirit and we get discouraged often. But if there is something new in your life that you have been holding back, I am going to ask you to surrender that to Him this morning.
And if you do, I am going to pray for you. I am going to ask you to stand. It’s a physical act, which you will look back on and remember; “I outwardly showed that inwardly I have done some business with God.”
And I am going to pray for those who are standing.
Lord Jesus, I thank You for each person here.