What is that in Your Hand? - Lessons From a Devotional Study of Exodus 4:1-17

WHAT IS THAT IN YOUR HAND? - LESSONS FROM A DEVOTIONAL STUDY OF EXODUS 4:1-17 

By Ezekiel Kimosop 

Does God help us to succeed or does He enable us to succeed? 

I came across this question in a social media forum. This question sounds clumsy at first instance until one discovers the intention of the author in attempting to dichotomize between two closely related divine interventions. God's help can also be understood in the context of His divine enablement. In enabling us by His grace, God also helps us in our limitations or circumstances of need. 

Whether God helps us or enables us in a particular context is beside the point. My view is that both interventions are biblically valid and legitimate. God can enable us to succeed by empowering us in a particular context through specific gifts and skills. In this context, God's help has been extended to us. 

God empowered Joseph with both the gift of interpreting dreams and the gift of wisdom and the two divine endowments ultimately lifted him to the Egyptian palace where he served as the second in command after Pharaoh. God used Joseph to save countless number of lives of people, including his native Hebrew people, through his prophetic gifts and wisdom. 

God can also make direct interventions in certain circumstances through people or means that He has appointed for the purpose. God can even use strangers to fulfill His purposes for our lives. He used King Cyrus, a heathen monarch to facilitate the return of the Jews from captivity and the reconstruction of the ruined temple at Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1-4).

In the case of Esther and her Jewish people in captivity, God used her outstanding beauty to lift her from an orphan to Queen of Persia. By God's enabling grace, Esther rose to the apex of one of the greatest empires in human civilization. We shall shortly discover that this unusual elevation would later serve God's purposes. 

God also lifted her uncle Mordecai to the royal courts of Persia under unusual circumstances, given that he was a member of the Jewish captivity. God later used the two members of the Jewish nobility in Persia as divine agents through whom He rescued His people from a planned extermination or holocaust that had been discreetly planned by Haman, a wicked senior officer at the royal courts who hated the Jews in the manner that Adolph Hitler did during WW2. The two native Jewish leaders were instrumental in averting this pogrom in Persia.

Under both instances, God was gloried.

These illustrations serve to remind us that the skills, resources and opportunities at our disposal are God-given. They are intended for godly purposes and for rescuing and lifting others to the glory of God. We should never despise or withhold what we have no matter how insignificant it may appear in the eyes of men. God has placed you where you are for a divine reason. 

We now return to our text of context... 

We learn from the passage of Exodus 3-4 that God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. At the time of his calling, Moses had fled the Egyptian palace after killing an Egyptian while seeking to defend a fellow Hebrew (Exodus 2:11-25). He was later employed by Jethro, his father in law, as a shepherd. Several decades must have elapsed between Moses' flight out of Egypt and his calling by God. 

Moses' calling and commissioning is recorded in Exodus 3-4. It was preceded by a dramatic scene and a captivating discourse. He witnessed a burning bush and drew close to the scene out of curiosity. God used this incident to authenticate His divine presence to a man who had perhaps never witnessed the power of God in person. God sent an angel to speak to Moses (Exodus 3).

Moses' calling and commissioning by God was clearly outlined for him (Exodus 3:14-22). In Exodus 4, Moses' accepts the calling but doubts continued to linger in his mind (4:1). God assured him that those who sought his life in Egypt were dead (Exodus 4:19) but Moses still had more doubts. Thankfully, God responded to him with clarity in each instance. Those who have received their calling to serve God will confirm that they went through various stages of introspection and doubts before they arose to serve. 

God employed another dramatic incident to assure Moses about his prophetic mantle. He picked out Moses' shepherd rod - an apparently insignificant instrument that was at Moses' disposal. It is instructive that Moses held a shepherd's staff in his hands when God appeared to him (Exodus 3-4). God turned Moses' shepherd staff into a critical tool in his prophetic ministry. He used the shepherd's rod to affirm Moses' calling. 

Notice the discourse... 

God asked Moses “...What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”" (Exodus 4:2). Moses could never have comprehended the significance of a shepherd's rod or staff until God commissioned him to prophetic ministry! He perhaps found the question laughable at first instance! What was so significant in a shepherd's rod that it could catch God's attention? 

Whatever God has placed at our disposal is not there by chance. It is intended for His divine purposes. This extends to our professional skills, intellect, resources, spiritual gifts, positions of influence both in society and our Christian community. I dare add that even our ethnic or racial identity serves God's purposes in its context. 

The next impediment raised by Moses was of an innate nature. Moses' speech impediment is captured in Genesis 4:10 where he laments thus: "...  “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” (NKJV). 

God found a solution to the speech impediment. He did not use it to reverse Moses' calling. Instead, He complimented it by allowing Aaron his brother to serve as his spokesperson (Exodus 2:14-17). This was a temporary arrangement because Aaron would later take a distinct office in the priesthood and Moses would continue to serve as Israel's prophet and judge. 

Who was Moses? This is a significant question for which we shall briefly attempt a response. 

Bible scholars say that Moses was the last born son of a humble Levite family of which Miriam and Aaron were his elder siblings. Moses' father was Amram (see Exodus 7:7; 1 Chronicles 6:3). The fact that Miriam is not mentioned in other texts of Scripture where Aaron and Moses appear is perhaps consistent with Jewish cultural etiquette where females are rarely mentioned in family lineage. Bible scholars believe that Miriam was the girl mentioned in Exodus 2:4 and was therefore the eldest of the three siblings of Amram. 

This could perhaps explain why Miriam and Aaron later attempted to challenge Moses' prophetic authority under a sibling rivalry that broke its domestic bounds! By questioning Moses' authority, Miriam had overstepped the divine boundary and was decidedly defying God. (See Numbers 12). Miriam was punished by God with leprosy, forcing the people of Israel to encamp for a further seven days but Aaron was spared perhaps because he expressed remorse for his sin. Miriam's punishment was perhaps tampered with God's mercy, given the gravity of her transgression and her privileged position as a prophetess. She perhaps deserved to die! Notice the similarity between Miriam's confrontation and the Korah rebellion recorded in Numbers 16. We should never dare to defy God's authority!

It is emerging from Exodus 4 that Moses may have been stigmatized because of his speech impediment but God was determined to use him as he was for His glory. God does not call perfect people to ministry. He calls us as we are provided however that we are willing to serve with diligence and obedience. He then molds and chastises those He calls into vessels of honor. Moses faithfully served God and led Israel through the wilderness until the plains of Moab where his prophetic journey was concluded. God did not permit him to cross the Jordan because of his transgression at Meriba Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin (see Numbers 27:12-13).

Elsewhere in Scripture, we learn that Jeremiah the prophet considered his youthfulness as a great impediment when God called him to ministry but God overlooked this limitation (see Jeremiah 1). God called Jeremiah when he was a young man, perhaps only a teenager who had no cultural standing among the elders. God however assured him of his prophetic calling and his fears were assuaged. 

Scripture reveals that God had set apart this servant of God long before he was born. Jeremiah 4:5 says: 

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;

Before you were born I sanctified you;

I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (NKJV). 

Jeremiah's calling had been determined by God while Jeremiah was still in His mother's womb! (Jeremiah 1:4-19). This effectively confirms that his calling was ordained by God before he was conceived in his mother's womb! Jeremiah, like Moses, went on to serve God faithfully. 

CONCLUSION 

Our study of Exodus 4:1-17 draws several questions that beg for answers. 

Have you received God's calling to His service? What skills, resources and abilities has God bestowed upon you? Could you be procrastinating about God's calling and service? Are you constrained by the negative views of people around you? Could you perhaps have slackened in your calling or service to God in your specific context? 

You are not alone. Great men and women of God had their doubts too but God assured them of His calling for them and they went on to serve God in their day (cf. Acts 13:22 concerning David). You too can arise and serve God in your time. You ought to break forth and reach out to God today and serve Him. He is a faithful God. 

Isaiah 60:1 says "Arise, shine;

For your light has come!

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you."

It is time to arise and serve God faithfully in whatever area of calling that He has assigned us. 

MORAL LESSONS

1. God is not a respecter of persons. He is not influenced or constrained by our biological, cultural or socioeconomic impediments. He is also not influenced by social class and nobility. He used three members of an obscure Levite family to serve Him. 

2. God confirms His calling to His servants. He confirmed his calling to Moses and Elijah and to several other servants of God whose ministries are recorded in Scripture. We should not shy away from seeking assurance from God even during the most difficult circumstances. 

3. God uses the skills, resources and opportunities at our disposal for His divine purposes. We should never despise what we have. Moses' shepherd rod became handy at the hour of his calling. His shepherding skills were later tested and refined as he led Israel through the wilderness journey for 40 years. 

4. Our ministry skills are complimentary rather than absolute. No one has a monopoly of skills. We need one other for Christian edification, service and support. Aaron complimented Moses' speech impediment because he was more eloquent than his younger brother. Moses however remained the overall leader for God's people. Little is known about Miriam's prophetic ministry except perhaps for her role in Exodus 15:20-21 and the implications of her claims in Numbers 12. Some say that she ministered among the women but this claim is not expressly affirmed in Scripture. It is only safe to presume that God spoke through her on some unspecified occasions that are not recorded in Scripture. The three Amram siblings demonstrated teamwork in serving God. 

5. There are no ideal circumstances under which we should respond to God's calling. We should be prepared to serve God at all times even under unpleasant circumstances. Moses had no advance warning on God's calling but he responded to God and served God in faithfulness (see the special tribute to Moses in Numbers 12:3). 

6. God is not seeking for perfect people to serve Him. We all fall short of God's divine standards. Moses had a difficult past. He killed an Egyptian man and later married an Ethiopian woman in violation of God's law. Yet God graciously used him. Do not be held back by your stained past. God can cleanse it and use you for His glory. In His own words, God proclaims in Isaiah 1:18-19: 

Come now, and let us reason together,”

Says the Lord,

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow;

Though they are red like crimson,

They shall be as wool.

19 If you are willing and obedient,

You shall eat the good of the land;

Shalom

© Ezekiel Kimosop 2023