What Is In Your Hand? Series

WHAT IS IT THAT IS IN YOUR HAND?

Exodus 4:2 - And the LORD said unto him, what is that in thine hand?

Moses after killing the Egyptian ran away from Egypt and the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the Land of Midian. He married Jethro’s daughter Zipporah and lived tending to his father-in-laws sheep. When we read the last verses of Exodus Chapter 3, we read how God heard the groaning of the people of Israel and he remembers the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Now while Moses was tending to the sheep, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire. Our Lord enters again into the life of Moses with a Question. A simple question-What is that in thine hand?

When we look at the life of Moses, we see that Moses lived for 120 years. The first 40 years of his life, he lived as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. (Acts 7:22) The next 40 years he spent in the Land of Midian as a shepherd & the last 40 years of his life, he led the people of Israel out of bondage as God’s servant.

Moses might have expected and desired to carry the Golden Scepter of Pharaoh in Egypt. But he was left to carry the shepherd rod for 40 years. The shepherd’s rod was abomination [disgrace] to the people of Egypt. When we look at the Bible, we can see lot of questions being asked. According to Dakes, in the Old Testament there are 2272 questions and in the New Testament there are 1022 questions. The first question that the Lord asked was to Adam – Adam where are you? Not only did that question made Adam think, but it also makes us think.

Today, the question is - What is it that is in your hand?

When we look at the scriptures, we see that Moses had the Shepherd staff in his hand, David had a sling and five stones, Samson had jaw bone in his hand and Gideon had pitchers and lamp in his hand, the prophet’s wife had a pot of oil, in the New Testament we see the small boy had 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, the poor widow had two penny and all these brought miracles in their life.

My dear Bro/Sis, for God to use you mightily in this word, what is there in your hand? Will you give that to Jesus / will you surrender that to Jesus. In those days Peter had the name of God with him. We read in Acts 3:6, that using the name of Jesus, Peter was able to cure the man who was born crippled. When Peter preached in the name of Jesus, thousands and thousand were added to the Church.

Isaiah 61:1, we read - The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

When you submit your talent to God, then the Holy Spirit will start using you, the old things will pass away, everything will become new.

When Moses told God that what he was carrying was a rod. Immediately God told him to drop it down. Hearing God’s word Moses would have anguished within himself, saying all I have is this shepherd’s rod and even this God wants me to put it down.

We read as soon as Moses dropped the staff he was holding, it turned into a snake. Moses saw that and ran away in fear. [Exo 4:3 - And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it] The rod of staff denotes authority and when Moses cast that authority down, it turned into a snake. Moses was holding a staff which he considered to be authority, but all along it was a snake that he was holding. Snake denotes SATAN.

Moses lived in the land of Midian the life which he chose and not the life that God had given him. That means the selfish life that Moses was leading was a life that he was living for Satan and not for God. May be it was the same rod that Moses used to kill the Egyptian. He might have done that because he got counsel from Satan.

My Dear Bro/Sis throw away your self wisdom, self knowledge, self will, self advice. You need not have your own plans and own ideas. The ways and plans of the Lord is thousand times better then all yours ways and thoughts. [Isaiah 53:8,9]

God commanded Moses lift the serpent by its tail. Never take Satan by its head, always hold it by its tail, because the responsibility of crushing the head belongs to God. When Moses lifted the snake by its tails, we can see that the snake was hanging upside down. By this meeting with God, we know that the life of Moses was also turned upside won. The staff turned into a new staff; it became the staff of God.