What Is In Your Hand?
Exodus 4:1 (Message Bible) “Moses objected to God’s command, saying "They won't trust me. They won't listen to a word I say. They're going to say, 'God? Appear to him? Hardly!” v2 So God said, "What's that in your hand?" and Moses answered "A staff." v3 "Throw it on the ground." God said, So he threw it and it became a snake which made Moses jump back - fast! v4 God said to Moses, "Reach out and grab it by the tail." And he reached out and grabbed it - and when he did so, it became a staff again. v5 God said "That's so they will believe that God appeared to you, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." v6 God then said,"Put your hand inside your shirt." And Moses slipped his hand under his shirt, then took it out, and his hand had turned leprous, like snow. v7 And God said, "Put your hand back under your shirt." He did and when he took it back out – it was healthy as before. v8 "So if they don't trust you and aren't convinced by the first sign, the second sign should convince them.”
The Question God asked, was…..WHAT IS THAT IN YOUR HAND?
In this scripture, God is calling Moses to be the deliverer of Israel. He is 80 years old. He is a fugitive from Egypt, cut off from his inheritance, cut off from his position, and his people. He lives with his father-in-law Jethro and he is taking care of Jethro’s sheep, and he is being taken care of by Jethro. He’s a live-at-home 80 year old, son-in-law! As we are introduced to him here, he doesn’t appear to be a likely choice for the ministry God has in mind for him.
MOSES HELD HIS LIMITATIONS IN HIS HAND…..When the call of God comes, Moses gives every excuse he can think of to get out of what the Lord has for him to do.
First, He says he doesn’t feel worthy (if that’s our excuse, that’s about to change)….Next, He says he doesn’t even know God’s name, (if our excuse is we don’t know God enough, that’s about to change)…..Next, He says the people will not believe him, (if that’s our excuse, we’re about to get some new credentials)…..Next, He says that he is not good with words, (If you have said, “I don’t know what to say”, you’re about to get a new vocabulary)…..Next, he says, “Send another”, (If you have asked God to use someone else, better qualified, get ready to get qualified)….. After all the excuses, Moses sets out to do what the Lord has told him to do.
In the middle of this account, God asks Moses a very important question. That question is found in verse 2 of our text. It is that question that I want to look at today. That question, and the answer to it, has importance for all of us as well. The question is rather simple…… “What is that in Your hand?”
Moses answered, “just a rod”. All he had in his hand that day was a simple shepherd’s staff. All he had was a dry, dead stick. At least, that’s what it was to him, but in the eyes of God it was so much more than that.
I want you to see that just as God used what was in the hands of Moses for His glory, He desires to use the things we hold in our hands as well. So, let’s take a deeper look at these truths together as we examine the question “What Is That In Your Hand?”
The shepherd’s staff was used in a variety of ways by the shepherd. Sometimes it had a crook at the end, and sometimes it didn’t…It was used to guide, to lead and to protect the sheep.
It was used to support the shepherd and help him climb up and down the steep mountain places as he searched for his sheep.
It was used to defend the flock and the shepherd against the attacks of wild animals and others who would threaten the flock. Moses depended on that staff every day of his life.
The staff was connected to Moses’ identity as a shepherd. When people saw the staff in his hand, they would immediately know who he was! It was carved with symbols which told his unique story and defined him and his journey.
The staff also stated that as a herdsman, Moses did not even own the sheep that he kept. They belonged to his father-in-law Jethro. All Moses possessed was a staff. It represented his life, his identity and his livelihood.
The staff was a constant reminder that he had never reached his fullest potential in the Lord…..Forty years earlier God had strategically positioned Moses as second to Pharaoh, with great authority and power, but now Moses felt like he had wasted his opportunity. Moses had come to believe that we was worthy of being no more than a shepherd. That stick told Moses, “You are nothing but a shepherd keeping another man’s flock, when you could have had it all!”
Just like Moses, we also have some things in our hands today. Let me give you short list of some of the things we hold on to today…. Perhaps it is the past, (what could have, should have been) maybe it’s some secret, hidden sin, Perhaps it’s offences over things people have done or said to us, (that’s just another word for unforgiveness), maybe it’s the sorrows of life (that’s about living with regret over lost opportunity), Perhaps you’re holding feelings of inadequacy, (about your lack of talent, natural abilities, lack of education or training).
All of these things, identify us and to a great degree, they control our lives. We come to depend on the things we hold in our hands and we may even think they are who we are. They become an integral part of our identity. Like a shepherd leans on his staff, we lean on the things that we hold in our hands and we allow them to define our personality and control our spiritual destiny. We may even believe that those things are all we will ever be. God needed to show Moses and us as well, that we can rise above the things that we hold in our hands, that what we hold does not have to hold on to us!
…. When Moses answered the Lord’s question, it must have stabbed him through the heart. He must have remembered a time when his hands held a scepter instead of a stick. His mind must have gone back to those days in the palace in Egypt when he was being trained and educated to be a Pharaoh. He may have remembered a time when he held the world in his hand, now he has nothing but a dry, dead stick. (it all looked so final, this was now his life he thought, accept it, learn to live with it)
MOSES HELD HIS OWN SOLUTION IN HIS HANDS You see, God was not asking for information. God was asking for permission. Because the thing Moses was holding was also holding him back, and keeping him in a place far less that God intended! The rod reminded Moses that his life was filled with vast potential at one time, but that now, he was merely a has been, a washed up nobody on the back side of the desert.
You see, our sins, our past, our hurts, our failings and our offences all have the ability to define us and impact who we are and how we relate to the world around us. They even determine how we serve the Lord. If I allow the negative aspects of my life to control me, then I will stand in the way of His will being done in my life.
I would remind you that we are to be controlled by nothing and no one, but the Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. v2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”.
Is there some attitude, some activity, some action, or reaction, that is defining our life? The thing that should identify the child of God is “Christlikeness”, Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will complete it until we stand before Jesus Christ”. Paul could say, “For to me to live is Christ...” What do we live for? Whatever we live for, reveals our personality. Whatever it may be, it controls our life! What is it that is controlling our lives? Some people can’t even enter into real praise and worship because they are filled with offences over something someone said or did to them and their spirit is closed. Some people won’t serve the Lord because everything hasn’t gone their way, so they’re pouting. (I remember we had two ladies who sat on opposite sides of the church, so they wouldn’t have to be near one another, another two sisters, had a line drawn down the middle of their house separating what was theirs….but they wouldn’t miss a church service! (There’s some messed up people in churches too…and what better place for them to be)
Some people are hindered by their sins and some by their self-righteousness and they are hindered because they are filled with pride over their abilities and their accomplishments (they’re spirit’s are shriveled up). They don’t even recognize the fact that their achievements have become what they’re leaning on in their lives, and what is defining and identifying them, like Moses and his stick. “What is that in your hand?” God is asking….
.MOSES HELD HIS OWN POTENTIAL IN HIS HAND …When Moses objects to God’s call on his life, God uses a series of miracles to teach Moses the truth that He will be with him into Egypt and that Jehovah will work through him.
Moses is commanded to take the rod and “cast it on the ground” and it turns into a serpent. Then Moses runs from the serpent (oh, great man of faith and power). This not an ordinary garden variety snake, but it was a cobra, a 6 to 10 foot cobra!!!. Cobras were worshiped as gods by the Egyptians. Pharaoh even wore a golden cobra around his neck. Seeing Moses take a stick and turn it into a cobra would be a real attention getter, to both the Israelites and the Egyptians. It would tell the Egyptians that their great God was subject to an outcast and exile such as Moses, who claimed to represent the God who was more powerful than the gods the Egyptians worshiped.
Then Moses was told to pick it up by the tail, and when he did, (very carefully and fearfully) it turned back into a rod again… Notice that Moses wasn’t a person of great faith at this point, and he was struggling with the fact that God could actually use him!
Sometimes the miracles aren’t because you have such great faith, but they are because you need to believe and build your faith! These miracles were designed to confirm, to comfort and to build Moses faith and teach him and Israel that he is indeed a man sent from the Lord.
To Moses that staff was just a tool, a weapon, a necessary part of his life. In his hand, it helped support him. It helped protect and guide his flocks. It helped him in many ways every day. But, in his own hands, doing his own thing, it was still just a dead, dry stick…..
HOWEVER, When that stick was given over and surrendered to the Lord, it became something much more than it appeared to be in the physical realm. It became a thing of power that God used to defeat Israel’s enemies and bring Glory to Him. God took that insignificant thing….a stick, and worked wonders and miracles with it.
It was used to confront the Egyptian soothsayers – Exodus 7:12.
It was used to turn the waters of Egypt to blood – 7:17.
It was used to bring forth the plague of frogs – 8:5.
It was used to bring forth the plague of lice – 8:16.
It was used to bring forth the plague of thunder and hail – 9:23.
It was used to call and east wind that blew in the plague of locusts – 10:13.
It was used to part the Red Sea – 14:16.
It was used to cause the Red Sea to come together again, drowning Pharaoh and his army – 14:27.
It was used to bring water from a rock in the desert – 17:5.
It was used to bring victory over the Amalekites – 17:9.
In Exodus 4:4, Moses was commanded to “put forth your hand, and take the snake by the tail”. When Moses obeyed, the serpent became a dead stick once more. But, I guarantee you that Moses never looked at that stick the same way again, and I guarantee you that when we give all that’s in our hands to God, we will never look at it the same either!
God took that weak, powerless, dead, dry stick and used it in a mighty way, simply because Moses yielded it to the Lord. Had it remained in Moses’ control, it would have held no power for God, but it would have continued to rule over his life and tie him to his past. Because Moses yielded to the Lord, he was freed from its power over him and he was free to use its power for the glory of God.
Whatever the rod is that we hold in our hands today, if it is not yielded to the Lord, it is a hindrance in our lives! It holds us back from being everything we could be for the Lord. Not only does it hold us back, but it also affects everyone around us! It affects our families. It affects our church. It affects everything we touch in our lives and everything that touches us.
The sin, disobedience and rebellion which we refuse to abandon to the grace of God is a dead stick in our hands but when we give it up to God in confession and repentance, it becomes an opportunity for Him to display His grace, His forgiveness, His restoration and His transforming power.
Holding on to offences over past wrongs we may have suffered, is a dead stick in our hands, which is constantly beating us, but when we bring it to God, He is able to transform it and restore us into the place of His blessing……That spirit of abandonment that may causes a lack of trust, so that you look for the worst in everyone and in everything, is a dead stick in your hand; but when you bring it to the Lord, He is able to pour in His Agape, healing love and give His perspective on people and events. He is able to bring His people out of that bondage into glorious new life!!
The sorrow, regret and fatalism, that has been allowed to shape lives and steal their joy is a dead stick in our hands, but as we bring it to God, He will teach you that He has a purpose even in the pain, and He will turn the irritating thing into a thing of beauty. The test becomes our testimony, the wound becomes a wonder, The disaster becomes a deliverance, and the problem becomes a pearl of priceless beauty!
Romans 8:28 “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose”.
Everything we continue to clutch tightly in our hands is a burden and a problem. They can hinder our lives, our walk with God, our family and our church. But when we open our hands in the posture of praise, worship and surrender, and yield them up to the Lord, He is able to release its full and glorious potential for blessing in our lives.
Sometimes we wonder why God isn’t working in the church and saving souls like we think He should be. It may be that there are some dead sticks that need to be surrendered to the Lord and it is hindering an atmosphere of praise and worship and surrender to His greater plan and His love.
Moses had been carrying around that dead stick for forty years. In all that time, he had used that stick, but that stick had ruled over his identity. That stick limited him. That stick controlled his life. That stick said, “All you will ever be is a shepherd keeping another man’s sheep”. That stick was only bondage for Moses and he didn’t even realize it. He believed that it was part of who he was and would always be. Moses never knew, until he yielded that stick to God, that the stick he held in his hand was the key to God’s power in his life when God’s power flowed through it.
Moses yielded the stick he carried that day to the Lord. When he did, he was released from its power. When he did, it ceased to define who he was. When he did, it became the instrument of the power of God in his life.
God is still asking His chosen today, “What is that in your hand?” what do you carry today? What defines you? What are you holding on to that holds you back and keeps you from being everything God redeemed you to be?
What is it that needs to be laid down? Is there some event from your past, some hurt, some sorrow, some bitterness, that still rises up, even today? Is there something in your life that just feels like it’s holding you down, holding you back and putting limits on your life?
We all must answer the question, “What is in your hand?” And when we do, we will be free from its pull and from its influence. When we throw it down and let God have it, we will be able to pick it up, redeemed and transformed. When you hold it, it is a liability. When you give it to Him, it becomes a spiritual asset!
Life is either about the dead sticks we identify with or a powerful, transforming Lord who gives us a new identity.
Bring what you hold in your hands and cast it down before Him. Let Him take that liability and turn it into a powerful asset for His glory.
Whatever the stick is that you’re holding on to, throw it down, so God can do His supernatural work and cause it to become His tool in our hands. As we lay down what is in our hands, we release ourselves from the things that use to define us, and limit us….Let’s cast them down before Him….as we take up the cup of the new covenant and the bread of Divine provision…. In it’s place….
We surrender whatever was identifying us, and we receive our new identity in Christ ….
We declare that in His strength and in His anointing, we rise up, above the limits of the flesh and mount up with wings as eagles….we shall run and not be weary, we shall walk and not faint….
