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What Is That In Your hand?

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.
Exodus 4:2-3

Moses had been called by God to a task so radical, so huge, so impossible, it must have seemed outrageous. He was supposed to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt and into a new land set aside by God.

In this text God asks one odd question and gives two strange commands. The question is simply, “What is that in your hand?” Moses replies, “A staff.” And God gives the first command: “throw it on the ground.” When the stick becomes a snake, God gives the second command: “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” What would you be thinking about God’s command?

Perhaps God was giving Moses a vivid picture of how the things we fear – the memories and doubts that poison our future, that lie between us and where God wants us to go – need to be confronted head-on. Perhaps God was helping Moses understand that deep guilt, forgotten hopes and lost dreams of the past can be either a snake on the ground intimidating you or, through His power and grace, a rod in the hand.

What are your fears, intimidations, painful memories or deep regrets? How have they stood between you and the journey to which God is calling you? Today, God is inviting you to throw down that stuff before Him and allow Him to change the snake on the ground into a rod in your hand.

Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, You know the things in my life that cause me to be fearful of where You want me to go. Holy Spirit reveal to me today those memories, doubts, and sins that I need to throw down before my Lord. Help me to receive afresh today His forgiveness and His assurance. I pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen