MOSES’ ROD

What then of Moses’ rod? Let us look at rods or staffs.

Moses was a shepherd and shepherds carried a staff for different reasons. It enabled him to negotiate rough terrain when used as a walking stick. It could be used as a weapon. When night fell and the shepherd put the sheep into the sheepfold, he held his staff horizontally and counted them as they walked beneath it. If the end of the rod was dipped in dye, it could be used to mark the sheep. According to Leviticus 27:31-33, every tenth sheep was given to God as the tithe and this method was employed to set the tithe apart. A staff could also be used to measure distances or act as a threshing stick.

A shepherd could use his staff as a kind of tent peg and this enabled him to provide temporary shelter.

As you can see, there are many uses for a staff and I have left a very important one to the last.

A staff or rod represented authority, leadership or rulership. With regard to authority, a staff could be regarded as a scepter. See Genesis 49:10; Numbers 24:17; Psalm 45:6 and Hebrews 1:8.

That dead stick was destined to become a rod of authority and a mighty tool that would release the awesome power of God and set men free.

The problem, as I have stated, is that the man was not ready to use it, so God had to change the status quo and this is how He did it.

The LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. Moses ran from it, but the LORD told him,
“Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. Exodus 4:2-4.

If you recall, when sin first came, Adam also fled. He hid from God who asked him, “Adam. Where are you?”

It was a matter of identification. God could be still asking that question today, “Where are You?”

If you do not realize that you need help you will reject that help when it arrives. Sometimes the answer we seek comes in a way we did not expect and we reject it. This reminds me of the story of the man who had died and was entering Heaven. He had drowned in a flood and was asked what happened. The man explained that he prayed for protection and was convinced that God would rescue him.

Some people arrived in a 4WD vehicle to take him to safety but he would not get in saying that God would rescue him.

The water got higher and a small boat arrived. The rescuers asked him to get in so they could take him to safety.

The man rejected that offer also saying that God would rescue him.

The water kept rising higher and the man climbed onto the roof of his house. A helicopter came and the crew wanted to winch him to safety but he refused their help saying that God was going to rescue him.

The man drowned and when he got to heaven, he was puzzled asking, “Why didn’t God save me?”

The answer was, “God tried to save you—three times. He sent the rescue truck and you refused that help.

He sent the boat and you rejected that help. God then sent a helicopter to you and you would not allow Him to save you. That’s why you drowned.”

God could be offering you some assistance right now, asking you, “What have you got that I can use?”

He asked Moses that and all that Moses had was a dead stick.

He identified himself. He told God what he had. God already knew it, but as He does with us, He wanted the person to admit the need, the situation, the pros and cons and that he needed God’s help.

What Moses had was his old nature. It carried the good parts of his life as well as the taint, education, training, experience and status of Egypt with it and God told him to throw it away. It carried his very identity.

Sometimes we have to cast all of that stuff from us, including the “good things” we have done and experienced.
Sometimes we have to let go of the past. Sometimes we have to admit our mistake and when we do that and are prepared to change, God can then work in our lives.

When God told him to throw his rod on the ground that thing turned into a snake and it was a snake that came to Eve in the garden! When it did, Moses fled from it. There is an object lesson in this and it is simply, flee from sin.

Paul told Timothy to flee youthful lusts (2 Timothy 2:22). The meaning is simple. It means just what it says, It means to run away from danger; to walk away from the traps that the enemy lays for us; it means to stop going to places we should not go to and to avoid having ungodly associations with those who would drag you down. Well-meaning believers think that they can rescue or help others, but it is often the reverse. Instead of lifting them up to their level, the would-be rescuer is dragged down to the level of the sinner. The remedy is simple. Flee from it! This is why God often tells us not to touch, not to go there, not to associate with people of the world. Such commands are not to spoil our fun but to preserve us.

Moses fled from the things that had contaminated him. God then told him to do something very unusual.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: Exodus 4:4.

No one in his right mind picks up a snake by the tail. The thing can turn around and bite you. What happened?

God had taken the sting out of it!

He had turned Moses’ life around.

What was once the head was now the tail. The thing that had its venom in it was now rendered impotent.
It no longer had the power to harm or control him.

This is like the change that happens when we are born again. It makes everything fresh and new and different.
The old things, as Paul said, have passed away and  everything becomes new.

…if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 2 Corinthians 5:17-18.

IF YOU CUT OFF A PERSONS’ PAST—YOU SHAPE HIS FUTURE

That old dead stick Moses held represented the man’s life, his culture, his heritage, his past, his tradition, his family tree and his future or his destiny. Suddenly everything changed and he was never the same again. If you cut off a person’s past—you shape his future. When we had our first encounter with Jesus, our past was cut off and we were given a new future. When we became born again, we were given delegated authority. Jesus spoke plainly of this-

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe every command, which I have given you. and lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:18-20

We have been called to liberate the captives. Moses was called to liberate the captives.

Our authority is now vested not in a wooden stick (the natural things), but in the power of the Holy Spirit.

When Moses stretched or extended his arm that held the rod, signs, wonders and miracles happened, because he was representing God and doing what God had told him to do. The rod itself had no inherent power, but it represented the one who did have the power. When we extend ourselves in the Holy Ghost in the way Jesus said we should and do what he tells us to do at a particular time, accompanying signs, wonders and miracles bear witness that God has sent us.

There is much more to share, but I will bring this to a close with these thoughts.

When Moses came to God, it was with his rod in his hand. Everything that he did was in his own strength and ability and self effort because he wanted to do it, but God  commanded him to discard it and it turned into a snake.
Snakes represent evil, or iniquity and this gives me the impression that all of our self effort, no matter what it is, even in trying to do God’s work, is like that stick. I say that, because of what Jesus said-

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23

In today’s vernacular, it is like saying, “Lord, Lord, we built this church, ran that orphanage, built this hospital” and they may  all be good and the need is there, but the issue is simple—did God ask it? If not, then Jesus’ words apply. This is not trying to be legalistic as that also is abhorrent to God. Jesus broke the curse of the law and perhaps this is a study we should consider another time. I know that I say such things often, but it is necessary and there is a principle whereby God teaches us. It is by repetition, or what is called the law of much mention.

God commanded Moses to pick it up again by the tail and it again turned into a rod. Once God had dealt with the sin issue, the man’s talents and attributes were no longer his. They changed to become God’s. A reversal happened. Thinking of reversals, this sound akin to repentance and that is something rarely preached in most of the churches I know of today.

The story started with the rod of Moses and I shall start winding up with it and with this passage of scripture that spoke of the time Moses embarked on his mission and returned to  fulfill his calling.

… Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Exodus 4:20