Title: What’s In Your Hand?

Date: 2007-11-25

Reference: Exodus 4: 1-5

These last few weeks our Wed. Evening Bible Study has been examining the life of Moses. When we think of Moses, we most often imagine him, as actually looking and acting like Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. The Biblical description of Moses is nothing at all like that. Moses was a reluctant prophet and his reaction to the call of God was hardly that of a hero.

God’s first appearance to Moses was very dramatic. God appeared in a bush that burned and yet was not consumed by the flames. God spoke to Moses and called him to a dramatic ministry. And Moses response was to immediately begin asking questions and making excuses. “Who am I to do this? Surely someone else is more qualified. I don’t even know your name. What would I say? Who would believe me?” After each question God said: “Don’t worry. I will certainly be with you.”

Finally Moses asks one too many questions and God gives him an object lesson. Moses asked: “What if they don’t believe me or won’t listen to me and say ‘the Lord didn’t appear to you?’ What then?” The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “It’s just a shepherd’s staff.” he replied. The Lord said: “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and Moses ran from it. Charlton Heston didn’t run away. The Lord told him to “reach out and take it by the tail.” When he did it became a staff in his hand. “This” said the Lord, “is so they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has appeared to you.”

The defining question was and is: “What is in your hand?” When we think of stewardship we think of our money, our time, and our talents and abilities. God wants to take whatever we have and turn it into an instrument of His power and a ministry in the world. God wants to use us in an extraordinary way.

Like Moses we may have become too accustomed to the day in day out regularity of life. God sometimes must upset our routines. God stepped into Moses life and called him to ministry. Moses didn’t react with excitement or eagerness. He was overcome with doubts about the mission, about the help God would give, about his own ability. He felt inadequate for the mission and unfit for the task. Maybe he just didn’t want to come out of semi retirement. Moses tried hard to get out of the job.

God replied with some amazing assurances that He would be with Moses and the people would believe him. After all of the Lord’s promises Moses was still reluctant to commit. At that point God signed heavily and asked: “What is that in your hand?”

The staff that Moses held in his hand was the tool of his trade as a shepherd. It represented who he was, an ordinary man with ordinary equipment. When Moses threw down the staff it became a snake and when he picked it up again it became a wooden rod.

God used that simple, wooden, shepherd’s staff to make a vital point. God will always use what we offer. God will use what we bring. God will use weak things to confound the mighty. God was able to use an object of little value like a shepherd’s crook, to break down walls of cruelty and opposition. In my own life I’ve seen God use a Godly man’s love of fishing and woodwork to make a difference. God has used another person’s skill in the kitchen to make a difference.

A love of sports, music, theater, a willingness to serve God uses them all. Whenever we feel as if we don’t have anything to contribute, whenever we feel inadequate.God asks us “What is that in your hand?” “Use it.” God never asks us to be someone we are not. God never asks us to do something we are not qualified for. God simply asks “What’s in your hand?” An important part of stewardship is offering whatever we are holding back to God.

When the staff became a snake Moses ran from it. Picture an 80 year old man running from his staff. God called him back and told him to pick up the snake by the tail. I’m sure it took a lot of faith, but Moses did what God had told him, and the snake became a staff once again.

But this time something was different. The staff, symbolic of Moses’ life, had been surrendered to God for God’s use and had become an instrument of spiritual authority. From that day forward Moses realized the simple wooden staff in his hand represented the power of God.

Moses was still not naive about the confrontation that lay ahead. He had been a prince of Egypt. He had grown up in Pharaoh’s’s palace. He knew the Egyptian King would be resistant and the Israelite slaves would be frightened by the prospect of a revolt against their oppressors. But Moses knew that he was in the hand of God as surely as the rod was in his own hand.

From this point forward Moses’ shepherd crook was called “The Rod of God.” It no longer belonged to Moses because he had surrendered it to the Lord. God used it to bring about his will.

It is the rod in Moses’ hand that brings judgement upon Egypt in the ten plagues. It is the rod in Moses’ hand that splits the waters of the Red Sea. It is the rod which strikes the rock in the wilderness to provide water for the thirsty people. All of this because Moses offered God what he was holding. “What is in your hand?”

The whole issue is who God chooses and who God uses. The best stewardship requires each of us to face the same question God asked Moses.”What is that in your hand?” There is a tendency to think that only those persons who have remarkable skills and brilliant minds are truly useful in God’s service. The simple fact is God loves each of us and wants us just as we are. We don’t have to be more articulate, intelligent, or gifted in order to serve God more effectively. We just need to make ourselves available. “What is in your hand?” God knows what we can become in His hand.

Look at the group Jesus called into full time ministry as disciples. A rag-tag bunch of fishermen, a wild-eyed zealot, a despised tax collector and a few other no desirables. Jesus used that motley crew to turn the world upside down. Faith in God and commitment to God will allow us to be used by God. When God asks us what we are holding, it is a very personal question. It is different for each of us.

Unlike Moses we don’t always carry around the tools of our trade or our identity. God calls us to give everything we have. God wants us to willingly offer ourselves in His service and for his purpose. Each one of us is unique and our circumstances are unique. We are all created by a loving God who designed us in His own image. We are special in God’s eyes and each of us has a special role to play. We are blessed beyond measure when we are fulfilling that unique role God has called us to fill.

God provides a spiritual gift to every one of His children. A spiritual gift is a Spirit-endowed ability to be used for Christian Service. The Bible is full of stories of God’s call to service. God called Abraham to leave his homeland and journey by faith to an unnamed land. Esther was called by God to literally save her people from annihilation. Paul was changed completely on road to Damascus. Peter was one of the first two men called by Jesus. He and his brother Andrew left their fishing nets and followed the man they knew as Jesus. Peter was an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry and resurrection. On the day of Pentecost he received the Holy Spirit.

One day Peter and John were going up to the Temple to pray when they were confronted by a beggar who had been crippled since birth. He asked for money but they gave him something far better. Peter said: “I don’t have silver and gold but I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus walk.” Taking him by the right hand he helped him up and the man jumped to his feet and began to leap in the air. Peter used to opportunity to preach. He and John were arrested. At his trial he boldly declared his faith in Christ. The leaders were dumbstruck by the boldness of Peter and John.

Peter and John were simple, coarse, unsophisticated fishermen. There wasn’t anything special about either of them yet they caused the highest ranking religious leaders of the nation to marvel at them. The Bible says (Acts 4:13) When they saw the courage of Peter and John they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus.

The healed man was standing there with them so the leaders had to admit a miracle had taken place. They refused to admit god had done it, giving the credit to Satan. Peter and John were warned not to speak in Jesus’ name.

Peter responded: “You judge for yourself whether it is right to obey you or to obey God.” Peter and John used what God had placed in their hands to turn a city upside down. Making the most of all that you are for Christ comes down to Christ in you. It’s about faithfulness.

Imagine a tennis racquet, a golf club, a football, a guitar and a piano. On their own these are just inanimate objects. But in the right hands things change. A tennis racquet in Venus Williams’ hand, a gold club in Tiger Woods’ hands, a football in Peyton Mannings hand, a guitar in Eric Clapton’s’s hand, a piano played by Liberace.these inanimate objects come alive.

Imagine yourself in God’s hands. Allowing God to use what we bring to make this world a better place. An important part of stewardship is offering God what we have and hold. What is in your hand?