"What is that in your hand?"
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“What is that in your hand?”
“What is that in your hand?”
During the course of human history and within that, God’s people, God has sometimes call a a few people to stem/redirect the unhealthy tides or current of events.
Nick Lewenza - Solidarity/Poland
William Wilberforce - slave trade
David Livingstone
Louisa May Parks
Martin Luther King
Abraham Lincoln
Nelson Mandela
Not everyone who feels called to change the tide, is called of God and initiates the right changes.
Karl Marx
Vladimir Lenin
Adolph Hitler
Marco Polo
Some who sought to turn the tide were in the process also destructive.
Oliver Cromwell
Standing and then moving against the tide takes a very special person, not necessarily in the sense of gifts and wisdom but more so in the sense that they are committed to hearing God and by faith obediently believing that He still lives, hears and knows His people.
BY BEING COMMITTED TO HEARING GOD AS OF GREATEST IMPORTANCE, I AM NOT INFERRING THAT HE OR SHE DOES NOT LISTEN TO AND CONSIDER OTHERS, BUT HAVING LISTENED, CONSIDERED AND DEMONSTRATED CARE, THE ONE WHO WOULD CHANGE THE TIDE WILL ELICIT TRUST AND IF NEED BE PUT INTO ACTION WHAT THE COMMITTEE COULD NOT DECIDE. HAVING PUT THAT INTO ACTION, IF IT IS OF GOD OTHERS WILL RALLY AND EVENTUALLY JOIN IN.
BEING ABLE TO DO THAT IS A GIFT FROM GOD - Pastor Don Loveday.
Stemming the tide and attempting to redirect the current is not for believers who are faint of heart. Firstly, one must be unequivocally sure of sincere motives and calling. Secondly, one must be prepared for resistance from those who would rather stick where ever the current takes them, even if warnings a Niagara Falls type precipice are becoming more ominous. And thirdly, one must be willing to step aside or allow God to use others to further stem the tide.
Very often, those most used of God are those to whom God affords what some might later refer to as some kind of epiphany that stops them in their tracks and in a sense redirects them on a redemptive course that involves taking small unique steps of faith. That redirection must be validated by Scripture and the witness of mature godly believers who know the situation and have no conflict of interests.
God sometimes does that by asking multiple people more or less the same question, “What is that in your hand?” Nowhere was that poignant question more used by God than with His servant Moses.
Previous similar/parallel questions:
MORE OFTEN THAN NOT KNOCKS ON MORE THAN ONE DOOR AND THAT SIMULTANEOUSLY. READINESS FOR A STEMMING OF THE TIDE COMES WHEN MULTIPLE PEOPLE DETERMINE NOT TO BE SWEPT ALONG BY THE PREVAILING TIDE.
Hide Jews
Underground railway for escaping slaves
Bible translators - in the language of ploughman
T T Shields and MacMaster Seminary
NO MAN IS AN ISLAND!
Depending on the context, the phrasing of the similar/parallel questions will vary, but in the end, the bottom line questions will be, “What is that in your heart?” or “What is it, that I have entrusted to you?”.Whi
Hebrew midwives - Ex 1:17, 8-22
2 named - Shiphrah and Puah - to whom Pharoah gave a directive - commanded to kill Hebrew baby boys.
As heartless as this was and it was a cruel and heartless command, most of the cultures of that era and successive eras, abandoned unwanted and/or deformed newborns. The lower that one was one social scale, the more that was accepted by some. In this instance, the previously respected and valued Hebrews were not slaves whom the Egyptians saw as threat to over power/over throw them.
BUT the midwives feared God and did not do what Pharoah commanded.
God asked them a variation of the question, “What/who is that in you hand.?’
Commands of those in power are the final determination for the tides and currents of life.
Moses’ parents (Amram & Jochebed - Ex 6:20) - Ex 2:1-10
With the midwives having answering God and sparing the baby who would be soon named Moses, Amram & Jochebed had to answer a similar question. With the birth of their son after the decree by the new Pharoah, probably Thutmose I, they needed to decide how they too could obey God.
Basket of bull rushes daubed with pitch and bitumen
Strategically placed and watched by his sister, Miriam - later will learn of Aaron who would have been older
Indirectly, Pharoah’s daughter was asked and answered the same question, not as her father would have wanted but so as to begin to begin to set the stage for the turning of the tide.
By answering the way that she did, not only was Moses named, his life was spared but he would have received an excellent education - reading
Moses - cruel Egyptian taskmaster - Ex 2:11-15
Moses acknowledged what had happened. The testimony of Stephen, the first NT martyr, provided us with some insightful additional info.
And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
- The writer of Hebrews adds a bit more.
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
While we must be careful not to read into the texts of Exodus, Acts & Hebrews, the added details from Acts and Hebrews strongly suggest that when Moses was 40 years old, God had begun to answer Moses, “What is that in your hand?” What Moses did gives us an insight into his heart and how at that point he was answering that question.
Moses understood that:
He was a Hebrew and his brothers were being mistreated.
His brothers needed a salvation, a deliverer.
He understood that he might be that deliverer.
What Moses did not understood yet that :
Violence and raising his hand was not the answer that God wanted.
Moses’ impulse to save Israel was not wrong. The action that he took was.
What was in his hand -life, education & training - was given by the LORD BUT in the end not what God would use to deliver His people, Israel.
Neither, the Hebrews nor Moses were yet able to both correctly answer, “What is that in your hand?” so that directly Moses as leader, the Hebrews could be delivered.
Context of questions:
Oppressive new Pharoah/ruler/king who knew not Joseph - 2:1-7
While naming this new Pharoah is not essential, there is abundant archeological evidence to suggest that this Pharoah was not Amose I, last of a line of ruler in a period of political disintegration - but Thutmose III , the first of returning Hyksos kings whose forefathers, Amose had exiled. Archeologists tell that rather than being weak, Egypt was in again increasing in strength under Thutmore III, who was called in retrospect, “Napoleon of Ancient Egypt”. The boundaries of ancient Egypt had been expanded beyond the natural limits.
This forceful might is right seems to have influenced Moses as well.
Knew not Joseph:
Godly wisdom and partnership that 400 years before had saved Egypt during the 7 years of extreme famine. Not only had Joseph’s wisdom kept the people alive but in the process placed under the government’s control most of the land. With good, wise benevolent rulers that wasn’t with the coming of an abusive leader, there were no controls on the autocratic leader and the minority Egyptians who ruled and abused those who under them with harshness.
Faulty reasoning - people of Israel too many and too mighty for us - but the more that they treated them as slaves and made their lives bitter and hard - Ex 1:11-14 - the more God continued to bless and multiply his people.
But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
Cry of the people of God, whom He saw, heard and knew - Ex 2:23-25
Ex 2:15-22 - encapsulates the second 40 years of Moses’ life:
Fled Pharoah & Egypt to Midian
Priest of Midian - Reuel - 2:18 - Jethro - 3:1 - 7 daughters - shepherdesses
Moses intervened and saved daughters from other unkind shepherds.
Married one daughter - Zipporah (a little bird) - son - Gershom - stranger/sojourner
With the naming of his son, Moses was crying out to God.
Back in Egypt, the other Hebrews, most brothers and sisters were also crying to God. Pharoah died and with the next Pharoah, the slavery continued. The people sighed - groaned KJV
God hears to the cries of His children - continues to hear.
And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
God saw the people of Israel - looked upon KJV - and care.
The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us;
he will bless the house of Israel;
he will bless the house of Aaron;
For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
And God knew - again not only in the sense of knowing but also doing.
Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’ And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
What God knew then, He had known and promised Abraham and Isaac.
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Covenant given and affirmed - Abraham - Gen 12:1-3; 15:1-21; 17:1-22 - Isaac - Gen 26:2-5 - Jacob - Gen 28:10-15; 35:9-15
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”
Moses - BURNING BUSH - Ex 3:1-6
From being a son of the daughter of Pharoah “prince & judge”, we are told
What Moses did - tended the flocks of his father-in-law - priest of Midian
Was keeping - established pattern
Stayed in Midian.
When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
Where Moses did it - from east side of southern tip of wilderness - Sinai - to Horeb, mountain of God - Ex 4:27; 18:5; 24:13 - Ex 24:16 - mountain of God also called Mt Sinai
West side of wilderness from Midian
Later - Jebel Musa - the mountain of Moses - southern segment of Suez - between 2 northern extremities of the Red Sea - Gulf of Suez & Gulf of Agaga
So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”
Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
Angel of the LORD - Yahweh - appeared to him in the flame of fire out of the midst of a bush that was burning but not consumed.
Moses turned aside to see this great sight - the bush that burned but not consumed.
Genesis & Exodus Notes
Throughout the OT, when God appears to someone, it is characteristic to first say that it is the angel of the LORD and then for any conversation to proceed with the Lord speaking directly as though there was no mediator (Gen 16:7–14; 22:11–19; Judg 2:1–4; 6:11–23, 36; 13:2–22). It seems likely that this expression is an attempt to say two things simultaneously: (1) that it is really God whom the person is seeing and talking with but (2) that it is impossible for the Transcendent One to be localized in a single place. This concept finds its ultimate expression in Jesus Christ, who was truly God on this earth but is also one of three persons of the Triune God. For further discussion, see ch 33
Bush - acacia - Hebrew - no acacia to be found there now - so unique
Saw burning bush - when Moses turned aside, the LORD saw that he turned aside and spoke.
The LORD said - Ex 3:4-12
“Moses, Moses” - Ex 3:4
The LORD called Moses by name, not once but twice.
While the LORD calls and speaks in a general universal sense, when we turn aside, He sometimes to us calls us by name.
Then Moses said Ex 3:4 - “Here I am”
ONLY WHEN WE STEP ASIDE FROM WHAT WE ARE ACCUSTOMED TO DOING TO SEE WHAT GOD IS DOING OUT OF THE ORDINARY,
ONLY WHEN WE HEAR GOD CALL US BY NAME,
ONLY WHEN WE ANSWER, “HERE AM I”
AND ONLY WHEN WE HEAR AND LISTEN TO WHAT WOULD SAY TO US, WILL WE HEAR HIM ASK WHAT IS THAT IS YOUR HAND AND BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT HE CAN WHEN WE DO WHAT HE COMMANDS. LAY IT DOWN PICK IT UP. USE IT ONLY AS I TELL YOU FOR WHAT I TELL YOU.
The LORD said Ex 3:5-12
“Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
Holy ground therefore reverence - not for the location, the bush but God
And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Not confined to designated place of worship, but where ever God is.
Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
For all
Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
But even more when believers gather.
a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all who are around him?
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
What God said:
And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
While as believers, we can come to our Father in Christ and His imputed righteousness, I cannot help but wonder if we have lost too much reverence and what it means to stand before our heavenly Father, whom although we are told to call Him Father, when we do so we need to remember that He is all too aware of our hearts, our minds and our hands that might have dirty/sinned stained segments that have not be acknowledged or confessed.
But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
THOSE WHO REVIEW MOSES’ COMPARATIVELY BRIEF RECORD OF THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE LORD’S QUESTION, INCLUDING THESE INFORMATION BULLETS, INCLUDING THAT HE HID HIS FACE FOR HE WAS AFRAID TO LOOK AT GOD.
It would seem that Moses wanted those who read of God’s poignant question, and would later prayerfully consider that question in their own lives and collective situations, needed to understand the what God was doing in his life and heart before the question was asked.
Moses was selflessly transparent. God’s question and how God would later use Moses as a tool for His glory. An old shepherd, who did not own his own flock, who lived in a land that was not his own, whose ethnic own had rejected him the last time, whose extended adoptive parentage wanted him dead, all of this prompting his flight into exile, was the least expected person whom God would choose and use. After all if there was someone back in Egypt whom God might be used, what about Aaron? He seems to have been faithful and had a better resume.
With that in mind, Moses recorded God’s explanation of why and how He was going to intervene.
Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
Moses’ questions/concerns:
More often than not we read what is recorded with the mistaken presumption that we would never have had similar questions/concerns.
WHO AM I?
WHAT IS HIS NAME? re when I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, “What is His name, what shall I say?’
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’ And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
The LORD graciously answered both Moses’ verbalized question and explained what He had observed, promised and how the basics of how he would deliver the Hebrews . God will stretch out His mighty hand.
But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,
NOW WE COME MOSES’ OBJECTION. In his study bible, Dr John MacArthur commented, “ At this point, the hypothetical situation proposed became more objection than reasonable inquiry.”
While that is of course a true and accurate assessment, after all that God and verbally explained and promised, I am not sure that I would have done much better. I cannot speak for your.
MOSES’ OBJECTION - “THEY WILL NOT BELIEVE ME.”
LEADING IS NOT ONLY ABOUT ME AN GOD, BUT ABOUT BEING BELIEVED WHEN WE DO OUR BEST TO EXPLAIN WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED THAT WOULD BENEFIT THEM.
As we ponder that, most of us remember when our children were in “The Terrible Two’s”. It wasn’t that they were terrible. The challenge was that most times that did our best to explain and model what was best, we were asked, “Why?’
In some segments of our lives, that never changes. That was Moses’ concern. Will they believe me?
Referred to Dr of Ophthalmology - treating me for the beginnings of glaucoma. After had some treatments/procedures that worked on some people, but not me, he asked about the standard drops in the eyes treatment - WHAT DO YOU THINK? - Answer - I don’t think. I trust you because I trust my Dr of Optometry.
GOD’S QUESTION/MOSES’ ANSWER AND ENSUING EVENTS 3 SIGNS - Ex 4:2-9
“What is that in your hand?”
“A STAFF.” - well worn, well used, man made BUT
“Throw in on the ground.”
“So, he threw in on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.”
“Put out your hand and catch it by the tail - that they may believe that the LORD, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
“So he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand.”
Hand in cloak, out leprous - severe skin disease - term used can include leprosy/Hansen’s Disease but broader in us , back in and out, like the rest of his flesh.
“If they will not believe or listen to the first sign, they may believe the second sign, TAKE WATER FROM THE NILE AND POUR IT ON THE DRY GROUND, AND THE WATER THAT YOU TAKE FROM THE NILE WILL BECOME BLOOD ON DRY GROUND.
Before we go much further, we who confess to love our LORD and fear HIM need to take personal stock as to how we would respond, were we to be individually and collectively asked the variations of the “What is that in your hands?” questions that we have considered second. But what if we were asked first hand?
What the government “powers that be” ordered you to take lives of others or be neglect allow those whom the “powers that be” decided not needed or threatened the needs of the state?
Medically Assisted Dying
Abortions
To what lengths would you go to protect and rescue those entrusted to you?
Those who perfect or less than perfect
Those who are in danger or vulnerable
3. What is that in your hand?
Gifts
Resources
YOU
When we see what can a staff, a hand, water, what is to stop us from laying that down before the LORD and without reserve allowing the LORD to use what is in our hand and us for Him.
When we personally pull back and question, we might expect to LORD to perhaps become a but angry with us as He again reminds us of what He told us before give as forceful nudge out to door to do what He has told us to do?
But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
WITH THIS, GOD BASICALLY SAID, IF YOU NEED HELP VERBALLY, I AM SENDING AARON YOUR BROTHER. HE WILL BE GLAD TO SPEAK TO THE PEOPLE.
I PROMISED TO HELP. I PROMISE TO HELP. YOU SHALL BE AS GOD TO HIM.
The last phrase might bother some of us, but those who have been very to assume authority and reluctantly only agree still asking God to help will not abuse authority will Lord is over people.