WHAT IS THAT IN THINE HAND?

Exodus 4:1–5 AV

1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. 2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. 3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. 4 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: 5 That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.

Intro: Moses is 80 years old. He is a fugitive from Egypt, Ex. 2:11–15. He lives with his father-in-law Jethro and keeps Jethro’s sheep, Ex. 3:1. Moses does not appear to be a likely choice for the ministry God has in mind.

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.

1.) He says he doesn’t feel worthy, 3:11–12.

2.) He says he doesn’t even know God’s name, 3:13–14.

3.) He says the people will not believe him, 4:1–9.

4.) He says that he is not good with words, 4:10–12.

5.) He says, “Send another”, 4:13–17.

6.) After all the excuses, Moses goes to do what the Lord has told him to do, 4:18–31.

In the middle of this account, God asks Moses a seemingly unimportant question. That question is found in verse 2 of our text. That question appeared unimportant on the surface, but it may have been the most important question Moses was ever asked.

It is that question that I want to investigate today. That question, and the answer to it, has importance for our lives right now. The question is rather simple. It is, “What is that in thine hand?” Moses answered, “a rod”.

All he had in his hand that day was a simple shepherd’s staff. To Moses, all he had in his hand was a dry, dead stick. That’s all it was to him, but in the eyes of God it was so much more than that.

Let’s examine the text and see what Moses really had in his hands that day. As we do, let’s take time to look at our own lives to see the things we also carry in our hands. 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 carry in our hands as well. Let’s notice these truths together as I preach on the question,

“What Is That In Thine Hand?”

I. v. 2 MOSES HELD HIS PERSONALITY IN HIS HAND

• When Moses said “a rod”, he was referring to his shepherd’s staff. This was a stick some six feet long that was used in a variety of ways by the shepherd. The sick was important to his work and essential to his life and his safety.

⮚ It was used to guide, lead and protect the sheep.

⮚ It was used to support the shepherd and help him climb up and down the steep mountain places as he led and looked 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 rod every day he lived.

• That rod identified Moses as a shepherd. When people saw that rod in his hand, they would immediately know who he was!

That rod also represented all that Moses possessed. He did not even own the sheep that he kept. They belonged to his father-in-law Jethro. All Moses possessed was his rod. It represented his life, his identity and his livelihood. His personality was wrapped up in that rod.

• That rod was a constant reminder that he had never reached his fullest potential in the Lord. Forty years earlier God had moved on his heart to deliver Israel from Egypt, Ex. 2:11–14. Back then, Moses ran ahead of God and took matters into his own hand. Because he did, he felt like he had wasted his only opportunity to serve the Lord. That rod defined Moses!

• Moses had come to believe that he was worthy of being no more than a shepherd. That stick told Moses, “You are nothing but a shepherd keeping another man’s flock!”

• Like Moses, we also hold some things in our hands today. Some of those things are good things and others are evil. Here is a short list of some of the things we hold on to today:

⮚ The Past

⮚ Some Pet Sin

⮚ Hard feelings over things people have said and done to us

⮚ Unforgiveness

⮚ The sorrows and hurts of life

⮚ Feelings of inadequacy

⮚ Bitterness and anger

⮚ A negative spirit

⮚ Fear

⮚ Talents

⮚ Our natural abilities

⮚ Our accomplishments in life

• All of these things, whether they are good or bad, identify us and control our lives.

• We come to depend on the things we hold in our hands and we may even think we can’t live without them. They become an integral part of our lives. Our lives can become reduced to a single event.

Like a shepherd leans on his staff for support, we learn to lean on the things that we hold in our hands.

• We can come to the place where we possess no identity apart from the things we hold to.

• Moses had come to believe that he was nothing more than a shepherd. God wanted Moses to see He held that shepherd’s rod in his hand, but that rod really held him. Moses was the prisoner of a dead, dry stick!

• The things we hold in our hands eventually come to hold us! Things like our past, our problems, our grudges, our fears, our abilities, our guilt, our failures, our sins, and our talents. We live for those things and we allow them to define our personality and control our spiritual destiny.

• We look at some of the things we hold in our hands and believe that those things are all we will ever be. ( Bitter, sad, hurt, angry, defeated, broken, wounded, etc.)

• God will use Moses to teach us that we can rise above the things that we hold in our hands. We need to see that what we hold does not have to hold us!

I. Moses Held His Personality In His Hands

II. v. 2 MOSES HELD HIS PROBLEM IN HIS HAND

• When Moses heard the Lord’s question, it must have stabbed his heart. “What is that in thine hand?” is the question. “A rod” is the answer.

Moses must have remembered a time when his hands held a scepter instead. Surely his mind went 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.

God knew what Moses had in his hand. God was not asking for His information. God was asking for Moses’ instruction. God wanted Moses to see what he really held in his hand. God was asking Moses to carefully consider the thing he held in his hand. In Moses’ life, the thing he held also held him!

• That rod identified Moses. That rod also represented all the problems in his life!

⮚ That rod reminded him that he used to be a prince.

⮚ That rod reminded him that he was just a servant.

⮚ That rod reminded him that he was poor and owned nothing.

⮚ That 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.

• All the things I mentioned before, have the ability to define us. Our sins, our past, our hurts, our negatives feelings about others, all impact who we are and how we relate to those 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 the Lord and of His will being done in my life. Even the positive aspects of our lives, like our talents and abilities, become liabilities when we depend on them instead of the Lord.

• I would remind you that we are to be controlled by nothing and no one but the Lord Jesus Christ, Eph. 5:18; Gal. 2:20; Rom. 12:1–2.

• What do you have in your hand? What are you clinging to today? Is there some attitude, some activity, some action, that defines your life? The only thing that should identify the child of God is “Christlikeness”, Phil. 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

• Paul could say, “For to me to live is Christ …” if you made that statement, how would it come out of your heart? What do you live for? Whatever it is, it reveals your personality. Whatever it is, it controls your life!

⮚ Some people can’t even worship because they are filled with bitterness over something someone said or did to them. It’s a dead stick!

⮚ Some people won’t serve the Lord because everything in the church hasn’t gone their way. It’s a dead stick!

⮚ Some people are hindered by their sins, some by their pride, and others their self-righteousness. It’s a dead stick!

⮚ Others are hindered because they think they are the best at what they do. They are filled with pride over their abilities and their accomplishments. They don’t even recognize the fact that their achievements have become liabilities in their lives. It’s a dead stick!

⮚ Some preachers can’t function because of what people have done and said. It’s a dead stick!

⮚ “What is that in thine hand?”

• No matter how good it may appear to you, it might be a liability in your life.

I. Moses Held His Personality In His Hands

II. Moses Held His Problem In His Hands

III. v. 3–5 MOSES HELD HIS 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 God will go with him into Egypt and that God would work through him.

⮚ First, the rod becomes a serpent and then it becomes a rod again, v. 3–4.

⮚ Second, Moses’ hand becomes leprous and then clean again, v. 6–8.

⮚ Third, God tells Moses that he will be able to turn water to blood, v. 9.

⮚ All these miracles are designed to comfort Moses and teach Israel that Moses is indeed a man sent from the Lord.

• Moses is commanded to take the rod and “cast it on the ground”. When he does, it turns into a serpent. Moses runs from the serpent. This tells us that it was probably not an ordinary snake that Moses might have encountered day by day in the wilderness.

Most likely, it was a 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 commentary to both the Israelites and the Egyptians. It would tell both that the God Moses represented was more powerful than the gods the Egyptians worshiped.

God used that stick to show Moses that God was greater than the past he fled. God also showed Moses that God was greater than the Egyptians he feared.

• Here’s the point, to Moses that rod was nothing but a tool, a weapon, a necessary part of his life. In his hand, it helped support him. It helped protect and guide his flock. It helped him in many ways day by day. But, in his hands it was still just a dead, dry stick.

• When that stick was given over to the Lord, it became a living thing. It became a thing of power that God used to defeat Israel’s enemies and to glorify God. God took that insignificant stick and worked wonders with it.

⮚ God used it to confront the Egyptian soothsayers—7:12.

⮚ God used it to turn the waters of Egypt to blood—7:17–20.

⮚ God used it to bring forth the plague of frogs—8:5.

⮚ God used it to bring forth the plague of lice—8:16.

⮚ God used it to bring forth the plague of thunder and hail—9:23.

⮚ God used it to call an east wind that blew in the plague of locusts—10:13.

⮚ God used it to part the Red Sea—14:16.

⮚ God used it to cause the Red Sea to come together again, drowning Pharaoh and his army—14:27.

⮚ God used it to bring water from a rock in the desert—17:5.

⮚ God used it to bring victory over the Amalekites—17:9.

• In verse 4, Moses was commanded to “put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail”. People who work with snakes will tell you that this is a recipe for disaster. If you are going to pick up a snake, you should always grab it behind the head.

Moses was commanded to take the snake by the tail to teach him that he could trust the Lord to take care of him. When Moses obeyed, the serpent became a dead stick once more. God was merely teaching Moses to walk by faith and not by sight! But, I guarantee you that Moses never looked at that stick the same way again!

• God took that stick, that weak, powerless, dead, dry stick and used it in a mighty way, simply because Moses yielded it to Him. Had it remained in Moses’ hands, it would have held no power for God, but it would have held all power over his life. Because he yielded it to the Lord, he was freed from its power over him and he was free to use its power for the glory of God.

• In God’s hands that stick became “the rod of God.” Ex. 4:20. God always uses weakness to accomplish His will, Paul—2 Cor. 12:9 “ And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” ( 1 Cor. 1:27–29)

• You can find this truth throughout the pages of the Bible!

⮚ An ox goad in the hand of Shamgar was used by God to kill 300 Philistines—Judges 3:31.

⮚ A little flour and a small amount of oil was used to feed Elijah, the widow of Zarephath and her son during a famine—1 Kings 17:9–24.

⮚ A little shepherd, a sling and a small stone was used in the hand of David to defeat the giant Goliath—1 Sam. 17:1–54.

⮚ A tiny army of 300 was used to defeat the Amalekites—Judges 7:1–25.

• I do not know what you hold in your hand today. But, I do know this: If what you hold in your hand is not yielded to the Lord, it is a hindrance in your life! It holds you back from being everything you could be for the Lord.

Not only does it hold you back, but it also affects everyone around you! It affects your family. It affects your church. It affects everything you touch in your life and everything that touches you.

⮚ That sin you refuse to abandon to the grace of God is a dead stick in your hand. When you give it to God in confession and repentance, it becomes an opportunity for Him to display His grace, His forgiveness and His restoration. 1 John 1:9 “ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

⮚ That bitterness over some past wrong you feel you have suffered is a dead stick in your hand. It is choking the spiritual life right out of you. Heb. 12:15; Ahithophel—2 Sam. 17:23. When you bring that thing to God, He is able to deliver you from the bondage you are in and restore you to a place of blessing.

⮚ That negative spirit you possess that causes you to look for the bad in everyone and everything is a dead stick in your hand. When you bring it to the Lord, He is able to give you His perspective on people and events. He is able to bring you out of that bondage.

He will teach you to love others, 1 John 3:14. He will teach you to look at events through His eyes, Eph. 1:11.

⮚ That sorrow that you have allowed to shape your life and steal your joy is a dead stick in your hand.Bring it to God and He will teach you that He has a purpose even in your pain, and He will teach you the truth of Rom. 8:28. Nothing comes your way unless it is cleared by God!

⮚ That fear that grips your heart and keeps you from following the Lord as fully as you should is a dead stick in your hand. When you bring it to Him, He can replace that fear with faith and He will help you stand boldly for Him. Gideon, Judges 6:11–12; 7:1–25.

⮚ That ability you have that you are so proud of can be a dead stick in your hand. When that ability is surrendered to the Lord, it becomes a channel of blessing whereby He is able to use your life in greater ways. John 15:5; 1 Cor. 12:7, 11

⮚ Those accomplishments in your past that you continually look to are a dead stick in your hands. When you yield them to the Lord, He will enable you to see that He has even greater things in your future.

1 Cor. 15:10 “ But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

• I am trying to get us to understand that everything we hold in our hands is either a burden or a blessing depending upon what we do with it. When we hold on to it, it is a problem. When we yield it up to the Lord, He is able to release its potential for blessing in our lives.

Everything I hold in my hands can hinder my life, my walk with God, my family and my church, if those things are not yielded to the sovereign control of Almighty God.

• Sometimes we wonder why God isn’t working in the church and saving souls like we think He should be. We wonder why there is no revival. We wonder why there is no glory. We wonder why there is no power. It may be that there are some people who, like Moses, are holding dead sticks in their hands that need to be surrendered to the Lord.

It may be that some here are like Achan, Josh. 7, there is sin or some other power killer buried deep within us that needs to be brought out and dealt with.

It may just be that the things we are holding onto are the very things that prevent us from receiving God’s best blessings! It may just be that there are too many dead sticks!