What’s in your Hand?
Adapted from a sermon given on Youth Sunday, June 13, 2021
Exodus Chapter 3:1-20, Exodus 4:1-17
Moses’s day probably began like any other day, and then this 80-year-old shepherd wandered upon a burning bush that was on fire, although the bush was not consumed by the fire, as told to us in the beginning of chapter 3. This day was, putting it mildly, a completely transformative LIFE CHANGING experience for Moses. Putting Moses into a biblical timeframe, historians figure that Moses lived about 1,500 years before Christ, and Christ lived about 2000 years ago. So why, you might ask, would I choose a story that is 3,500 years old on youth Sunday? You’re probably thinking “How out of touch with young people are you, Roger?” Here’s why: in many ways, things haven’t changed much in 3 and a half millennia. God is still the same God. And although we foolishly consider ourselves post-enlightenment, our human nature is much like human nature was in bible times. We are still fallen people. We are still asked by God to help free people from the oppression of slavery—the slavery of sin. Our excuses are the same as what Moses used, and God’s capacity to use the ordinary in extraordinary ways is the same today.
As you’ve heard, God speaks to Moses about God seeing the oppression of his people (Israelites in slavery in Egypt), God chooses Moses, and quickly Moses starts to make excuses why he couldn’t meet God’s request. Why didn’t God ask for someone younger to free His people? Why didn’t God ask for someone more qualified?
In my walk with the Lord, here is how I often approach this, focusing on what I don’t have:
1. “I could do so much more if only You Lord would give me. . . “
2. “I can’t move ahead without such-and-such. . . “
3. “Everyone else seems to have. . . “
Or simply think about our silent and wordless objections to serving God, our reticence evidenced not in phrases but in behaviors. Look at the creative ways we make ourselves unavailable. Marvel at the ones we know who are always available.
Excuses made by Moses are like looking into a mirror. Our excuses haven’t changed in the past 3,500 years.
1.“Who am I that I should go to Pharoah to bring the people out of Egypt?” (3:11) There is a chasm between what God asks of him, and what Moses believes he can do. Moses doubts himself, and doesn’t know if God will support Moses. God responds “But I will be with you.” (3:12). This should be, we would think, all Moses needs to know.
2. “If I go to the people of Israel about freeing them, who shall I tell them sent me?” (3:13) In other words, “Who are you, God?” Remember: The Egyptians had many gods, with many names. Same with us today, don’t we wonder “Do I know enough about God to represent Him?” God responds: “I am who I am.” Shouldn’t that be enough for Moses and the Israelites to hear that?
3. “But behold, they will not believe me.” (4:1)–this is after the Lord assured Moses that the people will listen to him. Isn’t this familiar with us today: “What if they laugh at me?” “What if they don’t take me seriously?”
4. “Lord, I’m not eloquent. I am slow of speech.” (4:10)–isn’t that a very unsophisticated argument?—again, sound familiar? Evidently Moses didn’t feel as silver-tongued as Charlton Heston. God responds “Who makes a man’s mouth? Is it not I, the Lord?”
5. Here’s the final pleading: “Lord, please send someone else.” (4:13) The anger of the Lord was kindled at this point. . . so God appoints Aaron, Moses’ brother, to speak for Aaron. (4:14 )
God is extraordinarily patient, but not endlessly patient.
God moves to again show His power to Moses. God inquires about Moses’s staff, his shepherd tool, and then He asks Moses “What is in your hand?”
God asks Moses to throw his staff onto the ground, and it became a snake. Frightened, Moses ran. At age 80. Then the Lord asks Moses to pick up the snake by the tail. Why grab a snake by the tail? To prove a point, that it, too, was in the Lord’s hands, and Moses should trust God. For you see our lives written by the Lord can be something for God’s glory, just as the staff in his hand was God’s tool for Moses to use. It doesn’t matter who Moses was, it was about who God IS. It is no longer Moses’ staff, but the staff of God!!
Quickly, let’s look at examples of this shepherd staff under God’s authority:
• Turned into a snake (Exodus 4:3)
• Turned the Nile into blood and other plagues (Exodus 7:20)
• Parted the Red Sea (Exodus 14:16)
• Brought Water to drink out of a rock (Exodus 17:6)
• Won a battle for Israel (Exodus 17:9-14)
We have other biblical examples of God using other ordinary things:
• From Judges chapter 15 we learn about Samson killing 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey.
• From 1st Samuel 17 we learn about another shepherd, a boy named David who killed a giant with a sling and a rock. Note the dialogue between David and Goliath:
i. Goliath: “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?”
ii. David: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (David continues in verse) 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
• From the book of John, we read about how Jesus fed 5,000 men (plus women and children) with 5 loaves and 2 fish.
• And the list goes on and on. . .
So, coming back to God meeting with Moses, notice that God starts right where Moses was: God didn’t ask Moses to read a book (though books can certainly be helpful), God didn’t ask Moses to take a class in freeing slaves (though classes can certainly be helpful). God didn’t ask Moses to wait a few years when Moses would be ready. No. When God has you cornered, be prepared for Him to ask you “What’s in your hand?” It’s not a matter of what’s going to be in your hand; it’s not a matter of when better days are ahead. How often do we think “I will give you more, when I get more.” But that’s not how God works—He asks you to use the resources that you have RIGHT NOW, for His glory. Moses was once a prince, but he’s now being asked to work for the King of Kings. From 2nd Corinthians 4:7 we read “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
If your gifts and your talents are idols to you, I’m asking you today to turn them over to God. “Do you love what you have more than you love the Lord?” But I say to you, “you really don’t have it anyway, it’s talent on loan from the Lord.” Bless and honor God with those—because they are gifts and are God-given. Are you holding onto something that’s holding you back? Fear? Sin? Guilt of running from the Lord? Sometimes we cannot recognize the full gifts of God until we let go of what we’ve been holding.
. . . and a postscript
From the great hymn Rock of Ages—verse 2:
Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Rock of Ages—verse 3:
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling.
Are you holding high the cross of Christ? Or maybe you’re hiding behind it?
Why the excuses? What’s in your hand?