Exodus 4:1-4 This is so that they may believe!

1Then Moses answered, “What if they refuse to believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

2And the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

3“Throw it on the ground,” said the Lord. So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

4“Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail,” the LORD said to Moses. So he reached out his hand and caught the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5“This is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

Moses answered, But....what if....

This reminds me of a saying I heard an Arizona congressman say, 

“If, ifs ands and buts we’re honey and nuts we’d have Christmas every day.”

“We are ever prone, when God is calling us to some high service, to say ‘But,’ and this to introduce our statement of the difficulties as we see them.” (Morgan)

Moses had a scepter as an Egyptian but as a deliverer he has a simple rod, a sheepherder’s staff.

God likes to use whats in our hand as noted throughout the Bible. Shamgar, David, Samson, a boy.....

The rod became a frightening snake when Moses threw on the ground, frightening enough that he ran from it. But Moses obeyed God when he stretched out his hand and grabbed it by the tail. The tail is the most dangerous place to grab a snake but Moses didn’t get bit.

Recently while working in the yard I moved some firewood and there was a snake underneath. I instinctively grabbed it by the tail and flung it into the woods. If it was poisonous it could have reached up and bit me!

“This is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

What did it take for you to believe in the Lord?

Blessings, David