Exodus 4:1-9Miraculous Signs for Pharaoh
“Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”
So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
He said, “A rod.”
And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
Furthermore the Lord said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh. “Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.”
Forget negotiating with Pharaoh, Moses is worried that the elders of Israel aren’t going to believe him. Moses needs the support of the Hebrew elders before he can approach Pharaoh, and the question God asks Moses is key. “What is that in your hand?” Moses looks at his shepherd’s rod, simply a 6-foot-long piece of wood with a crook on the end of it. Moses has been carrying this same rod for years and has rescued countless sheep and fought off wild beasts with it. At this point, Moses is probably shrugging his shoulders as he answers, “A rod.” But look what God does with that rod.
For starters, God has Moses throw the rod on the ground so it becomes a snake and then changes back into a rod when he grabs the snake’s tail. Next, God shows Moses how He will change Moses’ hand from normal to leprous and back again. Finally, God tells Moses that if Moses will take water from the River Nile and pour it on the ground, it will become blood. These three signs will convince the Hebrew elders that Moses is the real deal.
“What is that in your hand?” God is forever asking his followers that question because God can use the most ordinary objects to do miracles. Before Moses’ career is over, he will hold up that same rod and the Red Sea will part, water will gush from rocks, and many other miracles will take place.
There have been many times during our missionary career that we have felt as if there was nothing we could do in a given situation. Each time, God has asked us “What is that in your hand?” and each time, we have realized that we do have some small resources. When we have used those resources, God has worked miracles.
In preparation for our first mission term, we gathered hospital equipment from a U.S. Army MASH unit and shipped it to Ghana. When we needed a means of sterilizing equipment and theater packs, we returned to our first project and begged a very large pressure cooker. We used a coal pot on the hospital verandah to heat that pressure cooker and sterilized things with it for several years. When we needed rubbish bins for the clinic, we bought the local cans ladies were using to fetch water, painted them with several coats of oil-based paint so that they wouldn’t rust, and made wooden covers for them. To clean patients in the theater (OR) prior to surgery, we used pieces of local sponge and Key Soap, the most common kind of bar soap available, soaking those pieces of sponge in bleach water in bowls we had bought in the local market. I started the first laboratory using donated test tubes that I recycled by soaking them and washing them with bleach water. I used bathroom tiles to do blood grouping.
During our first term in Saboba, there were times when my husband bought bicycle parts to repair the hospital vehicle. And then there was the surgical instrument my husband made from a chrome bicycle spoke, bending it into position and attaching the brass valve stem from a large lorry tire as a handle. I used that curette to remove many retained placentas from women who had miscarried. At times when we ran short of surgical blades, I used hypodermic needles to make incisions and I sewed up people with monofilament fish line.
As you enter the new year, be prepared for God to send you in new directions and ask you “What is that in your hand?” God used Moses’ rod to convince the skeptical Hebrew elders, and God can use whatever you have to do miracles. Just give God what you have and watch Him work!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for calling us to be Your hands and feet. Help us to be open to You so that we will gladly give You whatever we have. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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