By Dean Kelly

Minister, Highland Home Church of Christ

Moses was a great man, who became an outstanding leader and lawgiver. But, when God first called him from the burning bush to go back to Egypt, he fell into a practice we all sometimes do, making several excuses in the beginning.

Among his several excuses that he made was the question, “What if they don’t believe me?” (Exodus 4:1). God’s response is found in Exodus 4:2-5 “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.’”

Of course, when Moses did this miracle with the rod turning to a snake before the people of Israel as he arrived in Egypt they believed, as God said they would (Exodus 4:30-31).

God asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?” God would show him that He could use whatever Moses had to do His will. Moses was worried about what he could do and forgot what God could do.

I don’t think that Moses ever thought that the simple shepherd’s rod could be something God could use. How often do we fail to realize that what we have can be used for God: our words; our examples; our love; our time, etc. 

What do you have in your hand today that God could use for His service?