What's in your hand?

Exodus 4:1-5
  Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear
to you'?"

  Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
  "A staff," he replied.

  The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground."
  Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.  Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand
and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the
snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.  "This," said the LORD, "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."

This quote is taken from the beginning of Exodus, where God speaks to Moses through the burning bush.  The point that God makes to Moses in these few verses is profound, but before I can share it we have to understand the history leading up to this moment in scripture.

Prior to this event, Moses had spent 40 years as a shepherd in Midian, tending the flocks of Jethro.  He found himself in this position after fleeing Egypt for killing an Egyptian taskmaster who was treating a Hebrew harshly.  While in Egypt, Moses had a life of privilege, being adopted by the Pharoah's daughter and raised as a prince.  He would have had much influence in the realm of Egypt because of this.  Being Hebrew he had a compassion for his own people, and seeing the injustice of a taskmaster attacking one of his own sent Moses into a rage.  There were any number of ways he could have chosen to deal with the situation, but Moses killed the man out of anger.  Because this action would have been viewed as an act of rebellion against the Pharoah, and because the people of Egypt believed him to be a god, the Pharoah naturally decreed to have Moses killed so that his subjects would not believe this was acceptable behavior.  Leaving the action undealt with would have cause the nation to question the Pharoah's divinity as a deity.  Moses's only option was to flee.

Imagine, if you can, what those 40 years in Midian would have been like for Moses... Here you are, watching a flock of sheep and knowing that the reason you are here is because you made a mistake and had to run.  Imagine waking up, every day for 40 years, remembering the people you were filled with compassion for and the power you had to help them, and how one bad judgement call forfeited your influence and ability to help them.  You think about their faces, and know that you can do nothing to help them now.

Over the years, it may have become easier to deal with, but I'm sure that there were times Moses sat and thought to himself "If only I hadn't done this.. if I would have just been stronger.. better... more in control.. maybe I could have helped them."  As he sat watching the flocks, I'm sure it would have reminded him of the scene in Egypt where the Taskmasters watched the Hebrews work from their high vantage point.  With time, even the sight of his Shepherd's staff might have stirred up those images and, indirectly, could have even come to serve as a reminder of the failure that caused him to flee and leave his kinsmen to a fate he could no longer help them with.  The very tool of his trade - his staff - would have come to him as a painful reminder of his helplessness and his failure.

And now, here we find Moses in the fourth chapter of Exodus, being told by God that he is being sent to bring the Hebrews out of slavery and into freedom.  And like most men, Moses says "What if they don't believe me."  And God asks him a peculiar question... "What's in your hand?" 

"Uhhh... My staff.. the very thing that reminds me of my failure and my inability to save these people.  My disqualification."

God responds by having Moses throw down his staff and transforming it into a snake.  To Egyptians, snakes represented absolute authority.  Moses would have recognized this, being raised as an Egyptian, and also would have seen the symbolism that God was giving him authority.  This tool was now the instrument God had Moses use to perform the miracles in Egypt.  It's amazing in the fact that what was once a reminder of a failed past was transformed into the power to save a generation...  The staff hadn't really changed. The difference is that it was touched with the power of God and now had the power to set an oppressed people free.

So Moses had a simple choice... He could either continue to look at the tool in his hand as a reminder of his failed past, or he could now view it as a tool embued with the power of God's testimony.  He could stay ordinary, or display the redemptive nature of God as it was demonstrated to him.

Too often, we think of our past with a sense of shame.  "I shouldn't have done this.. I disqualified myself here... I can' be used now."  Just like Moses, we look at the things in our hand as a reminder of how we failed God and man, whether it was before or after we were called by Christ.  I know, because I've done it.  But God demonstrated his nature throughout the word as a God who redeems.  He redeemed Joseph from prison; He redeemed Paul from killing the saints; he redeemed Peter after his denials; he gave strength to Samson after his capture; he brought Judah back from Babylon; he redeemed Ruth through a kinsmen redeemer; Christ forgave a prostitute, healed the sick, restored sight, rose the dead, and the list goes on and on.  In all these situations, the only thing that changed was that the power of God touched these people and changed the testimony of their past from one of shame to one of redemption and glory.  We often lose hope while waiting for that touch... but, God is faithful.  He remembers his people.  He always turns our failures around to bring glory.  Romans 8:28 tells us "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose." God is sovereign... he allowed our pasts to happen the way they did for a reason.  If he is a redeemer and desires to glorify those who belong to him, then what reason to we have to view our past with shame any longer?

So the question we should ask ourselves is the same one posed to Moses... "What's in your hand?"  What is it that you have that God wants to touch so you can have the power to free a generation?  As we start this new year, let's make the choice to view the tool in our hand as the the power of God that sets a captive free, rather than the reminder of shame that keeps a man bound.