What Is In Your Hand?

Sep 30

The Lord can use what you surrender to Him.

Exploring how God uses what we surrender to Him, how He empowers what He places back in our hands, and how placing confidence in our own strength can limit what God wants to do through us. Through Moses’ story, Paul’s testimony, and personal examples, the message invites believers to offer their gifts, abilities, resources, and experiences to the Lord and to trust Him as their true source of strength.

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Here’s a thought: The very talent or ability that can be a tremendous asset in the earthly, human realm can be a liability in the spiritual, heavenly realm if it becomes your source of strength.

I once knew a man who had a grade-nine education, lots of common sense and a strong work ethic. He borrowed money to buy his first farm at the age of 21 and after several years of hard work, he paid back the loan. He gradually added cows to his dairy herd and won several awards with Alpha Dairy as a top producer. Although he was successful in business and in real estate investing he recognized the priority of the Lord and the Lord’s work. Throughout his lifetime he quietly served and gave to God and His work generously. By the time he died at the age of 81 many people could testify of how he had inspired and helped them through his faithful service and generosity. He grew and shared what he had surrendered to God and what God had placed back in His hand. This man was my dad.

About 1,500 years Before Christ Moses had a lively discussion with God in Exodus 4:1-20:

1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” 2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. 3 The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 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. 5 “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.” 6 Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow. 7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh. 8 Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.” 10 Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” 13 But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” 14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it. 18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.” 19 Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. NIV

We can learn several valuable lessons from Moses:

Offer to God What Is in Your Hand

Use What God Places Back in Your Hand

Let God Continue to Be Your Strength

Offer to God What Is in Your Hand

The staff was a natural symbol of authority in Jewish culture, as the tool used by the shepherd to correct and guide his flock (Psalm 23:4). Moses carried this staff here in Exodus 4:2 while he tended his sheep. He had been working for his father-in-law and had probably used this staff for years.

40 years earlier Moses, in his youthful zeal, had tried to take matters into his own hands by killing an Egyptian who was mistreating a fellow Israelite and by unilaterally trying to settle a dispute between two Israelites. He had not known God in a personal way until he encountered Him in the Burning Bush in Exodus 3 and 4. Even though Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action (Acts 7:22) he refused to lay these qualifications at God’s feet. Knowing Moses’ insecurity, the Lord asks him, “What is in your hand?” He then goes on to ask Moses to lay it down before Him. Moses obediently throws it on the ground and it becomes a snake.

The snake represented the patron cobra-goddess worshiped in lower Egypt and was the official Egyptian symbol of royal power and authority. The Pharaohs also wore a golden serpent emblem on their heads. Moses, a former prince of Egypt, whose existence had now been reduced to the life of a simple shepherd would have instantly recognized the symbolic significance of the snake God showed him.

What is in your hand? Have you offered your gifts, interests, experience, education, time, energy and money to the Lord?

Offer to God What is in Your Hand

Use What God Places Back in Your Hand

Understandably, Moses ran from the staff in fear but God decided to give the staff back to him. What was once the staff of Moses had become the staff of God. And he took the staff of God in his hand (Exodus 4:20).

This staff later became his symbol of authority over the Israelites. The rods of both Moses and Aaron were endowed with miraculous power during the plagues of Egypt (Exodus 7:17, 8:5, 8:16-17, 9:23, and 10:13); God commanded Moses to raise his staff over the Red Sea when it was to be parted (Exodus 14:16) and in prayer over Israel in battle (Exodus 17:9).

If you and I were to lead several million people through the wilderness into the Promised Land we would need all the help we could get …Moses used his rod twice to bring water from a stone. The first time is in Exodus 17:1-6:

1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” 3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” 4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. NIV

What gifts, abilities, interests, resources, and opportunities has the Lord given back to you? Will you commit yourself to being faithful with these?

Offer to God What is in Your Hand

Use What God Places Back in Your Hand

Let God Continue to Be Your Strength

About 38 years later Moses struck a rock again in Numbers 20:2-13:

2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! 4 Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” 6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” 9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. 12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” 13 These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he showed himself holy among them. NIV

The same staff that God authorized Moses to use as a sign of authority was misused by Moses and kept him from entering the Promised Land. Moses placed more hope in the staff than in the God who gave him the staff.

I can certainly identify with Moses here. Moses was growing weary with the responsibilities of leadership. Perhaps in his busyness he started to neglect his relationship with the Lord and he started to think that he was “the man” and the people were just a bunch of whiners. He was frustrated! He thought back to the first time the nation was without water and God told him to strike the rock and water gushed out. We are not told what went through Moses’ mind the second time but maybe he thought something like, “I’ve been here, done that and bought the T-shirt.” He ignores God’s command the second time to simply speak to the rock. Instead, he duplicates what worked before and he strikes the rock with his staff. God honours him before the people by bringing water from the rock again but in private He punishes Moses and Aaron by prohibiting them from entering the Promised Land. This seems very harsh to us but let us never forget that our God is holy. He alone is to be obeyed and He alone is to be the source of our strength, our life support system.

In a hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, patients always died in the same bed, on Sunday morning, at about 11:00 a.m., regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors and some even thought it had something to do with the supernatural. No one could solve the mystery as to why the deaths occurred around 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, so a worldwide team of experts was assembled to investigate the cause of the incidents. The next Sunday morning, a few minutes before 11:00 a.m., all of the doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses, prayer books, and other holy objects to ward off the evil spirits. Just when the clock struck 11:00, Pookie Smith, the part-time Sunday sweeper, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system so he could use the vacuum cleaner.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 declares it this way:

23 This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord. NIV

Paul became a powerful and influential apostle used by God to bring the gospel to parts of the Roman Empire that had never heard of Jesus Christ before. He was raised a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, a citizen of Rome, educated by one of the most respected rabbis of his generation (Gamaliel) and became a rising young leader amongst the Pharisees.

However, Paul’s words in Philippians 3:3-11 reveal the secret of his success in the kingdom of God:

3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh - 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. NIV

The very talent or ability that can be a tremendous asset in the earthly, human realm can be a liability in the spiritual, heavenly realm if it becomes our source of strength.

Are you feeling “tapped out”, frustrated and/or discouraged? These can be signs that you are trying to be effective in your own strength. Will you be still before the Lord, allowing Him to refresh and renew you?

Brenda, Allison, Braden and I lived with my dad from 2003 to 2006. At bedtime I would walk by Dad’s bedroom and often he would be sitting on the side of his bed reading his Bible. His relationship with the Lord had continued to grow over the years as he faithfully used what God had placed in his hand and allowed God to be his strength. We came across two brief notes that Dad had written to God near the end of his life and I would like to share them with you:

Lord – I want to thank you for my many years in this life. You have been good to me in so many ways. For rescuing me from near death a few times. For my near 50 years of married life to Marj who is now gone to glory. For 4 children who are a blessing to me in so many ways. You have prospered me far more than I expected. For being born in a country with freedom and no civil wars and the such.

Lord you are so great. I cannot begin to understand your creation. We just have to accept it to the best of our ability. Help me to please you in all that I do. Forgive me for my mistakes and shortfalls. Thank you for taking care of me and my family. I trust you to show me more of your love.