What is that in thine hand?
A trivial possession
I. God frequently makes inquiry about the most trivial possessions of men.
1. Have they been honourably gained?
2. Are they being put to their proper use?
3. Are they in a line with Divine power?
II. God frequently makes the most trivial possessions of men teach great truths.
1. This shows the Divine adaptability to the circumstances of men.
2. This shows the Divine wisdom in making insignificant things teach Divine truth.
3. This shows the Divine simplicity of the plans and purposes of Heaven.
III. That the most trivial possessions are useful to others as well as those to whom they belong.
IV. That the most trivial possessions of men prove, after all, the most useful, and ought therefore to awaken human gratitude. (J. W. Johnston.)
A rod
1. The subject of Divine inquiry.
2. The token of a shepherd’s office.
3. The symbol of a leader’s power.
4. The prophecy of a nation’s freedom. (J. W. Johnston.)
The rod
When God installed Moses into his great trust, He gave him a wand or staff of office as its badge. But it was not the baton of a general nor the sceptre of a king. It was only the shepherd’s rod. In Moses’ hand it became what no jewelled crosier ever has been or will be. This stick was to be not only the ensign of his power, but its instrument. And in this simplicity, indeed, lay its special fitness for its office; because all men who looked upon it could see that its power was not in itself, not inherent; not in the rod, but effectual only by a self-imposed law of God’s action, and conditioned in its success upon His fidelity to His own rule. In this, as afterwards of the yet humbler symbol of the cross,--in this, the symbol of his simplicity, of his exile, of his lowliness, the world was to be conquered.
1. I remark in regard to this rod, that it had no natural aptitude for its work. There was nothing in its natural qualities to distinguish it from any other rod, and its appointment to be Moses’ staff of office and instrument of miracle wrought in it no physical change whatever. It was still mere wood. Sufficient force would break it. A sharp tool would cut it. And it was according to the analogy of His ways: and so St. Paul broadly states it. “Base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.” It is God’s way to do great things by weak means. That is the Divine philosophy of action, the opposite of man’s.
2. Notice, again, that God in doing His great works does not need any instruments, but uses them simply of His own sovereign will; and this appears in their obvious inadequacy in themselves to the results which they, nevertheless, produce. Moses was not indispensable to God, nor his rod to Moses, but by God’s determination. If we look at our Lord’s miracles when He was upon earth, we shall see this truth strikingly illustrated. In the variety of their methods they are so exhibited as at once to show His independence of all means, and His sovereign power in appointing and employing them. So this wonder-working rod of Moses answered simply the purpose of forming a visible link between the Divine will and the effect that was produced. The rod did not do the miracle, but a Power that worked by it; and that showed itself able to dispense with it by employing in its work an instrument so manifestly incapable of contributing anything to the proposed result. A word brings Lazarus from the grave; a touch of the bier awakens the widow’s son. And thus we come to the philosophy of means in the system of grace. They are visible signs of God’s working, such signs as cannot work except as God works in them; and to us they are tests of obedience and trials of faith. There is nothing quite so irrational as rationalism. To obey God is the most rational of things. And to stand arguing and questioning about a thing, debating its propriety and efficacy when God has told us to do it, is eminently irrational. Moses might have stood and said, This wooden stick cannot divide the waters, or turn the dust to flies, or make the heavens dark, or draw water out of a rock; and he would have said nothing but the truth. And yet, if Moses had thrown away his rod, he could never have invented anything else that would have done these things, and the things would have remained undone. There is a supernatural working in the world that the world does not take knowledge of. And it works by a class of instrument talities that the world regards as childish and impotent. The reliance some people place upon them it counts superstition, and derides as futile and delusive. To expect any benefit from them they consider irrational. The measure of their belief is their reason. So they eliminate all miracle from the Scriptures, and all that is supernatural from the Church of God; and out of the poor residue they construct what they call rational Christianity, and a very mean Christianity it is. And so they illustrate very well the apostle’s saying, “Professing themselves wise, they became fools.” And there are too many Christians who, without going such lengths, are quite too ready to criticise God’s appointments, and either hold them of light obligation, or greatly underrate their value and efficacy. But there is a supernatural element in the Church of Christ, and God in it works invisibly by means. “Water,” say they, “cannot cleanse the soul, nor bread and wine nourish it. The touch of a prelate can have no power to convey the influences of the Spirit to ministers in Ordination, or to lay people in Confirmation.” Men may see that the ten commandments are right and salutary, and may observe them on that account. Their reason pronounces them proper, and therefore they regard them. They would regard them if they had found them in the Koran, or the Books of Confucius. There is much of this sort of virtue, and it is respectable and useful to its possessor and to society. But it is not obedience, it is not religion. Faith does not underlie it. The love of God is not its life. Moses took his rod in his hand and with it he did wonders. He believed in it, because he believed in God, and in God’s assignment of it to him as an instrument of power. And then it was an instrument of power, a wonder staff, before which impediments vanished and foes fled away. (R. A. Hallam, D. D.)
A talk with children-“What is that in thine hand?”
This was a question which astonished Moses. It was a surprising thing to him that God should think anything of a shepherd’s crook. It would not have astonished him to hear God speak about sceptres, but that He should call special attention to an old rod that he had carried as a shepherd a thousand times was more than he could have ever expected. But God now began to show Moses that he could turn that rod to higher use than he had ever done hitherto. There are many things put into the hands of little children the full use of which they do not yet know.
1. For instance, when at first you are taught to write a pen is placed in your hand. What an amount of trouble you have before you learn even how to hold that pen! For a long time you do not exactly know how to hold the gift that is given you; and for a still longer time you little know what use you may yet make of it. When the apostle Paul was a boy in school, and had to learn how to use the stylus, or pen, he little knew what use he would be able to make of his pen in writing his Epistles. So with regard to the apostle John. So also with reference to John Bunyan. When he was at school, a poor boy, he was not taught much, since he was only to be a tinker. But a pen was put into his hand, and it is wonderful what use he made of it in later years in writing the “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Who knows? perhaps there is a child here to-day who has only just learnt how to use the pen, and yet thousands may yet thank God for what he will write.
2. Again, some of you have recently been on a journey by train. Had you looked at the engine before you started you might have seen a man laying hold of a handle, or lever. You might well have asked him, “What is that in thine hand?” Had you done so, he would have replied, “This is the lever by which I have power over the engine and make it to go fast or slow, or by which I stop it.” Thus, by holding just that little piece of iron, the engine-driver is perfect master of theft huge and powerful engine.
3. Again, you go with your father to a telegraph office. He wants to send a message to America. The clerk looks at the message and lays hold of a small handle by which he sends those words along the cable through the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, and they are read in a few seconds in New York.
4. Again, in times of war, when ships draw near a port, you may find a man in a small room, or shed, who watches until a ship comes to a certain point. He then touches a little button and the ship is blown up in an instant. There is a connection between that little button and a mine of explosives which is hidden in the water beneath the ship; and although that mine may be many miles away from that little telegraph office, a touch of the button by a man’s hand at once explodes the mine and works terrible destruction. When an Arab baby-boy is born, his parents put a little ant into his right hand, and closing the hand upon it say, “May the child be as busy and clever as the little ant.” That is the best wish they can utter for their children. But we would put something better than an ant in your little hands. We would have you hold firmly the Bible, and remember all that it tells you of the Saviour’s love. We would have you study prayerfully that Book, and live according to its teaching. (D. Davies.)
Work for all
The subject that I desire to bring before your attention is that of appointed instrumentality. God accomplishes the purposes of His grace by instrumentality. Blessed are they who are enabled to give themselves up with all that they have and all that they are to be employed in the Lord’s service. We are not employed to be writers of God’s revealed will, nor to be leaders of God’s people, nor to be in other respects what Moses was. But he was a pattern to believers in Christ, as far as instrumentality went, in the work to which he was called.
I. Now consider preparation for usefulness. In the case of Moses we see very remarkably a course of preparation going forward for many years, both as respects the dealing of God’s providence with him, and also as respects the blessing of God’s grace bestowed upon him.
II. But this brings me now to the second particular, namely, encouragement in God’s service as his instruments, You will observe our text brings Moses before us, after all this lengthened preparation and when God was calling him to begin his work, as one who was making excuses and objections. As if he had said, ‘“Well, but what good can I do? There is no use in my going on this errand; I am not fit for it.” If you read the remaining part of this chapter, you will see that this conviction of his mind was expressed again and again. And here we may observe, by the way, that there is such a thing as false humility. Humility, when it is genuine, the work of God’s Spirit, cannot be overprized. But there may be what looks like humility, that is not the fruit of God’s Spirit. If God calls me or you to any particular service, and we think that we are very humble and say, “No, I cannot attempt that service, I am not fit for it,” this is false humility, because God never gives work without giving strength and wisdom to do it. God never brings a trial upon us without providing grace to enable us to bear the trial; so that believers in Christ may say, under all circumstances, “All is well.” But without dwelling further upon this, the point I wish to notice is, how God removed Moses’ objection. “The Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And the Lord said, Cast it on the ground.” He did so, and then the circumstances occurred which you will read in the following verses. Observe, Moses had but a simple rod in his hand when he came to that point in his history on which the Lord was telling him to enter upon the special work for which he had been prepared. And yet if Moses’ heart were right with God, he had that in his hand which might be useful in God’s service, though it was only a rod. Man’s wisdom is here utterly at fault. If man had been asked, “Now, what means should be used in order to deliver out of the iron bondage of a powerful monarch a nation such as Israel?” man would have formed some plan by which an army might be raised, and furnished with suitable weapons of war, and a suitable opportunity taken in order to throw off the yoke of Pharaoh’s government and rule. But here was Moses, God’s instrument, and he had neither sword, nor spear, nor army; he had a simple rod, a shepherd’s rod in his hand. Observe, God does not require of Moses, when He tells him to go to His work, that which Moses has not. He does not require of Moses sword, and spear, and shield, and armies, in order to go forth to be a deliverer of Israel. The question is not to him, “What canst thou do? Canst thou Obtain those who will go forth under thy command to fight a battle of loyalty and for liberty? Canst thou get together, ammunition and other things which they will need for their warfare. Moses might have then said with truth he could not engage in the work. But all that God said to him was, “Moses, what is that in thine hand?”--not, “What canst thou get?” but, “What hast thou got?” Now, we learn from this, that God can use any instrument which He pleases for His work, and that those are altogether wrong who suppose that they are not called upon to do anything in the service of God because, perhaps, they are not distinguished as others of their fellow-creatures--have not so much money, not so much influence, not so great learning, not so much time on their hands, and so on. It is not to be looked at in this way, as if God demanded of us that which we have not, but simply that He requires of us that which we have. Observe, next, the Lord said unto Moses, “Cast it on the ground”; and upon its being cast on the ground, the rod, we are told, “became a serpent.” Afterwards he was told to put forth his hand, and “it became a rod in his hand.” God, by this double miracle, laid hold of that rod of Moses as His rod; it was no longer the rod of Moses only; it was the rod of God. (W. Cadman, M. A.)
What is that in thine hand
I. A question for moses. Well--what had he? A rod. That is, as I suppose, a shepherd’s crook: a stout sapling, curved at one end, to help him in caring for his flock. But how could this help him in caring for Israel? Who can turn it into a talisman to draw their hearts to him? It is enough to tell of the Being and the power and the skill of the Creator; but not enough to prove a Divine commission. There was need of some further revelation--and this further revelation was not withheld. What was Moses told to do with the rod? “Cast it on the ground”; as though God had said, “You can do nothing with it, see what I can do.” “And it became a serpent.” Now here we are confronted with the supernatural, the miraculous; for there is no natural evolution of vegetable out of animal, or animal out of vegetable. God can do it--and do it quite as easily as He can bring the sturdy staff out of the feeble bud; but it is not in His ordinary course of action. He will only resort to it when some extraordinary end is in view. But was there not a lesson in this miracle? Was it not a symbol of the great things God was about to do?
II. A question for Christians.
1. Is there not work for every one of us?--and work not unlike that to which Moses was called. The state of the world at large is described in this volume under many figures, very sad and very affecting; and one of the saddest and most affecting is that of slavery. Slaves of appetite--slaves of covetousness--slaves of fashion: we hear their sighs--their groans, sometimes. For the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are hard taskmasters; they will give their bondsmen no rest or peace: there is no slavery like that of sin! And therefore the cry of the gospel is--“Emancipation!” “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
2. But what good can we hope to do? There are as many difficulties in our way as in the way of Moses. Our fellow-men are so accustomed to slavery that they won’t believe in freedom. Ay--and they are so accustomed to all kinds of folly and imposture that they won’t believe that our message comes from God. How then can we succeed? Now comes the question of the text, “What is that in thine hand”? What power of influence has God given you? Now see whether that power may not be used for Him. “Oh, but,” you say, “my influence is a very insignificant thing”! And so is a shepherd’s crook. But see what a shepherd’s crook became in the hand of Moses; and remember that God may “choose weak things to confound the mighty, and foolish things to confound the wise.”
3. And so the question comes to us--“What is that in thine hand?” Not--what would you like to have there, or hope to have there? but--what have you? Be it the three hundred pence, or be it the two mites--use it for God, and see what God will make of it! Certainly nothing will recommend the gospel to those around us like the personal exertion of those who advocate it. (F. Tucker, B. A.)
Great things from small
God often does His greatest works by the humblest means. The great forces of nature are not the earthquake which tumbles cities into ruins. This power passes in a moment; the soft silent light, the warm summer rain, the stars whose voice is not heard--these are the majestic mighty forces which fill the earth with riches, and control the worlds which constitute the wide universe of God. So in Providence. Not the great Church organization, excellent and proper as it is. Martin Luther, a poor monk who had difficulty in getting bread to eat, shook the world; Linnaeus, with eight shillings in his pocket, began to study botany; Columbus had no grand steamer to carry him across the wide Atlantic. He wearied his life, and at last got from the rulers of his time a reluctant permission to embark with a hundred and fifty men only, and in three small ships. The founders of the United States of America were humble pious men. The Pilgrim Fathers sought only a place to rest the soles of their feet where they could worship God in peace. The founders of Christianity were fishermen. Christ Himself the Carpenter, the Nazarene, despised and crucified, was the wisdom and the power of God. For, did He not say--“I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me”? So in the text--“What is that in thine hand? A rod”--the emblem, the tool of his daily work. With this Moses was to do mighty deeds, Rabbinical tradition has it that Moses was an excellent shepherd. He followed a lamb across the wilderness, plucked it with his rod from a precipice amid the rocks, and carried it in his bosom; whereupon God said--“Let us make this Moses the shepherd of Israel.” He, a stranger, a fugitive, a humble shepherd, becomes the lawgiver, the leader, the deliverer of his people. The lesson of the text is plain. God still meets every man, and asks the old question--“What is that in thine hand?” Is it the tool of an ordinary trade?--with that God will be served. The artisan where he is, in his humble workshop, by using the rod which is in his hand, the merchant in his business, are in the place where they are now; all are called upon to do service. Few have rank, or wealth, or power, or eloquence. Let those illustrious few use their ten talents; but let us, the obscure millions, use the simple duties of life--the rod that is in our hand. A smile, like a little rushlight, may cheer a sick man tossing on his bed. Happiness-givers are the true representatives of Christ; to shed abroad in home and social circles the joy and the charity of Christ is the true work of Christ’s followers; and in this blessed happiness-giving all, exalted and lowly, may alike engage. (J. Cameron Lees, D. D.)
Splendid instruments not necessary
A rod: probably the shepherd’s crook, the symbol of his present condition. Among the Arabs a long staff with a curved head, varying from three to six feet in length, is used for this purpose. This rod was made the subject of a double miracle. From the story of Moses’ rod the poets invented fables of the thyrsus of Bacchus and the caducaeus of Mercury. Homer represents Mercury as taking his rod to work miracles, precisely in the same way as God commanded Moses to take his. God takes the weakest instruments to accomplish His mightiest ends. “A rod,” “a ram’s horn,” “a cake of barley meal,” “an earthen pitcher,” “a shepherd’s sling,” anything, in short, when used of God, will do His appointed work. Men imagine that splendid ends can only be reached by splendid means, but such is not God’s way. He can use a crawling worm as well as a scorching sun, a gourd as well as a vehement east wind. (A. Nevin, D. D.)
The rod as a symbol
The staff was the shepherd’s crook, with which he had hitherto conducted the flock of Jethro. Hence it represented his vocation as a shepherd. This he was to throw away, i.e., he was to give up his calling and follow a new one. But the staff which he had thrown away became a serpent, and Moses fled before it. His vocation hitherto had been a poor and despised one; but it was also quiet, peaceful, and free from danger. When this was given up, he was to be exposed to dangers of such magnitude, that even his life would be threatened. Moses could foresee all this, and hence the obstinacy with which he refused to enter upon his new vocation. But at the word of God he laid hold of the snake, and it became a staff in his hand once more. This showed that, by the power of God, he would be able to overcome the dangers that would surround him, when he relinquished his present calling. By overpowering the snake he recovered his staff, but it was no longer his staff; it was the rod of God (verse 20), and with the staff thus altered he was to perform the work entrusted to him (verse 17). It was still a shepherd’s staff, and his new vocation was a shepherd’s calling. From being a shepherd of Jethro’s sheep he was to become the shepherd of God’s sheep, the leader and lawgiver of the people of God. And he became so, by overcoming the dangers which intervened between these two different employments. We must also observe, that this was the rod with which he was to bring the plagues upon Egypt; and therefore it was the retributory counterpart to the rod with which the Egyptian taskmasters had beaten the Israelites (verse 14). As soon, then, as Moses appeared before the people and performed this sign, it showed them, first, that the dangers to which the mission of Moses would expose them--dangers which they soon experienced (chap. 5.)--would be overcome; and secondly, that the staff of shepherd and ruler, with which Moses was to lead and govern them, was not assumed without authority, but given to him by God, and therefore the question could not be asked, as it was before, “Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14). He afterwards performed the same miracle in the presence of Pharaoh (Exodus 7:10, etc.). (J. H. Kurtz, D. D.)
The symbol of a consecrated life
I believe the rod cast down, and taken up again, typifies the entire consecration of the Christian’s life to God. The rod was the ordinary sign and instrument of Moses’ daily occupation. That cast down, and taken up, became filled with power; and by it he proved to Israel and to Pharaoh that he had seen Jehovah. We are commanded in 1 Corinthians 7:24 to abide in the calling “wherein we are called.” I suppose we may understand from this that we do not need to change our station and calling (supposing it to be an honest one) in order to serve God. Are we shepherds, carpenters, merchants, lawyers, doctors, teachers, servants, or what not, we may serve God in that calling quite as efficiently as in any other. So He can, and will, make you mighty in the use of your calling, be it what it may, high or low, learned or mechanical, the calling of a master or a servant, a mistress or a maid. Only cast it down at the feet of Jesus, in humble and holy consecration; and then take it up again to use it and pursue it for Him. What God needs to-day in this world is a host of men and women, in every walk of life, who are living for God, and serving Him in their calling, using it as a means of illustrating God’s righteousness. He wants some merchants to do business for Him, that the world may know what God’s thought of righteousness in trade is. The banker may serve God in the same way. The medical man has a calling in which he may leave the testimony of God’s tenderness in the sick room; and by his ministry of healing exercised on the body he has an opportunity, such as is afforded to no other man in the world, to point his patients to the great Physician and Healer of souls. As it is, alas that so many Christian physicians fail to cast down their rods at the feet of Christ! The lawyer at the bar, and the judge on the bench, may be God’s witnesses in their profession. The teacher with the children (a most difficult position) may also cast his or her rod down. The governess, the nurse, and the mother may be consecrated to God for those to whom God has sent them, or whom He has given them. The servant in the house--both the maid-servant and the man-servant--every one, in his or her place, may throw down the rod of their calling at the feet of Jesus, and take it up again in power. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)