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)
Exodus 4:1-4
I like to think that Moses was the ‘star’ of the Old Testament. He was a man on whom God placed the burden of delivering an entire nation of Israelites from Egypt to the promised land. It was no doubt an intimidating task and Moses wasn’t anything special. In fact, he was a fugitive, wanted in Egypt by Pharaoh, perhaps the most powerful king in that time. A bush man, tending his father in law’s flock. Who would have thought this “ordinary” man would later go on to display God’s power and authority in the subsequent chapters and so forever etch his name on the heart of history.
In Exodus 4, Moses had just met God in the burning bush. He had seen the power of God when he saw that there was fire but the bush wasn’t burning. Even after this and all the promises God made in chapter 3, Moses still doubted. He obviously didn’t think much of himself or his own capacity to do what God was asking – until he handled the power himself. Does that sound familiar? Situations where you know what the word of God says about who you are, what you are called to do, what you can be in life, but you just can’t seem to wrap your head around it. You are waiting to be sure God has given you the power to make it happen before you take the plunge. Nobody wants to be embarrassed; that’s understandable, but the thing is, with God, it doesn’t exactly work that way. In fact, the reverse is the case. In other words, you must first take the leap of faith before you experience the real power of God.
No doubt, to live a victorious Christian life, power is important. What we fail to pay attention to however is that in the order of God, something precedes power – OBEDIENCE. Moses had to obey God every time before the power manifested. Cast down the rod, stretch forth the rod, do this, say that, all of it could have seemed ridiculous. Imagine having an army of blood thirsty men coming after the isrealites and trapping them between themselves and the red sea; but God simply said, stretch forth the rod. I wonder if the people following him didn’t think he looked ridiculous doing so, but Moses obeyed, and with that simple obedience, power to part the sea came. I’m sure you know all the other works God wrought through Moses.
A much older friend of mine likes to say that in life, we’re all buying from the midnight market; one cannot be sure what he gets. Our lives as humans are filled with uncertainty, but the will of God is made clear in His word and it is ever constant. We must however trust Him enough to obey what He says in His word, again, obedience is key. It appears easier to stay in one spot and say “I’m waiting on God”, but in reality, God is the one waiting on you to take an inspired step in the direction He has instructed.
And when we obey and see the power, remember to acknowledge where the power came from. Jesus constantly did this by saying that everything He said was what He was commanded to speak by the father and that He couldn’t do anything of His own except what He sees the father doing (John 5:19).
When power and authority are placed side by side, power always comes first. This is because authority is simply an assigned right to do or not to do but power is the actual residual capacity to do with or without anyone’s authority. The point then is this, in exercising whatever authority we may have, we must never forget to obey and acknowledge the one in whom the true power resides – God Almighty. For to forget Him is like cutting off from our only source of light. The result is darkness and confusion.