Ex 4:1-2 “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.'” (2) So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
Moses, the Liberator, and Lawgiver was given the awesome task of challenging the Pharoah and the governmental systems of Egypt with proper tools for their liberation. He first received a word from God to affirm his identity. It was his attachment to God, the Great I Am, that provided evidence that he was already equipped to participate in an endeavor far beyond anything that he could imagine. His assignment for us is always beyond our abilities alone. It is by and through His grace that we are provided the essential tools to fully participate in what God is doing. God made it clear that He is and was able to accomplish whatever He chooses whenever He chooses. Then, since He called Moses, He made it clear that He was with him. The threat of rejection and doubt of acceptance causes a leader to be reluctant even when the path has been cleared before him.
God provides the way as He guides His people to their expected end. He asked Moses a question that is still a question to us; “what is in your hand?” The hand is attached to the body, and He reminded Moses that he had useful hands. Then God opened his eyes to the reality that the endowments provided for him had an expanded use. Likewise, your attachment to God requires your detachment from all other things that would distract or delay progress. Whatever Moses had been holding on to had to be released. The shepherd’s staff, or the rod used as protection, was no longer needed as such. He was Moses’s protection as he then provided guidance to the generation of God’s chosen people.
God has placed in your hands what is needed to accomplish the level of the assignment currently given to you. He asks you to take a second look at what you already have – your family, your loved ones, your friends, and your church body all have important parts to play. “For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have (2 Corinthians 8:12). He increases the gifts as the need for them increases. Nehemiah had a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other as he was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Both hands were occupied, one with an instrument for war and the other with a tool for service. Just like with Nehemiah, God has placed in your hands the wherewithal and resources to fully serve Him.
We thank God for His provisions to complete the task that is assigned to us. His gracious gifts are sufficient for all seasons and every challenge, and if we are open to him, He will teach us to rightly use what He has so freely given.