CAST IT ON THE GROUND

At the burning bush the LORD asked Moses: What is that in your hand”? Moses replied that it was his rod. God told him to throw it down on the ground. Moses did so; it became a serpent and Moses was frightened and ran from it.
Forty years before Moses decided to save the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, but caused more harm than good, killing a man. Now God wants to use Moses to do exactly what he wanted to do in the first place. But first the rod must be dealt with. It has within itself the potential to do harm as well as good. Moses proved that. When God tells Moses to throw it down Moses sees it’s potential for evil and flees from it.
Every talent or ability I have is a potential serpent. My best and most well meaning efforts have the potential of causing harm, either to myself or others. I must understand that, as Paul said, In me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. As Moses threw down the rod at God’s command, so must I.
God tells Moses to pick up the rod. Moses does so in perfect obedience and now it is once again a rod. But it is no longer Moses’ rod. In Exodus 4:20 we read that Moses returned to the land of Egypt “and the rod of God was in his hand”. Now he is fully able to save the people of God from the oppressor.
There are two verses I want to bring here. Psalm 12:4: “Our lips are our own; who is lord over us”? This is perhaps the great contrast between the man of the world and the follower of Christ. The question here is the same. Whose rod is it: mine or God’s?
Another verse that would apply here is John 7:18. Jesus is speaking: “He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of the One Who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him”. The important thing is that leaders in the church and also the followers seek, not there own glory but the glory of God. I suppose we all have this tendency to cling to our rod, not seeing the serpent on it.