Common Tools; Uncommon Tasks

“Moses answered [the LORD], ‘But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, “The LORD did not appear to you.”’ The LORD said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ He said, ‘A staff.’ And he said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’ So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the LORD said to Moses, ‘Put out your hand and catch it by the tail’—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— ‘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.’ Again, the LORD said to him, ‘Put your hand inside your cloak.’ And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, ‘Put your hand back inside your cloak.’ So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. ‘If they will not believe you,’ God said, ‘or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.’

“But Moses said to the LORD, ‘Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.’ Then the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.’ But he said, ‘Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.’ Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, ‘Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.’” [1]

More power is revealed through one righteous life than will ever be witnessed in a hundred mediocre sermons delivered to a sleepy congregation. There is more power in one personal testimony of God’s grace than will be ever found in a thousand unread books. Because you are a child of the Living God, your witness of His power in your own life has far greater impact in the lives of those who know you than you could ever know. God works through you, and His power is revealed in you.

Our study this day requires us to look at an incident in the life of Moses, the Great Lawgiver. This is the man who had it all, having risen to the heights of power in the most powerful nation of his day. We imagine that if only we can see the powerful of the land saved and serving Christ that great things will happen. This is seldom the case, however. More often, the Lord raises up someone who is unknown, someone with no power in the world, using that individual in a powerful and uncommon way.

A truth to hold close to your heart: Minorities, not majorities, dominate history. And know that those minorities are often led by insignificant individuals. The presence of these irrelevant, seemingly inconsequential individuals stuns the powerful of the world. The powerful cannot account for the power of those who transform the world.

Isn’t this what we witness when the Apostle, writing the Corinthians testifies? “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.