The Stick, the Stutter, and the God Who Equips the Imperfect

God's Strange Logic in Choosing Moses

The story of Moses in the book of Exodus contains one of the most important and personal lessons in the whole Torah. The scene at the burning bush is dramatic enough — God revealing himself to Moses and commissioning him to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh, "Let my people go." But what follows that scene is even more fascinating. God argues with Moses like a merchant in a typical Arabic market anywhere in the Middle East. This situation of arguing, and not being decisive, and looking for excuses, which is why he is the wrong person for the job, goes round and round between Moses and God. The amazing and wonderful thing in this narrative is that God is willing to argue with Moses and not give up on this man with a heavy speech impediment, a person who had lost hope, and lost any vision or desire to change his lifestyle.

Here is the lesson from this narrative: God can use anyone that He chooses. He can even use a person like Moses who is not ready and doesn't want the job. He can use a person that is damaged exactly in the area that he will need most in his mission. God does not mind using a person like Moses who doesn't want this mission of freeing the children of Israel from Egypt. When God sets His mind on a person — He also equips him with the tools and the talents and the gifts that this person is going to need to accomplish the task set before him by the Almighty One of Israel.

The Stick — What Do You Have in Your Hand?

God takes a different approach with Moses. He asks: "Moses, what do you have in your hand?" Moses answers that he only has a stick, a shepherd's staff in his hand, a piece of wood to drive the sheep. God tells Moses to cast this stick to the ground. Moses does not suspect anything dramatic to happen. This same stick has fallen down to the ground many times, and nothing happened. The stick falls down on the ground and becomes a snake. You can imagine how surprised Moses would have been. A shepherd of sheep in the Sinai Desert has more than a few opportunities to see and handle snakes. The Lord surprises Moses a second time when he tells Moses to pick the snake up by the tail. Anyone who has handled snakes knows that this is the most stupid thing to do to a live snake. But now Moses has gained a new experience and he can trust the Lord and obey even this unusual and seemingly stupid command of the Lord.

The story of Moses and his shepherd's staff that turned into a snake (a crocodile) in Exodus 4 is one of my favorites in the whole Torah of Moses. It has given me so much confidence and so much courage to be able to face attempted murder, persecution of my family, damage to property, beatings, and rejection. A wooden shepherd's staff can turn into a snake or a crocodile by the power of God, and an outcast from Egypt can in such a short time deliver the Hebrew slaves from Egyptian slavery, and lead them in the wilderness for 40 years, and feed them manna from Heaven and quail meat every day for dinner.

I don't have a shepherd's staff, and I imagine that you also don't have a shepherd's staff, but no matter what we have in our hand, if we are willing to, in obedience to God's command, use that which we hold in our hand, we might become tools of obedience in God's hand. Release what you have in your hand, no matter how small or how insignificant or seemingly unimportant. If you release it, like Moses released his shepherd's staff, God can make it a power-tool that empowers you and your life as a tool of deliverance and salvation to release the captives and those enslaved in the things that enslave God's children even to this day!

The Stutter — Our Imperfections Are Not Disqualifications

We have so much to learn from Moses that can help us, especially here in Israel, to first of all, stop criticizing God's servants and looking and concentrating on what we don't have, but allow God to use what we do have and sharpen it exactly for the job that is set before us. Each one of us has a stick and some kind of stutter — imperfection and blemish — but God can use our imperfections and blemishes for his glory. None of the heroes of our faith were perfect individuals and everyone had his own faults, but in God's hand the faults and problems that our forefathers had become their advantage.

Let us stop criticizing the blemishes of our brothers and allow the Lord to use our blemishes and problems to His advantage. For now we ought to be ready to use our stutter and our stick for the glory of the Lord and prepare to see the Arm of the Lord lead and guide us to be perfect, by being the violin, and the Lord the violinist. In the Lord's hands the cheapest violin can produce the best sound of heavenly music!

Moses' name in the Egyptian language means exactly "son of the water." ("Mo" is water and "Ses" is son of.) As you can see in the names of the pharaohs themselves: Ramses means the son of Ra, the chief god of the Egyptians during the late bronze period. This Egyptian name was given to the most unlikely deliverer of God's people. The man who stuttered, the man who ran away, the man who was tending sheep for a pagan priest in the desert — given an Egyptian name, equipped with nothing but a stick, and sent back to face the most powerful empire on earth.

Conclusion

Moses was raised in the palaces of Pharaoh, educated as an Egyptian, dressed as an Egyptian, ate as an Egyptian. And now, with a stick and a stutter, he goes back. On the way, all kinds of problems face him. But the big news is that in the end Moses gives in to God with his stick and with his stutter and God provides him with Aaron, his brother, to be his mouthpiece.

The principle from this Torah portion is clear and timeless. God is faithful to keep His promises and our history is proof positive of that faithfulness. And always, in the pattern of salvation, the most unlikely hero carries the most improbable mission — and succeeds, because the Lord is the one holding the stick.