Proof

Exodus 4:1-17

¹Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ” ²The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” ³And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. ⁴But 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— ⁵“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.” ⁶Again, 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. ⁷Then 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. ⁸“If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. ⁹If 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.” ¹⁰But 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.” ¹¹Then 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? ¹²Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” ¹³But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” ¹⁴Then 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. ¹⁵You 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. ¹⁶He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. ¹⁷ And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”

Back in 2003 Jim Carrey starred in a movie called Bruce Almighty about a man taught by God about what it means to truly love someone. Being a Jim Carrey movie, it is clever and funny. Whenever I read this passage about Moses needing to see some proof of God’s power and calling on his life, I cannot help but think of this movie. Here’s a clip of when Bruce meets God face to face, so to speak. It is alarmingly similar in feel to what we find in our reading for today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjAM2J_D4UY

Moses needs a way to convince the people that God has actually sent him. The words “because God said so” aren’t going to carry much weight with the Hebrews and certainly aren’t going to move the Pharaoh. So God provides Moses with three miracles that apparently he can perform at will. God turns his staff into a snake (and back again), his hand into a diseased appendage (and back again) and water from the Nile into blood – and importantly, not back into water.

The turning of water from the Nile into blood was a miracle meant for the Pharaoh. Two of the gods the Egyptians worshiped were Hapi and Osiris, both gods of the Nile. In all of the plagues, God will repeatedly show His strength and power over all of Egypt’s gods. Starting with the Nile is almost poetic.

At this point it is important that we mention another aspect of Moses’ story that cannot go unnoticed – the staff in his hands.

"In ancient Palestinian-Israelite society, one’s staff was an essential personal possession, a means of protection and identification and even a symbol of one’s power. Various Hebrew terms are translated “staff.” It is possible to use them rather interchangeably here in light of their semantic overlap and render them all with the English word “staff” just as “rod,” “staff,” “big stick,” and “walking stick” can all be used largely interchangeably in English. From the point of view of identifying oneself, a staff was in certain ways the equivalent in ancient culture of what a passport, wallet, or driver’s license would be today. From the point of view of protection, it was the ancient equivalent of what a sidearm would be today. From the point of view of its function as a symbol of one’s personal power, a modern analogy might be one’s photo ID pass or even, in some situations, one’s parking pass. It is likely that women often carried staffs; however, as it happens, the only references to staffs in the Bible involve men."

Stuart, D. K. (2006). Exodus (Vol. 2, p. 139). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

The staff in Moses’ hands represents not only Moses, but God as well. In several instances throughout Exodus, God will direct Moses to use his staff to execute God’s will. Did Moses’ staff have power in itself? Not at all. Its power, and every aspect of its effectiveness, came from God’s use of the staff in Moses’ (or Aaron’s) hand as a symbol of the divine authority, supremacy, and presence. The miraculous staff was designated to convince Moses and Aaron, then the Israelite leadership, and in turn Pharaoh, and finally the nation of Israel of God’s sovereign control in his plan to liberate his people from their bondage. It becomes progressively clear that the staff was not really Moses’ or Aaron’s (or anyone else’s) but God’s.