Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 99 · April 9
Cast It on the Ground
“And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.”
What was the rod really for? The chapter answers that question itself.
Start with the worry it answers. Moses has just said, "But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee." His problem is being believed. Into that worry comes God's question: "What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod." It was a shepherd's stick, the kind he had carried through forty years of looking after sheep in Midian.
"Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it." He runs away from his own walking stick. Then God tells him to pick it up by the tail, which is the end nobody who has handled snakes would choose, and it turns back into a rod in his hand. The purpose is written plainly right after it: "That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee." The sign was proof of who had sent Moses, meant for the people of Israel in Egypt. It was about God.
That is worth saying, because people often lift the question out of the story and use it as a saying about making the most of what you already have. The chapter goes somewhere else. Moses is given a second sign, and he is told about a third. Then, after all that, he says, "O my LORD, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send." He had seen God's power with his own eyes, and he still asked for somebody else. "And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses."
Even so, God did not send him away alone. He gave Moses his brother Aaron to speak alongside him, and He promised, "I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth." So think back over the times God has already shown you His faithfulness. If they have not settled your doubts for long, you are in the same place Moses was. The God who answered his doubts with patience still goes with the people He sends.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 99 is Seated in Heavenly Places (Ephesians 2:6).