What Is That in Your Hand?

"And the Lord said to him, 'What is that in your hand?' And he said, 'A staff.' Then He said, 'Throw it on the ground.' So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it" (Exodus 4:2-3)

I was busy preparing a message this week for this coming Sunday morning's service of worship, beloved, when the Spirit of God brought back to mind such a wonderful truth about our service unto the Lord as Christians that I just had to share it with you! That truth simply is that God loves to start with what is at hand or, as in Moses' case, "in your hand." Moses was being commissioned by God to confront Pharaoh and to lead the Hebrew people out of bondage in Egypt and to a glorious land of promise known then as Canaan. In his fear and doubt, Moses questioned God's choice of him as that leader, so God chose to show him to what extent He would be with him. He asked Moses what was in his hand and Moses replied that it was just his shepherd's staff. When he cast it down at God's command, however, it became a serpent on the ground. That staff became to Moses "the rod of God" and was the instrument he held out over the Red Sea and saw the waters part miraculously and the whole nation cross to safety on dry ground.

The prophet Elisha asked of a widow lady the same question when she came to him in dire need of help and in imminent danger of seeing her sons sold into debtor's slavery to pay her debts. Elisha asked her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?' (2 Kings 4:2). In other words, beloved, he asked her what was at hand! She replied by telling him that all that was left in the house was a single jar of oil. The prophet had her borrow as many jars from her neighbors as she could procure, then to start to pour from that single jar of oil into the empty jars. As long as she had even one empty jar remaining, the oil continued to flow miraculously. As soon as the final jar was filled, however, the oil stopped flowing. Elisha then told her to go and sell the oil and pay off her debt and then provide for herself and for her sons with the rest.

And in the Gospel narrative of John Mark, our current Sunday morning course of study, Jesus and His disciples were confronted with a massive need as well. While trying to grab a few moments of rest and repose on the grassy slopes of Bethsaida east of the Sea of Galilee, they were confronted with a great multitude of people seeking Jesus' teaching and His healing touch. When sundown came and the disciples questioned how the people were to find food for supper, Jesus replied by saying to them, "You give them something to eat!" (Mark 6:37). Astounded at such a thought, they told Him that they could not possibly feed that many people themselves. Jesus' response to them was to tell them, "How many loaves do you have? Go look!" Andrew came back with a small boy and his tiny lunch of five barley crackers and two sardines. You know the rest of the story, don't you? Jesus blessed the lunch and promptly began to distribute it among the people as His disciples passed it out. Not only were all of those thousands fed but the disciples then gathered up twelve baskets of fragments not distributed.

It seems quite clear, beloved, that God wants to always start with what is at hand! And what is in your hand right now? What is available to you as a starting point for the miraculous? Today I would say to you that you are that starting point! God is not nearly as interested in your "ability" as in your "availability." If you make yourself available to Him, He is certainly capable of providing the ability! In each case in Scripture that we have noted, a common truth is present: When those involved presented what was available to God, the miraculous happened! Whether it was a shepherd's staff or a jar of oil or a small boy's lunch, the ordinary became the extraordinary when God chose to use it. How available is your life to the hand of God today?

Ron