From January 27, One Year Bible

Today's Scriptures:

Exodus 4:1~5:21; Matthew 18:1~20; Psalm 22:19~31; Proverbs 5:15~21

My One Thought Scripture: Exodus 4:1~9 (NIV)

Exodus 4:1-9

“Moses answered, 'What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'? Then the Lord said to him, 'What is that in your hand?' 'A staff,' he replied. The Lord said, 'Throw it on the ground.' Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, 'Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.' So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 'This,' said the Lord, 'is so 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.' Then the Lord said, 'Put your hand inside your cloak.' So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow. 'Now put it back into your cloak,' he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh. Then the Lord said, 'If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.'"

God really wanted Moses to be “His man” to take care of a special task that must be done. It would eventually become the job of Moses and his brother Aaron to His children out and then lead them on to Caanan, the land He had promised Abraham centuries earlier.

In the Old Testament accounts of Abraham and of Noah, for example, we saw men who responded quickly and without question when God told them what to do. On the other hand, here Moses was a “hard sell”. Moses did not realize that his entire life up to now had all been basic training or “boot camp” for this moment. He was spared from murder as a baby, then raised and educated as an Egyptian probably giving him the best education available. His life had been spared as a young adult when Egyptians sought to kill him in retaliation for his slaying an Egyptian guard. Moses spent the next forty years living as a shepherd where he most likely learned how to survive in the “wild”.

I see all of this as God directing, planning and training Moses for the task He has had for him since before his birth. Now, God further provides Moses with some special “tools” that he would need for his task. There was the miraculous staff that first turned into a serpent...then back into a staff. God demonstrated it to Moses, but then told him that he could prove that God sent him by using this same demonstration. If Pharoah did not believe him by that act, God used a second demonstration of making his hand leprous, then restoring it to health. A third “miracle” God supplied was that of turning water from the Nile river to blood. But, Moses was still uncomfortable.

What “tools” or past experiences does God want me to draw on to use now for His glory? I believe that past experiences and even past sins or “errors”, no matter how good or evil can be forgiven...but also used to help make us what we are today and we, in turn, can use them as God directs for His glory.