Signs and wonders
This week is on Exodus 4:1-5:
These verses spoke to me about evangelism and signs and wonders. They're from before the world knew about the good news about Jesus, but God had a message to deliver even back then. Moses was the guy getting sent out to do it and he was scared. Not everyone hears God's voice or sees him. And yet he was tasked with going out to speak to a man with the power to kill him, to tell him to do difficult things in the name of some seemingly imaginary being.
God provides a way for someone who can't see or hear him to know that he's there: He bends reality. In Moses' case, he turns a staff into a snake and then turns that snake back into a staff. How many nature documentaries have you seen where that's a thing? Zero. That's because God made it happen just for Moses and Pharaoh, so that Moses could help Pharaoh see that God was there.
That gift came at a small cost to Moses, though. Moses was terrified of the snake. He ran away from it. Snakes in Egypt are nasty poisonous things. Ask Cleopatra. Yet look at God's instructions to him: "Grab the snake by the tail." Where is the very worst place to pick up a snake? The tail, because he can just whip around and bite you! If you're afraid of a snake, you want to grab it by the neck not the tail. But God said the tail! It doesn't take much faith to throw down a piece of wood. It's low risk. Worst thing that happens is a bunch of people laugh at you and your piece of wood is on the ground. It takes a whole lot of faith to pick up a poisonous snake like an rank amateur though. You could die if you heard wrong there.
So God's saying a couple things. First, he's telling Moses that he's got things covered, if Moses is serious. Second, he's seeing if Moses is willing to take a small risk by throwing down his staff. If he is, then he wants to see whether Moses is so serious that he'd risk his life to prove God's reality. The gospel requires everything of us sometimes, and so Moses was tested. God knew he'd pass or he probably wouldn't have chosen him.
So, are we willing to trust that God has things covered when it comes to things he asks of us? Do we love God enough, or trust him enough, to take risks for him? What fun is a relationship where the other person refuses to trust or take risks? You spend all of your time trying to prove yourself, and you still have no corresponding indication that you have any value to them. God doesn't want that with us. He wants us to trust. He wants to know he means something to us. And so sometimes he asks us to do seemingly impossible things, only to do actual impossible things in return. That's a good trade.
So if God puts you in a position where you are supposed to share who he is, make a deal like Moses made. Take the risk if he'll guarantee the payoff. Don't quit after the small risk of sharing. Push for the payoff where you and the other person can't deny that he's real.
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.”
These verses spoke to me about evangelism and signs and wonders. They're from before the world knew about the good news about Jesus, but God had a message to deliver even back then. Moses was the guy getting sent out to do it and he was scared. Not everyone hears God's voice or sees him. And yet he was tasked with going out to speak to a man with the power to kill him, to tell him to do difficult things in the name of some seemingly imaginary being.
God provides a way for someone who can't see or hear him to know that he's there: He bends reality. In Moses' case, he turns a staff into a snake and then turns that snake back into a staff. How many nature documentaries have you seen where that's a thing? Zero. That's because God made it happen just for Moses and Pharaoh, so that Moses could help Pharaoh see that God was there.
That gift came at a small cost to Moses, though. Moses was terrified of the snake. He ran away from it. Snakes in Egypt are nasty poisonous things. Ask Cleopatra. Yet look at God's instructions to him: "Grab the snake by the tail." Where is the very worst place to pick up a snake? The tail, because he can just whip around and bite you! If you're afraid of a snake, you want to grab it by the neck not the tail. But God said the tail! It doesn't take much faith to throw down a piece of wood. It's low risk. Worst thing that happens is a bunch of people laugh at you and your piece of wood is on the ground. It takes a whole lot of faith to pick up a poisonous snake like an rank amateur though. You could die if you heard wrong there.
So God's saying a couple things. First, he's telling Moses that he's got things covered, if Moses is serious. Second, he's seeing if Moses is willing to take a small risk by throwing down his staff. If he is, then he wants to see whether Moses is so serious that he'd risk his life to prove God's reality. The gospel requires everything of us sometimes, and so Moses was tested. God knew he'd pass or he probably wouldn't have chosen him.
So, are we willing to trust that God has things covered when it comes to things he asks of us? Do we love God enough, or trust him enough, to take risks for him? What fun is a relationship where the other person refuses to trust or take risks? You spend all of your time trying to prove yourself, and you still have no corresponding indication that you have any value to them. God doesn't want that with us. He wants us to trust. He wants to know he means something to us. And so sometimes he asks us to do seemingly impossible things, only to do actual impossible things in return. That's a good trade.
So if God puts you in a position where you are supposed to share who he is, make a deal like Moses made. Take the risk if he'll guarantee the payoff. Don't quit after the small risk of sharing. Push for the payoff where you and the other person can't deny that he's real.
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