(By Kim)
In my previous post I spoke about how Moses’ step of faith caused his simple shepherd’s staff to become the ‘staff of God’. In this post, let’s see more about Moses and his staff.
God told Moses to take the staff with him to perform miraculous signs with it (Ex 4:17) and sure enough once Moses walked into the territory of Pharoh, the plague of blood, the plague of frogs and plague of gnats happened with the help of this staff.
When the Israelites were stuck between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea, God told Moses to “Raise the staff and stretch his hands” (Ex 14:16). As Moses did that the Red Sea parted, Israelites got saved, while Egyptians were wiped off.
During the latter part of the journey of Israel into the Promised Land, the people didn’t have water to drink. God told Moses to strike the rock with his staff and water gushes out (Ex 17:5-7).
When the Amalekites attacked the Israelites at one point, Moses stands on top of the hill with the staff of God in his hands. Because his staff remained outstretched to heaven, Israel could win the battle (Ex 17:9).
Moses and the staff had become inseparable.
Then one day when the Israelites cried out for water again, God interestingly commands Moses to pick up his staff first and then gather the people and speak to the rock (Num 20:8).
Sure enough Moses runs to take the staff from the Lord’s presence (Num20:9) and instead of speaking to the rock hits it twice. This displeases God and as a result Moses could not enter the Promised Land.
When God wanted Moses to speak to the rock, why did He tell him to first take his staff along? Was it that Moses had become too dependent on his staff than on God? Did God want to remind Moses that the miracle was never in the stick, but in complete obedience to God?
What do you have to say?