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“What Is That In Your Hand?” – Exodus 4:2

by Chris Simmons

Soon after God spoke to Moses from the burning bush and directed Moses to go to Egypt to deliver the Israelites from “the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them” (Exodus 3:9), Moses began to balk by raising such issues as to whether he was the appropriate person to do such a job (Exodus 3:11). Moses questioned God as to whose authority he should cite when he went to Egypt and finally in Exodus 4:1, Moses questioned whether he had the resources to inspire the others to follow him. Moses felt ill-equipped to do the job that God asked him to do. When Moses asked God “What if they will not believe me, or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you’”, God responded by simply asking, “What is that in your hand?” God has never asked man to serve him with what he does not have, but only with what has been already entrusted to him. Regarding our service to God, we are also asked “What is that in your hand?”

We read of other biblical examples of those whom God had asked to use what was in their hands. For example, we read of Gideon (Judges chapters 6-8), who like Moses, felt ill-equipped to do the work God asked for him to do, which was to deliver the Israelites from the oppression of the Midianites. To that end, Gideon, the lowly farmer’s son, did not need mighty military weapons or a massive army but rather was called upon to simply use what was in his hand. With just 300 men with trumpets and pitchers, Gideon led the victory over the Midianites.

Similarly, when the Israelites were being intimidated by the threats of Goliath and the Philistines, David, with God’s help, used what was in his hand (a sling and five smooth stones) to defeat Goliath, the champion of the Philistines (I Kings 17:31-49). And when the Israelites went in to conquer Jericho and take possession of the promised land, they were victorious with their trumpets, ram’s horns and their voices as they followed the directions of God (Joshua 6:1-21).

In the New Testament, we read of Jesus’ compassion for the multitude that followed Him, which prompted Him to “teach them many things” (Mark 6:34). As Jesus taught, it became “quite late” and the issue of feeding the crowd had to be addressed. The apostles’ solution was to “send them away so that they may go…buy themselves something to eat” (verse 36). To this suggestion, Jesus responded by saying to the apostles in verse 37, "you give them something to eat!" The apostles, impressed with the size of the crowd which included 5000 men, asked Jesus if they should “go and spend two hundred denarii on bread” and give them something to eat. To this, Jesus responded in verse 38, “how many loaves do you have? Go look!" In essence Jesus asked them, ”What do you have in your hand?” Before looking for solutions beyond themselves, Jesus challenged them to look for the answer among themselves. We know that all that the apostles could come up with was the five loaves and two fish which Jesus miraculously then used to feed the entire crowd that included the 5000 men. There are two key components to this miraculous feeding. First was the miraculous power of Jesus. Second was the apostles using what they did have in their hand (i.e, the five loaves and two fish). Like the apostles, we often need to be reminded to “Go look!” for what we do have in our possession that can be used in service to God and do all that we are capable of doing.

This lesson of looking for that which is in our hand is taught in the parable of the talents beginning in Matthew 25:14 where one slave was entrusted with five talents, another two, and another one. We read of the slave with five talents and the slave with two talents in their hands using that which had been entrusted to them to double their original number of talents. However, the one who received one talent in his hand, did not keep the one talent in his hand but rather buried it in the ground. When he stood before his master and returned his one unused talent, he was rebuked and “cast out” for failing to use what was in his hand. Will we also fail to put to use that which God has blessed us with and put into our hands?

Whether Moses, Gideon, the apostles or ourselves, God has never required anyone to use that which isn’t in our hands, only that which is. When we reflect on the command to give upon the first day of the week (I Corinthians 16:1-2), we are directed to give cheerfully and purposefully (II Corinthians 9:7), “as we may prosper”, not as we have not prospered. We are to give on the basis of what we have in our hands, rather than on what is not in our hands.

In the most fundamental sense, to have something in your hand is simply to have something that is within your control to use as you may choose. And the most important thing of all that is in the hands of each and every one of us, is our life. We have been given by God a life to live and we must choose how to spend it. We can choose to live for ourselves and please ourselves. Or we can choose to live for God and please our Savior Jesus Christ, who also had one life to live and chose not to please Himself (Romans 15:1-3) but His Father in heaven.

The question “What is that in your hand” begs us to consider whether we are doing the best we can with what we have. Are we serving God to the best of our ability? Are we “running in such a way that you may win” (I Corinthians 9:24)? Jesus said of the woman who anointed his head with “very costly perfume” that “she has done what she could” (Mark 14:8). And so we must ask ourselves, are we doing the best we can with the life (and its’ blessings and opportunities) that God has placed in our hands?

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