The Rod Became a Snake Because Moses Spoke Slander

Moses drove Jethro's flock to the far edge of the wilderness so the sheep would not crop another man's grass. He had a wife, sons, and an ass. The heavier load was still ahead of him, and he did not know it yet.

Click for full size

He Led the Flock Past Stolen Grass

The Holy One does not confer greatness until He tests a man in lesser things. David had kept sheep from fields not his own. Moses did the same with Jethro's flock, walking them to the wilderness end rather than let them steal pasture.

Faithful with sheep, now shepherd My flock. That was the sentence waiting for him in the thorn. He had not asked for a nation. He had asked for grass that belonged to no one else. The staff in his hand was still only a shepherd's stick.

"Thou didst lead Thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron" (Psalm 77:21). The verse would be true later. This morning it was still a man and other men's sheep and a dry horizon.

The Bush Burned and Did Not Ash

At the wilderness edge the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed (Exodus 3:2). Heavenly fire branches upward and is not eaten. Earthly fire eats what it touches. This fire did neither thing a desert man expects of flame.

Moses took three steps forward. Trouble to look became merit to hear. "Here am I," he answered. Heaven banked that phrase. One day Israel would cry and the Lord would answer "Here am I" (Isaiah 58:9).

Take this rod, God said, for with it you will perform any miracle you desire. Nile blood. Rock water. Sea walls. Sometimes Scripture would call it the rod of the Lord. Sometimes thy rod. Ownership shared can judge both ends of the staff.

He Said They Would Not Believe

Before the plagues, the rod had to teach. Moses had said, "But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice" (Exodus 4:1). Heaven heard slander against Abraham's children.

"What is that in thy hand?" (Exodus 4:2).

A rod, Moses said.

Cast it down. With this that is in your hand you will be punished, for you have spoken as the serpent once spoke. The people you doubted are believers and children of a believer. "And he believed in the Lord" (Genesis 15:6). "And the people believed" (Exodus 4:31).

The first crime corrected was the prophet's own mouth. He had stolen a people's reputation the way a bad shepherd lets sheep steal grass. The stick that had kept a flock honest was about to grow teeth.

The Staff Crawled at His Feet

The wood hit the ground and became a snake. Why a snake? Just as a snake bites and destroys, so the Egyptians bite and destroy Israel. Moses recoiled. The thing that had been his staff now had a mouth, and the mouth was the shape of his own sentence.

Then wood again, for Egypt would wither. Place your hand in your bosom. It came out leprous, white as snow. Leprosy for impurity. Egypt made Israel impure. The hand returned clean when restored to the bosom, as Israel would be cleansed. Blood in the river would answer blood in the brick pits.

Signs stacked in his palm: a snake that could be a stick, a hand that could be a wound, water that could be blood. The Holy One revealed the miracles in advance so Moses would enter Pharaoh's court with a campaign rehearsed. The heart would harden. The rod would still speak.

He Lifted a Future onto a Stick

Moses lifted his family onto an ass and lifted a future onto a stick (Exodus 4:20). Egypt had no idea which load was heavier. A serpent on the ground had already told him: your mouth can make tools into judges.

When Moses finally faced Pharaoh, the staff that had bitten him for slander would swallow the staffs of magicians without apology. The people he once called unbelievers were the people heaven called believers. Doubt Israel and the wood grows teeth. Trust the One who trusts them and the wood becomes a road through water.

Jethro's pasture, the bush that would not ash, the leprous hand, the blood on dry ground: all of them were stations on one road toward a river about to turn red. Greatness arrived as a staff that could shame its carrier. Faithfulness with animals did not cancel the rebuke for slander. The hand that kept sheep from theft had to learn not to steal a people's name.