Throw it down! By Adepero Mettabel

Exodus 4:1-3

Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
1 Then Moses said to God, “But the Israelites will not believe me when I tell them that you sent me. They will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’”
2 But the Lord said to Moses, “What is that you have in your hand?”
Moses answered, “It is my walking stick.”
3 Then God said, “Throw your walking stick on the ground.”




The dilemma we all face when The Lord asks us to perform a task is the uncertainty that comes from us wondering how we feel our actions are, or will be perceived. Many of us recognize the fact that it is God who has called us to do a particular work, but then are often afraid of how we will be received by the very people that we believe that we have been sent to minister to. I find myself in this situation many a time, and it is something that sometimes draws me back from giving my all to what the Lord has sent me to do.

Here in these verses, we find Moses in much the same situation as he states that the Israelites, whom he had been sent to deliver would not receive him.

Had he heard the Lord correctly? Of course, he had! But his absolute surrender was being moderated by his sense knowledge of the situation rather than the truth of what God had stated.  God then asked him a question– ‘what do you have in your hand?’ To which he answered ‘a rod’. God then said to him  ‘throw your rod on the ground’ Moses may have said in his heart  "now what does this rod have to do with the issue at hand" but when Moses did as he was commanded, he received the shock of his life - a dead rod became a living creature!

Now what lesson can we glean from these passages?

The most obvious one that comes to my heart is that God has given us certain things, gifts, talents, and tasks, and although we know that these enduements are from the Lord until we ”throw it down”, rather than those things being living vibrant instruments of the Lord’s presence with us, they remain dead and lifeless props in our hands. Now how do we “Throw it down”? From these passages, I believe that throwing it down represents obeying the command of The Lord to do whatever he tells us with what he has given us no matter how senseless it seems. When we follow his leading, we release and activate that which is in us that will become living proof that He is with us.

As we all know, from the Bible story, when Moses stood before the Pharaoh, the same stick - a symbol of his profession became living proof of his commission; that actually devoured all opposition, and throughout his ministry, was the tool that God used to demonstrate His power, His might and His presence with Moses.

 So today what do you have in your hand?  Go ahead... ”Throw it down” as in doing so you may find the living vibrant proof of your calling and commission.

Go ahead, do not be afraid, just ‘throw it down’!

© Adepero Mettabel, 110613.