The prophet Isaiah jumped at the chance to proclaim the Word of the Lord by famously professing, “Here I am Lord, send me.” Moses was the exact opposite who said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.” In Exodus 4:13. I want to take a closer look at why Moses resisted God when he was called to free the Israelites from Egypt.
Prior to Moses pleading with God to send someone else, God told Moses to throw his staff on the ground and it became a snake. Then he commanded him to pick the snake up and it became a staff again. This was what Moses would take with him to Egypt to perform all the plagues and eventually part the Red Sea. The staff was Moses’ shepherd’s staff. Moses fled his adopted family with the Pharaoh of Egypt to the fields of Jethro who would become his father-in-law. There, Moses became a shepherd for 40 years. It was during this time that God was doing something radical with Moses’ heart in an environment far from everything he knew.
Did you know that shepherds are an abomination to Egyptians? (Genesis 46:34). See Egyptians were vegetarians. They raised very small flocks for milk and pelts, but Hebrews shepherded large flocks for meat. That is why Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews. It is why Joseph instructed his brothers to tell Pharaoh that they were shepherds so that they would be kept apart from the Egyptians.
Now back to Moses. God commanded him to go back to Pharaoh and present himself to him holding none other than his shepherd’s staff. He would be a laughing stock and detested by Pharaoh and all of Egypt. How far could Moses could have possibly fallen from the Pharaoh’s palace to the disgusting life of a filthy shepherd? Of all people, Moses who was raised Egyptian royalty knew just how impossible it would be to gain any respect holding that staff.
God was very intentional about the 40 years that Moses spent as a shepherd and it was no mistake that he commanded Moses to carry his shepherd’s staff with him to perform the miraculous. When Moses turned to God, he had to be purged of what had been programmed into him during his childhood. Egyptian culture defined shepherds as worthless and disgusting, but history tells us God has a deep love for shepherds.
Moses’ shepherds’ staff wasn’t to humiliate Moses, it was meant to glorify God in a mighty way to the Egyptians. It was a visible sign that God will lift up the lowly and use for a mighty purpose. God did not accept Moses’ request to send someone else, he only wanted Moses and his staff. When Moses finally agreed and made arrangements with his father-in-law to leave Midian the scripture says, “So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took God’s staff in his hand.
He no longer was ashamed of his staff that would go before Pharaoh, but he dedicated it to God, calling it God’s staff. Is there something that you possess that God wants you to use for Him? To the world it may seem worthless or even offensive, but God can use that very thing to set people free. But first we must follow Moses’ example. Stop resisting God and dedicate that thing you possess to God and see what miraculous things He will do with it!
