Rod Of God

Rod of God

During his years as a shepherd in Midian, Moses had picked up a rod of wood. It was a long stick that he used as a shepherd’s staff, a walking stick, and possibly even a weapon. Though it was an ordinary and unremarkable stick, God intended to use it in the hands of his servant to convince the Israelites that God had sent him to be their deliverer.

The LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.

“Throw it down on the ground,” the LORD told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back.

Then the LORD told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand.

“Perform this sign,” the LORD told him. “Then they will believe that the LORD, the God of their ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—really has appeared to you.” (Exodus 4:2-5)

Later Moses waved this rod over the Nile and saw it turn to blood. He stretched it over the streams, and frogs came up on the land. He struck the dust, and gnats came up from it. He raised his staff over the Red Sea to divide the water for the Israelites to pass through.

While this rod of God wielded the power of God to bring deliverance to his people, it was only a preview of how God would use another rod, in the person of Jesus, to bring a greater deliverance. Like Moses’ rod, Jesus was ordinary and unimpressive. He was cast down on the ground, became a curse for us (Galatians 3:10-13), and then was restored.

And God is not finished working through his rod, Jesus Christ. Dictating a letter to John for the church in Thyatira, Jesus recalled the words of the psalmist: “You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots” (Revelation 2:27). Jesus is the rod of God who not only saves those who belong to God but also smashes those who reject God.

Rod of God, you wield the power in this world to deliver or demolish, to protect or plague, to comfort or cast away. How grateful I am that because I am yours, you use your power not against me, but for me.