Throw it Down

Whenever I read that snake story found in the first few verses of the fourth chapter of Exodus, I think of Tom Skinner (1942-1994)  Tom Skinner was a gang leader turned evangelist who had a powerful way of preaching.  His sermon on the staff of Moses is unforgettable.  In a style all his own he preached about Moses throwing his staff down on the ground and it turning into a snake.  When told by God to pick it up by the tail, Skinner had Moses correcting God about the correct way to pick up a snake. "You pick it up by the head, not the tail," he said.

 

But the most memorable part of the sermon came when Skinner talked about Moses reaching down and picking up the snake by the tail and it becoming a staff again.  This time it was no longer the staff of Moses.  It was the staff of God.  He gave it to God and God gave it back as a staff that would accomplish God's work in a way Moses would never have been able to do.  An ordinary staff became the powerful staff of God.

 

I can still hear the voice of Tom Skinner asking, "Hey, Moses, what is that in your hand?"  (Exodus 4:2)  Of course, to hear that question meant also hearing the evangelist asking, "What is that in your hand?"  What do we hold in our hand that God can use if we would only throw it down?  What do we hold in our hand that He might give back to us so that we can use what seemed so ordinary in an extraordinary way?  We will never know, will we?  At least, we will never know unless we are willing to turn it loose, throw it down, and make it available to God.