Lectio Divina

Tuesday August 5, 2008

Read slowly Exodus 4:1-5

Exodus 4 (NIV)

Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"

  Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"          

"A staff," he replied.

The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground."  Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.  Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.  "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you."

>> The staff was meant to be a reminder to Moses of God's Presence and power. To grab a snake by the tail was to approach it from the most dangerous end. The snake could easily have wheeled around and bit Moses as he grab its tail. Have you ever heard the expression, "I've got a tiger by the tail"? It expresses the same sentiment. To embark on a journey you know ahead of time you cannot control. But the moment Moses trusts God and grabs the snake, it turns into a tool for liberation and freedom. How often have I have avoided what God has in store for my life because I refuse to grab the tail of the snake? Too often we're afraid of getting bitten that we avoid risk at any cost. But just like Moses, our promised land adventure begin when we realize we have a tiger by the tail and don't know what's coming next. What is your snake that you're afraid to take hold of? Does it have control of you through your fear? What would happen to your fear if you grabbed it with God's authority and made it serve you as a staff of strength and confidence? What kind of trials and dangers have you survived that give you strength? Do you use that strength to lead, inspire, encourage, and guide those still in captivity? I think that for all of us we must still encounter our fears every day. But every so often we conquer them by transforming then into experience that guide our lives.