Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

3 The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 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. 5 “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.” Exodus 4:1-5

Moses was a normal guy.

Normal guys run away from snakes when they see them, especially if they believe it to be poisonous. Interesting that Moses included this bit of information when he wrote it down later. I don’t think it’s a trivial matter at all because he was expressing an emotion we all experience: fear.

Even in verse one he was expressing a different kind of fear.

But God had laid his hand on Moses. He would go before him. He would protect him.

Getting back to the snake. When God told him to pick it up again, it probably sent shivers down his spine. Not only does he have to get close to it, but he has to pick it up!

All along, though, God was showing Moses that he could handle this and any other obstacle placed in Moses’ path.

You can almost hear the Lord telling Moses, “Just trust me, even a little, and we’ll get through this.”

What is God asking you to trust Him for? What obstacles are in your path? Are you, like Moses, riddled with fear and doubts?

“Just trust me, even a little, and we’ll get through this together.”