If you’re like me, maybe you have thought, “God healed people in the Bible, but is there any precedent for praying for stalled cars or frozen computer screens?” Perhaps it’s only some of us who are very picky who think that way, since the Bible offers much more general promises of prayer. And I have seen God answer prayer for stalled cars; such a prayer once even saved the life of my brother-in-law when he was fleeing war.
Look what God chose to do through a shepherd’s staff (4:17). There was nothing special about a shepherd’s staff per se. God meets us where we are, and uses us where we are. For an ancient shepherd, he might use our staff or sling; today he might use airplanes or computers. (If the power grid goes down and we can’t use computers, I think that maybe I did save my old manual typewriter.) My point is just that whatever is at hand, God can use it. God uses Peter’s shadow (Acts 5:15-16) and Paul’s face cloths (used to wipe off perspiration while he was working and maybe snatched without him knowing!—Acts 19:12). God isn’t limited to what he can use—or whom he can choose. Moses’s own staff (4:2, 17) becomes the staff of God (4:20).
I might joke about Moses’s staff (with puns that probably work only in English), but the Bible has a very serious message for us. God can work through instruments that could do nothing on their own. What matters is that God is with us.
(For other posts on Exodus, see http://www.craigkeener.org/category/old-testament/exodus/.)