Grab a snake by the tail

I love the stories in Exodus of the encounters with Moses and Pharaoh. I am reminded that God has, and does, work in common people to bring about His good for His glory.

            One story that I shared with my congregation recently comes from Exodus chapter 4. This is at the beginning of Moses following God’s call on his life to be a prophet and lead the Hebrew people out of captivity from Egypt and into the Promised Land that God has in store for them. But first, God has to get Moses ready, because Moses doesn’t feel very qualified to do the job that God has laid out for him. In fact, he is very insecure about what he is supposed to be doing.

            I have heard it said that God doesn’t call the equipped, but He equips the called. I have sure found this to be true. And it was true for Moses, too.

            But in an effort to help get Moses ready for an encounter with Pharaoh, the single most powerful ruler in the known world at the time, God gave Moses a practice run. This story is in Exodus 4:1-5.

            Moses was holding a staff in his hand and God told him to throw it down on the ground. When Moses threw it down it became a snake. God told Moses to pick it up and when Moses picked it up it became a staff again.

            There are a couple of things I wanted to share with you today from this story.

            When Moses threw the staff down and God turned it into a snake Moses ran from it. I get it, I would have done that too. And probably so would you! But the thing is that we do that all too often. Run from things, I mean. When we are faced with an unexpected fearful situation (and this was just that, God could have at least gave Moses a heads up of what He was going to do) we have a few options. One is to run from our fear. This is probably the most common reaction. Or we can be frozen by our fear. Paralyzed. I have seen this as a pretty common reaction also. Or there is a third option: face our fear.

            This is what God tells Moses to do.

            “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” God told Moses (4:4a)

            When I was a teenager I had a pet snake, a ball python named Merlin. Merlin is the only snake that I have ever handled, so I am not exactly a proficient professional in snake handling mannerisms (I am, after all, Methodist), but there is one thing I do know about picking up a snake.             Never, and I mean NEVER-EVER-NEVER, pick it up the tail. If you pick up a snake by the tail then it might swing around with its free end, its mouth, and bite you.

            So why did God tell Moses do pick up the snake by the tail? Did God want Moses to get bitten? Did God not know that Moses would be vulnerable to a snake bite this way? Or did God have an ulterior motive? Did God want to teach Moses, and us, something more important than just proper snake handling etiquette? I think the latter.

            Maybe, by picking up the snake by the tail Moses was being forced to face his fear (not run from it and not be paralyzed by it) and trust God at the same time. God calls us to a living faith, and a living faith involves action!

            Is there something in your life where you need to trust God and reach out and take hold of? I can promise you that if you are following God’s plan for your life He will take care of you. If God has brought you to it He will bring you through it.

            And one more side note about snakes: the mouth is the big end…the tail is the little end. You just take care of the little end, the part that you can handle, and trust that God handle the big end. Now, bend over and pick that thing up by the tail. In the name of Jesus. Amen.