What is the Meaning of the Rod in Exodus?
I recently discovered some hidden treasure when studying “the rod” in Exodus. What I intended to unearth was “how God uses what’s in your hand,” starting with the example of the rod that Moses had in his hand when God spoke to him in Exodus 4. But I saw something much deeper in the rod, and when I was done with my study, I told God I was sorry that “I” was the center of what I expected to learn. Because in reality, He is the center of that story.
Let me explain. I was conditioned to read the Bible and grasp what it says historically (the facts) and then see what I can glean personally or devotionally. I call that two-dimensional. After you’ve been around the block a few times, you get pretty good at this. So I thought the lesson on “how God uses what’s in your hand” would take 45 minutes or less for my morning devotions. Except I saw the third dimension. That is, beyond historically and devotionally, there’s a prophetic view of “the rod” in Exodus 4. Scripture is meant to be studied historically, personally and prophetically. In Bible college, I just learned about the first two. But here’s an example of the third dimension, and I’ll show you how I found it and what I learned.
This will take several blog posts, but I promise, it will be worth it when you see the depth that God has for you if you go beyond the surface and start comparing scripture with scripture. And it’s not even a stretch. Even Christ taught to look for the third dimension. Remember when He said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life?” (John 3:14-15). Obviously, when you read that, you’re compelled to go back and read the story in Numbers and look at it another way to see the prophetic message in that story.
Well, I’m saying there’s a prophetic message in the rod Moses had in his hand.
God told Moses how he would use him to deliver the Israelites. After God laid out his big plan, Moses said in Exodus 4:1-5, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it and it became a rod in his hand. That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.”
God’s use of the rod in Moses’ hand was what he would use to convince/prove to the people of his (God’s) power. This physical manifestation of God’s power is like Christ. He was the physical manifestation of God’s power.
This is the first mention of “rod” in the Bible, and it has to do with God’s strength. Here are some other significant mentions of the rod related to Christ, and don’t miss this:
The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. (Psalms 110:1-2) This is Christ.
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: (Isaiah 11:1) This also is Christ.
I started looking at the rod in Moses’s hand as Christ prophetically, simply because other places in the Bible refer to the rod as Christ. In my next blog posts I’ll show how a look at this animated rod indeed does picture Christ, and it makes other scriptures come alive. Be prepared. The third dimension is amazing!
Jody