He had a rod or staff, a sort of shepherd's crook, which he had cut
haphazard when he had wanted something that would serve him in the
desert.
"It is only a rod."
"With that you shall deliver the children of Israel; with that rod
you shall make Israel believe that I am with you."
When God Almighty linked Himself to that rod, it was worth more than
all the armies the world had ever seen. Look and see how that rod
did its work. It brought up the plagues of flies, and the thunder
storm, and turned the water into blood. It was not Moses, however,
nor Moses' rod that did the work, but it was the God of the rod, the
God of Moses. As long as God was with him, he could not fail.
Sometimes it looks as if God's servants fail. When Herod beheaded
John the Baptist, it looked as if John's mission was a failure. But
was it? The voice that rang through the valley of the Jordan rings
through the whole world to-day. You can hear its echo upon the
mountains and the valleys yet, "I must decrease, but He must
increase." He held up Jesus Christ and introduced Him to the world,
and Herod had not power to behead him until his life work had been
accomplished. Stephen never preached but one sermon that we know of,
and that was before the Sanhedrim; but how that sermon has been
preached again and again all over the world! Out of his death
probably came Paul, the greatest preacher the world has seen since
Christ left this earth. If a man is sent by Jehovah, there is no
such thing as failure. Was Christ's life a failure? See how His
parables are going through the earth to-day. It looked as if the
apostles had made a failure, but see how much has been accomplished.
If you read the book of Acts, you will see that every seeming
failure in Acts was turned into a great victory. Moses wasn't going
to fail, although Pharaoh said with contempt, "Who is God that I
should obey Him?" He found out who God was. He found out that there
was a God.
But Moses made another excuse, and said, "I am slow of speech, slow
of tongue." He said he was