There are some super powerful ‘Rod of Moses’ lessons we can learn from watching God deliver Israel in what is commonly known as the Exodus. The Lord used the staff of Moses and Aaron to bring devastating plagues, ten of them, in fact, to a nation that had used and abused His people. This is not the last time that plagues visited the planet.
Between AD 250–262, a pestilence raged all over the Roman Empire, from Egypt to the Hebrides. In some Italian cities, up to four-fifths of the population were wiped out. Men died like flies. Gibbons says that statisticians of the succeeding age estimated that one-half of the human race perished in twelve years! In the 6th century, the bubonic plague spread to Europe as part of a recurring cycle in the entire Roman world for 50 years. The Venerable Bede mentions four distinct waves between 664–683.
Another most terrible plague was the Black Death of 1347–48. It was estimated that one-fourth of Europe’s population died, about 25 million. Even as late as 1918, an influenza epidemic killed in four weeks more than twice as many as the warring armies had destroyed in four years.1
Now, some think that all destructive plagues like the ones we just listed are acts of God. But, not necessarily. There is another possibility. Where the Exodus is concerned, we know for sure that those ten plagues of Egypt were the judgment of God upon that nation. That’s a Bible fact. But, these other disasters were not the work of God, but the work of an enemy opposed to God. The devil, the thief, the murderer, the destroyer, brings destruction against man because of his hatred for him. And then, he turns around and blames God for it. These Exodus happenings though, are of a different sort. And there are some valuable lessons we can learn, and we started to look at some of those lessons in a previous podcast. We looked at the first of these ten plagues and their link to the Rod of God. We’re going to continue to look at the Lord’s movings and manifestation as we continue to look at super powerful Exodus lessons via the rod of God, via Moses Rod — all in this week’s Light on Life.
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Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.
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Podcast Notes
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- So, as we said earlier, in a previous podcast, we began to take a look at how God took an ordinary everyday stick and turned it a lightning rod for the miraculous.
- The Lord took Moses’ rod and turned it a snake.
- He then took Aaron’s staff and did the same thing, turning it a snake eating snake which devoured up all of the magician’s snakes in a power throw-down.
- Even though God’s singular stick slaughtered the best of Egypt’s dark magic right smack in front of Pharaoh’s face, the ruler of Egypt was unwilling to let Israel go.
- Talk about a hard-head!
- So, the Lord steps up the pressure against Egyptian dominance.
The Rod of God and Frogs
- Now, in reading this next set of historical happenings, we see that we have similarities with the previous ‘water to blood’ encounter.
Exodus 8:5–7 (AMP) — 5 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your hand with your rod over the rivers, the streams and canals, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt. 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. 7 But the magicians did the same thing with their enchantments and secret arts, and brought up [more] frogs upon the land of Egypt.
- You see, this is the same sequence as before, except this time around instead of water turning to blood, we have a flood of frogs.
- And, I mean a flood, like a gazillion frog legs leaped onto the drylands of Egypt when Aaron stretched out his rod by the Lord’s direction.
- The warlocks of Egypt try to challenge the Lord.
- That turns out to be a big joke.
- And with that thought, here’s the illustration of the day.
Sharon and I were watching an animal show on TV and it was about big cats in Africa. And so, here is this pride of lionesses and their cubs and they are by the banks of a river. Out of the water pops this huge alligator. The lionesses jump to the defense of their cubs roaring at this alligator. The alligator isn’t fazed by these two lionesses. But up comes the male lion and he roars a gi-normous shake you to your bones kind of roar and that alligator backed up a little. But, the lion wasn’t done yet. He steps forward into the water and lets another bellowing earth shaking roar and that alligator books it on out of there. I mean, he was gone brother.
- That’s what the Lord did to the magicians of Egypt — the evil magicians of Egypt tried to rise out of the water against Moses and Aaron and the people of God.
- They poked their heads out that is until the lion roared and shook the earth, and that was it.
- That’s how you have to deal with the enemy.
- When he pops his head out the water, roar out the Name of Jesus.
- When you do, he will skedaddle big time.
- So, these proud and arrogant sorcerers demonstrate that they too can bring up frogs.
- But, not like the Lord does it because out from the Throne flows sanctified, supernatural, spiritual power.
- From these evil magicians flow black magic from the realm of the dead.
- And, again, these corrupt ones only add to the problem.
- Pharaoh’s representatives are unable to send the frogs back to where they came from.
- And so frogs are flying everywhere.
- What’s the problem with that?
- Well, you may be a frog lover and think they are cute, and that’s okay except when there are 9 billion of them all over the place.
- A ginormous number of any kind of animal means urine, defecation, and all of the uncleanness and possible disease associated with bodily functions.
- I mean, frogs are going to poop and pee everywhere.
- Now, meditate on this thought for a moment, and I think you’ll see another lesson we can learn.
- If the devil had more power than God, do you think this might be an opportunity to show it?
- I mean, if the enemy thinks he has more power, make the frogs leave.
- Undo the work of God and make the frogs do a disappearing act.
- But, as we see from this story, Satan can’t get it done.
- The very best the enemy has is unable to undo a mere minor miracle from the Most High.
- One commentator wrote the following, and I think it’s worthy of meditation.
- Think about it.
- Where did the frogs come from?
- You know frogs and water go together.
- These gazillion frogs came up out of the same waters that were turned to blood by the power of God.
- So then, these are not just ordinary every day frogs — they are ‘blood-soaked frogs.’
- If you want more details, you will find the whole of this story in Exodus 8:1–15.
- But, for time’s sake, let’s move to the next rod of God incident, which happens to be plague number three.
The Rod of God and Annoying Insects
- So because Pharaoh hardens his heart, a third plague pummels the Egyptian dynasty.
- This third epidemic is again by the direction of the Lord.
Exodus 8:16–19 (ESV) — 16 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.'” 17 And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. 18 The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. 19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
- By the mouth of Moses, the Lord commands Aaron to use his rod to transform dust into gnats.
- Now, think about this.
- This is Egypt — pyramids, sphinxes, deserts and lots and lots of dust.
- Tons of dust means tons of gnats.
- Now, gnats are the word the ESV translation of the Bible uses.
- The Hebrew word is ‘kinnam,’ and with that thought, here’s the definition of the day.
- The Hebrew word used here ‘kinnam’ means annoying insects.
- So when Aaron struck the dust of the ground with the rod of God, the dust turned into some type of annoying insects.
- Now, there are a plethora of annoying insects on planet earth, and some of the different Bible translations we have represent that thought.
- NIV, NASB, RSV, NRSV has the translation as ‘gnats.’
- KJV, NKJV, ASV has the translation as ‘lice.’
- NAB has it as flies.
- The NEB and REB have it as maggots — that’s nasty.
- NJB has it as mosquito’s — you know mosquitoes are right up there with horse flies when it comes to annoying insects.
- Tanakh has it as swarms of insects.2
- The Amplified Bible has ‘biting insects.’
- So, you can see that no matter what Bible translation you use, the bottom line spells out a bug infestation amounting to mega major misery.’
- Can you get the picture of what’s happening to the Egyptians now?
- A ginormous number of some kind of biting insect has invaded the land compounding the wretchedness of the two previous plagues.
- So, now the Egyptians experience a trauma trifecta: no potable water, frogs everywhere, and hoards of nasty insects.
- Everyone is scratching.
- Everybody is itching — there’s no calamine lotion anywhere.
- Now, right here, at plague number three, seven more disasters are coming down the turnpike mind you — right here is where the dark powers of Egypt run completely dry.
- Pharaoh’s sorcerers CANNOT duplicate the ‘dust into annoying insects’ manifestation of God’s power.
- The sorcerers are out of gas, sidelined for the rest of God’s delivering performance.
- What lesson can we learn here? — from the magician’s inability to duplicate anymore of these judgments?
- What do the sorcerers coming to an end of their ability tell us about our common enemy?
- It tells us that Satan has limits — that the Prince of the Power of the Air has a limited number of arrows.
- He is not all-powerful like God — he only half duplicated two out of the ten displays of God’s power.
- And, the two he managed to duplicate were only half duplicated.
- So, keep this fact in mind when you have encounters with this same enemy.
- The enemy is not getting stronger; he is getting weaker.
- Sin is consuming him; like a fire, it is eating him alive.
- Remember that when he has taken his best shot at you, he probably has nothing left.
- When the devil tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness with three temptations when he was finished, the scripture says he left him for a more convenient season.
Luke 4:13 (AMP) — 13 And when the devil had ended every [the complete cycle of] temptation, he [temporarily] left Him [that is, stood off from Him] until another more opportune and favorable time.
- God is unlimited.
- Seven more judgments await the tenaciously unwilling to listen Egyptian ruler, and Satan’s tank is empty.
- He is a lion with no teeth.
- And so, annoying insects darken the skies of Egypt.
- Afterward, plagues, 4 through six, putrid flies and sticking maggots, a severe judgment on Egyptian livestock, and severe boils, befall the Egyptians.
- And, then if all that wasn’t enough, Moses rod now comes into play on judgment number seven.
Moses Rod of God and Hail
- Aaron’s rod has been carrying the day, and now Moses rod jumps into the fray with plague number seven.
- If you were Pharaoh, wouldn’t have given up after you saw all that the Lord did via Aaron’s rod?
- The ‘dark side’ is clearly outmatched.
Exodus 9:22–26 (ESV) — 22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.” 23 Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.
- So, this judgment, the hail, and the next one also affect the vegetation of Egypt.
The Rod of Moses and Locusts
Exodus 10:12–15 (ESV) — 12 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.” 13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. 14 The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. 15 They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
- Judgment nine is also by Moses Rod, and you find that account, the plague of darkness in
Exodus 10:21–23 (AMP) — 21 And the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the heavens, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness which may be felt. 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and for three days, a thick darkness was all over the land of Egypt. 23 The Egyptians could not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days; but all the Israelites had natural light in their dwellings.
- At this point, the forces of darkness encounter darkness, real darkness.
- A darkness that is so thick, you can taste it with your tongue.
The Rod of Moses Splits the Red Sea
- Then the last plague, number ten, sees Moses rod as God’s choice for splitting the Red Sea
Exodus 14:15–21 (ESV) — 15 The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” 19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. 21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
- And so there you have it, ten plagues, the first six by the Rod of Aaron, the last four by the Rod of Moses.
- And yet, there is more rod of God action in the Old Testament.
The Rod of God and the Rebellion of Korah
- We don’t have enough time today to go into detail about how Aaron’s rod came to life and budded surrounding the events of Korak’s rebellion against the Lord and His servant Moses.
- You can read about the account in Numbers 16 and 17.
- The end of all this was that Aaron’s rod took on even greater significance after the rod miraculous budded over the rebellion of Korah.
- At the command of the Lord, the rod was stored in the Holy of Holies inside the Ark of the Covenant.
Hebrews 9:4 (AMP) — 4 It had the golden altar of incense and the Ark (chest) of the covenant, covered over with wrought gold. This [Ark] contained a golden jar which held the manna and the rod of Aaron that sprouted and the [two stone] slabs of the covenant [bearing the Ten Commandments].
- Now, think about the combo inside the Ark.
- The jar of manna, a symbol of God’s supernatural provision for His people and Aaron’s rod, a symbol of miraculous signs and wonders in delivering His people, were both stored in the same space with the Word of God in the form of the Ten Commandments.
- There are several lessons we can all learn right here.
- One is that miracles and God’s holy written Word belong together.
- You remember what the gospel writer declared.
Mark 16:20 (KJV) — 20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
- Miracles and the Word are in the same box in the Ark and the gospels.
- You need to know that what God has joined together, uninformed theology should not separate.
- Accurate preaching without the watering of the miraculous is a foreign entity to the Bible.
- Attesting signs should accompany God’s Word.
- That’s a Bible fact.
- So, it’s right symbolically for the miracle rod of God to be placed alongside the miracle Word of God.
The Rod of God as A Symbol of Authority
- Can we add one more thought to chew upon as we get ready to close today?
- The rod is not only a token for miracles; it is also a symbol of authority.
- We saw that right at the beginning when Moses picked up the snake, a symbol of Pharaoh, by its tail transforming it back into a rod.
- The Word of God tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ has a rod.
- Is it a miracle rod, or is it a rod of authority?
- Listen to this passage in Revelation twelve.
Revelation 12:5–6 (AMP) — 5 And she brought forth a male Child, One Who is destined to shepherd (rule) all the nations with an iron staff (scepter), and her Child was caught up to God and to His throne. 6 And the woman [herself] fled into the desert (wilderness), where she has a retreat prepared [for her] by God, in which she is to be fed and kept safe for 1,260 days (42 months; three and one-half years).
- Jesus rules with a rod in hand.
- Do you think His rod is an ordinary, lifeless stick?
- I don’t think so.
- God is not a God of the dead but of the living for all live unto Him — Luke 20:38.
The Rod of Jesus
- The rod Jesus rules with is unlike Moses’ rod.
- The staff of Moses was made of wood.
- The rod Jesus rules with is one made of iron.
Revelation 19:11–16 (ESV) — 11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
- So, the rod of God is both a miracle rod and a rod of divine judgment.
- If you thought Aaron and Moses rod, made out of wood, was something wait until you Jesus rod of iron in action.
- You guys have a great God week in Jesus’ Name Amen.
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