A Snake's Tail...

Despite my rather boring morning...Let's be honest for a second. I haven't exactly been reading my bible lately. I've been really sick the past few days- almost a week that I've been sick. Last Sunday, I watched The Prince of Egypt on youtube (yes it's all there) and, again, I was blown away at how God used Moses- just an ordinary person. Moses was on God's mind from the beginning. The Israelites had been under the oppression of Pharaoh for many years, and God had in mind to deliver them, though the israelites didn't think so. They had been working hard for Pharaoh for many years and after working with bricks, straw, and clay for too long- they began to believe that maybe God was not going to save them from Pharaoh's hand. What their situation came down to was trust...would they really trust God and believe that He was going to actually save them?

So this morning i decided to start reading in Exodus; the same story that the Prince of Egypt is- just to understand it a bit more and see God's powerful hand at work all over again. This morning I read Exodus (chapters) 1-4. I read something in chapter 4 that baffled me and got me thinking. It was verses 1-4 (That's Exodus 4:1-4 just so you're not confused.)

1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”

² Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

³ The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

⁴ Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

The part that really got me was when God told Moses to pick up the snake by its tail. AHEM...BY IT'S TAIL.. Nowadays, if someone picked up a snake by it's tail, the snake might come back and bite us. Now, picking up a snake by its tail is not a smart thing to do. I noticed in the Prince of Egypt movie that (in this part of the movie) Moses picks up the snake behind its head- the smart way to pick up a snake. But what did God say in the bible? Pick it up by its tail. God was asking Moses to trust Him on 2 (or maybe 3) accounts. 1) pick up a snake 2) pick up the snake by its tail 3) trust me that the snake will not come back and bite you. That's a lot to trust God on and really believe that the snake would not harm him when he picked it up BY THE TAIL.