And Moses answered and said, 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 thy 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 thy hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and laid hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand;
That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thy hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.
And He said, Put thy hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe even these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou shalt take out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.
We have been considering together before the Lord Moses, the servant of God. In essence, we are all servants of the Lord. We are not only children of God, but at the same time, we are also His servants.
When you come to this matter of servanthood, the first thing we need to realize is that we have not chosen Him, but He has chosen us. You remember our Lord Jesus said, “Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit” [John 15:16].
It is God Who has sovereignly, mercifully, graciously chosen us. He has chosen us even before the foundation of the world. He has set us apart even when we were in our mothers’ wombs, and He has called us by His grace one day, that we may be His servants, that we may serve Him.
Now, because God has chosen us, there will come a day when we need to choose Him. Do you remember Moses? One day, when he was forty years old, he rather chose to suffer with the people of God than to enjoy all the riches of Egypt. He made his choice.
So, dear brothers and sisters, it is true that God has chosen us to be His servants, to serve Him. But whether we can begin to serve Him or not depends, on the other hand, on whether we one day choose Him as our Master and as our Lord.
It is like that slave among the children of Israel. If a Hebrew became so poor that he sold himself to another Hebrew, he would serve him six years as a slave. But in the seventh year, he could go out free.
But if that slave loved his master, loved his master’s house, and said, “No, I want to remain forever your slave,” then he would be taken to the door and have his ear pierced to the doorpost. This was a sign that the slave would be a slave for life. But he was not an ordinary slave; he was a slave of love.
So, brothers and sisters, this is what needs to happen to every one of us. One day we shall tell the Lord, “We love You. We want to stay with You. We want to serve You.” We will have our ears pierced, that we may be slaves of love forever. We choose Him as our Master and as our Lord.
But, you know, another thing happens. Whenever we begin to have the desire to serve Him, when we are filled with zeal, when we feel warm towards Him, when we want to do something for Him, it seems natural that we will not wait until He tells us what to do. Usually, we take the initiative. We just go out and try to do something for Him.
We do it in our way, with our own strength and our own cleverness. The result is that God allows us to fail. Sometimes we do not understand why. We think that we love Him so much, that we want to serve Him, that we do our very best; but not only will our brothers and sisters not understand us, even God seems not to back us up.
This is another lesson that we need to learn if we want to be servants of the Lord. We need to see that God does not want us to serve Him in our way, with our strength, in ourselves. God’s work can only be done by God Himself.
Unless we are willing to go through death and be resurrected, we are of no use in His hand. That is the reason why Moses had to flee to the wilderness for another forty years.
First, he had to unlearn all that he had learned in Egypt. Now, by that, it does not mean that he forgot. It means that he began to see that he could not depend upon his mightiness in word and in deed. He was willing to go to death. He was willing to lay aside everything. He was willing to be reduced to zero, as it were.
At the time when he considered himself as good as dead—eighty years old—he had no more ambition. He was very content just to attend a few sheep. He lost his eloquence. His big ideas, his mightiness—everything seemed to enter into death.
It was at that time that God took the initiative. God sent him back to Egypt to deliver the children of Israel. Of course, in the wilderness for forty years, he had to learn some new lessons too. He had to learn to know himself, which is a very difficult lesson. And he had to learn to know God.
He had to know the very nature of God, the heart of God, the compassion of God, the mercy of God, the will of God, and the purpose of God. He had to know God in a way that he had never known before.
So finally, the Lord appeared to him in a thorn bush: a vision. Dear brothers and sisters, if we want to serve the Lord, we must have vision.
Without vision, the people cast off restraint. Without vision, the people perish. Without vision, there will be no direction, no strength, no sustaining power, and no uniting.
So we need vision. We need to see the vision that Moses saw. We need to see that we are but a thorn bush. We are not the cedar tree on the top of Lebanon, but we are humble, useless, nothing—a thorn bush. A thorn bush is fit to be burned, to be consumed.
But the strange thing is that it is not consumed. Why? Because the Lord was in the thorn bush. So we need to see that we are but thorn bushes. We need to be consumed, but thank God that He is in us.
Because He is in us, the fire only purifies us and sanctifies us; it does not consume us. It is true that all the dross in us has to be consumed, but whatever is of Christ becomes brighter than ever before. It is in that strength that we are sent to do the work.
Now this morning we will begin to share together on the last forty years. You know, the first two forty-year periods were years of preparation. God prepared that servant for eighty years, and He used him for forty years.
Twice the time was spent in preparation for the time that God could use him. When you look into the life of our Lord Jesus, you find it even more so. When our Lord Jesus was here, God prepared Him for thirty years to do three years’ work.
Sometimes we are very impatient. We want to get to the work, but we forget that God has to prepare us. Why? Without preparation, God cannot use us, because we are serving Him, not serving ourselves.
This time we will not focus our attention on the work that God sent Moses to do. God sent Moses to do a tremendous work: to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, in order to enter into the promised land.
God gave Moses the law and also showed him the pattern of the tabernacle. The work with which Moses was commissioned was a tremendous work. It would be very fascinating, very interesting, and very profitable for us to consider the work, but this is not what we will do this time.
What we will do this time is to see Moses as the servant of the Lord. In other words, when he was engaged in the work, why was it that God accepted his service? Why was it that God said, “Moses, My servant”? Why was it that his work was approved and accepted by God?
What is the secret of his servanthood? What are the qualifications? What are the things that made Moses a real servant of God? That is the thing that we would like to share together.
Not in any sense to slight the work of Moses—he did a tremendous work—but we are more interested in the worker than in the work.
In the last forty years, when Moses was serving the Lord and serving the children of Israel, I think there are two things that stand out very clearly as the reason why Moses was a true servant of the Lord. This morning, probably, we will speak on the first thing: authority and meekness.
In Moses, you can see authority on the one hand and meekness on the other hand. No one can do any work without authority. Authority is a must.
Moses was a man of authority, and this authority is represented by the rod in his hand. You cannot separate Moses from his rod, or staff. That is a symbol of authority.
Usually, when we think of authority—and, as a matter of fact, when artists make images or pictures of Moses—you find that they usually picture Moses as a man of tremendous strength and energy. Because he is of such strength, there seems to be not only a regal but even a despotic feature in him.
We think that a person with authority is a person who is hard, severe, strong to the point of hardness. That is usually how we picture authority. But not so.
Moses is a man of authority, but the Bible says he is the meekest of all men. Think of that.
You may think that these two seem to be opposite to each other: authority and meekness. If you have authority, you may think that you have to be very strong, perhaps that you have to step on everybody. If you are meek, then you will be a doormat and let everybody step on you.
But spiritual authority and true meekness go together. Spiritual authority will be exercised in the spirit of meekness. If it is true meekness, there is tremendous strength in it.
This we find in the life of Moses as God’s servant.
Moses saw the vision. Moses received and heard the commission. But he said, “It is true, I have seen You. I have heard You. You sent me back to deliver the children of Israel. But if I go there, they will not believe me. They will say, ‘God has not appeared to you.’”
“How can I convince the children of Israel that You have indeed appeared to me and that You have indeed sent me?” In other words, “I need some credentials that I can present.” To use the New Testament term, what are the signs of apostleship?
How will people know that I am sent by God? How can I prove it? What is my credential that I can present to the people? Of course, this is important.
So God said, “What is in your hand?” Moses said, “A staff, a shepherd’s rod.” God said, “Throw it to the earth.” As he threw it to the ground, it turned into a serpent, and Moses fled from it.
Then God said, “Stretch out your hand. Take it by the tail.” So he stretched out his hand and took it by the tail, and it became a rod in his hand. God said, “The voice of this rod will be heard. They will believe you.”
If they did not believe the voice of this sign, God gave him another. “Put your hand into your bosom.” When he drew it out, it was leprous. God said, “Put it back again.” He put it back, drew it out, and it was as flesh as before.
God said, “If they do not listen to the voice of the first sign, they will listen to the voice of the second sign. If they do not listen to the voices of the two signs, then I will give you another sign. Take some water out of the river—the River Nile—and cast it on the ground, and it will turn into blood. Surely, they will believe you.”
These are the signs of his apostleship. In other words, by these signs people could see that he was really sent by God. In a sense, you know, we all need such credentials.
What is a rod? A rod or a staff in Scripture speaks of power, authority, rule, dominion, skill, and strength.
In Psalm 110:2, it is said:
The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Zion:
Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.
The rod speaks of rule. In Revelation 19, He shall rule with a rod of iron. So, a rod in Scripture speaks of rule, authority, power, strength, and skill.
Now, the rod in Moses’ hand was a shepherd’s rod. In other words, this rod represented his skill and strength as a shepherd. This rod was his authority and power over his sheep. It was by this rod that he made his living. He depended on this rod for his livelihood.
That was Moses’ rod. Dear brothers and sisters, every one of us has a rod. Every one of us has some strength, some authority, some power, some skill—something by which we live.
It is the symbol of our strength: natural gifts, talents, education, experience. All these become a rod in our hand. It is by these that we make our living. We depend upon these things to do work, to do whatever work God may have given us.
You may not be a shepherd, but you may be a doctor, a nurse, a teacher, or a housewife. You will find that every one of us has a rod in our hands. We have something to boast of, something to lean upon, something to use to maintain our position and fulfill our work. This is our rod—a shepherd’s rod.
But the thing was, when that rod left his hand and touched the earth, it became a serpent—a serpent that hurt, a serpent that harmed people.
Of course, we know that the serpent in Scripture speaks of Satan and satanic power. In other words, that which we have, that which we depend on, that which we even boast about, that which we consider makes us what we are and enables us to do what we are supposed to do—remember, if it touches the earth, it becomes a serpent.
Whatever talent you may have, whatever skill, whatever power, authority, or strength you may have, if it touches the earth—that is, if it comes under the grasp of the enemy, Satan—you will find that he will turn it into something harmful to the world.
Satan is the old serpent. He will take hold of all the talents, powers, authority, and skill of men and use these things to hurt and harm people. That is what you find today.
Sometimes people may think that they have everything in their own hands. They do not know that the rod has already left them and already touched the earth.
Oh, how Satan makes use of human power, human authority, human wisdom, human strength, energy, skill, and all these things, turning them into something hurtful and harmful. That is what we are experiencing in the world today.
The cleverest mind can be used by Satan to do the worst to the people of this world.
Moses fled from it. When Moses realized that what he had, if it was taken by Satan, could be so dangerous, he had to flee from it.
Dear brothers and sisters, do we see this? Do you not see that if Satan should get hold of you—and you may not know it; you may think you are holding it in your hand, but it is out of your hand already—he will use you? It is the most dangerous thing in the world.
If only we would flee from it.
Are you afraid of your talent? Are you afraid of your skill? Are you afraid of your strength? Are you afraid of your power? Are you afraid of your authority? If you are not afraid, I am afraid for you.
Flee from them as if they are things that can hurt and harm.
Well, thank God. God said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand. Take it by the tail.” I do not know how true it is, but I was told that if you are able to hold the tail of a snake and shake it, that snake will die.
In other words, God said, “Take the tail. Lift it up.” It became a rod in Moses’ hand. But remember, this rod became God’s rod.
In other words, it was not the original rod in Moses’ hand, which was a shepherd’s rod. It was no longer that rod that became a serpent. It was now God’s rod.
But how did it become God’s rod? It had to go through death and resurrection. After it had gone through death and resurrection, it became the rod of God.
Oh, brothers and sisters, whatever talent, energy, strength, authority, power, or education God in His providence has given to you, if these things are in your own hands, they can only help you to make a living.
If they get out of your hand and the enemy gets hold of them, they become the most dangerous things in the whole world. But if you are willing to let these things go through death and resurrection and be in God’s hand, you will find that they become the rod of God—the symbol of spiritual authority.
It was by this authority that Moses exercised his ministry to complete the work. God said, “Take the rod with you when you go to Egypt.”
If you read through the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers, you will find how many times, whenever a miracle was performed—either for the sake of punishing the enemy or for the sake of delivering the children of Israel—it was the rod. When Moses stretched out the rod of God, something happened.
He smote the river, and the waters were divided. You find that everything was done by this rod. This was Moses’ authority in doing God’s work.
Brothers and sisters, if we want to serve God, we must have this rod: the rod of God, not merely a shepherd’s rod. Are we willing to let everything that we have, that we consider as our power and our authority, go to death?
Then, in resurrection, you will find that God can use these things to perform the work that He has called us to do. That is the symbol of spiritual authority, and that is something we must have.
That is the voice of the first sign: let go of everything that you have into God’s hand. Let it go through death into resurrection, and God will use it for His glory.
Now, if people do not believe this sign, there is another sign. The second sign is this: God told Moses, “Put your hand in your bosom.” He put his hand in his bosom, took it out, and it was leprous.
Look at your hand. You think your hand is clean, but put it upon your heart. In other words, our heart is deceitful above all things. Who can know it? But God knows.
The problem is not in your hands; the problem is in your heart. What is our heart? Oh, our heart is leprous.
Leprosy, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament too, represents sin. Sin is like leprosy. A person may have leprosy in him, but it can be dormant for twenty or thirty years. Nobody knows it. Then it can break out, and it can break out everywhere.
In the old days, it was considered incurable. It was unclean. Anyone who had leprosy had to live outside the camp. When people came near him, he had to cover his lips and cry, “Unclean, unclean! Do not touch me. Stay away from me.”
That is a picture of sin. We who have sinned are all like lepers, unclean before God.
That is what we are. God showed Moses what he was: “Put your hand in your bosom.” When he took it out, it was leprous. “That is what you are. You are like a leper; you are unclean.” Think of that. How can an unclean hand handle the rod of God?
But God said, “Put it back.” He put it back, drew it out, and it was as flesh as ever.
The principle of the second is a great principle in the Bible. I do not have time to go through the Bible with you on it, but perhaps it would be good if you made a study of it. It is the principle of the second.
The principle of the second is a principle of grace. Law is the first principle, and grace is the principle of the second. Here you find the principle of the second look, which is grace.
God said, “So far as you are concerned, you are as sinful and as leprous as a leper. But God, in His grace, cleanses him, sanctifies him, and with this hand he can hold the rod of God.”
The rod represents power, but the hand represents life. You need a pure life to handle the power of God. These two things must go together.
In other words, if you are given power and authority, but your hands are unclean, you know what will happen. Some people have great power, but they do not have a corresponding life to exercise that power. The result is that they hurt rather than help.
We need a life to back up our power. The power that God has given us has to be wielded, or exercised, by a divine life in us. It is the divine life of Christ in us that can exercise spiritual authority.
It is not God’s will that the flesh should exercise any authority of God. It should be that which is of the Spirit that exercises spiritual authority. The voice of the second sign is the life of God.
If you have the life of God, people will see it; people will listen to it. So, with these two signs, we have the credentials of a servant of the Lord.
A servant of the Lord, on the one hand, must have a rod; on the other hand, he must have a hand. The rod represents spiritual authority; the hand represents spiritual life. These two things go together as the signs of apostleship.
It is a matter of degree, not a matter of kind. In other words, you have to have these two things if you want to serve God. Of course, there are different degrees, but anyway, these are the two signs.
God said to Moses, “If they do not hear these two signs, what will happen? The third sign: draw water out of the river, pour it on the ground, and it will turn into blood.”
The River Nile is the life stream of Egypt. They drink from the river. They plant along the side of the river. It is their very life.
But if they reject the authority of God, if they reject the sign of God, what will happen? Judgment. Judgment.
Of course, it is a serious thing. There is much false authority, or human substitutes for authority. But if the authority really comes from God, if a man is really sent by God, if there is a life that proves it, whoever does not listen is not refusing him but is refusing God. The result is judgment.
So the third sign is judgment. “If they do not hear you,” God said, “there will be judgment.”
It was by this authority that Moses returned to Egypt to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, in order to get them into the promised land.
Now this is one side. But authority has to be balanced with meekness. If authority is not balanced with meekness, it can do much harm.
Whenever it came to God, to His truth, to God’s will, to what God wanted to do, Moses was as firm as a rock. In other words, he would never compromise.
Moses stood for the will of God. Moses represented God. Because he represented God and because he represented God’s authority, he could never compromise. He could never lower God’s standard. He had to stand with God in all things.
In that sense, he was very firm and very strong. He would not give up an inch, and thank God for that.
But because he had authority, he did not become hard, cold, harsh, or dictatorial. When it came to himself, he never even defended himself.
Authority is related to God and to the things of God. Because of that, there can be no negotiation and no compromise. If a servant of God compromises God’s truth, he is no longer God’s servant. He loses his authority.
When you speak for God, you have to speak with authority. You represent God; it is not you. You cannot lower God’s standard. You cannot compromise.
No matter what people say—people may say, “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?”—what the Lord has to say cannot be lowered one bit to suit people’s taste. We cannot do that, because authority is related to God and to God’s truth.
But when it touches upon the servant himself, that is a different story. You find Moses meek and tender.
He was not like that before. He was brought up and reared in the Egyptian palace. Being a prince, he was taught to be proud, self-confident, commanding, and lording it over others. That was how he was trained.
When he started out on his own, that was how he did it. But it did not work.
In the wilderness for forty years, God trained him in the spirit of meekness. You cannot shepherd sheep with aloofness, arrogance, and pride. No. You have to take care of sheep tenderly and softly. Moses learned from God the spirit of meekness.
How do we know that Moses was meek above all men? You remember, Moses had a sister, Miriam, and a brother, Aaron.
Miriam was actually an older sister and took good care of her little baby brother. When Moses was put in that ark in the River Nile, it was Miriam who watched among the reeds. So Miriam had a great interest in Moses.
Miriam was a prophetess. You remember, after they crossed the Red Sea, it was Miriam who led the women in singing the song of victory. Aaron, being the older brother of Moses, was the high priest.
God did reveal Himself to Miriam and to Aaron. But somehow, when they were in the wilderness—this is recorded in Numbers 12—you find that Miriam and Aaron became jealous of Moses.
These three were leaders among the children of Israel: Moses, the leader; Aaron, the high priest; and Miriam, the prophetess. But somehow there was jealousy.
If you really go into the story, you will find that it probably began with Miriam’s competition with Moses’ wife. Miriam wanted to have a hand on Moses. She was so attached to Moses, and Moses had a wife, Zipporah.
Of course, husband and wife had a close relationship. Somehow Miriam became very jealous. So she began to say, “Moses married a Cushite woman.” Actually, Zipporah was not Cushite, but probably she was a little dark. It was jealousy—a woman’s jealousy.
Out of that, Miriam began to influence Aaron. I do not think Aaron was so much concerned about Moses’ wife, but certainly Aaron was concerned about his position. All these things became mixed together, and they began to criticize Moses.
They said, “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only with Moses? Hath He not spoken also with us?” Surely, God had spoken to them too. Why should Moses be at the top?
When Moses heard it, did he say anything? Did he do anything? Nothing.
Moses heard, but he said nothing. He did nothing. He accepted it with meekness. That is meekness.
If it came to God, he would not give up an inch. But if it concerned himself, he had nothing to say.
So God spoke for him. Oh, brothers and sisters, if you speak too much, God will not speak for you. It is better that you do not speak and let God speak—not as a policy, but as a truth.
His sister and brother criticized him without real reason, exaggerated matters, but Moses would not explain and would not defend himself. Moses just took it. That is the spirit of meekness. Why? Because he thought nothing of himself.
God called these three together to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and then God spoke. God said, “Indeed, I speak to a prophet, but I speak by dreams and visions. But not so, My servant Moses. I speak with him face to face. How dare you criticize My servant?”
God left in wrath. When God left, Aaron noticed that Miriam was leprous.
So Aaron pleaded with Moses. Do you know what Moses did? Moses pleaded with God and asked God to heal Miriam. God heard him. Now that is meekness.
Even before this time, Moses had a very interesting posture. I hope you notice it. Whenever people began to murmur against him, criticize him, and attack him, do you know what Moses did?
If somebody is criticizing you or attacking you, what would you do? If people criticize you, you stand higher, right? That is the way we do. But look at Moses: he fell upon his face.
Every time they criticized him, every time they attacked him, he fell upon his face. Not only before God—the Bible says he fell upon his face before the people.
“You think I am bad? I am worse.” When you take that attitude, what can people do to you?
Even in Numbers 11, Numbers 1 through 10 was preparation for the movement. From Numbers 11, the children of Israel began to move from Mount Sinai. As soon as they moved, something happened.
You find some of the mixed multitude, those who came out with them from Egypt. They were not Israelites, but they were attracted by the power of God, so they came out with the children of Israel. These mixed multitudes always caused problems.
They began to complain: “We are tired of this manna. Every day we eat this manna and nothing else. We think of what we had in Egypt—melons, fish, garlic, and onions. Now these things are so flat, so flat. We are tired of it.”
Because they began to murmur, soon it spread all over the camp, and all the children of Israel began to murmur. When Moses heard it, he could not stand it any longer. He went to God and said, “Lord, why? Why do You want me to take care of these children like a mother carrying and caring for children?”
“It is just too much. I cannot do it. I would rather die. I do not want to see these people cry. It is just too much for me.”
God said, “All right. If it is too much for you, call seventy elders of the children of Israel. Call them together, and I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and put it upon these seventy people, so they can bear responsibility with you.”
God is so gracious. God did not say, “Call the seventy together, and I will give them the Spirit.” No, God said, “I will take some of the Spirit upon you and put it upon them.”
In other words, “Do you not know that the Spirit upon you is enough for the job? But if you think it is too much, all right, I will let you share the Spirit with the other people. They will take responsibility with you.”
Actually, it is by the Spirit, not by you nor by the seventy. Is that not foolish for us?
So Moses called the seventy together, but two men did not want to come. They also must have been against Moses. These two leaders, Eldad and Medad, did not even bother to come. Moses called them, but they would not come. They stayed in the camp, but the Spirit fell on them anyway.
They began to prophesy in the camp. Some young men ran to Moses and said, “These two men are prophesying in the camp.”
One of Moses’ young men, Joshua, was zealous for Moses and said, “My lord Moses, forbid them.” Do you know what Moses said? “Do not say that. Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets!”
That is meekness.
In Numbers 14, when the spies came back and gave their report, the people began to cry and accuse Moses. They said, “Why have you brought us here? We would rather die in Egypt or die in the wilderness. Now we will be killed by the Canaanites, and our children and wives will be taken by them. Let us have another leader and go back.”
What did Moses do? He fell upon his face before the people. He never spoke for himself.
He accepted it. He left it with God to vindicate him. That is meekness.
Not only that, but in Numbers 16, Korah and his company—two hundred and fifty leaders of the children of Israel—rebelled against Moses and Aaron. They criticized them and said, “The whole congregation is holy. Why do you lift yourselves up as if you are holier than anybody else?”
Moses never did that, but they accused him of it. Do you know what Moses did? He fell upon his face again. That was his posture. Every time he was criticized, down he went. That is meekness.
When God told him to tell the people what the punishment would be, Moses said, “This is not what I want to do. But it is just to show that this is from God.”
The earth opened and swallowed those people alive into Hades. Still, the people rebelled. They accused Moses as if he had done it.
A plague began to come upon the people. Do you know what Moses did immediately? He knew the way of the Lord. He asked Aaron to take the censer, put in the incense, and stand between the living and the dead. He saved the day.
That is meekness.
It was in the spirit of meekness that Moses served God and served God’s people. This is the reason why God said, “Moses, My servant.” He is different.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we want to serve God, we must have authority. But remember, authority is not natural authority. Authority has to come through death and resurrection.
It has to go with a life that is of God. There must be the spirit of meekness in the exercising of authority.
You remember Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:21:
What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?
Our Lord Jesus is meek and lowly in heart. He said:
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
—Matthew 11:29
So may the Lord help us. As servants of the Lord, how can we serve Him acceptably? Remember, we need authority and meekness.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast called us to serve Thee in Thy work. Every one of us is called.
We do pray that we may not be those who are called but not chosen. We pray that we all may be chosen because we do choose Thee as our Master, as our Lord.
O God, we pray that Thou wouldst teach us how to serve Thee. Grant us the authority that is from above. Give us a life that can back up the authority Thou givest.
Also, Lord, do develop in us a spirit of meekness. We pray that we may stand as a lion when Thy truth is concerned, and that we may be meek as a lamb when it comes to ourselves, because this is what Thou art.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.