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Did God infuse Moses’ staff with power when he parted the Red Seas?

Posted on December 30, 2020October 27, 2021 By Kingston Tong No Comments on Did God infuse Moses’ staff with power when he parted the Red Seas?
Old Testament

Thank you for the question on Moses’ staff, “Did God infuse Moses’ staff with power when he parted the Red Seas?”

As one reads the Exodus 3–14, the power of those signs and plagues were not in the staff of Moses. The staff does not have power in itself, but the power lies in the Words of God. It is God commanding Moses to perform certain things WITH the staff. The people thought or felt that the staff was supernatural, maybe even worship it. The staff represented the power of God, but by itself it had no power in it.

Exodus 3 says this, “ But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. 20 So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go” (A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages). Citations are from the New International Version.

Exodus 4 says that Moses asks for a sign. God uses his staff to demonstrate that he is being sent by YHWH. “Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen [a]to what I say? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’” 2 The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.” 3 Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. 4 But the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his [b]hand— 5 “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, has appeared to you” (NIV).

Exodus 9 says this, “ 5 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the streams and over the pools, and make frogs 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 of Egypt” (NIV).

Exodus 8 says this, “Now the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that hail may fall on all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on every plant of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.” 23 Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth” (NIV).

The LORD God gives Moses the same instruction to him in separating the Reed Sea. Moses was to lift up his staff by the command of the LORD. “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. 16 As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land…Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea” (NIV).

Moses could not do any of the signs independently of the LORD God. It was at the LORD’s command that Moses lifted up his staff. The power of God was displayed as Moses obeyed the command of the LORD God.

SUMMARY: The staff of Moses represented the power of God, not that God infused power into the staff of Moses.

For more perspectives:

https://www.quora.com/Did-God-infuse-Moses-staff-with-power-when-he-parted-the-Red-Seas

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