A Blank Check


and all he had to do was to fill it out from that time on. When he

wanted to bring water out of the rock, all he had to do was to fill

out the check; when he wanted bread, all he had to do was to fill

out the check and the bread came; he had a rich banker. God had

taken him into partnership with Himself. God had made him His heir,

and all he had to do was to look up to Him, and he got all he

wanted.



And yet he seemed to draw back, and began to make another excuse,

and said:



"They will not believe me."



He was afraid of the Israelites as well as of Pharaoh: he knew how

hard it is to get even your friends to believe in you.



Now, if God has sent you and me with a message it is not for us to

say whether others will believe it or not. We cannot make men

believe. If I have been sent by God to make men believe, He will

give me power to make them believe. Jesus Christ didn't have that

power; it is the work of the Holy Ghost; we cannot persuade men and

overcome skepticism and infidelity unless we are baptised with the

Holy Ghost and with power.



God told Moses that they would believe him, that he would succeed,

and bring the children of Israel out of bondage. But Moses seemed to

distrust even the God who had spoken to him.



Then the Lord said, "What is that in thy hand?"



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



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