Straight Dope on Medicine: The Staff of Moses

Moshe Rabinu (Moses, our teacher) had a shepherd’s staff. He was a shepherd in Midian. Shepherds have staffs and rods. Staffs are meant to gently coral wandering sheep. Rods are weapons used to fend off predators. The staff of Moses became the rod of God.

It was a divine transition.

God can take on the role of a shepherd, in which case, humans are the sheep.

What does that say about us?

"Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me," Psalm 23. Sheep are by nature both easy prey and prone to wander. If left alone, they will eventually wander from the safety of the flock and be devoured by the enemy.

The staff is first mentioned in the Book of Exodus, when God appears to Moses in the burning bush.

“What is that in your hand?” God asks Moses. He replies: “a staff” (Exodus 4:2).

A few verses later (Exodus 4:20), the Torah refers to the staff as matteh ha-Elokim. This phrase simply means the “staff of God,”

Etymology: from natah; a branch (as extending)

This staff, which became a rod, was used to enact the ten plagues of Egypt,[i] to split the Red Sea (yom soof)

"And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs". And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, "Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive". And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace".

Jethro and Pharoah are quite different.

Let My people go.

In Egypt, the liberation saga began.[ii] 

 When Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh for the first time, it is Aaron who now tosses the rod on the ground where it morphs into a serpent and devours the serpents of the Egyptian magicians brought in to match his prowess (7:10-3).

The staff is the instrument by which Aaron brings about the miracle of the first three plagues, changing the Nile’s water into blood (7:20) and infesting the land with frogs (8:1-2) and vermin (8:13). Thereafter, Moses wields the staff to unleash plagues seven and eight of hail and locust. Though not explicitly, the text seems to have Moses split the Sea of Reeds by means of his staff (14:21, cf.16). Finally, once across, Moses has recourse to the staff twice more to strike a rock for water (17:5-6) and to beat back the Amalekites (17:9).

Christian Prohibition

Christians are not to have folklore.

Why?

It can detract from the Biblical account, and even lead to misunderstanding.

We are also commanded not to do it.

Deuteronomy 4:2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

Revelation 22:18-19

18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.

We aren’t supposed to blow it up, make more of it, or diminish it.

Jewish folklore

Moses’ Staff was created during ben hafmashote (twilight) of the creation.[iii] Ten things created during Friday, the sixth day of creation. This staff was of blue sapphire. According to other midrashim, it weighed forty seah (of water; making it very large), was made of sapphire, and was inscribed with either the name of God or the acronym for the ten plagues known from the Haggadah—detza”kh, ada”sh, be-aha”v. The staff was not only divine, but also powerful; Midrash Tanhuma writes that God told Moses that he would be able to perform any miracle he desired with it. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai surprisingly gives the staff a role in bringing the quail the Israelites ate in the desert and the manna from heaven, even though no textual support for such a notion exists. Deuteronomy Rabbah says that Moses used his staff to kill the kings Sihon and Og and to fend off the Angel of Death at the end of his life. 

English Explanation of Pirkei Avot 5:6

Dr. Joshua Kulp

[1] the mouth of the earth, [2] the mouth of the well, [3] the mouth of the donkey, [4] the rainbow, [5] the manna, [6] the staff [of Moses], [7] the shamir, [8] the letters, [9] the writing, [10] and the tablets.

[1] the mouth of the earth: which swallowed Korah and his congregation (Numbers 16:32). [2] the mouth of the well: that gave the children of Israel water in the desert. (See Numbers 21:16-18). [3] the mouth of the donkey: that spoke to Balaam (Numbers 22:28). [4] the rainbow: that was a sign to Noah (Genesis 9:13). [5] the manna: (Exodus 16:15). [6] the staff [of Moses]: (Exodus 4:17). [7] the shamir: this was the strong stone used to cut rocks for the breastplate used during the first temple. [8] the letters: the shape of the letters used to write the Ten Commandments. [9] the writing: See Exodus 32:16. The writing, according to legend, could be seen from all four sides of the tablets. [10] and the tablets: this refers to the first set of the tablets (ibid.) Moses made the second set of tablets (Exodus 34:1).[iv] 

The Mishnah in Avot (5:6) counts the staff among ten miraculous objects that were created at twilight on the sixth day of creation.

Ismar Schorsch Rabbi HERMAN ABRAMOVITZ Distinguished Service Professor of Jewish History and Chancellor Emeritus corrects the account.

Where the Mishnah errs is in attributing extraordinary status to the staff. According to the narrative, the staff is nothing more than an ordinary shepherd’s staff. It was the staff that Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, bore in his hand when he happened to alight on the burning bush (3:1). It could not have been more nondescript and unexceptional. But, that is precisely the point: the staff harbored no inherent potency. At work was solely God’s will which chose to transform a crude artifact into an instrument of titanic power. The spontaneity of the act manifested God’s omnipotence.

Islamic Folklore

 Some Islamic legends state that the staff could, among other things, illuminate darkness, dispense milk and honey, destroy mountains, warn Moses, and turn itself into a dragon to fend off enemies.

Christian Folklore

Not everyone got the memo.

The thirteenth century Christian Syriac text the Book of the Bee contains one of the most fanciful and extensive treatments of the staff. It notes that the staff was a branch cut from the tree of knowledge in Eden—a point also made in the Zohar.[v]

Application

Rick Warren, Westmont College

If you want the power of God in your life, if you want the blessing of God around your life, you must learn to let God love you. Learn to love him back. You were made by God and you were made for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense.[vi]

For Moses, God was calling him to be His agent in freeing a nation. A nation that he would bring into a land flowing with milk and honey. Notice that this is the same land that God told Abraham to go to. Didn’t pitch it with the same words. Abram was coming from wealth and materially giving something up. The Israelites were coming from slavery and were getting property as well as their freedom. In a way, anything would seem like a land flowing with milk and honey to them.

If this did not happen, we wouldn’t have the 10 Commandments. We wouldn’t have the first five books of the Bible. [vii]

Moses sees a burning bush that is not consumed. He hears the voice of God say, take off your shoes for this is holy ground (sandals more likely). Then God asks, “What is in your hand?” Throw it down on the ground. It becomes a serpent. God says pick it up. God is changing what Moses does, what he is about. Staff is signature of Moses’ profession. He is a shepherd.

What is in your hand?

God gave you a yad for a reason.

1 Staff represents Moses’ identity. Shepherd. Every profession has some kind of symbol or representation.

How do you introduce yourself? What you say indicates what you think is most important. There will be some things that you leave out.

2. Represented Moses influence. This is how he moved sheep from point A to point B. How he gets something done.

Jesus spoke in parables. They have pathos, play on emotions, and paint a picture. You could just tell your kid, don’t become an angry person, or tell a story.

 Bill Bennett’s A Children’s Book of Virtues.

In that book is a story about Genghis Khan, a Mongolian warlord from the thirteenth century who was known for, among other things, his blistering temper. The story, in a nutshell, tells of Khan hunting with his pet hawk, a trusted friend who helped him find game to shoot. He was alone in the woods and very thirsty, but had no water with him, so when he came across some water dripping slowly from a rock ledge, he was elated. Khan took a cup and, over the course of a couple minutes, filled it drop by drop. But just as he tried to drink the water, his pet hawk swooped down and knocked the cup from his hand, spilling the water on the ground. This was strange and unprecedented behavior for the hawk.

Kahn was enraged and returned his cup to the ledge, waiting a couple more minutes for it to refill. Again, just as he was about to drink it, the hawk knocked the drink from his hand. Kahn screamed at the hawk, warning him that if he did it again, he’d be dead. And sure enough, minutes later, when the hawk again prevented Kahn from taking a drink, Kahn struck down the bird with his sword.

By now, the water had stopped dripping, so an infuriated Kahn had to scale the rock ledge to find where the water had come from. When he reached the top he found a lake” ”with an enormous (think “sea monster”), poisonous snake lying dead in it. The snake’s body blocked the path of the water that had been dripping down the rock ledge, and immediately, Kahn realized that the water he intended to drink was venomous. His pet hawk, having seen the snake from above, had saved his life, but Kahn’s uncontrolled anger caused him to repay the heroic bird with death.

He had killed his favorite hawk for saving his life. Didn’t understand that because he let his anger get the better of him.

3. Represented his income. All a person’s wealth was tied up in their animals. Job was, in fact, the richest person in his entire area. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants. Jacob was described as an exceedingly rich man because he possessed “large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and camels and asses” (Genesis 30:43). In the case of the rich man Nabal we find statistics: “He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats” (1 Samuel 25:2).

Proverbs 27:23, ESV: Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds,

Lay down the symbol representing all of this. God changed it. Made it come alive. Every time he picked it up, it became a stick again.

Never again in the Bible is Moses staff ever referred to as Moses Staff. It is henceforth the rod of God. God works his miracles through this. Don’t lay down your staff for any false gods.

Behind every public success is private pain. It is the price of your mission. What did you do with what God gave you?

Mark 12:17  17 Then Jesus told them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." And they marveled at Him.

Give to God what belongs to God. Give your profession to God. Give yourself to God. Use your influence to God’s glory. He can give your life meaning beyond anything that you might imagine.

References

[i] https://www.nessbaptist.com/sermon-blog/the-plagues-the-one-true-god

[ii] https://www.jtsa.edu/torah/the-staff-of-moses/

[iii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8gSrDllOh8

[iv] https://www.sefaria.org/English_Explanation_of_Pirkei_Avot.5.6.2?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en

[v] https://thelehrhaus.com/scholarship/the-life-and-death-of-moses-staff/#_edn1

[vi] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWNZym5tq3I

[vii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9fx7lUCqsc