Exodus 4:17 "But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it." (Since Moses no longer had any royal standing in the court of Pharaoh, since he no longer wore a crown as a son of the royal family, and since he didn't come as the leader of an army that could fight and defeat the Egyptian forces, this lowly shepherd's staff showing God's power and authority would be the substitute sign of royal authority and power that Moses displayed to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Because the Egyptian culture was disdainful of shepherding, the shepherd's staff was particularly ironic as the symbol that God chose for Moses to use to communicate the power behind His demand for the release of His people and to use to display the signs of His power. When we use the "weapons" the Lord provides for us, they reveal His power, not ours. Even though they, like a simple shepherd's staff, may appear weak and ineffective in man's view, God's weapons, rather than pointing to us and lifting us, wield His great power and point all eyes to Him. Just as Jesus came as a weak and dependent infant, unknown and unremarkable in appearance, even as He died an ignoble and humiliating death on a cross, yet He was the mighty Weapon of God and exercised the very high and sovereign command of Heaven to deliver us His people from the slavery of darkness.)
