THE POWERFUL STAFF - C: 29th Sun in OrdTime

First Reading: Exodus 17:8-13 (October 16, 2022)

“As long as Moses kept his arms raised, Israel had the advantage; when he let his arms fall, the advantage went to Amalek” (Exo 17:11).

The context of this scene is when Amalek “waged war against Israel in Rephidim” (v. 8). Amalek and his people were the known early inhabitants of the Sinai peninsula, through which the Israelites were passing and encamping (v. 1). In defense, Moses ordered Joshua to lead the resistance, while he stands atop the hill with his staff (v. 9). Moses’s mission was to raise his arms and staff up high to ask Yahweh’s intervention for their victory. True enough, they were winning when Moses’s arms with his staff on hand were elevated, but were losing when not (vv. 11-12).

Noticing this dynamic, “Aaron and Hur supported his hands … so that his hands remained steady until sunset” (v. 12), because of which Joshua defeated their enemies (v. 13).

This miracle with the use of Moses’s staff is not isolated. Just before this battle with the Amalekites, God just ordered Moses to use the staff in his hand to “strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink” (Exo 17:6). Indeed, water gushed from the rock and the site was later called Massah and Meribah (Hebrew for “the place of the test” and “the place of strife, of quarreling”; cf. vv. 6-7). Much earlier, Moses and his brother Aaron threw this staff to the ground where it turned into a serpent (Exo 7:10) that swallowed the staff of the Egyptian magicians (v. 12). They also struck the waters of the Nile with this same staff, which resulted to the turning of the waters of the river into blood” (7:20). The same gesture of the staff over the Nile produced, too, countless “frogs that covered the land of Egypt” (8:9). Afterwards, when the staff was struck to the dust of the earth, gnats came out and covered Egypt (v. 13). In sum, Moses’s staff was used to demonstrate God’s sovereignty over both the people of Israel and Egypt.

Hence, it is not only an instrument in the performance of wonders and miracle, but a clear symbolism of God’s faithfulness in guiding and protecting his beloved people Israel.

The Hebrew word used for staff is matteh, which literally means “stick or staff” that can either be utilized as support to a person or used in beating out or flogging any living being (cf. HALOT). Thus, a matteh can be an instrument of goodness or punishment, depending on the context of its usage. But there is also a neutral meaning of this word, and that is to refer to a given “tribe”. Since matteh is normally a stem of a plant, it may denote the branch that stems out from a trunk, which when applied to a community, points to the common origin of its members. Meanwhile, the Greek equivalent of this word is rabdos, which have the nuanced references to the rods used by shepherds and travelers or to a ruler’s scepter. The former suggests care and guidance, while the latter hints at power, governance, and dominance.

Each modern society nowadays is administered by a leader along with his/her so-called staff. This staff is made up of people whom the leader trusts and empowers to act on his behalf in governing the populace. Yet, the question that should be asked is: What kind of staff are these people in their public service…. A staff of goodness or punishment? A staff of unity or division of people? A staff of care or display of power?

If Moses’s staff was used to manifest God’s goodness, unity, and care for his people, all staffs on earth should function in a similar way.

- Rex Fortes, CM