7417. 'Stretch out your rod' means commanding him to demonstrate the Divine power. This is clear from the meaning of 'stretching out' as exercising and demonstrating, as previously; and from the meaning of 'the rod' as power, dealt with in 4017, 4015, 4876, 4936, 6947, 7011, 7026. This power was Divine, because Aaron had no power at all; still less did the rod contain any. Rather Aaron and his rod were the instruments by means of which power was exercised. It was exercised by means of a rod because, within the Church, what the Divine commanded to be done was accomplished through representatives. (This was before the Lord's Coming.) So it was that the stretching out of hand and rod accomplished what was commanded, for arm and hand correspond to power, and so too consequently does a rod. The reason why within the Church, before the Lord's Coming, what the Divine commanded was accomplished through representatives was that every single thing commanded by Him represented the Lord, His kingdom in heaven, and His kingdom on earth, which is the Church. The truth of this may also be recognized from the Word in which every single thing has to do in the highest sense with the Lord, and in the internal sense with His kingdom and Church.