Arm of the Almighty

Tony Khalil

Midland SDA Church

July 21, 2012

A few months ago while I was reading the Bible, somewhere around Numbers or Deuteronomy I noticed that there were numerous references to the arm or the hand of God.  This made me wonder, is there some significance in, or a lesson to be drawn from this phrase.  So I began a study of the arm or hand of God and quickly expanded it to include other references to God’s body.  It is from this study that I share with you this sermon today and I have titled it “The Arm of the Almighty”.  I know there are differences of opinion in the Christian world as to whether or not God has a physical body.  It is not my intention to deal with arguments around that issue, but rather to look at how the Bible writers have used references to God’s arm or hand to symbolize traits or actions of the God that we worship. 

When you hear the phrase “hand of God” what images does your mind evoke?  For many it might be this one:  A masterpiece by Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  I wanted to show you the entire painting but it seems as great of an artist as Michelangelo was, he had difficulty painting clothing on his subjects.  So in the interest of keeping things family friendly I opted to show a close up of the central theme of this iconic work of art.  The Creator God reaching down to touch the hand of His creation Adam.  This image has been reinterpreted and spoofed in everything from cartoons to movies but to the Christian, its imagery of a personal God and creator is clear and beautiful.  This next work was created by a contemporary artist, albeit lesser known, and is entitled “Hand of God”.  The artist is an Italian by the name of Lorenzo Quin.  And although you may be unacquainted with his work, perhaps the work of his father, Mexican American Actor Anthony Quin is more familiar to you.  Lorenzo has made a name for himself partly by his sculptures that often incorporate the form of the human hand.  This one happens to be located in London England.  Another perhaps more familiar image is shown here of planet earth cradled in the strong hands of the Creator.  There are many similar images of God holding the planet and we all know the song “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” but what I like in particular about this one is the portrayal of God in the mature thick hands of a working man.  It implies that God is hands on.  He is not the guy who sits in the office and manages things from afar with limited knowledge of what’s actually going on.  No he is the one in the field, involved as it were with every detail of our lives.  This image is called “World in God’s hand” by Code Scythe. 

In addition to works of art there are photographs capturing images in the natural world that, in the eyes of the imaginative seem to suggest the form of a God proportioned hand reaching out to make Himself known to man.  This, one of my favorites, is an x-ray image that was recorded by NASA’s Chandra observatory which is orbiting 360 miles above the earth.  What appear to be the outstretched fingers of a hand, we are told, were created by a spinning neutron star known as a pulsar, buried deep inside the fist, releasing energy as it rotates.  Although the pulsar itself is believed to be only about 12 miles in diameter, the cloud nebula produced is said to stretch somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 light years across space.  This image has also been named “The Hand of God” and is produced by pulsar B1509, 17,000 light years away.  Who knows what this next image is?  It’s an iceberg in the shape of a giant hand.  Someone saw this floating about and likened it to the hand of God.  I always imagined God’s hands to be much warmer than an iceberg but I guess that’s just a detail.  Who amongst us has not laid down on the ground and stared up at the clouds to see recognizable shapes and forms materialize.  Here is one such cloud imagining.  Arguably more abstract than some of the other images I have shown but if you use a little imagination you too can see what the photographer saw as he snapped his shutter on the hand of God.  I have saved the best for last.  Not necessarily the best image, but most certainly the best story.  52 year old Paul Grayhek listed this rock formation on the online auction Web site eBay. He has titled it "Hand of God Rock Wall".  It is approximately 9 feet tall by 4 feet wide and as the story goes, the shape appeared after a rockfall on March 8.  Mr. Grayheck believes because it happened during Lent, that it is a symbol of the hand of God in his life.  Had Ebay not removed the listing from their site, the winning bidder would have secured literary and movie rights to the rock.  I am not much of a movie buff but I guarantee that is one movie I would forgo. 

So we have had a taste of how modern man views the hand of God but what can we learn from our textbook, the Bible?  I have discovered three main usages for the hand or arm of God that the bible writers employed.  I don’t claim this to be an all-inclusive list, there may be others, but these are the ones that were most obvious to me.  The first usage we will discuss today for the Hand of God is that of His creative power.  The Bible contains many references to God forming the earth or things in the earth with His hands.  One could argue these are metaphors because the Genesis narrative of creation relays an account of God speaking the world into existence.   Metaphor or not, Gods hand is continually associated with His creative power.  If we look at the creation of mankind we see the imagery of God stooping down perhaps on His knees and shaping an earthen form.  Read with me Genesis 2:7

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

Then when God makes Eve He takes a rib from the side of Adam and forms her from the rib.  This is all hands on stuff.  We don’t see a detached deity speaking from a distance.  No, He is intimately involved with His creation to the extent that He is forming it as the potter does with His hands.  Psalm 95:3-7 says

“For the Lord is a Great God, and a great King above all gods.  In His hand are the deep places of the earth:  The strength of the hills is His also.  The sea is His, and He made it:  and His hands formed the dry land.  O come, let us worship and bow down:  Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.  For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.”

Not only did He create us with His hands, He likewise formed the earth.  We also find texts that suggest God created the animal kingdom in a similar manner.  Let’s look at one of them back in Genesis 2 again verse 19.  It reads

“And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.”

In the summertime our family spends as much time as we can afford on the shores of Lake Michigan.  One of the things Aidan and I like to do while on the beach is pile up wet sand, pat it smooth and sculpt it into a creature, usually a shark or a dolphin, but we have been known to attempt frogs and alligators too.  I imagine God kneeling down like Aidan and I on the beach and sculpting new creatures that have never before been imagined.  And when He is finished, they each stand up, shake off the sand and meet their Creator.  We have not had that happen yet at the completion of one of our masterpieces.  Although we may possess an appreciation for beauty in the natural world and a desire to imitate it, life comes only from the hands of the Creator.

The second and perhaps the most frequent Old Testament usage of the Hand or Arm of God is as a symbol of His strength.  We can turn to the book of Psalm to see some of these references.  Let’s look together at Psalm 98:1 

¹ Oh, sing to the LORD a new song!
         For He has done marvelous things;
         His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.

When the Israelites were conquering their enemies the credit was often rightly attributed to God and the symbol that was most often employed to embody this victorious power was that of His right hand or Holy arm.  I can really relate to the strong hand imagery because of my earthly father. He was a big man with strong hands.  I know, you’re probably thinking, then what happened to you?  So I will answer.  My father had a physical job.  To him work was not an event that took place in an office.  He used his hands and arms in labor to provide for his family.  I have keyboard hands.

I remember being a child and holding my dad’s hand. It wasn’t smooth and soft.  It was rough and callused but strong and safe at the same time.  When I was a toddler my parents would take us for bike rides.  My sister and I didn’t ride our own bikes, we would sit in little plastic seats on the backs of our parent’s bikes and I would be behind my dad.  The view must not have been very good back there because it wasn’t long after the ride began that I would fall fast asleep and if you can imagine this, my dad would ride one handed with his other arm wrapped around behind his back cradling my head in his hand.  I think that same dichotomy exists in the hands of our Father in heaven; strong yet tender and compassionate.

Another such example of the strength of God’s hands we find in Exodus 13 verse 9.

⁹ It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the LORD’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.

We serve a powerful and mighty God, do we not?  But to say that the hand or arm of God represents strength alone would be to miss the greater symbolism of redemption and specifically redemption through His Son.  That is number 3 on our list of symbolic usages of the hand or arm of God:  Redemption through His Son Jesus.  In most of the references to the strength of Gods arm there is a component of redemption.  Exodus 6:6 is a good example of this.  It reads…

⁶ Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 

I like this example partly because of who is speaking here.  It’s God himself and he is speaking to Moses using the same imagery common throughout Israel.  I will redeem you with an outstretched arm He says.  Psalm 136: 10-12 echoes this imagery it reads…

¹⁰ To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn,
         For His mercy endures forever;
¹¹ And brought out Israel from among them,
         For His mercy endures forever;
¹² With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm,
         For His mercy endures forever;

Again we see strength and redemptions coupled together, a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and it is in the pairing of these two qualities that His mercy is exhibited.  But I said redemption through Christ was represented by His arm didn’t I?  Another perhaps more direct way to say it would be to say Christ is the Arm of God, and I believe there is scriptural evidence to support this statement.  Turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah 53.  Before we get there, tell me what is Isaiah 53 about?  Right, it is Isaiah’s prophecy about Jesus as our redeemer.  Isaiah 53 starting in verse 1. 

¹ Who has believed our report?
      And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
² For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
      And as a root out of dry ground.
      He has no form or comeliness;
      And when we see Him,
      There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
³ He is despised and rejected by men,
      A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
      And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
      He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
⁴ Surely He has borne our griefs
      And carried our sorrows;
      Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
      Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions,
      He was bruised for our iniquities;
      The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
      And by His stripes we are healed.    

Jesus is revealed as the Arm of God.  Jesus is the member of the Godhead that became our avenue to salvation.  When we read about God’s arm bringing salvation we are reading about Jesus.  Turn back with me a page or two to Isaiah 51 starting in verse 9 and we will read another reference tying Christ to the Arm of God. 

⁹ Awake, awake, put on strength,
      O arm of the LORD!
      Awake as in the ancient days,
      In the generations of old.
      Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart,
      And wounded the serpent?

Rahab is used here as a poetic term for Egypt.  I’m not going to take time right now to try and prove that to you because that is not my focus but if you read the entire chapter it should be fairly clear.  What I want you to see is the second half of that question.  Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart,  And wounded the serpent?   Who was it that wounded the serpent?  Why it is part of the curse in Genesis 3:14, 15

¹⁴ So the LORD God said to the serpent:
      “ Because you have done this,
      You are cursed more than all cattle,
      And more than every beast of the field;
      On your belly you shall go,
      And you shall eat dust
      All the days of your life.

¹⁵ And I will put enmity
      Between you and the woman,
      And between your seed and her Seed;
      He shall bruise your head,
      And you shall bruise His heel.”

When God says “He” shall bruise your head He’s talking about Jesus.  How do we know this?  Well, right in verse 15 it identifies the one doing the wounding as the Seed of the Woman.  Where do we see this scenario again in scripture?  All three parties are mentioned again in Revelation 12:1-6.  Let’s turn there and read starting in verse 1.

¹ Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.

What do we know to be represented by a woman in Bible prophecy?  The church Right!

² Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
³ And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. ⁴ His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.

And who is the dragon?  “That old serpent, called the Devil and Satan” shown here working through the pagan Roman empire.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. ⁵ She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. ⁶ Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

So who then is the male child or the seed of the woman?  Christ of course.  This image of Him ruling all nations with an iron rod at first blush may seem a bit incongruent with the person of Christ but if you read Psalm 2 which is all about the Messiah you will see the exact metaphor in verses 8 and 9.   Christ our Redeemer is indeed the Arm of God.  He was the redeemer of Israel , when He brought them out of the land of Egypt and He is our redeemer today as the remnant. 

This is all neat stuff and I really enjoyed studying out this imagery but what can we do with it?  What can we take from it that has impact our daily walk with Him.  Do you want the hand or arm of God working in your life?  I do.  Is there anything we can do that will either assist or hinder in this?  Or perhaps another way to ask the question would be; can God’s hand be shortened.  Isaiah tells us it can’t, or can it?  Turn again with me to Isaiah, this time we’ll be reading in Chapter 59 and starting again in verse 1.

¹ Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened,
      That it cannot save;
      Nor His ear heavy,
      That it cannot hear.

There we have it! I’m glad we settled that, God’s hand can’t be shortened.  There is nothing we can do that will have any impact on the salvation He offers us.  Wait, not so fast.  Read on in verse 2.

² But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
      And your sins have hidden His face from you,
      So that He will not hear.
³ For your hands are defiled with blood,
      And your fingers with iniquity;
      Your lips have spoken lies,
      Your tongue has muttered perversity.

Maybe it’s just semantics, of whether it is us moving out of His reach or our actions shortening His arm, but the end result is the same, we can, and do separate ourselves from God through our sin.  We have a part to play.  Gods arm is powerful and his hand is strong to save.  He delivered Israel from Egypt and helped them defeat many an army that stood in the way of their inheritance but what was the result when they chose disobedience?  It was utter defeat was it not? Just as disobedience brings defeat, obedience brings success.  You may say, well I was obedient to God by following His command to worship on the Sabbath and I lost my job.  Or I have stayed true to God for my entire life and I still struggle each week to just pay my expenses.  And this may be true, but we must remember God measurers success on a different scale that the one the world uses.  God’s plan for your life might not involve that job.  He may know that the allure of financial success could draw you from a more important work that He has for you.  Like the three Hebrew  worthy’s we too can put obedience to God in its right place in our lives; higher than our own comfort, higher than our security, yes more important than life itself.

Besides disobedience is there any other way we can put ourselves out of the reach of God’s hand?  Is there anything else we can do to limit the power of God in our lives?  Turn with me to Numbers  chapter 14 and we’ll read together verses 1-3.  Keep in mind this is just after the twelve spies that Moses, under God’s direction, sent into the land of Canon have returned and given their reports to the people of Israel.  Reading in verse 1

¹ So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. ² And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³ Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”

Listen to the commentary about this incident on page 388 of the book Patriarchs and Prophets.

Now the scene changed. Hope and courage gave place to cowardly despair, as the spies uttered the sentiments of their unbelieving hearts, which were filled with discouragement prompted by Satan. Their unbelief cast a gloomy shadow over the congregation, and the mighty power of God, so often manifested in behalf of the chosen nation, was forgotten. The people did not wait to reflect; they did not reason that He who had brought them thus far would certainly give them the land; they did not call to mind how wonderfully God had delivered them from their oppressors, cutting a path through the sea and destroying the pursuing hosts of Pharaoh. They left God out of the question, and acted as though they must depend solely on the power of arms.  {PP 388.1} 

In their unbelief they limited the power of God and distrusted the hand that had hitherto safely guided them. And they repeated their former error of murmuring against Moses and Aaron. "This, then, is the end of our high hopes," they said. "This is the land we have traveled all the way from Egypt to possess." They accused their leaders of deceiving the people and bringing trouble upon Israel.  {PP 388.2} 

Did you hear that?  Their unbelief limited the power of God and they distrusted the hand that had hitherto safely guided them.  Mercy!  It was an issue of trust.  They didn’t believe God would deliver them, they did not Trust Him.  Later on page 391 she goes on to say…

The Lord promised to spare Israel from immediate destruction; but because of their unbelief and cowardice He could not manifest His power to subdue their enemies. Therefore in His mercy He bade them, as the only safe course, to turn back toward the Red Sea.  {PP 391.1} 

He could not manifest his power because of their unbelief. 

Our part is easy is it not?  Obedience and trust and He takes care of the rest.  In actuality He takes care of the obedience and trust part too when we let Him.  Even then we say it is hard.  We surrender in the morning only to take up arms once again an hour later.  Jeremiah 17:5 reads

⁵Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.  

Who’s arm will you choose to put your trust in today?  Will it be the arm of flesh or the arm of God.  Will we continue to trust in man or will we be victorious as we look to the hand of God.   It is a temptation to look to those around us for sympathy and understanding when we should be taking our cares to Jesus.  But God is merciful.  In order that we learn the foolishness of trusting in man He allows those whom we look to for safety to fail us.  Barak Obama will fail you, Mitt Romney will fail you, Ben Bernanke will fail you.  All these men and others may mean well, but there is only one who truly knows your sorrows, only one who will bear your burdens, and his arm is not flesh, His arm is the Word made flesh.   We read in Desire of Ages P 414…

All are exposed to temptation, and are liable to error. Upon no finite being can we depend for guidance. The Rock of faith is the living presence of Christ in the church. Upon this the weakest may depend, and those who think themselves the strongest will prove to be the weakest, unless they make Christ their efficiency.    

Who will join me in a commitment today to allow the arm of God to have power in their life?  If it is your desire today, maybe for the one thousandth time or maybe for the first time, to tell Jesus I want to trust you, I want to be obedient to your word.  Only you understand my issues, and it is only through your love that I can be anything but a failure.  If that is your desire would you raise your hand with me.  Praise God for your response.

___________________ is going to make his/her way up here now to lead us in our hymn of response, Trust and Obey.  As we lift our voices together in music and sing the words trust and obey it is my hope that they work their way into our hearts that wherever we go and in whatever we do this week they will resonate in our minds and remind us of our continuing commitment to allow Christ to rule in our lives.  Let us sing.