The Hand of God 15.5.20 https://youtu.be/BODPytvToSo
Introduction
The subject of the “hand of God” is more profound in scripture and in life than most of us have realised. One of the reasons for this is that the “hand” is no ordinary part of the human body. Pain and affection from the same source create deep confusion. Perhaps my earliest memory was of my father striking me with his open hand for something it was impossible for me to comprehend at the time. It took me many years to get over that trauma.
Intuitively, people know that the hand of God is ultimately responsible for the events which shake our world (2 Sam 24:16; Dan 4:35), like viruses, but the distance between God’s hand and his heart can seem to be a long one. I remember being in a prayer meeting years ago when a Pentecostal brother confessed he had been more interested in seeking God’s hand viz. signs, wonders, miracles, than his heart i.e. character. Biblically however the heart and hand of God cannot be split apart in this way. The stubborn underlying conviction amongst people in general that God’s hand is essentially a punishing one can only in the end be overcome through Jesus.
Fall
At various times the Old Testament witnesses to the inescapable judgement of God’s hand (Ex 7:4; 1 Sam 12:15; Isa 1:25; 40:2), but it is in the New Testament we read, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb 10:31 cf. Isa 33:14). Nevertheless, a man who was after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14) could testify, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”” (2 Sam 14:14 David to Gad).
Perhaps the most emphatic testimony to the authority of the hand of God comes from the lives of the prophets. These are all men under the hand of God. For example, it is what explains the power of Elijah (1 Ki 18:46 cf. Isa 10:10; 28:2). Again and again it is the urgency, pressure and compulsion of God’s hand on the prophet at his call (Jer 15:17; Ezek 3:14) that alone makes comprehensible their endurance, despite repeated rejections (1 Ki 18:46; Isa 8:11; Jer 15:17; Ezek 3:22; 37:1). The Lord’s hand is weighty and “enforces”, but not coerces, submission from his servants the prophets. It has been truly said that, “The prophet very rarely speaks of God’s face; he feels his hand.” (Heschel). All this talk of the hand of God and the prophetic commission reminds me of a year of my life when I was under the God’s hand of God’s hand in a most uncomfortable but persistently real and quite inescapable way. Having said all this, it is the coming of the Son of God which expounds the otherwise hidden depths of the hand of God.
Cross
In a remarkable passage in John 10, Jesus proclaims, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30). These wonderful words of Jesus assure us of our eternal security in him, but there’s something else here that mustn’t escape our attention. It is in the context of the work of their “hands” that the Lord testifies that he and the Father are “one”. Intimacy at the level of “hand” means intimacy at the level of Person (essential or innermost Being). This is most profoundly true when it comes to the work of the cross.
Throughout the Old Testament God has in his hand a turbulent cup of wrath which he will pour out on the rebellious nations of the world (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17, 22; Jer 25:15, 17, 27; Hab 2:16). When Jesus prays in Gethsemane, ““Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” (Mark 14:36) he is accepting this cup from the Father’s hand in order to atone for the sin of the world.
Whatever his struggles on the cross in feeling forsaken (Mark 15:34), we know Jesus’ trust in the hand of the Father was not diminished but perfected through his sufferings (Heb 2:10; 5:9). This is manifest when at the end of his earthly strength, “Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:46 cf. Ps 31:5). In death “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5) casts his soul and self into the all-powerful hands of God who had delivered him over (John 19:11) to be crucified in the untold trauma of bearing the sins of the world (John 1:29). This intimate entrusting of himself into the Father’s hands, not merely God’s hands, was an unlimitedly beautiful thing. The committal of Christ’s spirit reveals he was never lost from the Father’s hands. (And certainly not from his gaze/face.) This final earthly action of Jesus is the perfection of his faith extolled in Hebrews (Heb 12:2) and the assurance of our salvation. Realising these wonderful things opens up for us the profound connection between suffering and glory (Luke 24:26).
Suffering and Glory
During his earthly life the Spirit-filled Lord exclaimed, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father” (Luke 10:20ff.). Whilst no-one at the time believed him, this is exactly what we see happening to the glorified Christ in the book of Revelation. In the great throne room vision of chapter 5 John testifies, “in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll”, then he sees “the Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” who “went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne” (Rev 5:1, 6-7). In other words, the Father hands over to Jesus (cf. John 5:22) the plan of God concerning the judgement and redemption of the entirety of forthcoming history. This is the exalted heavenly perspective from which alone we can understand the mysteries of God in matters like our current coronavirus crisis (COVID19). All these exalted things remind me of a portrayal of the Trinity by an early Church Father, who graphically described the Son and the Spirit as “the two hands of God” (Irenaeus). When the resurrected Lord revealed himself in the power of the Holy Spirit at his resurrection, he communicated endless peace to the disciples by showing them the wounds in his hands (and side) (John 20:19-22; Heb 9:14). The hands of God are crucified hands revealing God Almighty, Father, Son and Spirit has endured and understands our afflictions,
Help
This is the God who is a “very present help in time of trouble” (Ps 46:1) and from whose wounded hands radiate great glory. Cf. “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendour covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power.” (Habakkuk 3:3-4). This is why an event in the early part of Revelation thrills me. John describes what happened when he had a vision of the exalted Son of Man, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (Rev 1:17-18). The scarred hand of the Son of God communicates a presence and a strength which will empower the apostle to stand on his feet and become the prophet of the End of all things. Who would not want this hand on their lives?
We must understand that as it was for Jesus, the greater the suffering (in the will of the Father) the greater the glory, so it is for us. We must understand that as the Father received the spirit of Jesus from the cross with overwhelming love, so he likewise deals with our innermost being. The writer of Hebrews is constrained to teach dull believers (Heb 5:11), “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?” (Heb 12:9). The ever-disciplining hand of the Father working on our spirits is a mystery too wonderful for words. It is awesome, it is intimate it is eternal. Yet there are other great things in this part of Revelation.
When we read in 2:1; “‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.”, the Greek means Jesus is “grasping powerfully” (kratos) the spiritual life of each congregation. This is a tremendous encouragement to us in times of weakness, but also a challenge as to why so much of the Church so often seems spiritually impoverished. The words in Isaiah come to mind, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isa 59:1-2). The Almighty hand of God revealed in the death-and-resurrection of Jesus testify that the Lord isn’t lacking the resources to deliver his people. The problem is our sin. At this point Peter speaks clearly to our situation, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” (1 Pet 5:6). As Christ’s glory is directly proportional to his accepting suffering from the hand of God so is the authenticity of our Christian witness.
Conclusion
Something happened to me as a very new Christian I can never forget. I was drowning, and as I was going under, I really did think I would surely die, these words of Jesus kept repeatedly themselves over and over inside of me; “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Not only that time, but countless times since the Lord has reached down his hand and lifted me up out of predicaments too powerful for me to handle. Let me end on a liturgical note. For centuries Christians have been praying a “night prayer” (Prayers at the End of the Day/Compline) which contains the response, “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit, alleluia, alleluia”. May this be our posture before God, every day until the end of our days.