When God Rolls Up His Sleeve
Psalm 8:3-4
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him? (NKJV)
The Bible, especially Psalms, gives us precious glimpses of God. Since God created us “in His image and likeness” (Gen 1:26), we should not be surprised to read that God has hands, feet, eyes, ears, a nose, a heart, a mind, and a mouth that speaks.
In Psalm 8, the psalmist marvels at the work of God’s fingers. Imagine the greatness, power, and precision of God’s fingers – perfectly placing every object, small and great, throughout the entire universe in its ordained orbit!
Now, here is something to think about: According to the Psalmist David, God only needed to use His fingers to set the sun, moon, and stars in their places (Psalm 8:3). So, then, what happens when God uses His whole arm?
Here is a blast from the past. Remember when Popeye would get ready to fight? After eating a can of spinach, he would roll up his sleeve and wind up for the punch.
Pow!
That’s all it took!
Just one of Popeye’s knock-out punches!
Isaiah 52:10 (The Message Bible)
God has rolled up his sleeves.
All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.
Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,
sees him at work, doing his salvation work.
The Prophet Isaiah asks: “To whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1)
The wonderful answer? God’s Arm has been revealed to us! It’s Jesus Christ!
The rest of Isaiah 53 foretells all that Jesus the Messiah would accomplish on the Cross for us.
Interestingly, the Bible states that it takes God’s whole arm to save us! Yes! God had to “roll up His sleeve” and wind up His mighty arm to provide “so great salvation” (Heb 2:3) for all mankind.
There is definitely a revelation within this context about how far down mankind has fallen into sin. Consider that to build the entire universe, God only needed to use His fingers. Also, Jesus said it only takes ONE finger of God to cast out demons (Luke 11:20)! BUT it takes God’s whole “Arm” to provide salvation for mankind – a salvation that cost God the crucifixion and death of His only beloved Son!
In maintaining this same imagery, if God’s Arm refers to Jesus and His work of salvation, what about God’s Finger?
When we compare these two verses, we discover something quite amazing:
Luke 11:20
But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
However, the parallel passage in Matthew states it differently:
Matthew 12:28
But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you.”
Blending those words of Jesus, we can see that the “Finger of God” is descriptive of the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit!
Remember that it was the Finger of God that inscribed the Ten Commandments onto the first set of stone tablets given to Moses (Exo 31:18). Interestingly, Paul compares that to the writing that the Holy Spirit, God’s Finger, does upon our hearts and minds in the New Covenant:
2 Corinthians 3:3
…written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
In the New Covenant, this is precisely what God’s Finger, the Holy Spirit, does in our lives:
Ezekiel 36:27
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
Jeremiah 31:33 (quoted in Heb 8:10; 10:16)
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Lord, how wonderful You are! With Your omnipotent Arm, You have marvelously saved me from my sins. And now, with the loving precision of Your Finger, the Holy Spirit, You are skillfully writing upon my heart and mind! Hallelujah!
Thank You, Father! Thank You, Jesus! And thank You, Holy Spirit – for Your handiwork in our lives!
