“His Hands” [Part 1 of 3]

“His Hands” [Part 1 of 3]
Kennard Friends Church
April 15, 2011
Bob Lines

Look at your hands for minute. Examine them. Look. Feel. Look at the color, blemishes, smoothness, roughness, manicured, scarred, young, old, straight, crooked, painful, painless. Do you know your hands like… well, “like the back of your hand”?

Let me tell you a story about my dad’s hands. I remember a variety of things about them during my lifetime. Most of them were good, some of them not.
• There were hands that threw a baseball, even though I only remember it happening one time.
• There were hands of clinched fists because he was frequently angry about something (sometimes because I hadn’t behaved very well).
• There were greasy, dirty, calloused hands from working long hours at a noisy, oily machine in the factory; then maybe after a quick nap to rest those hands they would smell of gasoline from working a part-time job at a service station.
• There were hands rapping my backside in an effort to correct my misbehavior and make me a better man.
• There were hands that pushed an old Lawn-Boy mower he’d repaired a few dozen times to keep it running.
• There were soil-stained hands from hours of labor tilling, planting a hoeing weeds in the garden.
• There were sore, scratched and bruised hands from cutting truckloads of firewood for the cold winters.
• There were giving hands when they were holding the keys to a new (well, used) 1964 Chevy Impala.
• There were clapping hands when he watched me play in a football game or compete in a wrestling match.
• There were hands that waved goodbye when they left Indiana and moved to Florida.
• There were hands that stroked the soft, white fur of a little toothless, aging, dog named Bentley.
• Today, there are aging hands that are pale, wrinkly, spotted, and gnarled.

Recently, as my dad laid bedfast and needing full-time care, he told me “I need you to cut my fingernails”. They had turned a yellowish color and were long and thick. So I grabbed some sturdy toe-nail clippers and began to trim them up a bit. I carefully lifted one finger at a time, holding the tip between my thumb and index finger. I went very slow, making sure to not to cut too deep. One-by-one, clip-by-clip, the job was completed. I put the clippers away and never thought about it again.

A few days later, I recalled the scene again. As I shared with Jan and a couple of friends what I had done, cutting his nails for the very first time, I broke down into tears. All of a sudden it occurred to me that at my age of 56, I had held the hands of my dad… for the very first time. Of all the things I could think of to describe what my dad’s hands were, I realized they were never “holding” hands. You probably could write a similar story of the hands of someone you know, or have known. It would like be those of a parent or a child.

[See what the Bible says about what the hands of God and Jesus are like. Below are over 30 descriptions of God’s hands.]

His strong hand:
Exodus 6:1 Then the LORD told Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave his land!” You know the story of Moses and the exodus of the Israelites don’t you? You may have watched the Ten Commandments recently and caught the story again. Moses was commanded by God to go to the Pharaoh and tell him to let His people go! Pharaoh was stubborn and wouldn’t give in at first. But God used his strong hand to change Pharaoh’s mind.

Here’s some other verses about His hand on Pharaoh and the exodus experience:

His powerful hand:
Exodus 7:5 When I raise my powerful hand and bring out the Israelites, the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” Exodus 7:4-6 (in Context) 4 Even then Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you. So I will bring down my fist on Egypt. Then I will rescue my forces—my people, the Israelites—from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment. 5 When I raise my powerful hand and bring out the Israelites, the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.”

His striking hand:
Exodus 9:3 the hand of the LORD will strike all your livestock—your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats—with a deadly plague.

Exodus 9:1-7 (in Context) 9 “Go back to Pharaoh,” the LORD commanded Moses. “Tell him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so they can worship me. 2 If you continue to hold them and refuse to let them go, 3 the hand of the LORD will strike all your livestock—your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats—with a deadly plague. 4 But the LORD will again make a distinction between the livestock of the Israelites and that of the Egyptians. Not a single one of Israel’s animals will die! 5 The LORD has already set the time for the plague to begin. He has declared that he will strike the land tomorrow.’” 6 And the LORD did just as he had said. The next morning all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but the Israelites didn’t lose a single animal. 7 Pharaoh sent his officials to investigate, and they discovered that the Israelites had not lost a single animal! But even so, Pharaoh’s heart remained stubborn,[a] and he still refused to let the people go.

His mighty hand:
Exodus 13:3 So Moses said to the people, “This is a day to remember forever—the day you left Egypt, the place of your slavery. Today the LORD has brought you out by the power of his mighty hand.
Now we will look at how the hand of God dealt with others who were enemies of His children.

His heavy hand:
1 Samuel 5:6 Then the LORD’s heavy hand struck the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with a plague of tumors. 1 Samuel 5:5-12 (in Context) 5 After the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they took it from the battleground at Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod. 2 They carried the Ark of God into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside an idol of Dagon. 3 But when the citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground in front of the Ark of the LORD! So they took Dagon and put him in his place again. 4 But the next morning the same thing happened—Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the LORD again. This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact. 5 That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor anyone who enters the temple of Dagon in Ashdod will step on its threshold. 6 Then the LORD’s heavy hand struck the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with a plague of tumors.[a] 7 When the people realized what was happening, they cried out, “We can’t keep the Ark of the God of Israel here any longer! He is against us! We will all be destroyed along with Dagon, our god.” 8 So they called together the rulers of the Philistine towns and asked, “What should we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?” The rulers discussed it and replied, “Move it to the town of Gath.” So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel to Gath. 9 But when the Ark arrived at Gath, the LORD’s heavy hand fell on its men, young and old; he struck them with a plague of tumors, and there was a great panic. 10 So they sent the Ark of God to the town of Ekron, but when the people of Ekron saw it coming they cried out, “They are bringing the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us, too!” 11 The people summoned the Philistine rulers again and begged them, “Please send the Ark of the God of Israel back to its own country, or it[b] will kill us all.” For the deadly plague from God had already begun, and great fear was sweeping across the town. 12 Those who didn’t die were afflicted with tumors; and the cry from the town rose to heaven.

His supporting hand:
Psalm 18:35 You have given me your shield of victory. Your right hand supports me; your help has made me great. Psalm 18:34-36 (in Context) Psalm 18 (Whole Chapter) We have all likely heard of poem or seen a picture of “Footprints in the sand”. There are times in our lives that God has carried us. Did you realize he can support you in one hand?

His disciplining hand:
Psalm 32:4 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Psalm 32:3-5 (in Context) 3 When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. 4 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Interlude 5 Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

His holding hand: Psalm 95:4 He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains.
As children we may have sung “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” That’s easy for a child to sing, but as adults we can easily forget or not believe. Maybe that’s why Jesus said we have to become like little children to inherit the kingdom of God. So just how big are those encompassing hands? The highest mountain (In Asia Mt. Everest @ 29,029 ft) AND the deepest depths (The Mariana Trench is located in the Western Pacific near Guam @ 35,800 ft).

Life on Mt Everest:

A black jumping spider, has been found at elevations as high as 22,000 ft, possibly making it the highest confirmed non-microscopic permanent resident on Earth. It lurks in crevices and may feed on frozen insects that have been blown there by the wind. It should be noted that there is a high likelihood of microscopic life at even higher altitudes. Birds, such as the Bar-headed Goose, have been seen flying at the higher altitudes of the mountain scavenging on food, or even corpses, left by prior climbing expeditions. There is a moss that grows at 21,260 ft on Mount Everest. It may be the highest altitude plant species.

Life in the Mariana Trench:

With great surprise because of the high pressure, at the bottom of the trench are living creatures such as a sole or flounder about 1 ft long, and a type of shrimp. The bottom is covered in a waste of firm diatomaceous ooze (algae). Mud samples from the seabed reveal tiny organisms living in that mud. Amongst many other living organisms are some gigantic single-celled amoebas with a size of more than 4 inches.

Isaiah 40:12

Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?

The volume of all oceans: The world’s ocean cover 71 percent of the earth's surface, or about 140 million square miles. Its average depth is 16,000 ft, and its total volume is over 322 million cubic miles. The size of the universe: The visible universe: There is an edge to what we are able to see in the universe. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. That's top speed in this universe—nothing can go faster. The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, is two million light-years away. The most distant galaxies we can now see are 10 or 12 billion light-years away. This horizon describes the visible universe—a region some 28 billion light years in diameter.

To measure really long distances, people use a unit called a light year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Therefore, a light second is 186,000 miles. A light year is the distance that light can travel in a year, or: 186,000 miles/second * 60 seconds/minute * 60 minutes/hour * 24 hours/day * 365 days/year = 5,865,696,000,000 miles/year.

A light year is 5,865,696,000,000 miles. That's almost 6 trillion miles! The weight of the earth: 5.972 sextillion (1,000 trillion) metric tons. That’s 5,972,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons! (5972 followed by 18 zeros)

His forming hand: Psalm 95:5

The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too. Psalm 95:4-6 (in Context) Psalm 95 (Whole Chapter) How many square miles of land on earth: There are approximately 57.5 million square miles of land on earth, only 29.2 percent of the earth's surface.

Isaiah 64:8

And yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.

His victorious hand:
Psalm 98:1
Sing a new song to the LORD, for he has done wonderful deeds. His right hand has won a mighty victory; his holy arm has shown his saving power!
In closing read Psalm 98.

Hopefully by examining a few scriptures about just one part of God… his hands, you will have an even greater confidence that he can take care of any need, problem, enemy or worry you have.

I know this is not very Quaker-like, but can you use YOUR hands this morning and praise God for HIS hands!!!!