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When God Points His Finger

by Jerry Ousley
6/21/2024 / Christian Living

When God Points His Finger

By Jerry D. Ousley

The Bible says that we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 5:1). That being said, it is safe to assume then, that God has fingers like us. We use our fingers for so many things. Those who have lost a finger can tell you how hard it is to learn to compensate with those left. They hold our rings. Without them we could not grasp or take hold of objects. Some people even use them for improper signals.

Our fingers are used to play musical instruments. We use them to eat with (even chop sticks require fingers with which to hold them). Our fingers are required to hold the tools we use when we are working on something. If we are angry and get into a fight, we ball up our fingers in order to make a fist.

When we want to show someone where something is or the direction they are to go, we usually tell them while pointing our finger in that direction. In like manner, God points His finger too. I’d like to consider five times in the Bible that talk about God’s fingers.

The first is in His creation. David wrote in 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?” David looked out over the night sky, perhaps overlooking sheep at night. With probably only the light of a campfire the expanse above was filled with countless dots of light against the otherwise black sky. His thoughts went immediately to the one and only God who had created all those stars, the suns, moons, planets and other heavenly bodies. It was a lot to take in. Each one had its unique place and purpose. God had orchestrated the rhythm and order from the chaos. In the vastness of this grandiose picture, David thought about creation, how God had brought it into existence just by speaking a word. Everything was made by the fingers of God. Then, comparing the insignificance of men as compared to the greatness of what God had done, he asked the question, “What is man that such a great, powerful and wonderful God would even consider him?” it's enough to blow us away, just to think that our God cared enough about you and me, singling us out of all creation and thinking about us. We are indeed on His mind. Mighty awesome, isn’t it?

Second, we see the finger of God’s wrath. We read in Exodus 8:19, “Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God.’ But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had said.” Moses had been appointed by God to tell Pharoah to release the Israeli people from slavery in Egypt. In previous plagues brought on by God in attempt to change Pharaoh’s mind, his magicians had been able to duplicate the plagues, assuring Pharaoh that, perhaps, it was only a magician’s trick. But in this third plague, when the rod was stretched out and the land was covered with lice, the king’s magicians were unable to duplicate it. They admitted that this must be the finger of God. Still, Pharaoh made his heart hard, in other words, he became stubborn and would not submit to God. Because he refused to give in to God, this and seven more plagues were rained down on Egypt until they finally let them go. The question this asks of us is, “Are we going to continue being so stubborn that God has to point His finger at us in order get and capture our attention?”

God’s third finger points to His Law. Exodus 31:18 records what God did at the conclusion of a forty-day and forty-night encounter with God atop Mount Sinai. It says, “And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Moun Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.” Can you even imagine it? The original copy of the Ten Commandments etched in stone by the very finger of God was given to man through Moses. Earlier, before Moses went up the mountain, God had spoken them audibly to the entire nation of Israel, so they were nothing new. But even while God was writing on the stone tablets with His very own finger, the Israeli people were down below. Tired of waiting on Moses, they had talked Aaron into making a golden calf to which they danced before and bowed down to in false worship. In a short forty days they had broken the very first commandment as Moses was descending the mountain with the tablets. What audacity! What disobedience! The lesson we learn is that the rebellious spirit of man will do what he wants to do despite the very law of God.

Fourthly, God points his finger of judgment. We read an instance of this in Daniel 5:5 – “In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.” That king was Belshazzar. He was most likely the grandson of the great Nebuchadnezzar, the king over the Babylonian Empire who had taken Judah into captivity. If you read the Book of Daniel, you will discover that several things took place during his reign that caused this great king to acknowledge the one true God. But his grandson did not heed what his grandfather had learned. Throwing a frivolous party, he had the holy vessels that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem brought in and he and his guests blasphemously drank wine from them. While they were using them to give toasts to all the false gods they could think of, a hand (it was called a man’s hand because that’s what it looked like. However, it was none other than the hand and fingers of God!) appeared and wrote on the wall. It scared him so bad that the Bible says that his knees smote together (Daniel 5:6). In short, he had Daniel to interpret what was written and the message was that he had been judged and that very night he would be conquered by the Medes. It happened. The lesson? Don’t disrespect God, you might just find your knees knocking together in fear. At the very least, you’ll be sorry.

Lastly and most importantly, we see the finger of God’s grace. In Luke 11 we see that Jesus had been working great miracles, healing the sick and so much more. The religious leaders had accused Him of casting out devils by the authority of the prince of devils, Beelzebub. Firstly, Jesus told them how ridiculous it was that the devil would use his own to cast out demon spirits, telling them that a kingdom divided against itself could not stand. But then, in verse 20 Jesus said, “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Wow! How awesome! It is true that the Kingdom of God has come upon us. By the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, and His totally miraculous resurrection, literally His kingdom has come upon us.

We can stand in awe of His might finger of creation. We can shake in fear at His dreadful finger of wrath; we can be amazed at His finger of Law (law that we cannot keep by the way), and we can shake in fear at His finger of judgment. But only His finger of grace that brings the Kingdom to us can save us. So, I ask you, which finger of God do you prefer? I’m certain you’ll say the finger of grace. Good choice. But have you accepted that grace? If not do so today. It’s pointing to the way to salvation.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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