The Hand of God

 I must admit that this week it was difficult for me to hear about the David and Bathsheba story over and over again during my different podcasts.  It was more clear than ever to me that Bathsheba was not a willing participant in the experience in any way and was brutally victimized by David. You have to give her credit, though, for ensuring that her offspring, Solomon, inherited the thrown. The story of David and Bathsheba reinforces the ideas that I covered in last week's post about the Old Testament writers including each hero's fatal flaw. 

Instead of dwelling on that and the doctrinal problems surrounding it I want to talk about something I noticed about Hebrew idioms that use the word for hand.  Hand, in Hebrew is yad, יד, and, as in English, it occurs in a lot of idioms. The first occurrence of the word is in the book of Genesis 3:22 when Adam has partaken of the forbidden fruit and God must guard the way to the tree of life "Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever". In Hebrew hands usually represent power and agency. In this passage, Adam reaching to take the fruit with his hand, would represent his choice to defy the commandment of God. 

In the reading for this week there are eight references to hands in 1 Kings 8 which contains Solomon's dedicatory prayer on the temple: 

15: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it,

22 And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:

24 thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day

38-39 That prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, 

42  For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house

53 For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant

54 And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.

56 Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.

Things that are interesting from these passages:

1. If hands represent agency, the priest, by lifting his hands toward God, expresses that he is bending his agency to God's will.  

2.  In 15 and 22, God's will is spoken by his mouth, and fulfilled by his hand, but when Moses is involved as in 53, and 56, things are promised, not by the mouth, but by the hand of Moses. This reinforces the idea that when we say, "by the hand of _____" it is not literally something he is doing with his physical hand.  It is an act of will, i.e. because Moses bent his will to God, God was able to act through him. 

3. In v 42, God is said to have a "great name" and a "strong hand."  These clearly represent respect and power. 

So why is all this hand imagery important?  I find it important because of the crucifixion.  When the resurrected Lord wanted to prove to his disciples that he had accomplished the atonement, he showed them his wounded hands. The exact things that represent power and agency, he allowed to be pierced for our sakes. I think Jesus carefully selected the form of his physical death before it happened. He could have chosen to be drowned, or beheaded, or clubbed, or stoned. Instead he chose to be crucified, the only form of death I know of that focuses on the hands. By showing his disciples his wounded hands one by one, it is as if he is saying, "Look. I voluntarily gave up my power by becoming mortal, and my agency by submitting to the will of my father. I who was above all things, put myself below all things.  And I did it for you."