THE HAND OF THE ALMIGHTY (3)

“I have made the earth, and created man on it. I – MY HANDS – stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded” – Isaiah 45: 12

Creation vividly attests to the Workings of THE HAND of the ALMIGHTY GOD: “I have made the earth, and created man on it. I – MY HANDS – stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded” (Isa.45:12). The Prophet reiterated this in Isaiah 48:13, “Indeed MY HAND has laid the foundation of the earth, and MY RIGHT HAND has stretched out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together.” The human hand is an anatomical and functional marvel; nothing remotely comparable exists among the primates or any other animals. It is a marvel of design. Even so, the “HAND of GOD” – of which the human hand is only a very dim shadow – is infinitely more powerful and skillful.

Creation was a direct product of the HAND of the ALMIGHTY GOD, and also an immediate product, not an evolutionary process. Everything was “commanded” into existence. God’s Hand laid the earth’s foundation and spanned or stretched out the heavens. The Lord declared: “when I call to them, they stand up together!” Psalm 33:9 says: “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Creation did not take billions of years; it took six days – and the only reason it took that long was so that God’s work week could serve as a pattern for humanity: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work…” (Exo.20: 8-10a).  

God’s Hand is Omnipotent: He’s got the whole world in HIS HAND: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained” (Psa.8:3); “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psa.19:1). Isaiah 40:12 asks: “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of HIS HAND, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?” God measured the great oceans of the earth – the Atlantic, Pacific, Antarctic, Arctic, Indian – in the hollow of His Hand! Even the measurement of the Universe is not beyond His Hand!

The next chapter provides even more details: “I will open rivers in desolate heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together, that they may see and know, and consider and understand together, that the HAND of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it” (Isa.41: 18-19). All of these, to quench the thirst of His people (Isa.41:17).

It is wonderful to know that this same powerful Hand of God is as well gentle and loving. His Hand held the right hand of Cyrus, “to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut” (v.1). The same Hand that broke “in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron” before Cyrus, also gave him access to “the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places” (vv.2-3). This same Eternal Hand is the Perfect Potter that molds lives and destinies; hence the question, “Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’? (v.9b).

In order for the HAND of the ALMIGHTY to intimately embrace fallen humanity, the HANDS of the Son of God had to be pierced and bear eternal scars, where they were spiked to the cross, because He loved us, and died for us. The HAND that spanned the heavens also that holds those who trust Him.