DAY 17, Read Deut. 11:1-17
Key Verse: “When you see this, your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like green and tender grass. And the [powerful] hand of the Lord shall be revealed and known to be with His servants, but His indignation [shown] to be against His enemies.” (Isa.66:14 AMP)
God’s ‘hand’ is a metaphor for His power. His “mighty hand” refers to the supreme and almighty power and authority of God. The hand is a symbol of action, activity or work. Therefore, God’s mighty hand being revealed is God’s power at work in a person’s life and circumstances. It can also be for a nation as it did for Israel.
The mighty hand of God can be demonstrated in either blessing or judgment. For God’s covenant people it is often for blessing, while to His enemies it is always for judgment.
GOD’S MIGHTY HAND DEPLOYED IN EGYPT
The experience of the children of Israel in Egypt demonstrates how the mighty hand of God works. Israel had been under captivity in Egypt for over 430 years. Their condition was terrible: “So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage — in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor (Exo.1:13-14).
It was a case of an oppressed people at the mercy of their oppressor. Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth at this time. When Moses and Aaron demanded that Pharaoh should let Israel go, as instructed by God, he responded by worsening their bondage. He even asked: “…Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go” (Exo.5:2). The stage was now set for a showdown!
But God had already declared what Pharaoh’s response would be: “But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go” (Exo.3:19-20 NIV).
GOD DEPLOYS HIS MIGHTY HAND
Today we hear a lot about military deployments. God also knows when to deploy His mighty hand in a situation. When Pharaoh boasted: “Who is the Lord … I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” God’s response was: “And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them” (Ex 7:5). Consequently, we see from Exodus (7-14) the display or revealing of God’s mighty hand in the ten plagues that were as much a judgment on the Egyptians as they were on the gods. At the end, Israel was released.
PRAYER: O God, stretch forth your mighty hands over Nigeria as you did in Egypt so that the nation would know that You are the only true God.
