Word of Encouragement (03/15/2023)
And this he said of Judah: "Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him in to his people. With your hands contend for him, and be a help against his adversaries." (Deut. 33:7)
In the second part of his benediction on Judah, Moses prays, “With your hands content for him, and be a help against his adversaries.” This is another anthropomorphic expression since God is a pure Spirit and therefore has no hands to speak of. But why is Moses using this particular expression? He has experienced the almighty power of God on numerous occasions. He knows full well that God only needs to speak, and it shall be done. There is no spot in heaven or earth where the sovereign word of God cannot reach with its full force. When the Word of God says, “Let there be...,” even nothingness cannot withstand its creative power.
Then, why the hands of God? Could it be that Moses is thinking of the skillful hands of a mighty general, with which he wields swords and javelins to cut and thrust the enemies? Or he may be thinking of a hand-to-hand combat situation, in which God tosses up and thrusts down and knocks down all the enemy soldiers with His almighty hands. The matchup is so one-sided that it looks ridiculous! Demolishing a small house with a nuclear bomb would look less ridiculous.
Why the hands of the LORD, then? It is not simply for God’s help to win the victory; rather, it is for the nearness of God as Judah’s ever-present Help. We cannot make sense of God fighting with His hands without imagining God right there on the battlefield with Judah. If God should be with Judah right next to him, fighting with His almighty hands, would it matter how many nations and armies are assembled against Judah? Are they not like chaff that even a gentle breeze can glow away? As Joshua said, “One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the LORD your God who fights for you, just as he promised you” (Josh. 23:10). It’s not about our abilities and powers; it is about God, who fights for us and helps us!
I hope that you appreciate this perspective of Moses. Often, in our transactional approach to our Christian life, winning is all we care about. We want our enemies to experience the agony of defeat. We just want our problems to go away. We want the money we need to appear. We want the causes of our worry and fear to disappear. As long as God can make these things happen, we are satisfied. But should we? Is God no more than our problem Solver, whom we seek only when we are in trouble? Would we be happy if our children or spouse treated us that way?
Why do you think God allows difficulties in our lives? To occasionally show off His power as magicians do in their shows? No! He desires that we turn to Him as our Refuge, as our Dwelling Place from everlasting to everlasting. He wants more than us occasionally turning to Him because, for the reasons that only He knows, He loves; He desires that we abide in Him always. We should be glad about this. As we go through the ups and downs of life, we realize that 1) life in this world is a rollercoaster ride, constantly going up and down; 2) the thrill of going up decreases (hopefully) as we grow older and wiser. We begin to understand that abiding in Christ is so much better than going up and up and up in this life. It is better to be down and out with Christ near us than to be up and still ascending without Christ to protect us by contending for us with His hands. May we all come to embrace this wisdom with all of our hearts and find true security and victory in Christ!