There is a well-known saying:

“He has more within his little finger than you have in your whole body.”

Well, If that could be true of a human being, then imagine the amount of power, mercy, judgment, and honor God has in His own little finger — metaphorically speaking of course.

We don’t have to guess.  The Bible gives us a glimpse into the immensity of all that God is and does.

And although God is Spirit, He has broken into our mortal existence in ways we can see and hear so that He can tell us something important.

If He is going to go through that trouble, we should take a moment to reflect on what the Finger of God (Etsba Elohimאֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים) is saying to us.

The Finger of God Declares His Power Over Creation

The Psalmists knew how to help us humble ourselves as we reflect on the intimate involvement of the Almighty God in each of our lives:

“When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You have established; what are human beings that You are mindful of them, mortals that You care for them?”  (Psalm 8:3–4)

Our Creator, who could wipe out the earth with a poke of His little finger, has instead drafted a plan to bring heaven to earth and welcome us into His holy and glorious presence forever.

Part of that plan involves keeping the Jewish People as a distinct nation.

“If I forget you, Jerusalem, may My right hand forget its skill.”  (Psalm 137:5)

God’s plan for Israel is just as secure as the sun and moon are securely fixed in the sky because He is the one who put them there.

“Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — the Lord of hosts (YHVH Sabbaoth) is His name.

“If this fixed order were ever to cease from My presence, says the Lord, then also the offspring of Israel would cease to be a nation before Me forever.”  (Jeremiah 31:35–36)

From the very beginning of Israel’s history, God has stepped in to protect His Chosen People.

When Pharaoh, for instance, tried to prevent Israel from leaving Egypt and becoming a sovereign nation of their own, God’s mighty finger came to the rescue.

God Uses His Finger Against Pharaoh and His idols

To help convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave, He turned the Nile River to blood and infested the land of Egypt with frogs.

When that didn’t convince him, Aaron (Moses’ brother) struck the earth with his staff and all the dust turned to gnats, covering the people and animals.

When the magicians saw that the gnats were on the people and animals everywhere, “they said to Pharaoh, “‘This is the finger of God.’  But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen.”  (Exodus 8:19)

Seven more plagues followed, each one a judgment on the false gods of Egypt.

While God’s finger may have been a figure of speech for some people, He would soon give His People a gift designed with His own finger, a lasting reminder of His very personal involvement in their lives.

The Finger of God Writes His Rules

When God delivered the nation of Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and set them at the foot of Mount Sinai, He gave them the 10 commandments — rules to live by — rules that the rest of the world were eventually supposed to live by too.

Moses tells us about that encounter:

“When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights;  I ate no bread and drank no water.

“The Lord gave me two stone tablets written by the finger of God.

“On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

“At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.”  (Deuteronomy 9:9–11; Exodus 31:18)

This would not be the last time God pierced through the cosmos to communicate with human beings by writing with His fingers!

The Finger of God Protects His Holiness

It’s the stuff of action, fiction, animation, and horror movies wrapped up in one — but it’s a true story found inside the prophetic Book of Daniel.

The pagan-worshipping Babylonian King Belshazzar was holding a great feast.

“Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.

“Then the king’s face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together.”  (Daniel 5:5–6)

The fingers on this hand (which were not attached to any body) wrote these Aramaic words:

מנא מנא תקל ופרסין
MN- MN- TKL VPRSYN

Imagine seeing something like that at your next party!

Though the words were Aramaic, not one of the king’s astrologers or wise men could even read it, let alone interpret it.

God clearly gave the gift of wisdom and knowledge to Daniel, one of His own faithful worshippers, to receive the honor for deciphering the message.

Daniel reads the words as “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, U-PHARSIN.”  He interprets the phrase to mean:

MENE: “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.”

TEKEL: “you have been weighed …  and found wanting.”

PERES: “your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

That very night, the king was killed.  God gave Belshazzar’s kingdom to Darius from Mede and Cyrus from Persia.

Why?

Because at a banquet that day, Belshazzar  “brought in the vessels of gold and silver that had been taken out of God’s Holy Temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.”

God also became angry that “they drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.”

Imagine lifting God’s holy vessels made of silver and gold to worship pagan gods created of silver and gold, “which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose power is your very breath, and to whom belong all your ways, you have not honored,”  said Daniel to the king.  (Daniel 5:23)

God’s finger declared judgment on the proud king, who should have set an example for his kingdom on how to revere the holy God of Israel, as his father, King Nebuchadnezzar, once did.

Now, working through King Cyrus, God would let the Jewish People return to Jerusalem with the holy vessels of gold and silver, where they would be purified and put back into service for Him alone.

The Finger of Yeshua (Jesus) Demonstrates God’s Mercy

Daniel’s God-given wisdom helped him gain favor and authority in the kingdom of Babylon.  How much more favour should Yeshua (Jesus) have gained for His wisdom in Israel?  But few appreciated it.

In the Book of John we read of the pharisees, scribes, and elders who brought a woman caught in the act of adultery.  They hoped to trap Yeshua into saying something that they could use against Him, since the Torah (first five books of the Bible) required that she be stoned to death.

But Yeshua, being the Word of God Himself, knew the Torah better than these pharisees.

He knew that the law required two righteous witnesses to condemn anyone.  (Deuteronomy 19:15)

Yeshua bent down and with His finger wrote on the ground,

We don’t know what He wrote, yet those who looked on may have seen words that convicted them.

So, when Yeshua stood up and said,  “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,”  each one walked away.

“Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?”  Yeshua asked.

She said,  “No one, sir.”

Yeshua said,  “Neither do I condemn you.  Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”  (John 8:10–11)

The Finger of God that brought judgment to Belshazzar also brought mercy to a daughter of Zion.

“Note then the severity and the kindness of God:  severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness.”  (Romans 11:22)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Messiah Yeshua, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua from the dead.”  (1 Peter 1:3)

The Finger of God Declares His Kingdom Has Arrived!

The People had seen many exorcisms in their day, but they were amazed to see Yeshua cast out a demon from a mute man, and he suddenly spoke!

Though some were not amazed, they were jealous, suspicious, and did not understand that Yeshua was the Messiah.

They accused Him of working in the power of Satan, also called Beelzebub.

This time, Yeshua used wisdom as well as logic to counter the accusation.

 

In the Book of Luke it says:

“You say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out?

“But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.”   (Luke 11:18–20)

However, Matthew records Yeshua saying the Spirit of God instead of the Finger of God.

“If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”  (Matthew 12:28)

Why does the Word of God (Bible) interchange the words “Spirit” and “Finger” of God?  Because in the “natural world,”  God does not have a physical body (He is Spirit), but He can manifest however He wants to.

As we saw in the story of Daniel and Belshazzar,  the fingers of a hand appeared writing on the wall.

And do you remember the story of God speaking through the mouth of a donkey?  (Numbers 22:21–39)  Yes, God’s voice came out of the mouth of an animal!

Or the dozens of stories in the Bible when God’s voice from heaven spoke to people?  (Daniel 4:31)

“And a voice came out of the heavens:  ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’”  (Mark 1:11)

In many cases, He spoke with an audible voice,  which some people hear even today, but on rare occasions.

However, usually we hear His voice in the spirit, not through sound waves that are part of this physical world.

So, when Yeshua proclaimed that He cast out demons in the Spirit of God (Matthew) or by the Finger of God (Luke), He was declaring that the Power of God had now arrived on earth operating through Him, the Promised Messiah!

What is so exciting for each of us today, is that when we commit our lives fully to the Lord (Spirit) — while being open and willing vessels for His Service — we see God manifest through us with this same Spirit!

“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”  (John 14:12)

Here at the ministry, we ran into a young Jewish couple in their 30s who have two small children.  We had no idea that we were standing in front of an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting place.

This lovely couple opened up to us that the husband (Isaac) has a drinking addiction.  He said that when he attends the AA meetings he is fine, but when he doesn’t . . .  it destroys his (their) life.

We told him that we have a final solution to cure his addiction, and we set up a meeting for next week to explain to him how he can be cured from this addiction.

Please join us as together we are going to be used as “open and willing vessels”  to proclaim the Good News and Atonement of Yeshua and specifically ask this young man whose name is Isaac to receive the Spirit of Holiness (Holy Spirit) into his life.

Through The Holy Spirit and in the Name of Yeshua — the Deliverer, Master, and King of the Universe — we proclaim that the addiction of alcoholism will be driven out and that Isaac will also hear God’s Voice as he meets his Messiah!