The Finger of God

When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man? (Psalm 8:3-4)

Your fingers are an integral part of your body. You use them to eat, to take hold of all kinds of instruments and tools, to point, draw and type. When someone is clumsy we tend to say, "He has butter-fingers." When we first learn to count, we use our fingers to help us.

The writers of the Bible extended the image of the fingers on a human hand to God. In today's verse we read that the heavens, moon and stars are the work of God's fingers. When Moses worked miracles in Egypt, the Egyptian magicians said to Pharaoh, "He does them by the by the finger of God' (Exod. 8:9). When God gave Moses the stone tablets on which He had been written the Ten commandments, it was said that they had been written with the finger of God: " The tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God" (Exod. 31:18)

Jesus said that He cast out the evil powers or demons by the finger of God: If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you (Lk. 11:20). God's finger represents His almighty power that was at work when He created the world, when when He gave the law to guide His people and when He healed the sick and demon-possessed.

The finger of God is at work in your life too. Sometimes He points out a specific  direction to guide you when you are uncertain or confused. Sometimes He puts His finger on the sinful places in your life to bring you to repentance, salvation and spiritual growth. When you are sick, He lays His loving finger on your life to make you whole again, spiritually and physically.