The Finger of GodExodus 8:16-19
Jim Davis
Exodus 8:16-19
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,' and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats." They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals. The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said. (NIV)The Egyptian world was beginning to realize the difference God makes to those with whom he had made a covenant. The magicians came to Pharaoh after the plague of gnats and said, "This is nothing but the finger of God!" Egypt was trembling with fear but she refused to obey God.
God’s fingerprints are all over our world. However, God’s fingerprints are like most fingerprints, they are difficult to see without special effort. It takes a willing and discerning mind to see God’s finger directing the affairs of our world.
Luke 11:14-20
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. But some of them said, "By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons." Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. (NIV)God’s fingerprints have been all over our world since the very beginning.
Romans 1:20-23
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (NIV)We must continue to remind ourselves that God’s finger is directing this world’s affairs for his purposes. He is not just the creator, but his finger continues to direct our personal lives. The books of Genesis and Exodus reveal how God is directing personal lives for his purposes. What God was doing for those Hebrews can be plainly seen. It is a reminder of how God’s finger continues to direct our lives today.
As I read the Bible, I am amazed at how many times the prophets and the New Testament writers make reference to the Exodus from Egypt. They remind themselves and us how God’s finger has brought us to where we are today. The Psalmist writes, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." (Psalms 81:10 NIV)
Our Judeo-Christian roots take us back to the Exodus in Egypt. Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 reminds us how God’s finger moved in Egypt for the purpose of establishing Christ’s kingdom for us today. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul compares our baptism to Moses passing through the Red Sea. It is in Egypt that we begin to truly know that the hand of God is upon our lives as we observe God’s hand upon the lives of the Hebrews and the world. We begin to realize the difference God makes for his children.
Experiencing the Finger of God
As we come to the book of Exodus the Hebrews are trying to step out on faith. Their lot seems much harsher. There are the increased labor demands because they must provide their own straw for the bricks they are making. They are also experiencing the same plagues the Pharaoh and all of Egypt are facing. They have suffered from the Nile being turned to blood. They have suffered because of the frogs hopping on and over every thing have. Then the frogs died in their houses. The stench was unbearable as they carried them out and threw them in heaps in the alleyways outside of their huts. Just as they were finding the last stinking dead frogs in the their cupboards they were assaulted by gnats. You can only wonder what they were thinking during the gnat ordeal. Here they are trying to keep those gnats out of their eyes. They are trying to keep from sucking those gnats up their nostrils and down their throats as they fight for breath.
You can just imagine many of them thinking, "If this is what it takes to follow God, leave me in Egypt? What difference does it make anyway. In fact, it seems much harder to walk by faith." It is then that God’s finger is clearly seen in the distinction he makes between his children and the world.
Exodus 8:20-24
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the water and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground where they are. "'But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow.'" And the LORD did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies. (NIV)Try to imagine the difference it made to the Hebrews when they realized they were exempt from the swarm of flies. Imagine living within the borders of Goshen--in the land of no flies. Perhaps they could place their arms across the boundaries of Goshen and catch a hand full of flies, but there were no flies in Goshen. Can you imagine the excitement, awe and fear as they observed for the first time the difference God made in their lives?
They are not only exempt from the plague of flies, but also from the rest of the plagues Egypt experienced. Imagine what the Hebrews thought as the Egyptian’s livestock die because of God’s plague. Yet, their livestock was unharmed. Imagine the plague of boils upon the Egyptians. The Egyptians have huge boils popping out all over them. The magician’s boils were so bad that they could not stand before Moses. Yet, it was different with the Israelites. They experienced no boils. So it goes with the plague of hail, the plague of locusts, the plague of darkness and finally the plague of the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians.
The Israelites were beginning to realize that God’s finger was directing their lives. The Egyptians are terrorized and the Hebrews are resting under the protective hand of God.
God’s hand can move this hostile world to bless his people.
Exodus 12:31-36
During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me." The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!" So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. (NIV)God moved the Egyptians to look favorably disposed toward his people and they gave them the riches of the land. God is hardening Pharaoh’s heart to make it all possible. It is nothing but the finger of God.
Losing Sight of God’s Hand
How often do we forget that God’s finger is definitely upon the pulse of our world? The Hebrews seemed to have a short memory. The Psalmists reminds us of the Hebrews tendency to lose sight of God’s hand upon their lives.
Psalms 78:40-53
How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland! Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power-- the day he redeemed them from the oppressor, the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan. He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams. He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them. He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet. He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning. He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility-- a band of destroying angels. He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague. He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham. But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert. He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies. (NIV)We lose sight of God’s hand upon our lives because we do not understand what he is doing. Understanding that God’s hand is moving our world for his purposes is not the same as understanding what God is doing. No one can fathom the mind of God.
Isaiah 55:8-9
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (NIV)Romans 11:33-34
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" (NIV)It is not that God’s judgments are hard to trace out. They can’t be searched out at all. God’s ways are impossible to find out. "The way of God is complex, He is hard for us to predict. He moves the pieces and they come somehow into a kind of order." (Euripides, Helen) Someone has said that the word "confusion" is a word we invented to describe the order of things we don’t understand. Often, we are certainly confused as we observe God’s finger moving.
"What is God doing? He is saving; He is rescuing; He is blessing; He is providing; He is judging; He is healing; He is enlightening. And there is a spiritual war in process, an all-out moral battle. There is evil and cruelty, unhappiness and illness. There is superstition and ignorance, brutality and pain. But God is in a continuous and energetic battle against all of it. God is for life and against death. God is for love and against hate. God is for hope and against despair. God is for heaven and against hell. There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square foot of space is contest." (Charles Swindoll, The Mystery of God’s Will. Word Publishing, Nashville, 1999, Page 101.)
We see this in Egypt. The Hebrews must rely on God to work his will regardless of their understanding. The Israelites have no idea where God is going to lead them. They are beginning to realize that his finger is directing their lives. Even when we can’t see the God’s hand, we must rely on faith to know it is there.
We are like Moses; we lose sight of God’s hand because we can’t see anything but our own limitations. To allow God’s hand to direct our lives we must go beyond human reasoning. We must go beyond our ability to understand what God is doing. We must look beyond our limitations before we can see God. When God called Moses from the burning bush, he began making excuses based upon human wisdom. Who am I? Why should they believe me? Don't you know that I stutter when I get scared? He couldn’t see God’s hand all over his life.
Do you think that God didn't know his limitations before he called him? God doesn't call you into a situation to be compared to someone else. You're called into it as an instrument. When you are in that role, you are in God's plan, and he can make his plan work for your life.
We are like the Hebrews; initially, they couldn’t see how God’s hand could use Moses to accomplish their deliverance. We limit others around us because we can only see their weaknesses. We spend our lives on the run because we are looking for people with the strength and wisdom to make a difference in our lives. Look around you; this is as good as it gets. We limit the church because we only see its weaknesses. God’s hand has brought us in spite of our weaknesses. We must depend upon God’s hand moving us to where he wants us to go.
Listen to what Moses told the children of Israel before they conquered the land of Canaan.
Deuteronomy 9:4-6
After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. (NIV)If anything is to be done, it will be God’s hand doing it and not ours.
Proverbs 16:9
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. (NIV)Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails. (NIV)Proverbs 20:24
A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way? (NIV)Isaiah 46:8-13
"Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel. (NIV)We are like the Egyptians; we can’t see God’s hand because we keep fighting with God over who is in control. You only limit God when you insist on him doing things your way. When we insist on things being done our way we are not walking by faith. We are endeavoring to walk by sight. We must rid our minds of the silly notion that God must do things the way I think they ought to be done. That is why many churches haven't grown over the years. There is always somebody that wants things done their way. The sure way to defeat God's purpose is to turn the work of the church over to someone who just has to get things done their way.
Do you know why it is so hard for many to be baptized? The concept of baptism forces us to turn our lives over to God. Baptism puts God in control of our lives. It is hard for us to relinquish that control.
Colossians 2:11-12
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. (NIV)Baptism requires relinquishing control and placing our faith in the power of God’s hand to direct our lives. You really have to want God's hand to direct you life before you can know his will.
John 7:17
If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. (NIV)We must allow God to invade our comfort zones. We are not comfortable with giving up what seems necessary to sustain life.
Acts 20:22-24
"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-- the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. (NIV)Paul knew he was headed to prison. He knew the hardships living for God would create. But he said, " . . . my life is worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me . . ." If you have this kind of desire to do God's will, God can make a difference in your life.
In a day of instantaneous results it is hard to be patient while we wait upon God to work his will in our lives. We must busy ourselves with doing what God is asking us to do while we are waiting. We must maintain the faith even when we can’t see the hand of God.
Conclusion:
Relying on God's hand to move is the most difficult thing in life. Only God's hand can accomplish his will for your life. If you could accomplish God's purpose for your life according to your own thinking, Jesus Christ died in vain.
Galatians 2:20-21
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (NIV)May we see the finger of God in this world and come to him in faith and repentance.