Sing to the Lord a new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. (Psalm 98:1)
In the previous devotion, we highlighted the important symbolism of God’s right hand, specifically that this phrase is a Hebrew idiom meant to point us to Yeshua. As Scripture says, the resurrected Messiah was “exalted to the right hand of God” (Acts 2:33) and has “sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Now we turn our attention to another part of the verse which alludes to the relationship between the right hand of God and “His holy arm.” In Hebrew the word for arm is זרוע zeroa and typically refers to the upper arm, which is the source of the hand’s strength.
Jewish commentators take note of the distinction between the two, while at the same time, consider that God’s upper arm (zeroa) directs the movement of the forearm and hand. There are times in Israel’s history when they have witnessed the Hand of God move on their behalf, and then there are times when God intervenes on their behalf with His mighty arm, usually when Israel is in no position to help themselves. For example, when Israel was unable to deliver themselves from the Egyptians, God said, “I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm” (Exodus 6:6). Here, as in our verse from the psalm, the Hebrew word for “arm” is zeroa.
Why is it important for us to understand this? Because it is directly related to the Messiah, the Lamb of God. Every year at Passover, when we sit down to observe the redemption from Egypt, before us on the Seder plate among other things, is the shank bone of a lamb. It is there to remind us that, because an innocent lamb was slain and its blood placed upon the doors as a sign of the covenant with God, the people of God were redeemed from slavery and bondage. That bone is called zeroa — it represents the outstretched arm of the Lord working on our behalf.
In other words, it is symbolic of the Messiah who came and redeemed us from sin and the curse of death, when we were unable to help ourselves. None of us are capable of escaping the clutches of sin and its reward without a redeemer — only the Almighty can do that. And so, His desire to redeem us, represented by His mighty arm, directs His Hand to take action. We see this exhibited when Egypt’s firstborn fell, when the sea was split in two and so many other times when the Hand of God was made evident. We also see this demonstrated when Messiah hung on a tree and, with outstretched arms, delivered us from eternal death. Thankfully, there is no one beyond His reach and so it is written, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save … therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him” (Isaiah 59:1, 16).
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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