God's mighty Right Hand (part I)

There’s an old story about a pre-schooler watching a sunset with her grandfather, and talking about how beautifully God has painted the sky. The little girl tells her grandfather, “And He did it with His left hand, too.” The grandfather is a little surprised by this comment, and asks her, “Why do you say that, sweetie?” “Well, they taught is Sunday School that Jesus sits on God’s Right Hand.” There are a lot of Scriptural references to the “Right Hand of God.” As Christians, we understand that to be a reference to Jesus, but some of these references are Messianic prophecies. I wonder what the Old Testament writers thought that they were writing about?

I mentioned yesterday Psalms 110:1. That’s an interesting passage, when you stop to consider that David is clearly making reference to two separate Lords, and yet, David believed in only one God. Still, the important thing right now is the right hand reference. This has long been accepted as a Messianic prophecy (even the Pharisees acknowledged that, if only by not arguing the point when Jesus asked them why David referred to the Christ [David’s son] as Lord), so David apparently knew that there was a Christ coming that would be known as Lord.
In Genesis 48, Joseph takes his two sons, Ephraim and Manassas to Jacob (Israel) to ask that his father bless them. Joseph placed his right hand upon the younger son’s head, which displeased Joseph; Joseph felt that the older son should get the greater blessing. Why do you suppose that Joseph would think that Ephraim would get a greater blessing because Jacob’s right hand was on his head? Apparently he was right, because Jacob said as much afterwards.

In Exodus 15, Moses and the Children of Israel sang a praise unto God, after He drowned Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. They sang that God’s Right Hand had “dashed in pieces the enemy,” and that God stretched out His Right Hand and the earth swallowed them. Why specifically the Right Hand of God? Somehow I doubt that they were giving credit to a Messiah which was to come; as far as they were concerned, Moses was their messiah. Later on, before his death, Moses said that from God’s Right Hand came a fiery law for Israel. In the 17th Psalm, we are told that God saves by His Right Hand those that put their trust in Him. In the 18th Psalm, the writer attests that God’s Right Hand has held him up and protected him from harm, as does the 63rd Psalm. The 20th Psalm makes reference to the saving strength of God’s Right Hand, as does the 138th Psalm. The 21st Psalm talks about God’s Right Hand finding out those that hate Him. The 44th Psalm gives credit to God’s Right Hand for driving the Canaanites out of the Promised Land. In the 60th Psalm, the writer calls out for God’s Right Hand to save him, as does the writer of the 108th Psalm. In the 98th Psalm, we are told that God’s Right Hand has gotten Him the victory. I think it’s pretty clear that all of these are instances that the term “right hand” simply refers to the power.

I’m right-handed, myself, so I tend to think of my right hand as my power. That’s the hand that I do the things that require more strength, or more agility. I can do a lot of things with my left hand, but generally more clumsily, and less powerfully. It’s not really surprising that, since the majority of the human race is right-handed, whenever God does something powerful, people talk about it as God’s Right Hand. Whether it be drowning Pharaoh’s army (saving Israel from Egypt), or giving us a Messiah, these demonstrations of God’s power are His Right Hand at work.

Now, I have posted before that God is a Spirit, and that King David knew that God was a Spirit, yet many of these references about God’s Right Hand came from the writings of David. So, what exactly was David referring to, if not simply the Power of God?
More to come…