"He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God." (Joshua 4:24 NIV)
One of the recurring equations in God's story is this: "I will __________ so that people will see/know/consider/understand that the hand of the Lord _________."
The first variable usually involves something God does: some wonder He works, some provision He makes, some problem He solves.
The working, making, and solving are not the end of the story, though, but the cause of God's desired effect: "so that" people will grasp some truth about God's hand: that it is powerful or that it is responsible for what has happened or that it is "on" them.
As modern believers, we have at our fingertips a record of these wonders, provisions, and solved problems: the Bible, God's manual for living.
It can hardly be a coincidence that the word "manual" stems from the Latin word "manus," meaning hand, because a hand can literally help us get a grip on God's manual. (And here I am indebted to a friend of our family for introducing me to this illustration from www.intotheharvest.org.)
Each finger of the hand, as well as the palm, leads us along toward being "a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). (Emphasis mine, because seriously: don't you love how this reinforces the theme?)
Starting with the little finger and progressing toward the thumb and then to the palm, we:
*Hear God's Word (Hebrews 13:7).
*Read God's Word (Deuteronomy 17:19).
*Study God's Word (Acts 17:11).
*Memorize God's Word (Psalm 119:9-11).
*Meditate on God's Word (Joshua 1:8).
*Obey God's Word (James 1:21, 22).
We do all this and do it again. And then, Word in hand, we fulfill God's "so that" and respond as He intended: "The hand of the Lord is on us! The hand of the Lord has done this! The hand of the Lord is powerful!"
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I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to tell me what you really think. Years ago, I explained to my then-two-year-old that my appointment with a counselor was "sort of like going to a doctor who will help me be a better mommy." Without blinking, she replied, "You'd better go every day." All of which is just to say I've spent some time in the school of brutal honesty!