In this unique study, we are going to examine "symbolic actions" and see what the Holy Spirit has to say through each one.
Our prayer is that your knowledge of the Word is greatly enhanced through this study.
1. The Lifting Up Of My Hands
Psalm 141:2 says - "...and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."
Prayer is sometimes presented by the motions of our bodies. We see that exemplified in bent knees and lifted hands as tokens of earnest and expectant prayers.
The "lifting up of our hands" denotes both the elevation and enlargement of our desires and the outgoings of our hope and expectation. The hands that hang down are lifted up in hope or spread forth in believing and fervent prayer - reaching out for God's mercy. Expectant hands are lifted with the hopes of being filled with the gift from God.
"The lifting up of my hands" also signifies the lifting up of our hearts - being used instead of lifting up of the sacrifices that were heaved and waved before the Lord. It is considered to be a spiritual sacrifice - offering up the soul or the best affections to God.
Hands lifted up in prayer is reckoned a type of sacrifice. David likens it to the "evening sacrifice."
The "evening sacrifice" was the burnt offering accompanied with flour and salt. Here David asks that the "lifting up of his hands" in gratitude and self-dedication to God would be accepted in the place of the evening minchah or oblation.
David's "evening sacrifice" can be termed the "sacrifice of the empty-handed." Here he was lifting up "empty hands" to the Lord in hopes that He would accept them as if they were filled with the most elaborate and costly sacrifices.
What was implied in this "sacrifice of the empty-handed" was that David was bringing his emptiness into touch with God's infinite fullness. It was meant to destroy any notion of having to bring anything to deserve God's gifts.
So, what we gather from this "sacrifice of the empty-handed" is that, in our service to God, we do not need to bring any merit of our own. Our true worship to God is not in our giving to Him but in our taking from Him. We should always feel ourselves to be empty-handed - coming with hearts in need of God.
When you come before God, do you come empty-handed - "lifting up your hands" - not bringing any merit of your own and bringing your emptiness into touch with His infinite fullness?
Acts 17:25 says of the Lord - "Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things."
You must never forget - God is the source of life, breath, and everything. He does not need you. You need Him.
2. The Sole Of Your Foot Shall Tread Upon
Joshua 1:3 says -"Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses."
God gave a promise to Moses and then renewed it to Joshua. He said that He would give the Israelites "every place that the sole of their foot should tread upon."
Herein God gave them a large and great promise, but it had its sharp limitations. God gave them the title-deed, the motive-power, and the strength, and then said - "Enter and possess..." The land was only made good to them by their own exertions. They only owned as much of the land of promise as they actually occupied, subdued, and possessed.
Look at Abraham. God gave him the promise of possessing the Holy Land. He did not get the fulfillment of this promise by remaining in Ur of the Chaldees. He had to do something. He left his home, journeyed over the desert, and traversed on foot over the Land of Promise from one end to another.
This was God's intention for Israel. They were to measure out with their feet, and by doing so, take possession.
It is called the Law of Appropriation. And it is explained in this way - God gives, but we must take. Every place must be won. Israel had to go up. The sole of her foot had to tread upon.
Interestingly enough, there are some scholars who derive the origin of the word - possession - from "pedis position" which means "the position of the foot." They arrive at this conclusion based on a maxim of the ancient jurists that whatever a person's foot touched was his.
Doing research on this matter, we found that according to curious antique rights, persons got possession of land by measuring it with their feet. Consequently, the foot became one of the terms of measurement.
It was a primitive custom to measure out the land that was to be cultivated or built upon by using one's foot. The footprint then became a symbol of possession - denoting that the land that had been marked out by the foot of the individual became his own property.
The ancient Romans would often sculpture on their tombs the symbol of the foot to indicate that these tombs were the property of the persons who reposed in them.
What does this have to do with you?
Spiritually speaking, God is spreading before you a great territory and saying - "That is yours..." But only as much as you "measure out with the sole of your foot" will truly be yours.
The individual Christian life (including the great and extensive privileges and blessings of grace) lies before you as a vast, unclaimed, and untrodden land of promise. These privileges and blessings become yours by the same law that only what you live up to, appropriate, and realize becomes your own.
The great truths of the Christian experience lie before you and are yours, but only as you possess them through your faith and obedience.
It is not how much Bible you know, but how much Bible you are "walking" out before God and man that determines how much "land" is truly possessed.
Each experience of God's love and grace that you pass through - "mountain ranges"..."lowly valleys" ...or "verdant meadows" - become yours as you walk through them. The further you travel, the richer you become - spiritually speaking.
God has done His part in offering you the "territory." "That is yours..." However, you must now do your part in "possessing the land" in your "walk" with Him.
How much of "God's Promised Land" do you possess?
3. Going Down To Egypt For Help
Isaiah 31:1 says - "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help...but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!"
God forbade Israel to engage in any and all unholy alliances with heathen nations. He and He alone was to be her protector. Yet, time and time again, she failed in this regard.
She "went down to Egypt for help." By placing her confidence in Egypt, she bestowed on mortal man the glory which was due to God. She leaned on the "arm of the flesh" instead of trusting in the living God. She trusted in numbers, apparent human strength, and carnal forces.
Little did she realize that she was trusting in a "broken reed." That is exactly what Egypt turned out to be.
Notice it was a downward motion when she looked to Egypt "for help" ("go down to Egypt for help." ) She placed her confidence in the creature which in turn produced a distrust of God and His power and a disinclination to look to Him for aid. Hence, she no longer looked to Him with an eye of faith nor did she ask counsel and instruction of Him.
This action of "going down to Egypt for help" is very common in our present day. There are many in the Church who - in the day of trouble - are looking for relief from the wrong sources. Instead of obtaining true happiness by having their will in harmony with God's will, they are seeking it in wrong paths.
The Pulpit Commentary said this in comment - "They who, distrusting God, put their trust in man will fall under God's high displeasure, and, according to their circumstances and the character of their error, will fall into discomfiture, into disrepute, into disappointment, into shame."
The Prophet Isaiah said it with great clarity - "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help..."
What about you? Are you relying upon human aid rather than trusting in the Divine promises? In every time of pressure and need, do you first fly to some form of human help?
The lifting up of the empty-hand in prayer, the foot that is treading upon new territory, and the downward motion in false confidence - what are these "symbolic actions" saying to you today?
May God Bless His Word,
Connie
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. (Isaiah 54:17)
© COPYRIGHT Connie Giordano - All Rights Reserved