ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Tusite Ma’asi 7, 2023

אצבע The Digits of Divinity

Ko e Tuhu ‘o e ‘Otua

EXODUS 8:19

THEN THE MAGICIANS SAID TO PHARAOH, "THIS IS THE FINGER OF GOD." BUT PHARAOH'S HEART WAS HARDENED, AND HE WOULD NOT LISTEN TO THEM, AS THE LORD HAD SAID.

‘EKISOTO 8:19

Pea na‘e pehē ‘a e kau maki kia Felo, Ko e tuhu ‘o e ‘Otua eni: ka na‘e fakafefeka ‘a e loto ‘o Felo, pea na‘e ‘ikai te ne tokanga kiate kinaua, ‘o tatau mo e me‘a na‘e fakahā ‘e Sihova.

With their secret arts, Pharaoh's magicians had imitated the staff-become-crocodile (7:11) and water-become-blood (7:22). But when they tried to replicate the third plague, dust-become-gnats, they failed (8:18). Their response: "This is the etzba Elohim," the finger of God. The Lord swore to redeem them with "an outstretched arm" (6:6), to stretch out his "hand against Egypt" (7:5), but he also used his fingers. With his etzba, he also crafted the heavens (Ps. 8:3) and wrote the law on tablets of stone (Exod. 31:18). With all of who he is, down to his very fingertips, the Lord is creating, teaching, and redeeming.

"If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons," Jesus said, "then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Luke 11:20). Christ's ministry was Exodus on replay: he came to liberate us from slavery to evil, to overcome the Pharaoh of hell, to undergo a Passover death. His fingers are the digits of divinity. With those fingers, he crafts the kingdom of freedom into which he brings us in the greater exodus of his gospel. And with them he writes his Word on our hearts in the new covenant (Jer. 31:33).

With your fingers, O Lord, drive evil from us, craft us anew, and write your Word on our hearts.