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In the previous study, we saw that Lot and his daughters were escaped to Zoar because they feared going to the mountain and being slain by a beast or beasts.

This leads later into Lot and his daughters fearing in Zoar and going to the mountain anyways.

It is here that Lot’s daughters get Lot drunk and it is a parallel to Noah becoming drunken after him and his family were saved via the ark.

In the type and shadow have Lot and his daughters, we see that as Abraham, our enemies are being place around us by the mighty and awesome hands of the Lord through “our brother’s seed” which we brought form “our father’s house” via bringing Lot with us when the Lord told us to leave.

In the this week’s study, we will look at verse 20:5 and how Abraham yet again has little faith that he will be okay because the Lord is God almighty.  Instead, Abraham will again try to move things along by trying to lie his way through the next situation the Lord will place him in.

We’ll see yet again how we, like Abraham, we try to make things work out best for our flesh by constructing a ploy to trick those who the Lord has placed us in front of.

It will only lead us to being made an open book to those around us, but we will ultimately still be okay as the Lord promises us He will always take care of us for good. However, we will continue to reap what we sow as the Lord leads us to sow it.

The first verse for our “hands” study today is Gen 20:5.

Gen 20:1 –  And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
Gen 20:2 –  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
Gen 20:3 –  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.
Gen 20:4 –  But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
Gen 20:5 –  Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.

Though this first word is translated hands in English, there is another deeper meaning behind why the Holy Spirit chose this word in Hebrew.

The Hebrew word used here is not the typical Hebrew word H3027 / yad, but rather it is H3709 / kaph. It has a more inner meaning for the word hand and it is really referring to the hollow of your hand or your palm. It is the space that your hand holds within its palm area. In other words, it is the “inner hand”.

Abimelech is contending with the Lord because what Abimelech is really telling the Lord is, “I haven’t even so much as thought that I wanted to take a man’s wife. That guy deceived me by lying to me.”

How does the Lord respond to Abimelech?

Gen 20:6 –  And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
Gen 20:7 –  Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

The Lord tells Abimelech a few interesting things that can easily be read over and unnoticed.

Lightning in His hands

Firstly, the Lord says I know you did what you did because of the integrity of your heart because I did it. Abimelech mentioned two things in this rebuttal to the Lord and it is the “innocence of his hands” for which Abimelech cries out to the Lord about.

The word used as H3709 or “kaph” is used several other ways in scripture which will add to our understanding of what the Lord is responding to Abimelech with as a reply.

H3709

kaph

Total KJV Occurrences:183

Some of the verses that really bring home what we are about to see are a few we have covered in the past “Awesome Hands” studies, but a few really bring the point home.

Gen 8:9 –  But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

Deu 28:35 –  The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

Num 7:14 –  One spoon of ten shekels of gold, full of incense:

Num 7:68 –  One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense:

Gen 32:25 –  And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.

1Sa 5:4 –  And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

Lev 9:17 –  And he brought the meat offering, and took an handful thereof, and burnt it upon the altar, beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning.

Lev 14:15 –  And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand:

Lev 23:40 –  And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.

By now, Lord willing, we should start to be seeing a pattern emerge from the verses we have just read. If not, then this next example from Job should bring it home quickly.

Job 36:22 –  Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?
Job 36:23 –  Who hath enjoined him his way? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?
Job 36:24 –  Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold.
Job 36:25 –  Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.
Job 36:26 –  Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.
Job 36:27 –  For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
Job 36:28 –  Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
Job 36:29 –  Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
Job 36:30 –  Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.
Job 36:31 –  For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.
Job 36:32 –  With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt.

A better translation for 36:32 is:

Job 36:32 –  He covers His hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark;

So, we can see that the Lord is doing everything according to the inner workings of His hands. He is directing not only His own hands, but the hands of every one of His creation.

The very thing that the Lord tells Abimelech is that He understands that Abimelech is telling the truth because it is the Lord who wrote those directions upon Abimelech’s heart in the first place.

Job 4:12 –  Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
Job 4:13 –  In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,

Job 33:13 –  Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.
Job 33:14 –  For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
Job 33:15 –  In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
Job 33:16 –  Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,
Job 33:17 –  That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
Job 33:18 –  He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.

Praise the Lord! The Lord preserves us or He delivers us to the hands of our enemies. It is all of Him. Still, He tells us that a prophet sent by Him will be the one to be used to bless Abimelech so that he and his house don’t perish.

Yes indeed, the Lord uses “the foolishness of preaching”, that which He holds in the palm of His hand, to “keepeth the soul back from the pit and lives from perishing by the sword “ by those pillars, those clouds whom He sends along to us.

Remember, this is someone who Abraham basically feared. He lied out of fear, but the Lord shapes even those who are around us so that even when the Lord is making “all things ours”, He is also working this in others simultaneously for their benefit as well.

The Lord simply chose to tell Abimelech this, Abraham’s “enemy” in type and shadow, so that Abimelech’s “upright” heart and nation would be preserved.

Gen 20:7 –  Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

 

Perfectly Furbished

Truly, the Lord fashions us all how He wants us to be. During the last study and this study, we can see that the Lord is setting up the entire scenario in which we always find ourselves in … whatever scenarios that those are.

As we hone in on this idea, we can see another example of this scriptural truth in Eze 21:11. The Lord tells Abimelech that He is going to save his soul from the pit and from perishing by the sword so how does the Lord achieve this? His hands are awesome!

Ezekiel 21:8 –  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ezekiel 21:9 –  Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:
Ezekiel 21:10 –  It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.
Ezekiel 21:11 –  And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.
Ezekiel 21:12 –  Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.
Ezekiel 21:13 –  Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.

Oh, how we contend with the Lord! The Lord knows the inner workings of every inch of us and yet we think we can wrestle with the angels He sends our way.

He has given to those angels His Word, His gospel and His message for a trial for all wood, hay and stubble in our lives.

Ezekial 21:13 is again translated horribly in the King James. The true meaning is brought out a little clearer in a few other translations.

Darby –

Ezekiel 21:10 –  It is sharpened for sore slaughter, it is furbished that it may glitter. Shall we then make mirth, saying, The sceptre of my son contemneth all wood?

Revised Version

Ezekiel 21:10 –  it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it contemneth every tree.

Modern King James Verison

Ezekiel 21:10 –  It is sharpened in order to slaughter; it is polished so that there may be a flash to it. Or shall we rejoice? You are despising the rod of My son, as if it were every tree.

Good News Bible

Ezekiel 21:10 –  It is sharpened to kill, polished to flash like lightning. There can be no rejoicing, for my people have disregarded every warning and punishment.

In other words, we know that the Word of God is the rod of His son. It is in the Word of God that we see the will of God the Father for all of creation.

It is also in the Word of God that we see that the rain comes on the just and unjust alike, but like Abimelech in this type and shadow, we are warned to escape the coming destruction just as Lot was shortly before by the messengers of the Lord.

The Word of God, the sword and rod of the Lord are what are used to slaughter and save, to destroy and give life and that is what we are being told here.

The true message we can see being given to us is that the Lord knows the inner workings of all those around us as well as in us. We cannot dupe the Lord form what the Lord has caused in our lives, whether it is “good or bad” from our vantage point.

Do you still doubt thou beast? What inner instruction has the Lord sealed on your heart?

What drives you? What are you beholden to? What has dominance over you? Do you think the Lord has anything to do with it? Do you think that the Lord could just have easily not have put a hedge around Abimelech and let him sin against the Lord so that the Lord would have destroyed him?

Are we really dealing with our flesh or are we dealing with the powers and principalities that have been put in place by our Lord?

The same word that we have been concentrating on today is the same word that we see here as “paws” in Leviticus.

Lev 11:27 –  And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you: whoso toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the even.

If we are driven by those things which are the inner forces we are talking about…. space that makes up the inside of our hand, the inside of the cup… then we are unclean beasts.

If however, we are listening to the messengers of the Lord because of the message the bring from the Word of the Lord, then the Lord uses that to bring us life and salvation “from the pit”.

It is this very act that saves us from the hands of evil, the place where evil has it’s  power.  We can see an example of this in Habakkuk.

Hab 2:9 –  Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!

The word used here as power in English is the same word used today as sole, palm, paws handling, etc. It all points to the Lord’s total fashioning or furbishing of all that we see, think and feel in our walk with Him.

This whole scenario with Abraham happened because even though the Lord had brought Abraham through so much up until this point, Abraham still thought He knew what the Lord was doing at every step and He wanted to help along the situation to his benefit.

We can see this when Abimelech awakens form this dream that the Lord has just given him.

Gen 20:8 –  Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid.
Gen 20:9 –  Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.
Gen 20:10 –  And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?
Gen 20:11 –  And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake.

There it is. There is the fear placed on Abrahams heart that the Lord doesn’t really mean that He will work out all things for our good. He doesn’t really mean it does He? Maybe we should help Him along…

Gen 20:12 –  And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
Gen 20:13 –  And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.
Gen 20:14 –  And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.
Gen 20:15 –  And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee.
Gen 20:16 –  And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved.
Gen 20:17 –  So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.
Gen 20:18 –  For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.

Even with all this, the Lord uses the entire situation to bless Abraham again with wealth, cattle, servants, etc. He heals Abimelech and his household because even as the Lord was giving Abimelech direction in his dream, the Lord had already closed up the wombs of the women in his house.

Of course, we should all know that the lesson is that anything the Lord “writes upon our hearts” and has already been willed by the Lord. This is the same for all of mankind, but we are blessed to have Him come to us via dreams, visions and messengers to let us in on His workings.

Conclusion of “Awesome Hands” part 9

In this study today, we can see that the Lord works all things after the counsel of His own will and that also includes the things which are being worked in others.

These things are brought about due to whatever the Lord has set in motion in the heavens. He tells us that He is control time and time again, yet we still continue to rebel by doing our “own thing”.

As we will see in the next part of “Awesome Hands”, the Lord has done all He has for us  so that He can bring us to the point of “bearing and producing the seed of the promise “that He has made a covenant with us to bring about.

We will close this study with ones more example of how we are comfortably seated in the “heavenly” hands that He holds us in. Verse 48:16 of Isaiah is placed in the midst of a beautiful situation created for those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear it.

When and if you cry out to the Lord remember that we are in His loving embrace.

Isa 49:13 –  Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
Isa 49:14 –  But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.
Isa 49:15 –  Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
Isa 49:16 –  Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
Isa 49:17 –  Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.
Isa 49:18 –  Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.
Isa 49:19 –  For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.
Isa 49:20 –  The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.
Isa 49:21 –  Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?
Isa 49:22 –  Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
Isa 49:23 –  And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.