The magicians said to
Pharaoh, “It is the finger of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard,
and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted. – Exodus
8:19 (NET)
As we read this
verse, we find ourselves in the midst of the story of the plagues that are
reported to have come upon the land and people of Egypt prior to Israel’s
exodus. The statement above, in regards to the finger of the Creator God
of Israel, was specifically made in relation to the plague of gnats. With
this plague, we find that “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, “Extend your
staff and strike the dust of the ground, and it will become gnats throughout
all the land of Egypt”.’ They did so” (8:16-17a). As we would
expect when reading the Scriptural narrative, this is what happened, as gnats
did indeed come upon the land. Up until that point, each time there had
been a miraculous demonstration of power credited to the God of Moses and
Israel, be it the turning of a staff into a serpent, the conversion of water
into blood, or the bringing of frogs on the land, the reader is told that the
magicians of Egypt were able to accomplish the same by their “secret arts”.
When it came to the
production of gnats upon the land, the men of Egypt attempted to follow
suit. Of course, it would be rather
difficult to understand why they would want to continue doing so, as more gnats
certainly wouldn’t be something desirable, but it is reasonable to imagine that
there may ben an honor and shame component at work underlying the interactions
and the narrative. However, “When the
magicians attempted to bring forth gnats by their secret arts, they could not”
(8:18a). Finally, a point had been reached where they could no longer go
point for point against Israel’s God, and they came to realize that they were
dealing with a power that was beyond them. This is what elicited the cry
of “It is the finger of God!” However, even with these words from his
magicians, the Pharaoh did not listen, thus aligning with a divine prediction
that “although I will multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt,
Pharaoh will not listen to you” (7:3b-4a).
The term “finger of
God” is used elsewhere in Scripture. It has a role in the New Testament,
as we actually find it on the lips of Jesus in the eleventh chapter of
Luke. There, Jesus had cast out a demon, and some of the witnesses of
this event attempted to explain this occurrence by saying “By the power of
Beelzebul, the ruler of demons, He casts out demons” (11:15). Jesus
responded with an indication that this made no sense at all, saying “So if
Satan too is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?”
(11:18a) It is logical to ask why in the world Satan would go about
casting out Satan (himself). Going further, Jesus says, “But if I cast
out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has already overtaken
you” (11:20).
As we peruse the
pages of the Bibles, we will find “finger of God” used four times, two of which
we have now already seen. The other two are Exodus 31:18, where Moses
recounts that the tablets of stone that he received on Mount Sinai had been
“written by the finger of God;” and in Deuteronomy 9:10, where, recounting the
events first recorded in Exodus, Moses speaks again about the tablets that were
“written by the very finger of God.”
Thus, three of the
usages of the term are explicitly connected with the exodus of Israel, with two
of them being found in the book of Exodus itself. Therefore, because we
know that Jesus would have chosen His words quite carefully and purposefully,
and because, as a Jew, Jesus would have understood Himself according to Israel’s
historical/traditional narrative, it is reasonable to conclude that when Jesus
uses the phrase, and when Luke reports Jesus using the phrase, also considering
the fact that Jesus’ audience is Jewish (though Luke’s may not have been), that
it is meant to be an implicit reminder of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, the power
of the Creator God that was on display in that exodus, and the deliverance of
Israel.
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