Hands That Cannot Reach; Arms That Can (Lev. 5:7)

I have fairly long arms, but yesterday when I was in Wal-Mart trying to reach the top shelf they weren’t long enough. What I wanted was just out of my reach; on my tiptoes, I was millimeters away from being able to touch it. Fortunately for me, a terribly tall giant of a man walked by just then, saw my struggle, and said in a deep voice, “Ma’am, let me get that for you.” Within seconds, with a thank you, I had what had formerly been out of my reach; he easily provided what I could not attain for myself, his kindness filled my need because he had the ability I lacked. 

This morning I was reading from Leviticus (I heard you groaning, but Leviticus gets a bad rap. Dealing with mankind’s sin is never an easy subject, and reading Leviticus is often like reading an old, dry law book with all the listings of sins and the remedies the law provided for them. Anyway . . .). I got to chapter five in the Amplified version that I am using this year for my read-through of the Bible, and I found one of their nifty asterisks and looked down to find that cannot afford in verse seven literally translates as “if his hand cannot reach enough for.” The context here is a poor man trying to bring a guilt offering before the LORD for the sin he has committed, and the problem is he cannot afford a lamb or a goat for his offering to cover the sin. Literally, his hand is unable to stretch out and grab what he needs because there is a financial limitation.

God in His giving of the law provided for even the poor to be able to come to him in their sin. They were neither despised nor rejected in their poverty but had the same ability to draw close to God in repentance as a rich man. God is not a respecter of men (Rom. 2:11-16), and He does not despise the poor whose arm is too short to reach far enough to make things right. God, whose arm IS long enough and who HAS the ability to save reaches down and saves the one who cannot save himself in his sin. HE makes a way where there seems to be NO way. God brings the expense of the sin offering down to a level that is lower than any other offering, teaching us, as Matthew Henry says, “that no man’s poverty shall ever be a bar in the way of his pardon.”

The level of poverty is reflected in the decreasing cost of the articles to be offered for a guilt offering. If the person couldn’t afford a lamb or goat, he could offer two turtledoves or two young pigeons as his offering for his sin-guilt—two because one was for his sin offering and the other for a burnt offering that recognized the mercy of God in both appointing and accepting the atonement. If the cost of two birds was out of his reach, God also made provision for that as well in allowing one to bring a bushel of fine flour as his sin offering, but there was a caveat to it: no olive oil or incense could be placed on it because it was a sin offering. Sin is unsavory, and the flour offered to God for one’s sin should not smell good or taste good either. When we sin before God and repent, we should have no incentive to repeat the sin we’ve repented of. 

Sin is also expensive. Think of what this we read of in Leviticus is a shadow of—Jesus’ death on the cross. Sin costs God His only begotten Son’s death on a horrible cross, bearing the weight of the sin of the man He has formed from dust. Sin costs them both separation, albeit temporary, from each other that was horrible and something we cannot even begin to understand. Sin is stinky and costly and tedious, and this offering of flour was not to be anything but a reminder of that. God’s arm is not too short to save where man’s has failed!

There are actually many verses in references to God’s arm in the Bible. While God doesn’t have an arm in the same sense that humans do, the reference to God’s arm is actually a literary term, figurative language, and is called anthropomorphism, which is the attributing of human characteristics or behavior to God in this instance. Anthropomorphism can be the attributing of human characteristics to anything not human. (See, staying awake in literature class is beneficial, but just in case you missed it, now you know.) God, a spirit, has no arms, but the attributing of arms to Him in action is anthropomorphism. 

God with an outstretched arm brought His people from Egypt. He endued Moses with His power and had him stretch out his staff to perform miracles (Deut. 4:34); had Moses lift his arm to hold back the Sea of Reeds for the children to cross over on dry land (Is. 63:12); he used Moses’ arms lifted up to the LORD while Joshua led a battle to lead them to victory (Ex. 17), and it goes on and on. God not only has a hand that isn’t too short to save (Is. 59:1), He is a “dwelling place and underneath are [His] everlasting arms” and drove out the enemy before His children, saying, “Destroy!” (Deut. 33:27). When His children got into the land they were promised, He Himself “crushed Rahab like one who is slain; [He] scattered [His] enemies with [His] mighty arm” (Ps. 89:10). 

The result of the demonstration of God’s right hand and His holy arm at work gaining victories requires us to sing in praise of Him (Ps. 98:1), to shout our praises. We rejoice continually that He is able where we are without ability. He is strong where we are weak. He is mighty where we are powerless. He is God, and yes, His arm is long enough to save, to terrify (Deut. 26:8), to deliver (Ex. 6:6), to destroy (Is. 30:30), to flex His muscles in the sight of the nations that all may see His salvation (Is. 52:10), to establish (Ps. 89:21), and to drive out (Deut. 7:19). 

God, with the greatness of His arm, is the One who has purchased the salvation of His people and will be with them until they pass over (Ex. 15:16). He is the One who used the physical arms of a God who came down to be with us, Jesus, to hang on a cross for a people who had rejected Him, caused Him heartbreak. Jesus' arms stretched out to them in blessing as He ascended back to heaven (Luke 24:50) where He lives to intercede for those He has redeemed (Heb. 7:25). His arm is able to reach what needs reaching and grab those who are His and rescue them from eternal harm. 

Because of His arm, nothing He desires for His own children is out of reach, there is no shelf too high. Amen!