7430. 'The finger of God is this' means that the power came from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'the finger of God' as power from the Divine. The reason why 'finger' means power is that the fingers are parts of the hands, and by 'hands' is meant power, 878, 4931-4937, 6344, 6424, 6948. The meaning of 'finger' as power is clear from the following places also: In David,
When I look at the heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars which You have established 1
... Psalms 8:3
In Luke,
Jesus said, If I cast out demons by the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come to you. Luke 11:20.
When Jesus took aside from the people the deaf man who spoke with difficulty and put His finger into his ears, and spat and touched his tongue, Mark 7:32-33, this too was an action representative of Divine power.
[2] The fact that 'finger' represents power is also evident from rituals observed in the Church among the Jews, the ritual in which blood was put on the thumb, and the ritual in which the priest sprinkled blood with his finger, both commanded in the following places in Moses,
You shall slaughter the ram, and put some of the blood on the thumb of the right hand of Aaron and of his sons, and on the big toe of his right foot. Exodus 29:20.
The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt-offering, and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed from leprosy, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Then the priest shall dip his right finger in some of the oil which is on the palm of his left hand, and sprinkle some of the oil on his finger seven times before Jehovah. Some of the rest of the oil that is on his palm the priest shall put on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Leviticus 14:14, 16-17.
You shall take some of the blood of the young bull, and place it with your finger on the horns of the altar. Exodus 29:11.
Further places in which such rituals occur are Leviticus 4:6; 9:9.
[3] All these rituals served to mean the hidden and holy things of heaven. This is clear from the consideration that the Word has a Divine origin and is inspired as to every tittle, Luke 16:17; and this being so, 'thumb' and 'finger' mean the power of good exercised through truth, as is evident from their internal sense in the places just quoted. Power is again meant by 'finger' in David,
Blessed be Jehovah, who trains my hands for conflict, and my fingers for war. Psalms 144:1
And in Isaiah,
He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and what his fingers have made. Isaiah 17:8.
'The altars' stands for worship in general, 4541, 'the work of hands' and 'what fingers have made' for the kinds of things that are the product of what is properly one's own, thus of one's own power.
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