Arcana Coelestia # 7673
7673. 'Stretch out your hand' means an exercising of power. This is clear from the meaning of 'stretching out' as that which is connected with the exercising of control, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'hand' as power, dealt with in 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 5544, 6292, 6947, 7011, 7188, 7189, 7518. The reason why 'stretching out the hand' means the exercising of power is that there is power in the hand or arm when it is stretched out. When therefore Jehovah is said to stretch out His hand or arm, boundless or infinite power in action is meant. This explains why Jehovah told Moses on so many occasions, when miracles were to be performed, to stretch out his hand or his rod; for example,
Stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, and they will be blood. Exodus 7:19.
Stretch out your hand over the rivers, and cause frogs to rise up. Exodus 8:1-2. 1
Stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land, and it will then be lice. Exodus 8:11, 12. 2
Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and there will be hail. Exodus 9:22-23.
Such words would never have been used but for the meaning of 'stretching out the hand' in the highest sense as Jehovah's almighty power.
[2] The same thing is meant by Joshua's being told to stretch out his javelin, described in his book as follows,
Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand towards Ai. When therefore Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand towards Ai, the ambush rose up quickly out of their place and ran, as soon as he stretched out his hand, and came to the city and took it. Joshua did not withdraw his hand which he had stretched out together with the javelin until all the inhabitants of Ai had been utterly destroyed. Joshua 8:18-19, 26.
Being representative of God's almighty power, this too, like all other representative actions when they were commanded in those times, had force.
[3] There are a number of other places in which almighty power is described when it says that Jehovah 'stretches out His hand', or else His 'outstretched hand' or His 'outstretched arm' is spoken of. It is described by Jehovah stretching out His hand in Isaiah,
The anger [of Jehovah] has been roused against His people, and He has stretched out His hand over them and struck them, and the mountains were shaken. Isaiah 5:25.
In Ezekiel,
I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him. Ezekiel 14:9, 13.
In the same prophet,
I will stretch out My hand against you, and give you as plunder to the nations. Ezekiel 25:7.
I will stretch out My hand over Edom, and cut off from it man and beast. I will stretch out My hand over the philistines, and cut off . . . Ezekiel 25:13, 16.
Other places like these are Ezekiel 35:3; Isaiah 31:3; Zephaniah 1:4; 2:13. The use of 'outstretched hand' to describe almighty power occurs in Isaiah,
Jehovah's outstretched hand is over all the nations; who will turn it back? Isaiah 14:26, 27.
In Jeremiah,
I will fight with you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, and in anger and in fury. Jeremiah 21:5.
In Isaiah,
Still His hand is outstretched. Isaiah 9:12, 17; 10:4.
The use of 'outstretched arm' occurs in Jeremiah,
I have made the earth, man, and beast by My great strength and by My outstretched arm. Jeremiah 27:5.
In the same prophet,
You have made heaven and earth by Your great power and Your outstretched arm; there is no matter 3 that is too impossible for You. Jeremiah 32:17.
Here it is self-evident that 'outstretched arm' means almighty power. The same applies to many other places in which the expression 'by a strong hand and an outstretched arm' is used, such as Deuteronomy 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 9:29; 11:2; 26:8; 1 Kings 8:42; 2 Kings 17:36; Jeremiah 32:21; Ezekiel 20:33, 34.
[4] There are places too in which Jehovah is said to 'stretch out the heavens', and in these places also 'stretching out' means almighty power; that is to say, He expands the limits of heaven and fills those who are there with life and wisdom, as in Isaiah,
Jehovah is He who stretches out the heavens like a thin veil, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Isaiah 40:22.
In the same prophet,
Jehovah is He who stretches out the heavens, spreads out the earth, gives breath 4 to His people upon it, and spirit to those who walk on it. Isaiah 42:5.
In Jeremiah,
. . . He who makes the earth by His power, prepares the world by His wisdom, and stretches out the heavens by His intelligence. Jeremiah 51:15.
In Zechariah,
Jehovah is He who stretches out the heavens, and founds the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. Zechariah 12:1.
There are still more places besides these, such as Isaiah 44:24; 45:12; Psalms 104:2.
From all this one may now see why Moses was commanded to stretch out his hand and rod, that miracles were performed when he did so, and that 'stretching out the hand' for that reason means the exercising of power, and in the highest sense almighty power.
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Deuteronomy 11
1
Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, always.
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Know this day: for I don't speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,
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and his signs, and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land;
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and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day;
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and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place;
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and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel:
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but your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which he did.
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Therefore you shall keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it;
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and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey.
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For the land, where you go in to possess it, isn't as the land of Egypt, that you came out from, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;
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but the land, where you go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, [and] drinks water of the rain of the sky,
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a land which Yahweh your God cares for: the eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.
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It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
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that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, and your new wine, and your oil.
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I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
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Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
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and the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky, so that there shall be no rain, and the land shall not yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you.
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Therefore you shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul; and you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes.
19
You shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
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You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates;
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that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.
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For if you shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to do it, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him;
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then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
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Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder sea shall be your border.
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No man shall be able to stand before you: Yahweh your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread on, as he has spoken to you.
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Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse:
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the blessing, if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day;
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and the curse, if you shall not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known.
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It shall happen, when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.
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Aren't they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?
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For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell therein.
32
You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day.
