“BEHOLD MY HANDS!”
Jack Davis
This precious three word command speaks volumes to my heart. Considering these three words, I am caused to think of far more than just His hands of flesh and blood. I think of what He has done for us, and would do in us. He says to me, “Appreciate My suffering, and appropriate My sufficiency!”
In John 20:24-31 Jesus is showing His hands as evidence – marks of identification – saying, “Behold” and “believe.” I offer here some outlining thoughts concerning the hands of Jesus. They were: Suffering, Surrendered, Successful, Securing hands – wounded, willing, working, wooing hands – Bleeding, blessing, building hands – or our Beloved.
SUFFERING HANDS
Jesus was wounded, pierced, and bleeding that He might heal, help, and hold us. At the time of His appearance here, Jesus had been to the Cross, the tomb, and to Heaven. Yet His wounds still remained. They were reminders, means of proof, a testimony. They remained as an assurance of coming deliverance and judgment. I am persuaded that He will wear those scars with pride throughout eternity. They are precious to Him.
Psalm twenty-two is prophetic of Jesus’ innermost feelings as He cried out from the Cross: “My God, My God, who hast Thou forsaken Me?” Oh, I marvel how accurately many of these psalms have been fulfilled, having been written several hundred years before. In verses seven and sixteen of this Psalm, we see where they scorn Him and shake their heads and scoff at our beloved Lord. They pierced His hands, His feet, and His side.
The Roman form of capital punishment was to crucify; and exactly where the nails were driven – whether closer to the hands or wrists – I am not willing to argue. I know the way it was expressed in the Old Testament prophecies of our crucified Lord. Consider Zechariah 12:10 and 13:6 – “What are these wounds in Thine hands?” Those wonderful wounded hands are attractive to us, when we remember that “He was wounded for our transgressions” – Isaiah 53:5.
SURRENDERED HANDS
His hands are willing hands. He said in the garden, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” He came to do the Father’s will. “I delight to do Thy will, O My God.” We read of His stretching out those wonder-working hands in helping the poor, healing the sick, and binding up the brokenhearted. Today, He is still strengthening and encouraging our faith, and making us to know more and more deeply what He is ready and willing and able to do in us, for us, and by us.
SUCCESSFUL HANDS
His were working hands. He said from the Cross, “IT IS FINISHED.” In Luke 24:36-53 He was there in their midst, as the One who had conquered the grave and won the victory over sin and death. The triumphant One asked, “Why are ye troubled?” “Behold” and “believe!” BY WHOLEHEARTED BELIEf WE ENJOY RELIEF FROM TROUBLE AND GRIEF. Faith in Him is still the best answer when troubling thoughts arise in our hearts. He went with uplifted hands, lifting them up in their spirits.
He would have us see by faith’s eyes, that those same bleeding hands are also blessing hands. All of God’s rich blessings flow out to trusting humanity through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the extension of all God’s love and grace. Isaiah 53:10 – “THE PLEASURE OF THE Lord shall prosper in His hand.” Here real success was promised.
Those bleeding blessing hands were also building hands. He who was called the carpenter’s son was also the wise Master-builder. “The house” that lie built is the greatest royal family” – Heb. 3:3. “The Church” that He is building is to be fiercely opposed – Matt. 16:18. “The hates of hell shall not prevail against it.” He is building a glorious Kingdom that will stand the test of the ages – II Sam. 7:12-16. So He says, “BEHOLD MY HANDS.” “Yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness” – Isa. 41:10; 40:10.
SECURING HANDS
He hold us in love’s strong embrace, and makes us to know that our “life is hid with Christ in God.” In Revelation 1:7-8,14-18;2:1, John describes the pierced One: His head, feet, and hands. He is seen walking “in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks,” and holding “the seven stars in His right hand.” Now as we behold Him, sitting at His feet today, we wonder at His words, walk, and work. Our thought is not “watch your step,” but we watch His. He holds the whole Church, the local assemblies and their pastors, in His hand. That is not all, He also holds each individual believer – John 10:27-29. THANK GOD, I HOLD NOT THE ROCK BUT THE ROCK HOLDS ME.
“His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doeth embrace me.” “O My dove…let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice” – Song of Sol. 2:6,14. Through close communion with Jesus, during this time of apostasy, we are being prepared for a throne. In our Lord’s right hand we may get the sense of His caressing, and in His left hand His correcting. Our trials and triumphs - for nothing comes to us without His allowance, and only from Him do we gain any victories. With His left hand, so to speak, He turns our faces upward, lifting our sights from the earthly to the Heavenly, off ourselves and unto Him. He says, “LOOK to Me. SPEAK to Me.” In the midst of our trials we can very plainly see that Satan is trying to defeat us and rob us of God’s best. In each trial we are far better if we can SEE Jesus, behold his hands, consider HIM – Heb. 12:2-3.
“My Beloved put in His hand by the hole of the door.” He says, “Open to Me, My sister, My love, My undefiled” – Song of Sol. 5:2-4,14. BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR, AND KNOCK” – Rev. 3:20-21. Today, He knocks at individual heart doors. Our OPENNESS unto Him becomes more and more important as the days swiftly pass until He comes.
Consider a paraphrased version of Song of Sol. 5, verse three, in application to the attitude of most of Christendom today: “Oh, I am so comfortable, clean and neat.. I smell so sweet. I have washed my feet. I do not want to be disturbed. I just want to take my ease and do as I please.
HE SAYS, “BEHOLD, MY HANDS”
Verse four – Oh, how tenderly and patiently He gives us renewed vision from time to time. He gives us glimpse, after encouraging glimpse, of His hands, He does it to stir us out of indifference and self indulgence. Sometimes correcting then caressing; but, He is always working to draw us closer, into deeper sweeter fellowship with Himself. He is reminding us to APPRECIATE HIS SUFFERINGS AND APPROPRIATE HIS SUFFICIENCY.
“His hands are as gold rings” – 5:14. Rings can be seen as seals of authority and ownership. These rings can also show us a picture of the sweet, complete, secure enclosure of Divine love.
