“…to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

My, how times have changed!  It used to be — and still is, in some parts of the country — that a little child would want to see his daddy’s muscle.  As a father of seven, it wasn’t all that infrequent for me to hear “Let’s see your muscle, dad!”  I would lift up my arm, pull back my shirt sleeve and flex.  This to hear, “Ooh… wow…” etc.  These days, it seems if a kid wants his dad to show them his ‘muscle,” he’ll pull up his T-shirt and show a huge pot of flesh protruding ungracefully over his pants like runaway Jell-O.

But to children this is more than being just about biceps, the larger muscle of the upper arm.  It is all about what that muscle — that image — means and represents.  And this is no less true when the Bible uses the description of arm to describe the Lord.  Think, for just a minute, of the words that are related to this word: army, armor, armature, armament, armada and armory.  We quickly come to the idea of strength, power and military might.  Exactly.  However, this is no ordinary arm; it is the arm of the Lord.  God asked Job, “Do you have an arm like God’s…?” (40:9).  Now the picture really becomes impressive beyond description: God’s eternal and unlimited power poised for immediate action.  Get out of the way (if you think you can) if you’re not on his side!

The verse above is found in Isaiah 53.  But the immediate section actually begins in the preceding chapter.  In verse thirteen the topic changes: “See, my servant will act wisely, he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.”  That chapter ends with two verses describing the price this servant will pay for being lifted up so highly: “his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…”  While the cost is excruciating, we don’t want to miss the fact that we’re talking about someone — “my servant” — not just something.  Then the “arm of the Lord” shows up in 53:1, and the personification continues in the following verses: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.  He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows…”  As the rest of chapter 53 continues, it is clear — even to Jewish people who know about Jesus but reject the gospel — that a mere superficial reading demonstrates that this text is about the Christ.  And that shouldn’t really surprise us.  When we scan the Scriptures for references of God’s arm, we find Jesus ever present.

In the Old Testament, we find arm described most frequently, no less than sixteen times, as “outstretched.”  Moses links most of these descriptions to the powers and miracles that freed Israel from Egypt at the exodus.  Jeremiah uses this word similarly as well as referring to the creation of the world.  Even John quoted Isaiah 53:1 in his gospel because, “…after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.  This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: ‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’” (12:37-38).  But is that it?  Is that all the arm of the Lord means?  No.  There is deeper significance of Jesus being God’s arm.

Isaiah gives us the fullest picture.  In chapter 40 we find a similar theme: “See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him.  See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him” (v. 10).  You might realize that John quotes Jesus saying part of this verse — “My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done” (Rev. 22:12).  This speaks of the final judgment when God supernaturally wraps up time and administers final justice.  But Isaiah’s next verse gives us a new understanding of God’s arm: “He tends his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his [arm] and carries them close to his heart…”  Wow, what a difference on God’s arm and power!  Isaiah further explains, “The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.  He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.  He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head…” (59:15-17).  Notice that God worked salvation as a part of divine justice that his holy nature demanded.  He was not content to allow sin ultimately to rule the day or ruin his creation.  So God’s arm intervened, offering salvation or judgment to you, to me and to Israel as well as to the nations.

When did you, as his lamb, last feel the power of God’s arm holding you close to his heart?