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The Right Hand of God-

His Power, His Strength

     But many will still say that the Father and Son are two distinct individuals “up there” in heaven.  Some say that there is only one God but when pressed, they invariably will see two in their mind’s eye.

     For example, I was talking about the Godhead the other day with a pastor of a small Baptist church who is from a Trinitarian background. I asked him, “Donnie, if the heavens were to open up to you right now and you could see into the throne room of the Most High, would you see one or more than one individual sitting up there?”

He said, “I would see more than one.”  So much for the Holy One of Israel.  Trinitarian doctrine, which most of the mainline denominations teach, breeds a multi-godhead concept—either two men or two men and a bird (the dove being a symbol of the Holy Spirit). 

This is easy to confirm by doing your own survey.  Just ask several people that you meet at random the same question, and you’ll get similar results from those who are of a Trinitarian background. 

“Well, Donnie, I thought that the Father was an invisible Spirit. It says that the Savior ‘is the image of the invisible God’ in Colossians 1:15.”

“But what about Acts 7:55,” he countered, “where it says that Stephen sees Jesus at the right hand of God.”

     “But, don’t you see that if God is invisible, then you can’t see His  literal  right  hand,  for  He  cannot be seen.”

     I didn’t have my Strong’s Concordance with me, but if I had, I would have turned to “right hand” and showed him in the Greek, #5495, that it means “power.”

     An example of this use of “right hand” for power is found in Psalm 16:8.  Peter quotes this passage in Acts 2: 25, using the phrase “right hand.”  Strength and power are derived, David is saying, by keeping Yahweh’s Spirit close at hand.  He is, in fact, at David’s right hand, much like a sword would be kept by a warrior-king close by his right hand.  I keep Yahweh always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. NRSV.  Yahweh’s Spirit is, in fact, the Sword that we should have handy, at our right hand.  This is our strength and our power to fight and destroy the thoughts that come against us.  Believing that Yahweh’s Spirit is near, at our right hand, we will not be moved from the hope of His word.  We will not be tossed about by the onslaughts of this present life. 

     Now going back to Acts 7:55, where Stephen saw Yahshua “standing on the right hand of God.”  The right hand is the power position.  Yahshua is the invisible Father’s sword, at His right hand, so to speak. How else could the Savior say, “Know ye not that the Father is in me?”  How are you going to get another physical being inside Yahshua? That is natural thinking. The Father is Spirit.  God is Spirit. The only body that the Father has is the body that He has prepared for Himself, which is the Son, or Yahshua.  God is only visible when we see Him move through the flesh body of Yahshua, His body, His Son.  And now we are part of His body!

The Messiah is Yahweh’s arm.  Everyone will agree that Isaiah 53:1 speaks of Him.  Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of Yahweh revealed?  The Messiah is the arm of Yahweh, the arm of the Father.  He is the only arm the Father has.  The Father’s   body   parts   are   only   seen  when  we  see  the Messiah.  And since Yahweh’s arm is the Messiah, then the phrase “the right hand of God” has to mean the power position for the Father Yahweh.  The right hand is merely an extension of the arm which facilitates it in picking up the  sword,  for  example.  O sing  unto Yahweh a new song; for he hath done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. 

Going back to the word for “hand” in the Hebrew—it is yad, # 3027—“used in a great variety of applications, both literally and figuratively…power.” This same Hebrew word yad, #3027, is translated “power” in the English 14 times.  “Hand” and “power” are synonymous.  Here are a few examples of how the two are used interchangeably.  And Yahweh said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power…Job 1:12 (KJV, Nelson’s Reference Edition, 1972. It has a footnote center column reference on “power.” It says, “Hand”).  In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword. Job 5:20. Again, footnoted “hands.”  And Yahweh brought us up out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Deut. 6:21. (“Hand” is from the same word that “power” was translated from, yad).  Into thine hand I commit my spirit. Psalm 31:5.

     So there you have it, Donnie.  “Hand” and “power” are interchangeable in the Hebrew.  Even when “right hand” is used as right side, it is an object of being close or being readily available, denoting power.  And we saw where “hand” and “power” are from the same concept—power or strength.