The Arm of the LORD (Part 3)

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE “ARM OF THE LORD” IN EXODUS 6

            According to Jeremiah Unterman, Exodus 6:6 serves as “the prologue of the Exodus drama.”[1] This verse, which contains the first mention of the “Arm of the LORD,” also originates the formula “free you . . . deliver you . . . redeem you.” Since this combination of redemption terms appears 124 times in the Hebrew text,[2] the usage of “arm” in this text demands attention.

“With an Outstretched Arm” (בִּזְר֣וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֔ה)

            “Outstretched” (נְטוּיָ֔ה), the modifier of “arm,” appears here as a Qal passive participle. The term, which commonly occurs in Scripture, means “stretch out, extend, incline, [or] bend.”[3] Marvin R. Wilson articulated the term’s double significance:

            Although a man may defiantly “stretch forth” his hand 

            against God (Job 15:25) . . . it is ultimately God’s hand 

            which “stretches out” in judgment against man

            (Isa. 5:25; 23:11; 31:3; Jer. 6:12; 15:6; 51:25 et al.). 

            Likewise, it is by an “outstretched” arm that God redeems 

            and delivers man (Ex. 6:6; Deut. 4:34; 5:15;11:2 et al.).[4]

Thus the “oustretched arm” is a means of salvation for those who 

belong to God while serving as an instrument of wrath for His 

enemies.

“With Great Judgments” (וּבִשְׁפָטִ֖ים גְּדֹלִֽים)

           

            In order to free His people, God’s outstretched arm would cause great judgments to fall upon Egypt. These works would materialize in the form of ten plagues that would soon terrorize the natives of Egypt.[5] This was not their only purpose, however, as Ronald E. Clements pointed out: “The acts of judgement are positive actions by which God sets free the oppressed Hebrews, and only in a secondary and indirect way is any reference intended to punitive acts of retribution against the Egyptians.”[6] In effect the same outworkings of God’s power would deliver national redemption for His people while procuring “punishment for the enemies of Israel.”[7]

Implications

           

            It must be pointed out that Hebrew Scripture does not derive its religious concepts from the Egyptians or any other culture. Scripture, however, is not ignorant of the religious views of the peoples with which Israel came into contact. For this reason Exodus 6:6-8 serves as a polemic against the nation who dared to enslave and mistreat the covenant people. The LORD “hijacked” the victory language of the Egyptians and demonstrated that the terminology applied to Him rather than the Pharaoh or the gods of Egypt.

            The “Arm of the LORD,” therefore, is not an Old 

Testament image employed haphazardly; the phrase is replete with 

significance that would not be lost on the original audience. When 

the sons of Israel heard the message recorded in Exodus 6 they 

would understand the reference to be a declaration of the 

supremacy of the LORD over the gods of Egypt as well as the 

Pharaoh who paraded himself as deity. The Egyptians would

perceive the message as a military challenge that must not go 

unanswered in order to save face.

            Whereas the Egyptians believed the khopesh served as a 

magical pledge of victory, God explained rather that His arm 

 brought the assurance of victory for the sons of Israel. The arm of 

Pharaoh, believed to be irresistible and overwhelming, would be

shattered by the One who possessed true might. The Egyptians 

were accustomed to hearing of the mighty deeds accomplished by 

the arm of their king, but soon they would realize by means of the 

ten plagues that the deeds of the invincible LORD could not be

superseded.

            Not only would Pharaoh and his people understand Exodus 

6 and the subsequent mighty acts of the “Arm of the LORD” as challenges to the king and his gods; the sons of Israel who had sojourned in Egypt for centuries–and subsequently were familiar with theEgyptian religion–would have recognized the expression as spiritual warfare. Although at first the slaves refused to “listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage” (Ex. 6:9), they would begin to believe the message when “Arm of the LORD” acted with great signs and wonders, humbling the greatest contemporary world power in the process.

            On one side of the battlefield stood the arrogant warrior 

Pharaoh, imbued with the power of his deities, the very incarnation 

of his beloved sun god. When he challenged the LORD to a battle 

of military might, Pharaoh stretched forth his mighty arm as he had

done so often in the past when threatened by enemies or taken with 

the fancy of subduing foreign countries. The king of Egypt prepared 

to strike at the God of the lowly Hebrews, counting Him as weak 

due to the centuries-long servitude of His people. So Pharaoh

brandished his khopesh, the symbol of militaristic might as well as 

the manifestation of the divine blessing of the gods; he purposed to 

meet the LORD head on and crush His beloved covenant people for 

all time.

            But Pharaoh underestimated the power of the LORD; after 

facing the God of the sons of Israel he learned the error of his ways. When the LORD smote Egypt with ten divine blows dispatched by His mighty, outstretched arm, He struck at the very root of

everything that the Egyptians held near and dear, revealing the emptiness of their bankrupt religious system. Pharaoh proved to be powerless to impede the departure of Moses as he led the people to the land that God had promised to their patriarchal ancestors.

            The height of the humiliation occurred when the sons of Israel sang of the defeat of Pharaoh after crossing the Red Sea (Ex. 15), a victory hymn similar to the ones previously sung in honor of the conquered king.[8] Therefore, the “Arm of the LORD” proved victorious in the military campaign against Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt as promised beforehand (Ex. 12:12). The Exodus event, however, would not be the last time which the Old Testament employed the phrase “Arm of the LORD,” but it proved to be the foundation of an important motif.

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[1] Jeremiah Unterman, The Five Books of Moses, hrwt yvmwj hvmj: The Book of Exodus (New York: Bloch Publishing Co., 1973), 66.

[2] Godfrey Ashby, Exodus: Go Out and Meet God, in the International Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 36. Ashby explained that this “series of dynamic verbs emphasizes [the LORD’s] program of liberation” for Israel. This formula demonstrates the LORD’s perpetual devotion to the sons of Israel, which was a result of the unconditional covenant that He made with their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[3] Ernest David Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, with a foreward by Haim Rabin (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1987), 412.

[4] R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, s.v. נָטָה, by Marvin R. Wilson.

[5] Mark S. Smith, The Pilgrimage Pattern in Exodus, with contributions by Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith, ed. David J. A. Clines and Philip R. Davies, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series, vol. 239 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997), 198.

[6] Ronald E. Clements, Exodus, in The Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible, ed. P. R. Ackroyd, A. R. C. Leaney, and J. W. Packer (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1972), 38.

[7] Hyatt, Commentary on Exodus, 94.

[8] Hoffmeier, “The Arm of God Versus the Arm of Pharaoh,” 387. Hoffmeir captured the irony of the situation: “What better way for the exodus traditions to describe God’s victory over Pharaoh, and as a result his superiority, than to use Hebrew derivations or counterparts to Egyptian expressions that symbolised Egyptian royal power.”