Isaiah 50:1-2 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. Wherfore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
Isaiah 59: Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 3. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
Hand not Shortened Hand (instrument of work on the body) –give me a hand, do you need a hand, helping hand, hand out… Shortened (limited, disabled, cannot reach the desired area) Jer 32:17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
Problem is our Limitations (our hands) 1 Tim 2:8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. Pray (we often simply do not ask) Every where (closet, mountain, whale’s belly, on cross, in prison, on the beach, in the assembly…) (only after I’ve tried, only for big deals, at meals) Lifting up holy hands (Isa. 1:15, James 4:8) Without Wrath (anger, bitterness) 1 Pet. 3:7 Without Doubting (James 1:5-8)
Can God Deliver? Outsiders Wondered If He Could Dan 3:15... but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Dan 6:20 And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?
Can God Deliver Me From Hell? Can He remove my past sins? Heb 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Can He deliver me from temptations? Matt. 6:13 1 Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Can He Punish? Boxer, Rusher, Rebounder, or Bully Egypt had to learn who God was: Ex. 7:5 –Israel should know and recall: Deut. 11:2 Judah was punished for sin: Isa. 5:25 His hand is stretched out still against the northern tribes: Isa. 9:12, 17, 10:4 All Nations: Isa. 14:26-27 God’s hand is not shortened; He can punish our nation today
Can He Provide? Num 11:23 And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD's hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. Ps 145:16 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Can He provide help for the church today in our efforts to evangelize? –There are too many worldly people –There are too many false religions (confusion) –There are too many hypocrites in the church
Acts 11:19-21 Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.