The Finger of God

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?’ They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.”  John 8:3-6

During His earthly ministry Jesus never wrote a book or any other document, so far as we know, but it is recorded that He wrote with His own finger in the sand, and that what He wrote turned away those who had sought to stone a woman caught breaking one of God’s Ten Commandments.

The woman was repentant, however, and Jesus forgave her, evidently indicating this by what He wrote with His finger on the ground. This He could do because He, as God, had written this very commandment Himself with His own finger long before. “He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God” (Ex. 31:18).

Moses testified: “The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly” (Deuteronomy 9:10).

There are only two other references to the “finger of God” in the Bible. When the Lord through Moses brought the great plagues upon Egypt, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to imitate Moses’ first few miracles, but soon their deceptive “magic” could not longer compare, and they had to confess, “This is the finger of God” (Ex. 8:19).

There is one final mention of God’s finger in the New Testament. When the Pharisees charged that His power to cast evil spirits out of demon-possessed people had been given to Him by Satan, He affirmed rather, “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20). Jesus is able to forgive sins and to defeat Satan because He is the Creator of the universe and all its laws.