Hands Up!

1. IT IS USED IN A NEGATIVE WAY

For example, when a criminal walks into a bank and says “Hands up,” everyone within the range of his voice knows what he means. The reason the criminal wants everyone to put their “Hands up” is because this signifies that everyone within the sound of his voice has surrendered to him.

In essence their lives no longer belong to themselves, their lives are now in the hands of this criminal, to do with as he sees fit. It is a scary situation when our lives are in the hands of someone like a criminal, for them to do with as they please.

2. IT IS USED IN A POSITIVE WAY

For example, the Bible has a great deal to say about “Hands up!”

Something that we see in some worship services is the people of God voluntarily lifting their hands toward heaven while they are PRAYING or SINGING. This is an act of surrendering to the Lord Jesus. But not only is it used as an act of surrender, it is also used as an act of reaching out to the Lord Jesus.

Some pastors do not encourage the practice of raising of “hands” in their worship services, because they listen to those who criticize this practice, saying the lifting up of holy hands is distracting.

Illus: People like this remind me of the little boy who sat at the dinner table one evening when his father was asking the blessing on the evening meal. When the prayer was concluded, he said, “Dad, when you were praying Susan did not have her eyes closed.”

Listen, how did he know that little Susan’s eyes were open? If he had his eyes closed and was talking to God himself, he would not have been able to see that she had her eyes open.

Listen, if people really get into the worship of God, they do not come to see what everyone else is doing, they are too busy worshipping the Lord. They are focusing in on Him, not the people in the congregation.

The lifting up of holy hands is something we find throughout the Scripture.

• Look at Psalm 28:2, we read, “Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.”

• Look at Psalm 63:3-4, we read, “Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.”

• Look at 1 Timothy 2:8, we read, “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”

Notice, the Bible says the hands that are lifted up should be “Holy hands!”

If you have been gossiping all week long, and telling dirty jokes, keep your hands in your pockets. If anyone sees you lifting up your hands, they will think the church is full of hypocrites.

The lifting of hands during worship service seems to be a part of the Old Testament and New Testament worship.

In the Old Testament we see another way that the lifting up of hands was used.

For example, when Moses was leading the children of Israel from the bondage of Pharaoh unto to the Promised Land, an enemy, the Amalekites, took advantage of their situation and weariness and attacked them frequently.

Moses instructed Joshua to form an army and to go fight the Amalekites. So Joshua chose his army and went out to battle.

Moses would stand on a hill above the battlefield, and hold up the rod of God. This is probably the same rod that was used in the parting of the Red Sea.

Moses also had two assistants:

• His brother Aaron

• His friend Hur

They went up to the hill to view the battle with him.

When Moses held his hands up, Israel would begin to win the battle. But when Moses’ arms got tired, and he dropped them, the enemy would begin to win the battle.

Eventually, Aaron and Hur helped Moses by holding his hands up. The end result was that Joshua and his army had a great victory.

It is believe that Moses’ hands are a picture of prayer. As we lift our prayers up before God, we shall have the victory over our enemy.

Let us learn a few things from this passage about lifting our prayers up before God. As we look at the hands of Moses as a type of prayer, we see -

I. PRAYER IS POWERFUL

When Moses’ hands were lifted toward heaven, I am sure he was talking to God about the battle they were facing.

By lifting his hands in prayer:

• He was asking God for help