Coordinating Council - The Handshake

The power of a handshake

When I was a kid, my grandpa Hines used to tell me you could tell a lot about a person by the way they shook hands. He was a farmer, and he had crazy strong hands. And he made a lot of agreements via handshake, and I guess the story goes like this: a strong handshake meant you were a person of strong character and vice versa.

Handshakes are used in countless ceremonies and they are used in a variety of ways. And they can be really awkward. Like when someone is trying to hand you something and you have to figure out who’s hand goes over or under and there’s a diploma or something they’re trying to hand you.

And then there’s the really weird people, like me, that use the handshake as a tactic to pull you in for a hug. Or there’s no handshake and it’s just a fist pound and your open hand hits their fist, it’s just really strange.

For hundreds of years, God had been extending his hand to the people of Israel and Judah and they hadn’t quite figured out to respond. They definitely ignored His Hand at times.

The essential element in Israel’s understanding of God, as He had revealed Himself through His relationship with His people, was grace. Although the Israelites were a covenant people, they displayed faithlessness and disloyalty again and again. But even when the people of the northern tribes were no longer a part of a nation, they were not beyond the mercy and grace of the Lord. All of this is part of the significance of Hezekiah’s invitation for the people to return to the celebration of Passover.

Why a handshake? Well because is one way to better understand how God works, see

2 Chronicles 30:12 HCSB

Also, the power of God was at work in Judah to unite them to carry out the command of the king and his officials by the word of the Lord.

The text doesn’t say hand of God, instead it says power of God. In Hebrew, the word hand is sometimes translated as power, like you see here.

You will notice that the hand of God has one specific purpose - to bring unity to the people to carry out King Hezekiah’s command. Hezekiah commanded that the people celebrate the Passover again. Unity takes work. It doesn’t happen by accident. It wasn’t the people who brought unity to the command of the King, it was the hand of God. If the people would take hold of that hand, that power, then there would be revival! There can’t be revival without a reviver! Hezekiah was calling for revival in the Kingdom, and he needed people who would humble themselves, come to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, and shake hands with the Almighty.

There are marks and signs of the people who are shaking hands with God. People who shake hands with God offer forgiveness because they experience forgiveness. They offer compassion, grace, wisdom, and love because they’ve experienced them.

For these people, there is no greater point of unity than in the celebration of the Passover and today, there is no greater point of unity than in the celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection! King Hezekiah and his boldness to act amid the chaos points us to the fact that unity originates out of reviving obedience to God’s presence. Can we be a people that unites by shaking hands with God and allow His power to flow through us? Let us draw upon the strength of God’s for our lives as individuals, as a division, as an Army, and as a Kingdom, to revive unity in celebration of the perfect Passover Lamb.

Lowell Hines was right - you can tell a lot about a person by their handshake.