What makes us different from the animals? Reason? Upright posture? Heidegger said that the answer is more obvious: What makes us different from animals is our hands.

Equipped with hands, we can use equipment, and with our equipment we can build and paint and sculpt and click a mouse make and repair the carburetor.

It’s no accident that the first sins of man are sins of the hand. “Do not taste, do not touch,” Yahweh told Adam and Eve in the garden, but then Eve and Adam stretched out their hands to take the fruit. Cain had hands too, which he filled with innocent blood.

Redemption brings cleansing and restoration of hands. In Egypt, Israel’s hands were busy building Pharaoh’s storage cities. With His mighty hand, Yahweh redeemed His people, and brought them to Sinai, where they used their hands to build the tabernacle, to offer worship, eventually to grasp swords and conquer Canaan. Submitting under the mighty hand of God, they devoted their hands to the righteous service of Yahweh.

With His blood, Jesus has cleansed us from head to toe, and made our hands ready for battle, labor, but above all worship. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus has filled our hands with good things to offer before the Father and cleansed our hands to raise them in prayer.

Worship is the main work for believers, because in worship our hands are retrained. With cleansed hands, we ascend the hill of the Lord. We lift holy hands to pray, and with our hands we pass the body and blood of Jesus to one another.