Abraham learns that his nephew, Lot, has been captured in battle and the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah were taken. He and his servants rescue Lot and bring back the goods of the city. The king of Sodom urges Abraham to take the spoils of the battle, to which he replies,
“I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.” (Genesis 14:22-23) The context implies that Abraham has made a covenant with the Lord, and that he is careful to not violate that covenant.
The “lifting up of the hand” is what Bible scholars call a “gesture of approach.” In Jewish tradition, as one approached another person or group of people from afar, there were sometimes a series of gestures of approach to indicate either favor or disdain. The first gestures could be seen from a distance. There are over thirty Hebrew gestures to indicate various feelings or attitudes. For example, the Star Trek Vulcan gesture of separating the fingers between the middle and ring fingers was used anciently as the priest would leave a blessing on the congregation. Leonard Nimoy actually borrowed this gesture from attending synagogue as a youth. Enemies would wag their heads to display their disdain. Persecutors of Jesus passed by the cross and “reviled him, wagging their heads” (Matthew 27:39).
In spiritual terms, gestures of approach are associated with covenant making, as we approach God’s presence. The primary symbolic purpose of the temple is to walk back to the presence of God. Our separation from God is a result of the Fall, and we are only reconciled by the atonement of Jesus Christ as we make and keep sacred covenants. The Book of Mormon teaches, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19). But even though we are separated, the Lord does not treat us like enemies. I love the way the apostle Paul described our relationship to Jesus.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8,10)
The Hebrew word for hand in this gesture with Abraham is yad, meaning power, means, or direction. President Russell M. Nelson said, “Every man and every woman who participates in priesthood ordinances and who makes and keeps covenants with God has direct access to the power of God.”
Covenants provide power and direction for our lives.
