When we have something to give to someone else, we bring it in our hands. We sometimes speak of being empty-handed, meaning we have nothing to offer. Or we speak of our hands being full when we are brimming over with good things to share. It is with our hands that we either withhold or release benefits to others.
In the Old Testament they thought of the hands as an extension of the person himself. To give someone your hand meant to give yourself in commitment. To lay your hands upon something was to transfer what you were to the thing on which you laid your hands. In some parts of the world the hand is still the signature of a person. It is dipped in some dark liquid to make an imprint or it is traced.
Lifting up the hand in praise and worship means surrender to another.
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice (Psalm 141:2).
The priests communicated God’s favor to the people through an uplifted, open hand.
And Aaron lifted up his hand towards the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings (Lev. 9:22)
Lifting up hands in response to God’s words meant commitment.
My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes (Psalm 119:48).
The Hebrew word for “to consecrate” means “to fill the hands.”
The gold for things of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of the artificers. And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the LORD? (1 Chronicles 29:5).
The hands were a means of transferring personal guilt to a sacrificial victim.
God demanded that sin be paid for with death of the sinner. However, He would accept a substitute sacrifice in the stead of the guilty sinner. This substitute would die in his place, as a vicarious sacrifice. The laying on of hands made possible the transfer or imputation of the sinner’s guilt to the animal he brought to be sacrificed.
And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him (Leviticus 1:4).
A superior would impart blessing to another by laying hands upon him and praying or prophesying.
The father would pass on his strength and authority by imparting his own personal blessing in conjunction with God’s blessing. His hands became the channel for the flow of benefits into the person he was blessing.
And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses (Deuteronomy 34:9)