The form of a man's hand.
Those strange composite creatures, the cherubim of Ezekiel's vision, have been described earlier as of human aspect (Ezekiel 1:5), and in particular as having "the hands of a man" (Ezekiel 1:8). This appearance of the hand is again referred to in the verse before us, so that we are led to think not merely of a general resemblance to human features, but of some special importance in the particular member thus emphatically and repeatedly named.
I. THE HAND IS MADE FOR WORK. So wonderful a mechanism is there in it, that a whole Bridgewater Treatise was devoted to an examination of its teleological significance. No machine of most delicate workmanship approaches the construction of the human hand. In familiar transactions of business "hand-made" goods are preferred to the "machine-made." Now, the natural form of the hand shows that it is designed for work. It may be clenched into the fist for fighting, but this is not its natural condition, and all the finer qualities of fingers and thumb are here wasted. A clublike end to the arm would be better than a flat palm and supple fingers, if the primary purpose of the hand were pugilism. Nature declares that we are not made to fight; we are made to work.
II. HANDIWORK IS DIVINE AND HOLY. There are hands in heaven. By a figure of speech, God is said to have hands (e.g. Psalms 8:6). The cherubim have hands. The strange thing is that these wondrous beings have both wings and hands, combining the fight of a bird with the work of a man. This is the ideal state—to be able to soar aloft in heavenly regions, and yet to have faculty for practical tasks. Too often winged souls lack working hands. They who soar, dream; they who work, pled. The perfect pattern of life represented by the cherubim is that of wings and hands—power of flight and skill in work, poetry and practice, devotion and service, contemplation and activity, aspiration and application. Seen in heaven, the hands are holy. The shrivelled, paralyzed hand of the fakir is a token of fanatical folly. There is no disgrace in the horny band of toil. Work is Divine; for God works (John 5:17). Work is heavenly. There will be service in heaven. There is no paradise for the indolent.
III. THE HAND NEEDS TO BE REDEEMED. Sometimes it is brutalized into a weapon of hatred. Frequently it is soiled by deeds of evil. The swift, silent hand of the thief is a degraded hand. Every sin stains the hand that performs the wicked action. If the human hand express d the character of the work it is sometimes put to, it would be twisted, knotty, foul, sore, rotten. The hand wants redemption—a redemption which follows that of the head. For the poor hand is but the servant of the head, that shames it with evil orders. When Christ saves a soul, he brings "the redemption of the body." The hand is then made holy—only to work what is good, only to write what is true, ready to stoop to uplift the fallen, to grasp with friendly pressure the hand of a poor distressed brother, to point to the way of heavenly perfection.