The person who lifts their hand up

Question

I have a question about seven Bible verses and how they relate.

Deuteronomy 32:40

For I lift my hand up to heaven and say I live forever

Daniel 12:7

The man dressed in linen, who was standing above the river, raised both his hands toward heaven and took a solemn oath by the One who lives forever, saying, “It will go on for a time, times, and half a time. When the shattering of the holy people has finally come to an end, all these things will have happened.”

Revelation 10:5-6

the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven. He swore an oath in the name of the one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it. He said, “There will be time no more.

Joshua 10:12

On the day the LORD gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the LORD in front of all the people of Israel. He said, “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.”

My questions are:
Do all these verses have anything to do with the end of the world? Do all four characters that lift their hand up represent Jesus?

John 17:1

After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come.

My biggest question is: Am I allowed to use and compare verses together like the way I am presenting my questions? The reason I ask is because this verse comes to mind.

1 Corinthians 2:15

When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.

Are the Spiritual words and spiritual truths only Bible verses or/and at what point can I use my own feelings or experiences to verify that I’m finding truth?

Answer 1

• Do all these verses have anything to do with the end of the world?

No. Only the quote from Revelation clearly relates to the "end of the world." Whether the quote from Daniel does or not depends on whether one thinks it was already fulfilled or not. Many commentators understand this to refer to the time of the Maccabean Revolt in the 2nd c. bce.

• Do all 4 Characters that lift their hand up represent Jesus?

None of them represent Jesus directly, except that a some interpreters understand the man in white linen to be a pre-incarnation appearance of Jesus. Also - depending on one's understanding of the relationship between God and Jesus - in Deut., Moses quotes the LORD, and those of them that are angelic beings can be thought of as messengers of the Holy Trinity.

• Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. My biggest question is; Am I allowed to use and compare verses together like the way I am presenting my questions? The reason I ask is because this verse comes to mind.

The Spirit may guide you to make these connections, but in terms of hermeneutics, the fact that all the characters either look up or raise their hands to heaven does not tell us much.

Answer 2

A word of caution…

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The scriptures you reference all have a common thread of swearing by Heaven. Jesus gives us instructions on this.

Matthew 5:33-37

³³ Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: ³⁴ But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: ³⁵ Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶ Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. ³⁷ But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

From my experience in knowing the difference between ’my wisdom’ and the Spirit, the Spirit shows up with a more revenant nature than I generally carry, and is very noticeably wiser than I am. That being said, and more towards your question, always remember that the Spirit will not speak to or through you and say anything that disagrees with scripture. As you asked it, I would say no, the Spirit can and will speak to you with words other than scripture, but the jest of what the Spirit says will be in agreement with scripture. So, my advice to recognizing the Spirit is to know more about scripture. Seeing that you are spending time on this site and asking these questions, I suspect you are on the right path.