When the Lord touches the stones, “the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared,” and the brother of Jared sees the finger touching the stones. Of course we suppose that it was only natural that the Lord’s finger would do the “touching” of the stones, but this is really only an assumption. There was no reason for the Lord to touch them in the first place, as he might have done whatever he wished to without having touched them. As with the creation of the stones themselves, it is perhaps just as important to understand why the brother of Jared saw the finger of the Lord rather than any other part of God.
The “finger of the Lord” is a term used to connote the active aspect of God. When God makes things happen in the world, the scriptures use the idea of the “finger” as the active agent for God. Thus we have in the Old Testament:
Exodus 8:19
19 Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
There is no indication in the scriptures that the Lord did any “touching” in this case, nevertheless, the Lord acted and caused the effect. Similarly:
Exodus 31:18
18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Here we can easily see the finger of the Lord doing the writing, and well it may have. The point, however, is that it must have been the finger because it was an action of God. This same conception carries over into the New Testament. The people wondered how Jesus performed miracles of healing:
Luke 11:14-20
14 ¶ And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered.
15 But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.
16 And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven.
17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.
18 If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub.
19 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.
20 But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
When Jesus cites the “finger of God,” he is not making a physical reference, but a metaphorical one. It is not the physical finger, but rather the power of God.
When the brother of Jared asks the Lord to change the stones, he would have understood that it would be the “finger of God” that made the change in the stones, and therefore he was mentally prepared for the action to be accomplished by the “finger of God.” The faith of the brother of Jared allowed him to see God in the unseeable realm, and to begin this vision by “seeing” in vision the very active agent that he would have expected to see. However, whatever the brother of Jared expected concerning the finger of God, it was not to see it as though it were the finger of man.
The brother of Jared has approached God from the perspective of one who is completely distant, as discussed following verse 2 and 3. His expectation was that God was something completely different and above man. When he sees the finger of God, and sees it “as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood” the contrast to his expectation overcomes him, and he falls to the ground. Even though he was culturally prepared to have the “finger of God” be the active agent of God, he was not, at that time, prepared to see God as anything (or anyone) who was so similar to man.