Have them eating out of the palms of your hands

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’.” Matthew 28:18

Have them eating out of the palms of your hands is an old idiom meaning someone will do whatever you want them to because they respect and admire you so much. This is in reference to how we tame an animal by having them eat out of our hand.

Once I was at the mall and there was a promotional going on for some new product. To help endorse this new line the store had a celebrity from a soap opera there to draw a crowd. I never approached him but I couldn’t help but notice how he commanded the room because he was very charismatic, confident, and personable.

I envision Jesus to have been the same way. The crowds He drew were huge because there was just something different about Him that made others want to be around Him. In Luke 5:1-11, the crowd was so large He decided to preach from a boat so He could be seen and heard.

After preaching Jesus told Simon to throw out his net into deeper water and Simon hesitantly obeyed. They caught so much fish they struggled to get their nets into their boats and the weight caused them to begin to sink. Then Jesus makes a profound statement in Luke 5:10b, “...Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” He was calling them to become disciples and in obedience they followed.

A picture is worth a thousand words and I think Jesus was using the visual of the abundance of fish to show them there were just as many people needing to hear the message in order to be saved. Jesus told Simon he had to throw the net into deeper water and likewise we have to go deeper in our relationship with Jesus so we too can reach others. Jesus had the people eating out of the palms of His hands and we can too when we follow Jesus.