Scripture Daily

Context No. 1325 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 49:1-16: in context

1Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: the LORD has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name. 2He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. He has made me a polished shaft. He has kept me close in his quiver. 3He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 4But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; yet surely the justice due to me is with the LORD, and my reward with my God.” 5Now the LORD, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, says to bring Jacob again to him, and to gather Israel to him, for I am honorable in the LORD’s eyes, and my God has become my strength. 6Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.” 7The LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and rise up, princes, and they shall worship, because of the LORD who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” 8The LORD says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time. I have helped you in a day of salvation. I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage, 9saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights. 10They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them, for he who has mercy on them will lead them. He will guide them by springs of water. 11I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be exalted. 12Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim.” 13Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains! For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted. 14But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.” 15“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you! 16Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me.

This is one of Isaiah's servant songs. The servant, called from the womb, made a sharp sword and a polished arrow hidden in God's quiver, is charged to bring Israel back and, more than that, to be a light to the nations, God's salvation to the ends of the earth. In the middle of it the servant voices a discouragement many will recognize: I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing; yet my reward is with the LORD. And near the end, when Zion complains that the LORD has forsaken and forgotten her, God answers with one of the tender, intimate promises of scripture: can a woman forget her nursing child? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

The heart of this passage is God's answer to the feeling of being forgotten. Zion says it plainly: the LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. It is a feeling God's people have voiced in every generation, the sense that God has lost track of us, that our troubles have slipped his mind, that we have been abandoned. And God does not merely deny it; he answers with an image of fierce human loyalty and then goes beyond even that. Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? Even if such a thing were possible, even if a nursing mother could forget, I will not forget you. Then the astonishing picture: I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Not written, which could be erased, but engraved, cut permanently into his own hands, so that God cannot look at his hands without seeing his people. For Christians it is impossible to read those words without thinking of another set of hands, engraved for our sake with the marks of the nails. The feeling of being forgotten is real, and God takes it seriously enough to answer it as firmly as he can: you are cut into my hands; I cannot forget you.

When I feel that God has forgotten me, lost track of my troubles, abandoned me, can I hold to his answer, that he has engraved me on the palms of his hands and cannot forget me any more than a mother could forget her nursing child?

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