I was reading in John 1 where it talks about Jesus, the Word, coming and being the light and life of everything. It referenced over to Isaiah 49. So I started reading there to see what it was talking about. It's talking about "The Future Redeemer" a.k.a. Jesus. It's so cool to hear how they talk about him hundreds of years before hand. How he'll "gather Israel to himself" and he'll also "be a light for the Gentiles" (thats us) that he will "bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." (v5 - v6)
Hold on it gets better. He will be "despised and abhorred by the nation" then check this out "to the servant of rulers"; and "Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you." (v7) Dang. I dig that. That Kings will see him and rise up, and princes will see him and bow down. But wait. That's not the best part.
Isaiah goes on to explain what God's saying. "In the time of my favor, I will answer." (v8) So God is saying that he's gonna come through, when it's BEST, not when we want, but when his favor comes to the fullest. Boom he'll come. It's a promise. It goes onto talk about how he'll tell captives 'come out,' and those in darkness 'be free.' (v9). So he's setting this up saying, I know your pain, I know your agony, I know what your in. I promise I'm coming and I'm going to do things thats impossible any other way.
"Shout for joy, O heavens;
rejoice, O earth;
burst into song, O mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones." (v13)
It's awesome that all of creation the skies, the earth, mountains and valleys, the clouds to the grass, the trees to the rocks are all celebrating the freeing of His people. All rejoicing, singing songs about what he's about to do. . . . And what do the humans, those about to be freed, do?
"But [(just an awesome start)] Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me." (v14)
The humans are going, "Oh dang. God forgot us. He left us out here. He doesn't care. It doesn't matter." All of creature and nature is celebrating cause they see long term, and us in our stupid human ignorance and short sighted-ness are saying that God's forgotten us. So then the comeback:
"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no companion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!" (v15)
Good point. Real good point. I like the baby at her breast analogy. Describes our dependence and how anything we get is from God and by conscious decision from God. I also dig the exclamation mark at the end. But this. . . This is the best part is the first line of verse 16.
"See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;"
It's so good I'll repeat it. "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;" Wow. Just wow. this is Jesus were talking about. I don't know if you've read a little further down the story or not but it turns out that he gets nails put through his hands to hold him to a cross while the wrath of God is poured out on him instead of us. These palms that are scarred are his remembrance of me on my Kings hands. He's saying "NO! I Will NOT FORGET YOU! Look at my hands, do you really think I'd forget you?! Have I not proved that already?" That just humbles me and makes me feel so important that he's engraved me on the palm of his hands. I mean I write stuff on my hands to remember, usually it's in pen so I can erase it later. If it's really important, I use a sharpie, but still after a few days it's gone. But this is engraved. How amazing, how special, how important, how worth while should we feel. That the King above all kings, the one who all bow down to, the one who ever creature massively large and microscopically small would bow down before him, and He engraves us oh the palm of his hands.
Oh. Merry Christmas too.
