Engraved on God’s hands? What’s That’s About?

Carved in God’s hands? Cute little kids nestled in a big hand or is there more to the story? Reading Isaiah 49:16 today. Heads up. I LOVE the whole chapter.

Video Transcription

[00:00:03] Hi and welcome back to daily Bible promises with a twist. The twist is that I’m taking those little slips of paper that often come in a box are in a tin. They have a Bible promise on them and I’m putting them into context where they were written, who they were written to, and if there were any conditions attached to that promise.

[00:00:27] I’m using the New American Standard Bible and today it is Isaiah 49 verse 16. I have to admit that Isaiah 49 is one of my all-time Bible chapters. I could just live in this chapter. There is so much good stuff; there’s so much comfort, there’s so much assurance. If you’re going through a rough time right now before you do anything else today, just take a moment and read Isaiah 49 and be blessed. But, today we’re going to concentrate on verse 16.

[00:01:04] I’m reading from the New American Standard Bible. Chapter 49, Isaiah and verse 16, “Behold I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me.”

[00:01:19] I’m going to be concentrating on the hands, but just as an aside, the walls were the walls of Jerusalem that the Lord was rebuilding and restoring, and He was drawing people back to Jerusalem. So if you’re wondering what that part was about. There you go.

[00:01:40] In verse 16 it says, “Behold I’ve inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” Now I’ve seen some cutesy little figurines of little children nestled into the palm of God’s hand, I guess. Those are cute. Those are nice, but I have always thought there was more to the story than just cutesy little figurines.

[00:02:07] And so I did some research this afternoon and I looked into commentaries. The vast majority of the commentaries believe that this verse was a prophetic word, speaking of the scarred hands of Jesus. He was wounded for our transgression He was bruised for our iniquities. We died on the cross with him and we rose again with him. So, therefore, those scars are a constant reminder to Jesus and to His Heavenly Father of all those that were carried on the cross which is really really wonderful.

[00:02:48] Now, the children of Israel were promised from the very beginning of Chapter 49, and all the way through. God was reassuring them again and again that He was there for them, that He saw them, that He was coming to rescue them. He was aware of their situation and He was going to defeat their enemies. But even with all that assurance the children of Israel still needed to hear some more.

[00:03:19] Verse 14 of Chapter 49 of Isaiah gives an example of what Zion was feeling. “Zion said the Lord has forsaken me and the Lord has forgotten me.” And God says in reply, “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even though they might forget, I will not forget you. Behold I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”

[00:03:51] I would really encourage you, as I said at the beginning, to sit down and read Isaiah 49 especially if you are feeling forsaken, if you’re feeling insecure, if you’re feeling that God is more concerned about the affairs of other people than He is of the struggles that you’re going through, if you’re feeling a little bit of jealousy that other people’s prayers are being answered and yours aren’t – can I encourage you to just meditate on Isaiah 49 today.

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©2018 Katherine Walden

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