“Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; break into joyful song, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, and He will have compassion on His afflicted ones. But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; the Lord has forgotten me!” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me.
Your builders hasten back; your destroyers and wreckers depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around. They all gather together; they come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as jewelry and put them on like a bride. For your ruined and desolate places and your ravaged land will now indeed be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. Yet the children of your bereavement will say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; make room for us to live here.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’”
This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”
Can the plunder be snatched from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be delivered? For this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
As things become worse in the world, entertainment has turned to the revival of movies about super heroes or heroines with special powers who can do incredible feats. But God has always had super powers of all kinds. It is God who spoke the universe into existence with a single word. Could that word have been the word “BE!”
At the time Isaiah was writing these words, things were becoming dire for the Israelites. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had already been conquered and now the Assyrians were threatening Jerusalem. Isaiah played an important role in encouraging King Hezekiah when the Rabshakeh was threatening to destroy Jerusalem.
““Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me.” God never wanted Jerusalem to be destroyed; it was the citizens of Jerusalem who determined their own fate by their idolatry. But here God was promising that he would not allow Jerusalem to deteriorate into a mound of dirt. Throughout Israel today there are tells, places that once held vibrant cities teeming with life. Now there are only heaps of rubble through which archaeologists sift to find clues to the civilization that once lived there.
“Your builders hasten back; your destroyers and wreckers depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around. They all gather together; they come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as jewelry and put them on like a bride. For your ruined and desolate places and your ravaged land will now indeed be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. Yet the children of your bereavement will say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; make room for us to live here.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’”
God always keeps His promises, whether or not people do. One friend in my mother’s generation told me that she never believed the Bible until God brought the Jews back to Israel and then established Israel as a country. When those events took place, my friend realized that God was fulfilling His promises to Israel, and she became a true believer.
“Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” Since Israel has been established as a nation, there have been many times when she could have been destroyed, but yet, God has preserved her. When I was in Israel in 1979, I heard many tales of miraculous deliverance. Even today, Israel suffers under continual bombardment, a fact that international news media refuse to acknowledge. Why hasn’t this small country disappeared from the map? Only God can deliver!
APPLICATION: There are so many parts of Isaiah that work on several different levels and these passages are yet another example. Who doesn’t hope that God will remember them? At times, any of us may feel that nobody cares, and yet, God assures us that He has engraved our names on his hands so that every time He looks at His hands, He will see our names.
We all need protection. We all need reassurance, both for ourselves and also for our children. Many parents throughout the centuries have claimed God’s promise that “I will save your children.” That promise is still valid today.
Sometimes people get caught up in arguments, feeling that since ancient Israel sinned, these promises no longer apply to modern Israel. But God takes a very long view of things; after all, He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. How can we possibly limit God when God has clearly stated that He loves the whole world?
God’s plan has always been a global one; God sent His Son Jesus to die for the sins of the entire world, not merely for one ethnic group. God’s love is available to any of us who will choose to believe Him and who will follow Him. Let’s pray.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for Your wonderful promises! Lord, we acknowledge that we are sinners and that we cannot free ourselves from our sins. We beg You to save us from our sins, to help us repudiate them, and to follow hard after You all our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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