Text: Isaiah 49:8-162

Title: Engraved on God’s hand

The book of the prophet Isaiah is one of the longer books of the Bible, so you shouldn’t be surprised that Isaiah is a very complex book. It begins with the Lord taking Israel to task for their despicable sinfulness. This is what we call the Law part of preaching—exhorting sinners to repentance by laying out for them exactly what it is they are doing wrong.

Yet, the Lord never leaves Israel hanging for their sins. Just as every sermon from this pulpit does not only lay down the Law, but is resolved with the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of sins which He won with His law-abiding suffering and death upon the cross and His resurrection from the dead, so also does the Lord, for Israel’s sake, follow every laying down of the Law with the proclamation of His Gospel promises.

Indeed, in chapter one of Isaiah is found one of the better known Gospel promises of the Old Testament. I used it in my Christmas Eve sermon, last year: "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

Throughout the book, the Lord has Isaiah describe and define Israel’s sins in every way possible, along with the punishment that He will carry out upon them if they do not repent. And, with every laying down of the Law, the Lord never leaves His people hanging for their sins, but promises to reclaim them by . . . doing what? By paying for their sins, Himself.

There is no greater revealing of the Lord’s character than in Isaiah chapter fifty-three, with the prophecy of the coming of Jesus as the suffering servant: "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed."

How can you not love a God like this, who has every right to abandon the people whom He had created in His image, whom He reclaimed when they sinned, who stuck with them through better or worse, and worse and worse, who would do the only thing that could save them, taking on their sinful flesh so that they would not be abandoned to the grave and hell, but have hope through healing?

As the Lord describes Israel’s sins—in which, of course, when you are honest with yourselves, you always hear your own sins, your own failings, your own offenses against holy God and your every neighbor—the Lord also uses marvelous variety in describing His unfailing love. This takes us to today’s lesson from Isaiah.

We jump right to Israel’s complaint. After the Lord makes some wonderful promises to help them, Israel laments, "The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me."

How can Israel say such a thing, right after the Lord had made so many declarations of His helpfulness and faithfulness, which include these three:

Of course, these are promises for the future. For now, Israel is going to live the nightmare which is this sinful world, and the sins which they commit that just keep making it worse. For now, God is going to let them be overcome by their enemy, hauled from their homeland, taken into captivity. His promises to establish their land, take pity on them, and comfort them are promises which He will, indeed, fulfill, but He is requiring something of Israel, since, though the Lord will see them through this mess, they do not yet have full grasp on these promises. Thus, the Lord is looking for what from Israel? He is looking for faith.

This is you, striving through this ungodly world, striving in your sinful flesh, striving against the assaults of Satan. As God did not remove Israel from their struggles, but strengthened them for the battle, so does your Savior not remove you from your struggles, but strengthens you for the general battles of a sinful world, and the specific battles of your particular weaknesses against the unholy trinity of temptation to sin.

This has all of the possibilities of a conundrum. Are you not holy, having been purchased and won from all sins, and washed clean in Holy Baptism, being kept fed upon the righteous body and blood of the Savior? Yes, you have been and you are.

Yet, even as you are holy in the sight of your heavenly Father, through faith in Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit living in you, the Lord has not removed your sinful nature. He has clothed your sinful nature with the righteous garment of Jesus Christ, but, underneath, you will find your old sinful self, and your old sinful self is really good at taking off Jesus Christ and going out and having a good old time of sinning.

Not only this, but the world keeps messing with you. People hurt you in so many ways. Life, in general, can be just plain hard to live. Sicknesses slow you down and wear you out. Just when you think you can pay your bills, the car conks out and you’re stretched too thin for yet another month. You’re almost afraid of times of peace and prosperity, because they always seem to be the calm before the storm of the next thing to bring you down.

The effects of this world, and yourself, remaining plagued with sin, and the temptation to sin, are your constant companion. What shall you do? Shall you declare with Israel, "The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me"?

What does all of this require from you? It requires the same thing that the Lord was expecting from Israel: to take His promises and believe in them. To trust the Lord. To have faith and to keep the faith.

Once again, the Lord shows His enduring patience and His steadfast love. When Israel laments, He doesn’t shove them aside and He doesn’t holler at them. He loves them.

Here’s what the Lord had Isaiah tell them, when they thought He had left them for dead: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?" Imagine such a thing! Would the Lord forget His people, whom He has nursed as His precious baby? Outrageous!

He continues, "Even these may forget"—that is, yes, you will find some human beings who are so cold, so caught up in their lives, that they could forget their own children—"yet I will not forget you." Then comes this marvelous declaration from the Lord, "Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." I might forget someone in another town, another room, but how can I miss this [looking at my palms]?

We people mark things to show that we own them; God marks Himself. We brand our cattle and tag the ears of our hogs; we print our name on dishes that we take to potluck dinners; slave owners even put their names on their slaves, so that, if they ran off, they could be returned to their rightful owner.

Your rightful owner has done the opposite. He marked Himself with your name. He engraved the palms of His hands so that you would always be in His line of sight.

What does Jesus Christ see, when He looks at His own hands? He sees the wounds of the nails, which pinned Him to the cross. For whom was He pierced? Return to Isaiah fifty-three, as I quoted it earlier: He was wounded, pierced, for your transgressions.

His nail marks are your names written upon the palms of His hands. Jesus can’t forget you. He reminds Himself of His own faithfulness, and then He carries it out in your lives.

Only after first marking Himself with your names does He mark you with His—the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—in Holy Baptism. Then, wearing the name of Holy God, you eat and drink the name of your salvation—the body and blood of the One who was marked with your names upon the cross, who feeds you with the sacrifice for your sins.

Jesus does the work, you receive the benefit. Jesus gives you the faith, and feeds your faith, and Jesus calls you to trust in Him as you strive in this ungodly world, in your sinful flesh, against the assaults of Satan. He has a land of promise waiting for all who remain faithful to Him—the Paradise of the resurrection from the dead in the recreated heaven on earth.

Behold, you are engraved on the palms of the hands of the Creator and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.