July 21 - Isaiah 49:8-26

July 21 – Isaiah 49:8-26

This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill.

They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. See, they will come from afar— some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.”

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.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”
 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Your sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around; all your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride.

“Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’ ”

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up 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 down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce?

But this is what the LORD says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save. 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, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

If you skipped ahead … go back!  These are gorgeous words.  Some are quite familiar  “See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;” (Isaiah 49:16)  Some aren’t. 

These words remind us that Israel is chosen of God.  And I believe that God keeps His promises, no matter how much we screw up. 

Israel screwed up, but in ‘the day of salvation’ or in the final days, God is not going to forget His promises to His people, Israel. 

They will always be His chosen people, no matter that we have been adopted into His kingdom.  We will receive the same glorious gifts that He offers to them, but believe that He does offer these gifts over and over and over again to His beloved. 

He comforts them, He has compassion on them.  When Zion says, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me,” (Isa. 49:14), He tells her that He has engraved the name of Israel on the palm of His hands and could never dream of forgetting her, much like a mother loves the baby at her breast. 

Ruin and desolation may be something that the Israelites … the Hebrews … the Jews have to face.  They’ve faced it over and over throughout their history.  But, look at what Isaiah 49:22-23 says:

God calls to the Gentiles who will bring Israel’s sons and daughters home.  Kings of foreign nations will foster them, queens will care for them.  And they will bow down so that everyone knows that He is the Lord and will never disappoint those who hope in Him.

He is the Savior, the Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

We should never forget that God keeps ALL of His promises.