" See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."
Isaiah 49:16
I love this verse. I love the imagery that it creates in my minds eye. I can see a loving Jesus holding out his hands with his with nail-pierced, blood-encrusted palms held up ward and outward on my behalf. I knew I wanted to write about this verse today. I started to and then I stopped myself. What I had written about was the technical, the intellectual, the mind tingling aspects, I wrote about the Hebrew meanings and significance of them on this verse. But something stopped me. God was asking me to step back and ask myself a question, "Lord, what do you want me to see in this verse? What do I need to learn from this verse?" God wanted me to look at this passage from a heart tingling perspective, from a place deeper then just my mind. He was inviting me to experience him and his love through this verse not just to gain knowledge of him. So I read it again:
" See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."
That's when I saw it.
This verse was in the Old Testament not in the New where Jesus death occurs (duh). Isaiah 49:16 does not say "I WILL engrave you on the palms of my hands" but rather it says, hundreds of years before Christ's birth and death, that God "HAS" already engraved me, engraved you on the palms of his hands. Then the intellectual knowledge started to sink into the spiritual depths of my heart.
The Hebrew word for engraved is defined by so much more: to cut, to inscribe, to establish, to ordain, to decree, to be a leader, a ruler, a law-giver. It almost always has to do with writing or drawing. So many of these words are in verses throughout the OT that have to do with God's grace and mercy given to me, that speak to the future work of Christ on the cross:
18 When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. Ex 31:18
17 You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance-- the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established. Ex 15:17
9 He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever-- holy and awesome is his name. Ps 111:9
22 'Do you not fear Me?' declares the LORD. 'Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it. Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it. Jer 5:22 (NAS)
6 God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. Ps 68:6
12 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."
Ex 24:12
Did you catch Ps 119? It says (prior to Christ's birth) that God HAS "provided redemption for his people" past tense. All these verses show that God has already done a good work for us. The way has been paved in the OT. But how? Through the law? Through sacrifice? I still think that even in the OT it was all about heart. It was all about relationship, a relationship with our creator. God gave the law (which needed to be fulfilled and Christ fulfilled it for us) but he gave it as a way to help us draw near to him with our hearts not just with our minds. But why send Jesus if redemption "WAS" provided already (besides just fulfilling the law on our behalf)?
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Is 29:13
Throughout biblical history and even true today we focus more on the written law that was given, on the "works", the spiritual to do lists of our lives. In NT times they were, and today we are, blinded by pride and self-pity and can't see the hand of God that has already done all that is needed.
Like the Pharisee's of long ago, we still try to earn – to work for – our place in God's heart. What we fail, I fail to see and remember is I have always had a place in his heart. Before I drew a breath I was engraved on the palms of his hands. What we needed to see is that the work was already done, it is already done, his love was already established (Ex 15:17) it is already established. It is there to bask in, to enjoy, to soak up and live our lives in with fullness and joy.
So, like the prisoners in Ps 68, God leads me (through Christ) out of the darkness of sin that blinded me from the truth and he sets me – places me – into a family, The family of God. I am his child.
Then like sands that hold back the tossing waves (Jer 5:22), God has placed a wall around me to protect me and to guide me. A wall of beauty and grace that he watches over and maintains and protects. A wall that is always in his sights. A safe haven, a wall of salvation. Not a wall to stifle me but a wall to prevent my destruction and to promote my safety. A wall that will not allow sin to prevail over me. How blessed I am!!!
No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. Is 60:18
God's love for me did not begin on the cross. It has always been there for me since the beginning of creation.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Jn 1:1-5
It is time to stop living in the darkness of my pride and self-pity. It is time to stop living in the regret of the past and the fear of the future. It is time to start living in the present or rather to start living in the presences of the one who loves me so much that he has permanently made me a part of him. I am a beautiful etching that lives in the safety and comfort of my father's hands.
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