The Book Of Isaiah. Day 127, A New Covenant For The People, Part Three

As we closed yesterday's study we found the people saying the Lord had forgotten them. While in Babylonian captivity, many may have wondered if the Lord had abandoned them, but they had the great promises of the book of Isaiah in which the Lord promised a return to the land.

In response to their fear of being forgotten, the Lord says: "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!" (Isaiah 49:15) 

It is not a common thing for a mother to have no compassion for her infant. The only reason we hear about such cases is because they are relatively rare compared to the millions of women who love and protect their infants. The Lord says something like, "I can no more forget about you than a mother can forget about the child she birthed. But even if a woman should reject her child, I can never forget you. I am not a human with human failings."

"See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me. Your children hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around; all your children 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." (Isaiah 49:16-18) 

Just as a person would see many times a day something they had engraved on their hands, the Lord continually sees these people. The "walls" are a reference to the walls of Jerusalem---the city that will be rebuilt after the time of captivity is over. The reference to their children being like ornaments likely has to do with how they will increase in number during the captivity. In the book of Jeremiah the Lord instructs them to continue getting married and having children so they will multiply and not decrease in number. (Jeremiah 29:6-7) You may recall how they greatly increased in number while in Egypt; they are to do the same in Babylon. They are not to give in to despair and think, "What's the point of marrying and having a family? We are doomed to die in Babylon. We will never see our land again."

"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?'" (Isaiah 49:19-21) The way the Lord prospers them in captivity will seem too good to be true. They will be amazed at how the Lord brings this about. More people will return to the land than were taken from it.

When we are feeling discouraged or anxious it can be easy for us to think this is our permanent state. But the Lord has a way of using even those things to prosper us. He has a way of not only bringing us out of our tough seasons but also of making us better off than we were before.