Scripture: Isaiah 49:14-18; Psalm 103
Theme: Encouragement
Title: God’s Amazing Love
This sermon deals with God’s Amazing Love – 1. A Love that is Deeper and Richer than that of a Nursing Mother 2. A Love that led God to carve Our Names in His Palms – forever marking Himself because of His Love for Us
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
I want to talk to you today about a very important subject but before I do let me ask a couple of questions.
Have you ever found yourself wondering if God really loves you?
Have you ever felt at times that God has abandoned you in the midst of your pain, your suffering and/or confusion?
If you have then today the Lord has a wonderful message for you and that is what I want to share with all of us this morning.
As we look at our passage in Isaiah 49 we find the people of God dealing with similar feelings. They are wondering if the Lord loves them. They are wondering if God has abandoned them. Our writer very carefully paints for us a picture of what is going on.
+The nation of Judah has been soundly defeated by the Babylonians.
+The city’s walls have been burned and torn down leaving the city at the mercy of everyone and everything. Wild animals have begun to roam the streets. Everything is eerily void of traffic and noise.
+King Zedekiah (Judah’s 20th king) has been captured and forced to watch his sons put to death. His eyes are gouged out he is led him back to Babylon defeated and devastated shacked hand and foot.
+The Temple has been demolished. The Levites have been killed, taken prisoner or are hiding in a nearby village. Nothing of any value remains. All that’s left are broken hearts and walls, shattered dreams and scattered ashes.
+The king’s palace and all the official buildings have been razed to the ground. Everything of value has been destroyed or carted off to be put into King Nebuchadnezzar’s vaults.
+The majority of Jerusalem’s population has been killed; including the young men and women along with the old and infirmed.
+Most of those who survived are taken back to Babylon where they will spend the rest of their lives as servants of Nebuchadnezzar and his sons.
It may be hard for us today to picture all the devastation that had occurred in and around the city of Jerusalem. It may be hard for us to picture all the death that had occurred in and around the city of Jerusalem. It’s something like we would see in a modern apocalyptic movie where a city has been totally devastated by an enemy.
Everything was gone; the government, the city walls, the Temple along with hope for a better tomorrow. Judah was finished. All was left were a few poor people who were left behind to tend to the remaining vineyards, fields and livestock.
In our passage, the Prophet is addressing those who had survived and were now living in exile in the city of Babylon some 1,700 miles away from the city of Jerusalem. 1,700 miles away from the land that God had given them. 1,700 miles away from their independence, their freedom and everything they had cherished.
Many felt that they were even farther away from God. They understood through the prophets that it was not the Babylonians that had actually destroyed them. They had destroyed themselves. Their sin(s) both personal and corporate had brought about their annihilation. Their sin(s) had brought upon a time of judgment and subsequent desolation.
For years as a people they had chosen to rebel against the LORD. Their ancestors and subsequently themselves had adopted a lifestyle of avarice, self-gratification and debauchery. As a nation they had chosen to forsake worshipping God as the One and Only God. They had instead decided that there were many gods and goddesses to worship, love and serve.
In the natural it looked very much like the LORD the God Almighty had abandoned them.
In the natural it looked very much like the history of God’s people would ultimately disappear in the sands of the Babylonian deserts. The People of God would merely become a historical footnote of a time long lost. They would be absorbed into the culture of the Babylonians while any left behind would become absorbed into the remaining cultures of the Canaanites.
In the natural it looked like the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were gone. It looked like the promises given to King David were gone. It looked like all the teaching and preaching of the prophets would be forgotten as God’s People slowly but surely disappeared.
That is where we find the people of God in verse 14. Their hope was vanishing. They believed that their future was bleak and that everything was finished.
At least that is what God’s people are declaring to Him in their prayers. This was what was being shared among the Jewish exiles in Babylon as they settle down in their new lives as Nebuchadnezzar’s servants.
All of that is bad news. It is horrible news. It is the loss of dreams and hopes.
But our God does not leave them there. Even though they had caused their exile, the LORD did not abandon them. The LORD was not back in some burned out Temple devastated and defeated.
He is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is not limited, He is Omnipotent and Omnipresent. The LORD was with them. He was right there in their midst. He was sharing their pain, their loss of hope and their suffering.
The LORD instructed the Prophet to send a new message; a message of hope, a message of love and a message of a promised future.
It is this message that I believe that the LORD wants to share with all of us this morning. For while our nation has not been completely devastated we are definitely seeing some cracks in our government, our educational systems, our churches and in our society.
We have to admit that we are not the same God fearing nation that we were 50 – 75 years ago. Our culture is forever changing and it is not always for the better. The same is true of our nation. Even our churches are changing as they are becoming more interested in being progressive and “woke” than making sure they are staying true to God’s Word.
Will God abandon us? Are we doomed to fall as ancient Judah fell? Has God already given up on us as a nation and as a people?
How many of us this morning at times have felt that God has abandoned us personally?
How many of us have wondered as those who lived long ago wondered – Does God love us anymore?
Perhaps personally, we are suffering the fabric of our family beginning to fall apart. Perhaps we are watching our children and our grandchildren no longer having a vibrant passion for the LORD or for righteousness. Perhaps our job situation is becoming unbearable. Perhaps our health is beginning to fail and we are wondering where the LORD is in the midst of cancer, Co-vid and other diseases. Perhaps very little in our lives is going as it should even though we are doing all we can to stay true and faithful. Where is the LORD in times like these?
Not everyone was full of sin that was carried off to Babylon. Not everyone had rejected the LORD. Not everyone deserved what had happened to them and to their families. But nonetheless they found themselves 1,700 miles away from their homes forced to live in a pagan culture and serve a pagan king.
There were people like Daniel and the Three Hebrew Children who had been faithful and continued to be faithful even under the most severe of circumstances. There was the Prophet Ezekiel who while he longer served as a Temple Priest was still able to be used by God to help the exiles remain steadfast and faithful. There were hundreds of others that remained faithful but they all had to endure a time of exile and a time of suffering.
In the midst of all this turmoil, this struggle and this time of doubt and despair the LORD sent a word through the Prophet Isaiah. Let’s look at that word this morning. Let’s look at what the Prophet Isaiah wants the People of God to always remember no matter where they find themselves.
I. God’s Love is a Love that Supersedes a Mother’s Love and therefore we will be present no matter what the circumstances or situation.
Verse 15 shouts out to us this morning.
It shouts out to us because as we read the Old Testament we do not encounter very many passages that speak of God’s love using such a word picture. Most of the pictures of God that we have in the Old Testament tend to center on the masculine side of God.
But here in this passage what God’s people needed most was to be reminded that both male and female had been created in God’s image. In other words; God’s love can be described in terms that are either male or female in nature.
The Prophet tells us that the Lord’s love is a love that supersedes even that displayed and experienced by a nursing mother. God’s love supersedes that of a woman who has been carrying a child for 40 weeks, given birth and now is nourishing that child with her own body.
This is a mother whose life is centered on her child. She is actively giving health to her child. She is doing all she care to care for her child physically, emotional and mentally. She is making sure that her child is receiving all the proper care and nutrition that she can possibly provide.
She knows that her baby can’t take of itself. It can’t bathe itself. It can’t dress itself. It can’t do anything more than receive. And so as it’s loving mother, she does all she can to keep the baby clean, well dressed and warm as she lovingly even gives of her own body so that they child can be survive and thrive.
In light of all of this it may be inconceivable for us to think about a mother who could abandon her baby. It makes no sense. There is a major disconnect in the very core of our being when we hear about or read about such reports. There is something that screams at us that something is all wrong when that happens.
And yet, we all know that it sometimes happens. Sadly, it does. We don’t always know why but it does. Some mothers just feel like they have to abandon their babes. They leave their babies to die.
Now, we are not here to judge those mothers or to pile on guilt upon such mothers. That would be counterproductive of the message that the Prophet wants to share.
That is not what this passage is trying to do. It merely says even though such a horrible thing might happen in the nature world it will never happen with God.
The Prophet wants us to understand that God will never abandon us. Circumstances may cause us to end up in an exiled state. Circumstances due to Free Will and the Fall may cause us to find ourselves being imprisoned to loneliness, pain and suffering. Circumstances may lead us down a very dark path but we must understand that our Lord God Almighty will never leave us nor abandon us,
That is not who Our God is. Sin(s) was the major reason for the exile. Sin created the environment that allowed the Babylonians to be able to come in and overtake God’s People. But sin could not and will never be able to keep God’s love from over shadowing us and surrounding us.
We see this vividly displayed in the lives of the 3 Hebrew Children (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego). In the natural it looked like God had abandoned them. Where was this image of a mother nursing its child when they were being thrown into the fiery furnace to be burned alive?
That image was right there with them as Nebuchadnezzar did not see three men in the fire but four men and the fourth man looks like a son of the gods (Daniel 3:25).
This morning, no matter what we are going through; family issues, job issues, emotional issues, health issues, financial issues or some other issue we need to realize that the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY has not abandoned us nor will He ever abandon us. God will never leave us nor forsake us. God will walk through the fire with us. God will stay by our side through the thick and the thin. God’s love is more amazing than we can ever think or imagine.
II. God’s love for us is so deep that it is cut into the palms of His hands
One of the things that interestingly has become popular in the United States is body art inking (tattooing).
Did you know that over 145 million people in the United States have at least one piece of body art tattooed somewhere on them? Believe it or not, over 4 million people have as many as 20 tattoos and those tattoos range from all kinds of designs, pictures and/or words.
In years past, Body ink was associated with people who were living on what could be called the fringes of society. For example it was not uncommon for people who had served some time in jail to have a tattoo. The same could be said for those who belong to certain clubs or organizations.
Of course, tattoos have always been common among those who served in the military especially those who served in the US Navy.
Today, all kinds of people are displaying Body Art. People who are actors, singers, athletes along with teachers, lawyers, bank tellers, waiters and even church leaders now display body art. While it still may still be seen as a sign of rebellion it no longer has the social stigma it once possessed.
Many people get a tattoo to mark a significant experience or struggle in their lives. Some have gotten a tattoo as a way to “keep my mother’s memory”, or as a way of honoring “a first child” or to give significance to a particular event in their lives. Some just get a tattoo as a way of expressing who they are on the inside while some say that their tattoos tell their life story. Some just like to have a bit of body art on their skin showing some butterflies, flowers or whatever.
So, when we come to verse 16 you may find yourself being taken aback. Why in the world would the Holy Spirit inspire the Prophet to write such a thing; especially in light of Leviticus 19:28 which strictly forbade the practice of tattooing one’s body. On top of that this particular tattoo is on the palm of the hand. Which or course in that day included of the wrist area as well.
So, what are we to make of all of this?
I believe the Holy Spirit inspired the Prophet to write those words to get everyone’s attention.
We just looked at where the Prophet writes that God’s love is seen as greater than the love of a nursing mother. That had to get their attention. That was an unusual way of speaking about the Lord God Almighty.
It also had to bring a great amount of peace to those who heard those words. God had not abandoned them. God still loved them and was still interested in taking care of them, of having an intimate relationship with them and providing them support, love and concern.
Now, the Prophet says that God’s love is so deep that He has written the name of those He loves on his palm/wrists.
Babies grow up. There comes a day when they no longer need to be nursed. The people who are hearing the Prophet’s words may be thinking that in the past God did take care of them that like a nursing mother. They could point back to the manna in the wilderness, how God raised up King David and other events but those days were long gone.
Now, the Prophet goes further and says that just as a tattoo is permanent the same is true of God’s love. The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY loves His people so much that He purposely marks His palms/wrists with their names. Forever and ever as He looks at His hands, He reads the names of all those who belong to Him.
Before we go on, let me clarify something so that you don’t get hung up on tattoos. If you have a tattoo or don’t have a tattoo I believe that is your business. I don’t personally have one but that is because I don’t like needles and have never really wanted one. However, many of my friends and relatives have one which is their business. Some of them are quite beautiful while others look like a poor man’s version of a paint by number art set.
What I would love for us to focus on is not whether you have some Body Art but to go back and look at this verse 16 in a bit more detail. For what the Prophet shares is much richer and deeper than I think we can imagine at first glance.
Look at the beginning of that verse. It tells us to “see” something. This little word “see” I believe is a vital key to the whole thought of this verse which opens up for us a whole new view of the depth and richness of God’s love for us. The Prophet wants us to look at something. He wants us to inspect something.
The Prophet tells us that the LORD has written or engraved our names on the palms of His hands. The actual word that Isaiah uses is from the word ????? (?aqaq) that can also mean to cut or to inscribe. In other words, the Lord has cut our names into the palms of His hands.
For we who follow Jesus this morning all of this speaks volumes. For we know that the hands of Son of God were cut that day on Mt. Calvary. We know that the Son of God’s hands were cut into as He was nailed to the Cross.
Is there any greater show of God’s love than when He allowed His palms/wrists to be cut so that we could be rescued from both the power of sin and the penalty of sin?
Many of us have seen the movie “THE SHACK” based on the book written by William Paul Young. Now, there are of course some differences between what was written in the book and what appeared on the screen.
But there is this one scene in the movie where the main character, Mack Philips is talking with God the Father that he sees something that takes him aback. Mack looks at the hands/wrists of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and notices that all of them carry the same scars.
In other words, when Jesus went to the Cross all of the Trinity went to the Cross. What scarred Jesus also scarred God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. And what scarred them was the love that they have for all of us.
When I watched that scene in the movie it powerfully spoke to me. When I read verse 16, I think about that part of the movie; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit so loved us that they took on those scars for us. In effect, you could say that those scars have our names inscribed into them.
So, just how much does the LORD love us?
Enough that the Creator of the Universe would die for us and forever transform Himself with our names that are written in those scars.
+ Jesus died for each and every one of us.
+Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.
+Jesus broke the power of sin and made it possible for all of us to be rescued, redeemed and restored into His Image – the Image of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
+Jesus made it possible for each one of us to be filled with His Holy Spirit who will lead us and guide us to become the people God wanted us to be; a people who are at One with Him, with others and all of creation.
You see this morning; the people of God were never abandoned. God could have abandoned them. I mean after all, they rejected Him over and over again.
But that is not the God you and I serve this morning. That is not the God of Adam and Eve. That is not the God of Noah. That is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is not the God of Ruth or King David. That is not the God of Daniel, Hosea or Malachi. And that is not the God of Zacharias, John nor Paul
A little later on in this chapter the Prophet shares that the time is coming that they will return to Jerusalem. God has not abandoned them and He is already making a way for them to return and rebuild the city. He is making a way for His People to come home. Until then God will be there with them as a nursing mother and as one who constantly sees their names cut into the palms of His hands.
This morning, no matter what the future holds for our nation, for our world or for our own personal world we need to be encouraged by the words shared here by the Prophet Isaiah. We need to realize that our God will never abandon us. He will be there with us each step of the way.
That doesn’t mean that everyday will be filled with unicorns, butterflies and marshmallow lucky charms.
Pain, struggles, trials, temptations, setbacks, heartaches and the like are a part of our Fallen world. But we don’t have to go through all those things alone. God will be there for us; helping us, encouraging us and supporting us. God will make a way for us if we will just lean on Him and on each other.
We who know Jesus as Our Savior and LORD are called His Body and we are infilled with His Holy Spirit. It doesn’t make us perfect but it does enable us to encourage, support and love both those inside the Church and those outside the Church. We can be the hands and feet of Jesus in our world.
Today’s message is not a heavy one. It is not one to make you feel uneasy or to be filled with guilt or remorse.
Just the opposite. Today’s message is one that I believe the LORD wants us to hear to remind us that we serve a God who loves us more than even the best nursing mother. A God who loves us and who has tattooed or cut our names into His Hands – the hands that bear the scars of the Cross of Calvary.
A God who as the Psalmist says – walks with us even through the valley of the shadow of death.
That is who Our God is!
That is who we serve today!
That is who has rescued us, redeemed us and is restoring us into His Image.
This is the God who invites us to be cleansed from our sins and be Born Again!
Invitation to Receive the Lord’s Supper
Prayer/Blessing
