GOD’S CARE FOR HIS CHURCH
Isaiah 49:13-17. Sing, O heavens, &c.
I. Nothing can furnish us with better matter for songs of praise and thanksgiving than the tender care God has of the Church (Isaiah 49:13). Let the whole creation join with us in songs of joy, for it shares with us in the benefits of the redemption (Romans 8:19; Romans 8:21).
II. The care which God has for His Church is never to be doubted by us. True, the troubles of the Church have given some occasion to question His concern for it (Isaiah 49:14). The case of His people may sometimes be so deplorable that they seem to be forsaken and forgotten by Him; and at such a time their temptation may be alarmingly violent. Weak believers, in their despondency, are ready to say, “God has forsaken us,” &c. But we have no more reason to question His promise and grace, than we have to question His providence and justice. He is as sure a Rewarder as He is a Revenger. Away, therefore, with those distrusts and jealousies which are the bane of friendship. The triumphs of the Church, after her troubles, will in due time put the matter out of question (Isaiah 49:17).
III. Be assured that God has a tender affection for His Church and people (Isaiah 49:15). In answer to Zion’s fears, He speaks as one concerned for His own glory; He takes Himself to be reflected upon if Zion say, “The Lord hath forsaken me;” and He will clear Himself. As one concerned also for His people’s comfort, He would not have them droop and be discouraged, and give way to uneasy thoughts. You think that I have forgotten you; “can a woman forget her sucking child?”
1. It is not likely that she should. A woman, whose honour it is to be of the tender sex as well as the fair one, cannot but have compassion for a child, which, being both harmless and helpless, is a proper object of compassion. A mother, especially, cannot, but be concerned for her own child. for it is her own, a piece of herself, and very lately one with her. A nursing mother, most of all, cannot but be tender of her sucking child. But
2. it is possible she may forget. A woman may be so unhappy as not to be able to remember her sucking child; she may be sick, dying, and going to the land of forgetfulness; or she may be so unnatural as not to have compassion on it (Lamentations 4:10; Deuteronomy 28:57). But, says God, “I will not forget thee.” His compassions to His people infinitely exceed those of the tenderest parents toward their children (P. D. 1499).
IV. Be assured that God has a constant care of His Church and people (Isaiah 49:16-17). “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands,” alludes to the custom of wearing signet or locket rings in remembrance of some dear friend. If we bind God’s law as a sign upon our hand (Deuteronomy 6:8-11), He will engrave our interests as a sign on His hand, and will look upon that and remember the covenant, “Thy walls shall continually be before Me;” “thy ruined walls, though no pleasing spectacle, shall be in my thoughts of compassion.” Or, “The plan and model of thy walls, that are to be rebuilt, is before Me, and they shall certainly be built according to it.”—Matthew Henry. Commentary: in loco.
A GLORIOUS IMPOSSIBILITY
Isaiah 49:14-15. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, &c.
I. The believer, like Zion of old, is sometimes led to form suspicions concerning the Lord’s goodness. Such suspicions are apt to arise—
1. In periods of deep spiritual temptation: times of dark and mysterious providences; days in which God’s people “walk in darkness and have no light.” Such times are apt to come upon us through neglect of prayer, through neglect of some known duty; and then, instead of blaming ourselves, we are apt to distrust God.
2. In times of deep temporal trial.
II. The love of God for His people renders all such suspicions utterly unreasonable. A mother’s love for her child is tender and strong; many mothers have contentedly laid down their lives for their children; but history is full of proofs that a mother’s love for her child may utterly pass away. But God’s love for His people will never fail. “Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget; yet will not I forget thee.” How tender, comprehensive, and touching is this figure! There is much to be considered in it: the tenderness of the tie, the helplessness of the child, the very posture of the child.
1. The tenderness of the tie. [1513] The tie between God’s children and Himself is infinitely closer than that between a child and its mother. True, the child derives its life from the mother, as the medium by which the Lord doth communicate it; but God is the life of His saints. They live and move and have their being in Him, and He lives in them.
[1513] The young of all creatures are lovely and attractive always: but let us survey the image here. Here is a child, a harmless object, a helpless object, an endeared object, and towards which any one may feel compassion and tenderness. But you will observe that the child here is the mother’s own—“the son of her womb;” lately a part of herself, and endeared by the anxieties of bearing it, and the pain and peril of bringing it forth. Nor is this all; for the mother is a nursing mother. Isaiah scorned to take an image of exquisite tenderness from those wretches who, when they have it in their power, devolve this pleasing and (ask all the physicians) this salutary duty upon others, upon strangers, and upon hirelings; no, it is a nursing mother, and the child is a “sucking child,” looking up with ineffable satisfaction to his benefactor, and with his little hands stroking the cheeks of her who feeds him.—Jay.
2. The helplessness of the child. The helplessness and dependence of the believer is still greater. In a few months it will be able to walk alone; in a few years we shall find it not only walking and running, but labouring independently of its mother. But look at the believer—at those most advanced in the life of God, most filled with heavenly wisdom; look at “Paul the aged.” He is as feeble, as dependent, as helpless in himself as at the first moment (1 Corinthians 15:10).
3. The posture of the child: that is more touching still. There are few sights more endearing, as every mother will acknowledge, than that of a child hanging on her bosom, deriving the support of its physical life from herself. It is one of the most touching pictures that can be presented to our eye. And yet, compared with that of a believer, it is as nothing. His is not an unconscious hanging upon the author and sustainer of His being; His is a conscious, glad dependence upon God for those supplies that come from His Father’s heart, and minister to His spiritual life—that life which is the commencement of life eternal. Who can compare the one with the other? It is a closer tie, a tenderer tie, a more dependent object, and a posture infinitely more endearing. No wonder God gives the strong assurance which our text contains.
III. God’s love for His people manifests itself in a constant remembrance of their condition and needs. “Yet will I not forget thee,” is only another way of saying, “I will always remember thee.”
1. He does not forget their persons (Isaiah 49:16).
2. Nor the work of grace that is in them. It is described as His poem: “we are His workmanship”—His poem (Ephesians 2:10). A man takes care of his book; but if he has his own poem, will he be likely to forget that?
3. Nor their trials (Isaiah 43:2).
4. Nor their returns to Him (Jeremiah 31:18).
5. Nor their obedience (Isaiah 64:5; Hebrews 6:10).
6. Nor their needs in death (Psalms 116:15). Blessed truth, it is full of unutterable sweetness.
The subject is full of instruction.
1. It should lead to self-examination. Are we of the number of those whom God knows, in the sense of reproving and acknowledging as His? If He does not thus know us, how can we expect Him to remember us?
2. A sight of the helpless child hanging upon its mother’s breast should show us our own dependency, and take away every thought of self-sufficiency.
3. The fickleness of the tenderest of human affections brings out more clearly into view the glory of God’s love for His people.
4. The constancy of the Divine love should make us ashamed of our despondency and distrust in times of trial.
5. If God never forgets us, we should never forget Him.—J. H. Evans, M.A., Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 305–316.
I. A MOURNFUL COMPLAINT (Isaiah 49:14). The wicked think too much of the goodness of God, in reference to themselves; they mistake the effects of His general bounty for evidences of His peculiar friendship (H. E. I. 3977–3980). The very reverse of this is the disposition of all subjects of Divine grace; they know that self-deception is tremendous, probable, common, and are therefore afraid of it; they often carry their solicitude beyond the point of duty; they apply to themselves what was intended for others, and sometimes think themselves forsaken of God.
1. This arises sometimes
(1.) from the weakness of their faith ([1516]. H. E. I. 2014–2017).
(2.) From ignorance; they have a knowledge of God, but it is very imperfect, and therefore they form mistaken apprehensions as to the manner in which He is likely to deal with them.
(3.) From a suspension of divine manifestation. The sun is always in the sky, but it is not always visible. God hides Himself from the house of Jacob; and if you are part of the house of Jacob, you will be affected thereby (Psalms 30:7). When He does this, it is not in the mere exercise of Divine sovereignty, but either as a prevention of sin, or as correction for it (Isaiah 59:2; Hosea 5:15; Job 15:11; H. E. I. 1644–1659).
(4.) From conflict with the troubles of life. It is forgotten that these are really proofs that God has not forsaken us (Proverbs 13:24; Hebrews 12:6; H. E. I. 189–196, 3692–3695).
(5.) Sometimes from God’s delay in the accomplishment of prayer. Distinguish between the acceptance and the answer of prayer; God always immediately hears, but does not always immediately answer the prayer of faith (2 Peter 3:9; Lamentations 3:26; H. E. I. 3884–3899).
[1516] Our comfort must always be according to our faith. “In whom,” Bays Peter, “believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” There is always consolation in God’s riches of glory by Christ Jesus; but these can only be perceived and apprehended by faith. There is always fruit enough upon the tree of life, but faith in the hand by which alone we gather it. There is water enough always in the wells of salvation, but by faith we must draw it.—Jay, H. E. I. 1252–1285.
2. Who can find language to express the wretchedness such a false conclusion causes? The misery produced by it in a child of God is due to three causes:—
(1.) He loves God, not perfectly, but supremely; and love can never be reconciled to the absence of its object.
(2.) He entirely relies upon Him, and therefore feels that if God has withdrawn from him, all must be darkness, dreariness, desolation, and death.
(3.) He has enjoyed Him already, and therefore nothing can satisfy him but God (H. E. I. 1018, 2378–2387).
II. A SATISFACTORY ANSWER (Isaiah 49:15). Notice,
1. The improbability of the fear. This is metaphorically expressed. The case supposed is not likely, but it is possible. But the tenderest feelings of nature are as nothing when compared with the kindness of God.
2. The certainty of the assurance. “Yet will not I forget thee.” With God there is no fickleness (Numbers 23:19).—H. E. I. 2324, P. D. 815.
3. The all-sufficiency of the truth established; that is, the perpetual regard of God for us. If His favour is set upon us, it secures everything else (Psalms 84:11-12).
Concluding remarks.—
1. Distresses and discouragements are not incompatible with religion (H. E. I. 339–346, 2907).
2. See how concerned God is, not only for His people’s safety, but for their comfort also. Let His people fall in with this design (Psalms 42:11).
4. Do not take the comfort belonging to a gracious state, unless you are the subjects of a gracious character.—W. Jay: “The British Pulpit,” vol. v. pp. 221–230.
We have here two assertions; Zion’s and God’s.
I. ZION’S ASSERTION. “The Lord hath forsaken me,” &c. Observe four things which may cause this complaint:—
1. The mysteriousness of Divine providence.
2. The long duration of Zion’s troubles.
3. Lack of success.
4. Zion’s own sinfulness and weakness.
II. GOD’S ASSERTION. “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” &c. “Yet will I never forget thee.” Why?
1. He is too nearly related to Zion.
2. He bestows too much thought upon Zion.
3. He has done too much on behalf of Zion.
4. He has given too many promises—great and precious—to Zion.
5. He expects too much from Zion.
6. He hath ordained that Zion shall for ever dwell in His immediate presence. “For ever with the Lord.” God, then, cannot forget His people.
Improvement.
1. Zion should at once withdraw her complaint.
2. As God will never forget Zion, Zion should never forget her God.
3. Zion should never despond in the presence of any untoward event which may overtake her.—W. Roberts, Penybontfawr, “Pregethau.”
1. God’s love is like a mother’s love. There is no love in this world like a mother’s love. It is free, unbought, unselfish (P. D. 2357). God’s love to a soul in Christ is stronger (Psalms 103:13-14; Malachi 3:17; Isaiah 66:13; H. E. I. 2322–2333; P. D. 1499). Be not cast down in affliction (H. E. I. 189–196). Deserted souls, God’s love cannot change unless His true nature change. Not till God cease to be holy, just, and true, will He cease to love the soul that hides under the wings of Jesus (H. E. I. 2324).
2. His love is full love. A mother’s love is the fullest love which we have on earth. She loves with all her heart. But there is no love full but that of God toward His Son; God loves Jesus fully—the whole heart of the Father is as it were continually poured down in love upon the Lord Jesus. But when a soul comes to Christ, the same love rests on that soul (John 17:26). True, a creature cannot receive the love of God as Jesus can; but it is the same love that shines on us and Him—full, satisfying, unbounded love. How can God forget what He fully loves? A creature’s love may fail; for what is a creature?—a clay vessel, a breath of wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But the Creator’s love cannot fail—it is full love toward an object infinitely worthy of His love—in which thou sharest.
3. It is an unchanging love. A mother’s love is, of all creature-love, the most unchangeable. But far more unchanging is the love of God to Christ, and to a soul in Christ: “I am the Lord; I change not.” The Father that loves has no variableness. Jesus who is loved, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. How can that love change? It flowed before the world was; it will flow when the world has passed away. If you are in Christ, that love shines on you (Jeremiah 31:3; Romans 8:38-39).—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sketches of Sermons.
These words apply, first of all, to God’s ancient people, the Jews, but they are equally true of all believers.
I. There are times when believers are apt to think themselves forsaken.
1. In time of sore affliction. So it was with Naomi, Hezekiah, Job. It is a sad thing when the soul faints under the rebukes of God. They were intended to lead you deeper into Christ—into a fuller enjoyment of God (H. E. I. 66–70).
2. When they have fallen into sin. As long as a believer walks humbly with his God, his soul is at peace. But the moment that unbelief creeps in, he is led away into sin—like David he falls very low. A believer generally falls lower than the world; and now he falls into darkness. When Adam fell, he was afraid; and he hid himself from God among the trees of the garden, and he made a covering of leaves. When a believer falls, he also is afraid—he hides from God.
3. In time of desertion. Desertion is God withdrawing from the soul of a believer; so that His absence is felt. Sometimes it pleases God to withdraw from the soul, chiefly, I believe, to humble us in the dust; or to discover some corruption unmortified; or to lead us to hunger more after Him. Such was the state of David when he wrote Psalms 42 (Job 6:4; Job 29:1-2; H. E. I. 1644–1659).
II. God cannot forget a soul in Christ: “Can a woman,” &c.
TO THE PREACHER.
1. Comfort downcast believers. Your afflictions and desertions only prove that you are under the Father’s hand. There is no time when the patient is an object of such tender interest to the surgeon, as when he is under his knife; so, you may be sure, if you are suffering from the hand of God, His eye is all the more bent on you (Deuteronomy 33:27).
2. Invite poor sinners to come and taste of this love. It is a sweet thing to be loved. I suppose the most of you have tasted a mother’s love; but this is nothing to the love of your God.
Oh! it is sweet to pass from wrath to love—from death to life. That poor murderess would leap in her cell, when the news came that she was not to die the murderer’s death; but, ah! ten thousand times sweeter would it be to you, if God were, this day, to persuade you to embrace Christ freely offered in the gospel.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons and Lectures, pp. 99–105.
GRAVEN UPON JEHOVAH’S HANDS
Isaiah 49:16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.
The prophets were more than half poets. The language here is highly figurative. It is a bold anthropomorphism. The words are used of Zion, the Church of God. That glorious building, complete in the Divine idea, is regarded as graven upon God’s hands. Each individual member of the spiritual Zion has his own place therein marked out by Jehovah. It is to the individual reference implied in the text that attention is invited.
I. Amid temptations to regard ourselves forgotten of the Lord, how consoling is the reflection that the life of the true believer in God is linked with the life of the Eternal! “Where there is no eye to see reality,” it has been said, “there is ever an eye-brow waiting to rise in scornful wonder at the name of it.” And again, “Where the substantial hand to grasp things worthy is wanting, there is always some thin shadow-hand to wave them off with mocking gestures.” But spiritual discernment embraces the fact, that man, and especially the Christ-like man, lives in God. The being of the godly is bound up with the being of God; they are specially dear to God, shall never be lost sight of by Him, have their life hid with Christ in God, and go forward to the fulness of life, to the pleasures, which, according to another use of the same figure, are said to be at God’s right hand for evermore. To speak after this manner is no doubt mysticism to the unspiritual. But the obscurity is in them. Not always is this momentous truth quite clear even to the spiritual; but it is peculiarly dark and unintelligible to those whose understanding has not been enlightened from above: for it is one of those things which “are spiritually discerned.”
II. Why it is often hard for even the believer in God to realise this union. Many reasons might be suggested. Consider one. The world is but a small part of the universe, and man’s life on earth bears but a small proportion to his God-given immortality. Hence the obscurity resting upon the purpose to which all things tend, and also upon the tendency itself as residing in the means to the end. Chance and accident seem to rule widely in this world. The goal is reached by much of seeming waste, sacrifice, and sorrow (H. E. I. 4033, 4034). As for the world, so for the individual, there is a divine idea, but it is a mosaic, beautiful as a whole, we may believe, yet tesselated with innumerable fragments. Why trouble ourselves unnecessarily, complaining till ourselves are hoarse, and others miserable?—why not just fall in to our little work patient, and believing that the Divine purpose is good, and will yet sparkle forth like a bright jewel from the short period of confusion? (H. E. I. 4047).
III. Consider some part of the proof that our union with God endures and is indissoluble.
1. The believer in God should find it easy to convince himself that there is much undeveloped power in the Church which shall yet be made manifest. And so with the individual. The feeling of undeveloped power within us, this feeling that there is life within us down below our present life, is identical with being graven on Jehovah’s hands. We do not know the possibility of our being, but we feel within us depths that no man knows, and which we ourselves, can appreciate with no distinctness.
2. Do not suppose, because you have been appointed a humble place in the world’s work, because your luxuries are few, and your hands never idle, and sickness like a lion ever crouching at the door of your house, that God has forgotten you, and not graven out your place on the palms of His hands. Poverty, weakness, suffering, shame, are not these just so many powers plying to bring up into play the deep, Divine life? (H. E. I. 91–98). In ways we cannot fathom, God is showing us that He remembers us, is present, ordaining for the best, in every circumstance of life. For the bringing of order out of seeming confusion, it is necessary to believe that He is present in the most trivial circumstances, and, as Christ says, numbers the very hairs of your head.—J. M. Simcock.
The text belongs primarily to the seed of Israel; next, to the whole Church as a body; and then to every individual member.
I. Consider our text verbally. Every single word deserves to be emphasised.
1. “Behold.” It is a word of wonder; intended to excite admiration. Wherever you see it hung out in Scripture, it is like an ancient sign-board, signifying that there are rich wares within, drawing attention to something particularly worthy of observation. Here, indeed, we have a theme for marvelling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that God should grave upon His hands the names of sinners. Speak of the seven wonders of the world, why this is a wonder in the seventh heavens! No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word “Behold,” is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. How the Divine mind seems to be amazed at this wicked unbelief of man! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God’s favoured people? He seems to say, “How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven,” &c. Here follows the great marvel, that God should be faithful to such a faithless people, and that when He is provoked with their doubting, He nevertheless abideth true. Behold! and be ashamed and confounded for all your cruel doubts of your indulgent Lord.
2. Behold, “I have,” &c. The Divine Artist, who has been pleased to engrave His people for a memorial, is none other than God Himself. Here we learn the lesson which Christ afterwards taught His disciples—“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” No one can write upon the hand of God but God Himself. Neither our merits, prayers, repentance, nor faith, can write our names there, for these in their goodness extend not unto God so as to write upon His hands. Then, again, if the Lord hath done it, there is no mistake about it. If some human hand had cut the memorial, the hieroglyphs might be at fault; but since perfect wisdom has combined with perfect love to make a memorial of the saints, then no error by any possibility can have occurred; there can be no erasures, no crossing out of what God has written, no blotting out of what the Eternal hath decreed.
3. “Behold, I have graven thee.” Not, “I will,” nor yet, “I am doing it;” it is a thing of the past, and how far back in the past! Oh! the antiquity of this inscription! Do not these deep things comfort you? Does not eternal love delight you?
4. “Graven.” I have not merely printed thee, stamped thee on the surface, but I have permanently cut thee into my hand with marks which never can be removed. That word “graven” sets forth the perpetuity of the inscription.
5. “I have graven thee,” &c. “My Lord, dost thou mean me? Yes, even me, if I by faith cling to Thy cross.” “I have graven thee.” It does not say, “Thy name.” The name is there, but this is not all; “I have graven thee.” See the fulness of this! I have graven everything about thee, all that concerns thee; it is a full picture, as though the man himself were there.
6. We are engraven, where? Upon His hands, not upon the works of His hands. They shall perish; yea, they shall all wax old as doth a garment, but His hands shall endure for ever. Notice, it does not say, “I have graven thee upon the palm of one hand,” but “I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.” There are two memorials. His saints shall never be forgotten, for the inscription is put there upon the palm of this hand, the right hand of blessing, and upon the palm of that hand, the left hand of justice.
Now let us proceed to the second part of the subject—
II. Consider the text as a whole. God’s remembrance of His people is—
1. Constant.
2. Practical. He will work and show Himself strong for His people; He brings His omnipotent hands to effect our redemption.
3. Eternal. You cannot suppose it possible that any person can erase what is written on God’s hand.
4. Tender.
5. Most surprising. Child of God, let your cheerful eyes and your joyful heart testify how great a wonder it is that you, once so far estranged from God, are this day written on the palms of His hands.
6. Most consolatory. There is no sorrow to which our text is not an antidote.
III. Be heedful of the duty which such a text suggests.
1. If you be partakers of this precious text, is it not your duty to leave your cares behind you to-day? Should not the fact that God always graciously and tenderly recollects you, compel you once for all to leave your burden with Him who careth for you?
2. If this text is not yours, how your mouths ought to water after it! Is there a soul here who says, “O that I had a part and lot in this matter!” Thou mayest have His pardoning love shed abroad in thy heart even now.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 512.