The Tuesday after the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 12, 2024 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 49:12-17 (NKJV)
49:12 “Surely these shall come from afar; Look! Those from the north and the west, and these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His afflicted.
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.
16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.
17 Your sons shall make haste; Your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you.”
Devotion
“See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.”
Isaiah prophesies that the children of Israel would think themselves utterly forsaken by God. And little wonder: they were going to go into exile. Such is the nature of the drastic mercies of God. He will play hardball if that is what it takes to bring us to repentance. But the suffering and death of Israel was not the plan. He gave them hardship that they might repent and ultimately be saved. Salvation is always God’s desire.
Israel would not be forsaken, not en masse. Rather, Israel would be reduced down to One, in the person of Jesus Christ. He would be forsaken by God as He bore the wages of all sin. He even said so from the cross: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” With the nails that held Him to the cross, Israel was literally inscribed on His hands. And those are Israel who have the faith of Abraham, not those who are of the bloodline of Abraham. We are Israel who have faith in Israel’s Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Collect: Almighty God, we beseech Thee, show Thy mercy unto Thy humble servants, that we who put no trust in our own merits may not be dealt with after the severity of Thy judgment, but according to Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
