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The LORD has forgotten me!

This evening’s passage of Scripture is a continuation from this morning’s, and brings the 49th chapter of Isaiah to a close. This morning we considered how the first half of the chapter encouraged us to recognise Christ as our covenantal Saviour, bringing salvation not just to the land and people of Israel, but to God’s people throughout the world. This evening we find the prophecy entering new waters, as God’s people call out to the Lord with their concerns, and He answers them. It is my prayer that the encouragement that the Lord gives them will also be of encouragement for you.

The Lord begins by making a triumphal declaration. In a similar way to Psalm 95, He encourages the people to “sing for joy… and exalt”, because “the LORD has comforted His people and will have compassion on His afflicted.” (v13) Not only is this excellent news, but it is an answer to the prophecy found in Isaiah 40, where at verse 1 we can read:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. (Isa. 40. 1-2)

Note the change in tense. No more is the instruction to comfort, but rather comes the declaration that “the LORD has comforted”. This is thanks to the actions of the Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember Paul’s words in Romans:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it., in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Rom. 8. 19-21)

It is important for us to remember that this is a prophecy and that sometimes prophecy timelines can become a little confusing to us. For example, in Revelation the timeline jumps around a bit and we have to be careful how we read it. So, too, here. While in Isaiah 40 the Lord will comfort, in chapter 49 He has comforted. However, as we read from Romans, the creation “will be set free from its bondage to corruption” (Ibid.), showing that this ultimate freedom will come at the second coming of Christ. While He has certainly overcome sin and death and won for us eternal life, the final, absolute, total freedom will come only when Christ returns again, as I was saying to the children earlier.

A little like the Catechism from earlier, this evening’s passage is also made up of questions and answers. Three times a question is asked, and three times God gives answer. Let’s explore these one at a time.

Q1 – “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me”

Okay, I admit that this first one isn’t technically a question, after all it ends with a full-stop and not a question-mark. However, it is questioning or challenging the previous statement that God has had compassion on His people. ‘How can He have had compassion if He’s forgotten me?’, Zion is as good as asking.

Interestingly, this question was also asked, in a form, in chapter 40 (from where I quoted earlier):

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. (Isa. 40. 27-29)

Equally, the Lord has an answer in our passage. To the accusation of forgetting His people, God answers that He never would, that He never could. He asks, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?” (v15)

Perhaps, like me, your minds are drawn from that passage to another incident involving mothers from Scripture. Indeed, there are a number: we could consider how the mother of Moses was not prepared to allow the Egyptians to murder her son, so went to the effort of preparing a ‘Moses basket’ and sailing him off down the Nile. And who can forget the immediacy with which she presented herself to Pharaoh’s daughter when she looked for someone to nurse the child? (Ex. 2. 9) The mother, placed in an impossible situation, would never allow the slaughter of their children without first fighting for them.

Or perhaps your mind was drawn to the legal dispute between the two women in 1 Kings. Wise King Solomon is presented with a case where two women (the ESV describes them as prostitutes) each have a child, one of whom dies after the mother rolls onto him. The claim is that the mother of the dead child stole the living child and claimed it was her own, leaving the other mother with the dead child.

And do you remember how, when Solomon proposes to cut the child in two (one half for each woman), the real mother cannot bear the thought so begs the king to give the child to the other woman? Although she desperately wants the child back, she would sooner it go to the other woman than be sliced in two. We can read, “Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.”” (1 Kgs. 3. 26)

Her heart yearned for her son. She was prepared to undergo anything for the sake of her son. And here in our Isaiah reading, the Lord asks “Can a woman forger her nursing child”? (v15)

Of course, the imagery continues when we consider how much the real mother in the courtroom case was prepared to go to see her son live, and then realise how much God the Father was prepared to endure to see His children (you and me) live. It is simply mind-blowing.

However, God then goes on to declare that, “Even these [mothers] may forget, yet I will not forget you.” (v15b)

We will perhaps have seen the news reports which show the worst of mankind, and seen how, while far from the norm, there are some parents who have such derangements or manias that, yes, they do do unspeakable things to their children, or do indeed forget them. This is terribly sad, and we must pray for such people and their children, yet it is not unknown in Scripture either. Consider the Psalmist, who in Psalm 27 declares, “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.” (Psa. 27. 10) And then, of course, we can remember that sometimes turning to Christ will be enough to turn “father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 13. 53) Yet above all we can take comfort that even when familial ties are not strong enough, or when everyone around has forsaken and fled, the Lord won’t have done.

Any why is this? God reassures us that He has “engraved [us] on the palms of [His] hands” (v16). Turn with me to Song of Solomon (not a Bible book I usually preach from), and turn to chapter 8. Here is perhaps one of the most recognisable passages from Song of Solomon, as the one party asks the other to:

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. (SofS. 8. 6-7)

Marking our bodies with the signs of loved ones is something that many people do. For many of us it doesn’t go further than wearing a wedding ring – a constant and ever-present reminder of the covenant we entered into with our spouses. Some more adventurous people will have a tattoo with their lover’s name on a part of their body – which of course is fine until they fall in love with someone else! However, in many ways a tattoo with your husband’s name on it is no different to a wedding ring, and is perhaps the image that God is giving us here. God will never forget because He can never forget. We know, of course, that God doesn’t have hands, so He has only metaphorically engraved our names on His palms, but the message is clear: He will not forget us because He sees us and thinks of us wherever He looks.

You’ll remember from this morning how I said that this prophecy is speaking potentially to three different situations. Firstly it addresses the needs of the people of Israel at the time it is written, secondly it speaks of the Lord Jesus, and thirdly (through Him) of the Church. In verse 17 the Lord clearly speaks of the rebuilding of the earthly Jerusalem – “God intends to rebuild Zion”,1 and we can see this from His declarations a few chapters earlier:

[God] says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and I will raise up the ruins’. (Isa. 44. 26)

However, as Christians we can also read from this how one day, through Jesus Christ, the servant about whom the entire prophecy is written, those whom He calls to Himself will dwell in the New Jerusalem.

So desperate for the people to see is God that He reuses some language from 2 Kings. In the passage Elisha’s servant fears that they are outnumbered, and Elisha prays, ““O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kgs. 6. 17)

Q2 – Behold, I was left alone, from where have these come?

Having established the answer to the first question, we can turn briefly to the second. I have to admit that I struggled a little to work this one out, so have only a couple of thoughts on vv 20-21.

The first is this: The Lord is here promising that, when the exiles return into the Promised Land (into Zion), “they will fill the land in a glorious way”.2 It is important for us to recognise that, in saying “This place is too narrow for me” etc (v20), they are not complaining that the land is not sufficient. Rather it is a rejoicing – they have gone from the land being deserted and abandoned to a foreign power to returning and filling it. The tide has changed for the people of Israel and the land that had been abandoned as a “waste and… desolate place… and… a devastated land” (v19) is now a fruitful place full of the rich blessing of God.

The second is this: in v21 we read:

Then you will say in your heart:

‘Who has borne me these?

I was bereaved and barren,

exiled and put away,

but who has brought up these?

Behold, I was left alone;

from where have these come?’” (Isa. 49. 21)

Here we should see that God’s great and abundant blessing for His chosen people will come to them as a great surprise. Of course, we can see a fruitful return to Zion in two ways – “in both near and far fulfilment”3 - both in the Exiles’ return to the physical land of Israel, and in our return to the New Jerusalem of which we read in Revelation. And even though both of these returns are well foretold in Scripture, never does a day go by when I don’t marvel that the Lord has done this for me, and all those who call upon His Name! In many ways, “the promise seems too good to be true, [yet] God confirms it with an oath to the nations. God will rescue Israel from both their immediate and ultimate captivity.”4

This oath to the nations comes in the form of the answer found in vv22 and 23. We all know the Scottish courtroom practice of raising your right hand when making an affirmation or oath. And although Scripture speaks against us making oaths in God’s Name, here we see God Himself “lift up [His] right hand to the nations” (v22) and making a solemn promise in their sight. What is the promise?

The Lord promises that “Kings shall be your foster fathers” (v23). Guzik explains that this teaches that “one day the greatest in the nation will love and care for the children of the Church”. This is Calvin’s view as well. He explains that “Having formerly driven out Christ from their dominions, they [kings] shall henceforth acknowledge Him to be the supreme King, and shall render to Him all honour, obedience, and worship.”5 Calvin used this to explain how, one day, the nation will protect the Church in the way that the Westminster Confession describes the role of the magistrate:

Yet [the magistrate] hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the church, that the truth of God be kept pure entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented, or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed.6

Looking at the history of the Church in this land, we can see that we are not at that stage yet. Indeed our own Free Church was formed in 1843 for the very opposite reason: state interference in the Church to the detriment of Church Order and Authority. And yet, even though the day has not yet come, we can claim this promise as a solemn oath of the Lord: one day the Church will be given the freedom and protection to spread the Gospel according to God’s laws.

While images of kings bowing down before the authority of the Church are fun to picture however, we should take care that we don’t misunderstand the image. It is not suggested that one day the Church will (or indeed should) lord it over the rightful leaders of the nation. The Lord has given us rulers and we should accept them. Remember Paul’s instructions to the Romans:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. (Rom. 3. 1-3a)

The image of kings bowing down and licking the dust, which are also found in Psalm 72, are instead (says Clarke) “general poetical images, taken from the manners of the country, to denote great respect and reverence… [they] were intended only as general amplifications of the subject”.7

Q3 – Can the prey be taken from the mighty?

This final question in the passage, found in vv24-26, are really a question of God’s might. ‘Can God even rescue the people who have been taken into captivity?’, they are asking. The Lord answers their scepticism in the following verses, by declaring that not only can and will He rescue the people from their enemies, but that He will “show His strength and love for Zion by giving unto Babylon what Babylon gave unto Zion”,8 that’s to say that just as the people of Israel were taken into captivity in Babylon, eventually not only will the people be released from their bondage, but their captors will be treated as they treated Israel.

This was true when the Lord freed Israel from Babylon’s captivity in the Old Testament, but it is “even more true for those set free from captivity to Satan.”9 We can see this in how Jesus discusses it:

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his spoil. (Luke 11. 21-22)

While the enemy is indeed powerful (indeed, “prowls around like a roaring lion” (1 Pet. 5. 8)), “God is far more powerful, takes away his arms, and destroys his fortresses, that He may set us at liberty.”10 What an encouragement this is: we see in the Old Testament how this particular part of the prophecy is fulfilled as the exiles return to Jerusalem, so we can be doubly sure of His promise to ultimately free us from satan’s tyranny: “He will undoubtedly be our deliverer, whenever our enemies shall lay us under their feet and oppress us with cruel bondage.”11

Just like this morning, there is lots of meat in this passage of Scripture, and while I have endeavoured to explain it, you may well be sitting there wondering what merit this information serves, and why I am telling you about it.

Well, firstly I am telling you about it so that you can see how the prophecy was fulfilled in the Old Testament times, and in the time of Christ, but there is more still.

From this prophetic passage, we can know for certain that however far we think we have fallen from God, He can and will draw near to us when we call on His Name. There is hope even for those who currently are prisoners to sin, whether they be loved ones in our family, or even one of us here tonight. Even those who are currently firmly in satan’s grasp, who are going along a wrong path or have turned away from the Lord altogether are not necessarily lost forever. While we must understand this truth in the light of the Gospel truth concerning predestination, we can also take great comfort that even though at this precise moment someone isn’t with the Lord, their sin alone, or the company they keep, is not enough to stand in the way of God’s gracious plan in their lives. Even as we speak, God is delving into the dregs of mankind in calling people to His Son, just as He did with Saul of Tarsus, that great scourge on Christianity, who took such delight in destroying the faith, when He spoke to him on the route to Damascus. The fact that Saul had sinned and done unspeakable things did not mean that Christ could not save him. The fact that you, or a loved one have sinned does not mean that, if the Lord has set His mark on your head before the foundation of time, He can’t do the same for you.

Furthermore, we can take great comfort that the Lord loves us with such an unquenchable love that our names are graven on His hands, that wherever He looks He sees our name and thinks of us. No matter how much we who are saved and know Christ struggle under the power of sin, we need to know that the Lord never forgets us or stops loving us.

So, be encouraged and know for sure, dear friends, that through Christ’s application of His blood to our account (WSC-29), we can never fall from the Lord’s grip or ‘lose’ our salvation (WCF-11.V). While at times we may face difficulties which seem to threaten to overwhelm us, difficulties that lead us to cry out that the Lord has forgotten us, remember that He would never forget us, just like the woman in 1 Kings could never forget her child. His salvation is absolute, and His love is unending. One day, once we reach the New Jerusalem, even the darkest and most difficult times of our lives will make sense, and we will see how the Lord’s providence was present even where we couldn’t discern it. After all, providence is (as Alistair Begg says) something that we rarely see through the windscreen, but normally through the rear-view window.

Lastly, know for sure that the Lord promised in the prophecy that the land of Israel, at that point deserted and ravaged, with her people taken off into captivity by a foreign oppressor, would once again be for His chosen people. Once again the land would be teeming with inhabitants, and cries of praise would ring out in God’s sanctuary. We see how this really happened in Old Testament times, and similarly He promises that those who believe in Christ will one day inherit the New Jerusalem, where there will be joy and peace for-evermore.

May the Lord bless these thoughts to our hearts, and may our delight ever be found in Him and His Scriptures.

Prayer

  1. Lane T. Dennis, Wayne Grudem, and J. I. Packer, eds., ESV Study Bible, Personal Size, First Edition (Crossway, 2015), 1331. 

  2. David Guzik, ‘Isaiah 49’, accessed 18 June 2024, https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/isaiah-49/. 

  3. Ibid. 

  4. Ibid. 

  5. Jean Calvin, Isaiah 33 - 66, vol. 8, Commentaries (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1981), 39. 

  6. Westminster Divines, ‘The Westminster Confession of Faith’, in The Confession of Faith (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons Ltd., 1969), chap. 23. III. 

  7. Guzik, ‘Isaiah 49’. 

  8. Ibid. 

  9. Ibid. 

  10. Calvin, Isaiah 33 - 66, 8:44. 

  11. Ibid.