“This is what the Lord says- He who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen... One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel.”
Isaiah 44 immediately follows a description of “God’s Mercy and Israel’s Unfaithfulness.” We are reminded of how God led the Israelites through the Red Sea and continued to provide streams in the wasteland. But, the Israelites failed to honor Him with the praise He deserved. And then the chapter starts, and we are hit over the head with God’s desire to call us His own. I love the picture of writing “The Lord’s” on one’s hand. And because of Jesus, we are all qualified to do so. We are all “The Lord’s.” The hands that built worthless idols, but also fold in prayer to find forgiveness. The hands that once were used to plot and destroy, but can be lifted up and clapped together in shouts of worship.
Think of the Lord knowing us from the womb- before our hands were fully formed, He saw the potential they had to worship and work for His glory. Later on in the chapter, we can see the description of someone making an idol. A blacksmith and a carpenter work tirelessly to hammer and chisel an idol, even neglecting their own health to do so... But “they know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand.” They are too ignorant to ask, “Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” Their work was for naught. “He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him.”What are our hands used for? Are the words “The Lord’s” clearly visible by the works of our hands? Or is that inscription hidden by the mud and muck that builds up as we forge the ground to search for our own food while we ignore the manna that God provides; as we puff out our chests and build idols instead of bowing down in surrender to our Creator who says, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
I teach kids about the Bible every Sunday. And I’m often surprised by their ability to grasp the concepts some adults are too thick in the head to admit. When we learned about Aaron and the Israelites building a golden calf to worship, they were the ones to tell me how silly that was. After all, the Lord had just delivered them from captivity in Egypt. And they were the ones to tell me that sometimes we worship soccer games or money or Pokémon or LOL Dolls by putting them before God in our hearts. I’m not a huge Pokémon or soccer person, but I do spend a lot of time worrying about what impression I make on others. My hands are fidgeting as I ride the train to chase after the next job opportunity that might “change my life forever!” They shake as I fill out the paperwork or write the email or send the text that might “make me stop worrying!”
No. Those will never stop my worry or actually change my life. Because one email is just the start of a chain that will stress me out more and more; that will make me more tied to my phone and Apple Watch and whatever else I’ll be wearing on my wrist or head or ear from my last series of Black Friday transgressions at Costco.
What will CHANGE MY LIFE is writing “The Lord’s” on my hand. On the way to sign my name or shake some “influential” figure’s hand or insert my card for a new self-improvement product, I will see that it is busy building or acknowledging or worshipping a worthless idol. But all the while, God sees its potential to worship with creativity, intellect, and purity of heart.
God doesn’t take the fact that we have strayed and sweep it under the rug. He isn’t ashamed that His children are distracted and impatient and imperfect. “Return to me,” He says, “for I have redeemed you.”
Redeem: compensate for the faults or bad aspects
It doesn’t say that He erases us and starts over by making something perfect. He takes what is flawed and works to redeem it. He longs to work with what is broken and make it beautiful. He doesn’t chop off our stupid hands; He still uses what is scarred and tired and provides the refreshing we need to do good work.
I’m taking what I said a little earlier literally. I’m going to write “the Lord’s” on my hand and see where it takes me. As a compulsive hand-washer (especially in a sweaty New York summer... ew), I might need to do a few touch-ups. But I just want to see if a visual reminder will open me up for God to display His glory in the way I live. Mom always told me not to doodle on my hands or arms because it looked “dirty,” but I’m twenty-four... and this is not a doodle. This is a proclamation of my divine communion with my Creator. And if anyone has questions, I shall refer them to Isaiah 44. I’m not a product of the 90’s or my parents or my friend group or a state or a state of mind. I’m “the Lord’s.” He says so Himself.