Passover

Tonight at sundown Jews all over the world will celebrate the Feast of Passover.  It is a festival of remembrance of what God did for Israel when He brought them out of bondage in Egypt by His mighty outstretched arm.  When God saw the blood of a sacrificed lamb covering the door frames of their homes He 'passed over' that household and did not strike down the firstborn as He did throughout the rest of Egypt.  He led them into the desert where they would learn to worship Him. 

It was the birth of the Nation.

The Old Testament is full of stories about what happened next.  The people forgot He is a holy God who demands to be first in the lives of His people.  Time after time we read that His people turned their backs, walked away, chased after other gods. 

There was a price to pay for such rebellion.  There was suffering, defeat and cries that went up to a sky that seemed hard as bronze.  Where was their great Jehovah?  Had He abandoned them? 

When Israel cried out, "The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me!" God responded through the prophet Isaiah,  "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands."  (Isaiah 49:15,16 emphasis added)  If a nursing mother forgets her infant her body automatically responds with sore leaky breasts because she bears the reminder of the baby in her body.

So it is with God.  He says He will not forget because His people are engraved on the palms of His hands.  The Hebrew word for engraved is 'haqaq' and it means to cut, take a chisel or a hammer and cut as into a rock. 

I hope you don't pass by the beauty of this meaning.  Our Rock, Jesus Christ, redeemed us on a long-ago Passover.  The same arm that stretched out the heavens in Creation now stretched out on a cross.  Men took a hammer and with it they 'cut' into His hands.  For you.  For me.  We are engraved on His hands.  Just as a nursing mother bears the reminder of her child in her body, our Lord's resurrected body also bears the reminder of His children on His hands.

Do you feel forgotten?  Abandoned?  Have you, like the Israelites, turned your back and walked away, chasing after other gods?  Do you wonder if you can ever come back, if you'll be accepted after yet another failure?  Do you cry out as Israel did, "The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me!"

The Cross beckons:  Come back.  See, I have not forgotten you.  You are engraved on My hands.

There is no time like now, this Season of the Cross, to return to those hands.

Or come for the first time.  You might see your name is engraved there also.