And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. (Isa 49:11,14-16)
This message is for the purpose of presenting to you the answer to your deepest needs, the living Christ.
The specific subject today is simply called Engraved On His Hands. OR, we could simply call this message “The Holiness Of Jesus In The Great Controversy. I’ll let people choose what to call it.
The walls of some Egyptian Tombs indicate to us that people branded Oxen,cattle and other animals as early as 2000 BC Spanish explorers introduced branding to The Americas as early as the 1500s. The branding of people such as slaves or criminals, was practiced in ancient and medieval times, and even continued as late as the 18th century in Britain and its colonies. Slaves would be identified by a permanent tattoo, sometimes they would even be branded by their “owners”.
In the book of Revelation, John saw God’s people with a mark or a seal in their foreheads. John also saw all the followers of Antichrist marked with a sign on their forehead or their hand. Bible prophecy reveals some startling things about the holiness of Jesus in the great controversy. The ages long battle between good and evil as depicted in Scripture.
Did you know that our Savior carries permanent marks in His hands that identify you personally? NOT just your name, but you! As in the whole person of you! JESUS says from the book of Isaiah:
Isa 49:16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.
This verse begins in the KJV with the word “behold” meaning to “look and see.” In fact, it means more than that. “Attention! Attention! Something very important is coming up here.
The word “behold” denotes for us wonder, excitement, admiration. Its like an ancient signboard that points the way to a very special place. Its like the label of an old treasure chest that says “treasures within.” Its like a news paper boy shouting “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” God says “Behold!” God is telling us that He wants to say something important. “I want to show you something so spectacular that the whole world is going to be astonished, but even more than that; what I want to tell you is so marvelous that even heaven is filled with wonder and amazement! The power statement that Jesus has to announce is as follows:
“The names of sinners are engraved on His hands.”
Rebels, and sinners are so dear to our Savior, that they are engraved upon His very flesh! Even angels are filled with wonder. Those glorious beings who never sinned cannot even say that they are engraved upon the palm of His Hand. Its not just the names that are engraved upon His Hands. Its YOU. As in your whole person. Read the text! The names of sinners engraved upon the hands that created us! What angel has ever attained unto this dignity? To what angel was this honor ever awarded? This honor has only been given to the fallen human race.
“I have engraved YOU,” says Jesus “not just your name, but YOU! I have engraved who you are on the palm of My Hands.”
The preceding verses from Isaiah 49:16 tell us about the pessimism of God’s people when they were thinking “My God has forgotten me.” Haven’t we all felt like that at one time or another? We have so many problems that we sometimes will feel like crying out like Jesus even did, “My God. Why have you left me?” (Mark 15:34) But my friends, God never forsakes us. (Heb 13:5) God has never forgotten His people. It was their lack of faith that made them think of themselves as being forsaken. It was their unbelief that made them feel forgotten. Their doubts and fears were unfounded. And God says to them all:
“How could you think I had forgotten you when I have engraved you on the very palms of My Hands? How dare you doubt my constant remembrance when the memorial is in my very own flesh? When YOU are engraved on the palms of my hands?
Sometimes we see people in love, going out on a date of some kind. They come to a tree in the park, and decide to engrave their names on the trunk. I have often thought “why on earth do so many people bring knives with them on a date? Is there something I am missing? Maybe I better go buy a knife or borrow one from Wayne for my next date, if there ever is one.
But there is something more acceptable for us to note here:
Lovers will place a picture of each other on a dresser, or in the living room for all to see. But your picture is always with God. Jesus sees your engraving all of the time for it is engraven on the palms of His hands! Behold! There are two wonders surfacing here.
First, it is the faithfulness of God, and that is certainly a mighty wonder.
But there’s another wonder. Its the utter unbelief of His people. Jesus keeps His promises a thousand times and then at the very next trial, we begin to doubt Him AGAIN.
Jesus Himself has never given us reason to doubt. Jesus never fails. (1 John 4:8, 1 Cor 13:8) Jesus is not like a setting sun or a falling star. Jesus is not like a well run dry, or a melting vapor in the morning sun. Yet we are always weighed down by a constant anxiety and always molested with suspicions, disturbed with fears, violated with unbelief as if God had been some how careless or untrue to us.
Friends, God is faithful to a faithless people:
2 Tim 2:13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
Behold! Be ashamed of yourself and your cruel doubts.
Behold I have something to tell you. Its a gold mine. There are precious nuggets on the surface but if you will dig deeper you willf find even richer, deeper deposits of gold. There is so much wonderful truth coming that we couldn’t exhaust it even if we preached about it all day and all night.
“Behold. I have gravened you”
Who has done the engraving?
The Divine Artist, who is none other than Jesus Himself. Jesus said
John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
Who could possibly write on the hand of God? Only God Himself could do that. You can’t do it. Not through your supposed merit, your prayers, your repentance, not even through your doctrinal leanings. The engraving on His hands is not there by chance or by “fate.” The living hand of God, unprompted by anything but spontaneous omnipotent love, wrote your name, wrote my name, on His Hand. No angel could have written it there and if God wrote it, there could not possibly be any mistake about it because God does not make mistakes. If some human hand had written it, then it might be badly written, illegible, misspelled, but there is no error because God Himself wrote it.
And here is the BIG picture where we see that if God wrote your name there on His Hands, then no one could ever erase it because you made a mistake, or they dont like you. You are NOT a mistake! God doesn’t make junk! No one can cross out your name, cover it up, erase it, your worst enemy cannot do it, the devil himself cannot do it! All of the powers of darkness cannot erase those everlasting engravings on the Hands of the Master. Jesus.
When I think of it, it is so amazing that God should ever take notice of me. Let alone engrave the entirety of me on the palm of His hand. JESUS knows what we are, yet He wants us engraved forever on His hands! While we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us!
When God created the world, the morning stars all sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. But it doesn’t say anything about God singing. The angels sang at the birth of Christ. But does God The Father sing? Evidently when He created the world, there was nothing in that material world to make GOD sing, But when God speaks of His people, how they shall rest in His love, JESUS shall rejoice over you with singing. ” (Zeph 3:17) Here, the eternal Trinity bursts forth with singing! Can you catch the strain? Do you hear those high notes in four part harmony? God in trinity singing, shouting even, “I have done it! it is finished! I have engraven thee on the palms of my hands!
Now look at the next word. Behold, I have. Not I will, Not I might. Not maybe. But I have done it!
Jesus is The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Before you were born Jesus loved you.
YOU are an ancient inscription. Its from “everlasting to everlasting! behold! Thou art God!”
Jesus our Lord submitted His out-stretched palms to very cruel “engraving tools” the nails that pierced His flesh, His hands. But He had already offered Himself to die for us many centuries, many eons before, Way back. Farther than our human mind will ever be able to grasp. You were known to Him since “the foundations of the world and Jesus, was thinking of you before you were. “Behold I have engravened” and while we could tie a string around our finger to help us remember something, you can even write it on your hand but it soon wears off. But a tattoo or engraving marks the skin with a permanent reminder. We are engraved permanently on God’s hands. You may have your valuables engraved, with an engraving tool, your name is not easily removed, but God has our names engraved so permanently that even the powers of darkness cannot remove it. It is not just written there! We also see the song Is My Name Written There?
Well our name is recorded right in God’s Hand.
“I Have Graven Thee.”
Who am I that I should have such a prominent place? But it doesnt say “I have graven thy name,” your name is there but there is much more, it says “I have graven thee.” Its written in three different dimensions. Your picture is there, yet much more than that because your picture wont usually show your emotions or feelings, it can’t portray your personality, your motives, your emotions, all of this is a part of you and Jesus says
“I have graven THEE in the palms of my hands.”
You or I have never graven ourselves on the tablets of our own knowledge the way God has graven you on the palms of His hands. Our Lord knows us much better than we know ourselves. He made us. You don’t know the numbers of hairs on your head but the Bible says that God does. He knows a lot of things about us that we do not know. And God loves you just as if you were the only being in the universe. YOU will never have to compete with anyone or anything for His love. Your value to God is far beyond any human calculation.
It is said that a bar of steel made into horse shoes will be worth only around 25 dollars. If that same bar is manufactured into needles, then its value rises to 650 dollars. If that same bar of steel were made into delicate springs for high end watches, its value would increase to 500 thousand dollars. This bar of steel is made more valuable by being cut to its proper size, passed through the heat again and again, hammered. Manipulated, beaten, pounded and finished and polished until it is finally ready for its delicate task. What about that bar of steel when it is made into the nails used to hang Jesus on the cross? How much is that worth?
We too may go through suffering and trials but the more we are tried the more valuable we become. I recall saying to God more than once “Hey, I know you are refining me Lord, but may I add the thought that there must be an enormous amount of “gold” in me because there sure is a whole lotta refining happening here!” Yes friends, we are so valuable that God never forgets us, not even for a minute.
Jesus has graven us on the palms of His Hands, we are not engraved on the works of His Hands for many of those will end. Wax old as a garment. If you make it to my age you will start to discover aged T Shirts that are so thin you can see through them. Turned yellow with their age You will wonder why on earth you even wear them. BUT Gods Hands will endure forever. I am not engraved on a ring or in a seal of some kind. The ring might be laid aside or maybe slip off the finger but His Hands will endure forever. We are not engraved on some huge rock or monument. Earth quakes or other natural disaster could destroy that rock. Maybe bury it leaving the engraving obliterated, hidden. But His Hands will endure, world without end.
Friends, we are not engraved on the back of His hands. In strife and warfare it might be damaged. Even when God smites His enemies with His fist, His people are protected in the palms of His hands. Right in the most tender parts of the hands are made the inscription, the place he is most likely to look at the place enclosed by His fingers of wisdom, and He has pledged never to forget you. Does he say “I have graven thee on my hand?” No! He says hands. There are two hands two memorials on the judgment day there will be those on his right hand and those on the left.
I was having a Bible study with neighbor recently. We were discussing that text about Jesus separating the sheep from the goats. I wondered aloud why He even did that right left thing. My friend smiles and said: “Right is the opposite of wrong!” I learn so much from the people I study with.
To them He will say “Come ye blessed We are engraved on the right hand of blessing.”
But there will also be those on the left hand To them He will say, ‘Depart ye cursed,”
But Jesus will not curse me because I am engraved in the palm of that hand and the not just the one palm, both palms. As Jesus points to the lost with that left hand, we will be seen on the palm of both that right hand and left. There is so much more to this verse. It teaches that God’s remembrance of His people is constant. The hands are constantly in union with the mind and the body.
Solomon says “set me as a seal upon thy hand.” (Song 8:6, ERV)
In Bible times a man would never lay aside his seal. It was his official signature. He didnt sign his actual name but the seal was designed to affix a signature to a document. But even so, such a seal can be laid aside. But one can never lay aside the hand itself that Jesus has us engravened upon!
Your remembrance of God is intermittent at best. Too often we get distracted. And we forget Him but God never ceases in remembering you. His remembrance is never interrupted. Sometimes when I talk to important people, the phone keeps ringing in their office, causing interruptions. I really appreciate it when the person will instruct his secretary to “please hold all my calls. Then Ill know that Ill get his undivided attention.” My friends, you and I have God’s undivided attention during the entire course of the great controversy. Jesus is not bound to thinking only about one thing or working on only one problem at a time. God’s amazing mind can accommodate millions of interactions at a time. He is the great, many handed many eyed God who will never be called away suddenly on some important business that would make Him forget you and me. Thats just not going to happen!
God’s remembrance of you is very practical. We are written on His heart and that shows His great love for us. We are written on His shoulder, signifying His strength And we are written upon His hands which shows that His activity on our behalf will not be skimped on or forgotten. Jesus will work and show Himself strong. We all have friends who say we are on their minds but do not show it. Of others we could say “out of sight. Out of mind.”
I cant feel your pain. Maybe I can see the anguish in your face but Ill never be you. I cannot feel the magnitude of your anguish. Because I am not connected to your nerve endings, nor am I the One who created you. But because of the everlasting gospel, we should be able to atleast empathize with one another. The Bible tells us to “weep with those that weep” (Romans 12:5) A real, faithful friend will act in your defence. Every time an arrow of the adversary is shot in our direction He will lift up His hand for our every want and every need for He has an unlimited supply
The first astronaut left a flag on the moon as if to say “hey! The United States has been here!”
Now I don’t have my name there on the moon, but in one certain respect I guess I do! If my name is written on the palms of Gods hand, then perhaps everything he created has been touched with my name? Its on every planet. Every distant star. Jesus molds and holds the whole world in His palms and sends it spinning into orbit, and that whole time I am engraved on His palms! His remembrance is not only constant and practical. Its eternal! Our engraving on the Palms of His hands is a part of the everlasting gospel. (Rev 14:6-7) Its forever. No one could ever erase what is in God’s hands. We may very well defy all the devils of satanic legions to try to get at those palms but it just cannot ever be done. God’s remembrance can be very surprising. Is it any wonder that in our opening text he says “Behold!”
God’s remembrance of us is comforting. There is no sorrow known to us for which this wonderful text is not an antidote.
The thief on the cross said “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” Now that is a prayer that always receives an affirmative answer. Jesus wants us to remember Him And isnt this what the great controversy is all about. Rev 14 tells us to remember our Creator by keeping His 7th day of Creation holy. And we cannot keep the 7th day holy if we are not more than just a seventh day Adventist! We must become, we must be transformed Into being seven days an Adventist!
Jesus. He always remember us. Will we not do the same for Him? We have something very special, very unique that the angels dont have and they never will have! Just remember, when He says I have engraved you; He mean it in a collective sense as in all of us. His remembrance is so tender It is filled with everlasting love.
We often use the word sweet heart. But do you realize where that word came from? When a certain man from Scotland died his grieving widow kept his heart. She embalmed it and kept it in a small ivory casket wherever she went. And she called it her sweet and silent companion. Upon her death she had requested that her husbands heart be place on her chest, in her grave She wanted to show her tender remembrance of her husband. She took her husbands ashes and mixed them with water and drank that. Her reasoning was that she would become the living sepluchre of her dead husband. Yes I know thats really weird. How does that actually show her love to her husband? God does not ask us anywhere in scripture to become sepluchres of a dead deity. Or to fiddle around with a loved one’s corpse. But we are asked to become a temple of the living God. (1 Cor 3:16)
God shows His love to us in a celestial, everlasting, sympathetic way by engraving us into the palms of His hands. God has not engraved us on any precious stones or jewelry as star crossed lovers do. No rubies, diamonds, emeralds, or topaz. All such things will perish in the fires of the last days. Neither too will God use silver or gold. These too could tarnish and be corrupted. Or thieves could steal them. Not on brass because in time it would become illegible. Modern love songs tell of love letters in the sand. Now that may be very romantic but soon as a wind comes along it would be symbolic of the shifting nature of modern “love.” But God’s love letter isnt in the sand. It is engraved on His own hands.
David Livingstone loved the people of Africa. After 16 very hard years as a missionary there he returned to His native Scotland to speak to the students of Glasgow University His body was very emaciated by the ravages of some 27 fevers which had coursed through his veins during the years of hs service One arm hung useless at his side the result of being mangled by a lion Now he certainly had Africa engraved on His very flesh No one could doubt his love for that country because it was graphically expressed by more than words At one point he went back to Africa and when he died natives there removed his heart embalmed the rest of his corpse and they carried the body to a ship that took him to England where his body was entombed in a church there. But his heart remained there in Africa with the natives Literally. His devoted followers buried it in the roots of an old African tree and on the bark of that tree one of the natives carved neatly “Dr David Livingstone”
The heart of Jesus was broken on this planet but Jesus carried the marks of the nails back with Him to Heaven to be our permanent reminder of His sacrifice
A permanent reminder of those for whom the sacrifice was made. What monument did Jesus leave behind? No statues. No relics BUT a special people with His law written on their heart! A people with God’s seal on their foreheads! And in their hands! (2 Cor 3:3, Rev 9:4, Rev 13:16) In the very last chapter of the last of 66 books of the Bible John saw Gods people It is my prayer this beautiful Sabbath day that you and I will be among those whom the Bible says:
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. (Rev 22:14) John 1:12 tells us that to those who receive Jesus as both Lord and Savior, He will give them the power to be or to become the sons and daughters of God. The Old Testament prophet Zecharia looking to the future painted the following vivid word picture:
And one shall say to him, What are these wounds in your hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of those who love Me.(Zech 13:7)
JESUS was wounded Jesus was killed by the hands of those who should have been His very best friends.
Your sins, my sins, were the cause of His suffering. Some day we will see those hands again and JESUS will bear the scars of the nails in His hands Those nail prints reveal His great love to us For you and I are engraved in the palms of His hands and THAT is the holiness of Jesus in the great controversy!
Credits:
1/ the late Pastor Henry Feyerabend who was my mentor and friend when I first became a Christian. He did a similar sermon years ago.
2/ Many other friends over the years shared some of these ideas with me