Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
God has not forsaken His afflicted people but keeps them and the rebuilding of their ruined life continually before Him in unfailing remembrance and care. To be carved on the palms of His hands means permanent, imperishable remembrance, with each person individually known by name and never treated with indifference. Those marks are the wounds Christ received in His crucifixion, borne in His risen body as an eternal memorial of the price He paid to make humanity His own by creation and by redemption. As Intercessor and High Priest at the Father's right hand He keeps those He redeemed continually in mind, presenting their needs and prayers with uplifted wounded hands as the ground of their pardon and of every best gift. Therefore His people are not forgotten in suffering, darkness, sickness or death, but are guarded, claimed as His own, and given ground for trust, peace and faithful obedience rather than gloom and despair.
Promise to Forsaken Zion
The promise is spoken to Zion when she fears she is forsaken and forgotten, to assure her that God has not forgotten her but keeps her and her people continually before Him in enduring remembrance and care. As if engraved on the palms of His hands, she is held constantly in view and in mind, with her people and even her ruined condition remaining continually in His sight. His remembrance is more constant than a mother's compassion for her child, for that compassion may fail, while His love surpasses a mother's love and does not fail.
The walls that are continually before Him are Zion's ruined walls kept in His care, showing His continuing concern for the welfare of His church. They signify that her people themselves and the restoration of her community remain in His sight and under His attention. The certainty and constancy of the engraving therefore means the certainty of His care for their rebuilding and well-being.
This assurance stands within God's promise to comfort His afflicted people and to show them mercy. It belongs to His covenant with the people He is seeking to save. So understood, it made Christ's disciples confident that He would fulfill His promises and remain deeply concerned for them.
He keeps His people and their redemption continually before Him and carries forward His one united work in His own appointed way. He does so even when professed believers in the truth of the third angel's message lose its power because self has interposed and grown large, because Satan has wrought upon human agencies, because they will not recognize a Thus saith the Lord through appointed channels, and even though men sell themselves for a song. In true seekers He sees His own name and the word of truth magnified, the work of truth going forward in their hearts, and those who hold fast the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
Meaning of Engraved Hands
To be carved into the palms means to be held in lasting, unbreakable remembrance, never forgotten but kept continually in sight and in mind. The figure speaks of certainty and constancy, that welfare and restoration remain before Him, with love more enduring than a mother's compassion and power to resist discouragement and the fear that failure has cut off help. The chosen are represented on the breastplate of the great High Priest, and the Redeemer keeps those He has bought continually before the Father as His own while He pleads for them. Even in persecution and imprisonment, when human help is absent, hardship cannot sever connection with Christ, who sees weakness and every trial and stands above every earthly power to give heavenly help and peace.
The carving is personal and individual, naming each one by name with no case met with indifference. As a shepherd knows every sheep in a flock scattered across the world, so each person is known, called by name, and cared for as if no other existed, with every distress touching the heart and every cry for help heard. The names held thus are kept without loss of interest toward any soul that depends on Him, and the faithful are known by name and kept in remembrance while their penitence and faith are presented, without excusing their sins, under angelic guard through fierce testing where each must stand alone. The assurance is applied to the chosen individual as a sign of being chosen and continually held in mind.
The inscription means intimate acquaintance with every difficulty, history, and experience of all who profess His name. Every act of love and endurance is carefully treasured, and commendation and reproof are to be highly esteemed. That constant knowledge of work and labor calls for diligence, patience, and enduring hardness as good soldiers, and for proving worthy of commendation by loving Him and fellow workers, pressing together in unity, putting away coldness and evil surmising, healing existing wrongs, and giving Satan no further place.
To be carved on the hands is to belong to Him by creation and by redemption, as His own heritage and purchased possession bought with blood at untold cost. While others condemn, He claims the criticized and condemned as His own to keep them from discouragement, pleading for them and holding them continually in mind. In judgment He speaks over the faithful the word of ownership and protection, bidding the avenging angel spare them and not touch them, a word He cannot speak over professed servants whose halfhearted, lukewarm works witness against Him. One purchased by His blood is no longer his own but may entrust soul and life to Him in confidence that He will keep what is committed until the day of return.
The carving is the marks of crucifixion in the palms, with pierced side and feet, still borne after rising from the tomb. The wounded hands are a memorial of humiliation and anguish, presented before the Father in atonement and advocacy as the price paid for humanity and the ground of the church's blood-bought pardon and of the gifts granted to her. Standing as conqueror and intercessor in the heavenly sanctuary, confessing names before the Father and angels and pleading cases, He points to the engraving as His constant remembrance of those for whom He gave His life, desiring their entrance as conquerors into the heavenly city and continually imparting grace to prepare all who choose to follow Him to live with Him forever. The wounds remain until all the redeemed are in the kingdom of glory, giving hope, gratitude, and assurance that Christ lives.
Christ Pleading Before Father
The words are Christ's own as Intercessor, Advocate, great High Priest, and Chief Shepherd, standing at God's right hand in the heavenly sanctuary and courts after His ascension as conqueror. In the heavenly courts He presents the cases of repentant sinners before the Father, pleading His own merits with power and efficacy for His ransomed people, and a mighty working agency is at work there. He ministers within the veil making atonement for transgressions and confessing the names of His people before the Father and angels, pointing to the engraving on the palms of His hands as the still-present marks of the crucifixion. He holds up His wounded, pierced hands as evidence of His right to ask that men and women shall be overcomers, and He has His church in remembrance and will not forget His tried and suffering people in a persecuting world marred by the curse. His pleading embraces even the most lowly, oppressed, suffering, tried and tempted ones, and even the backslidden, rebellious, and those who sin against great light and love, holding them in closest sympathy and linking them to Himself by love and truth, and God loves to hear and answers this pleading of His Son.
He keeps those He redeemed continually in mind and knows their worth, bearing them before God and presenting them, their cases, petitions, prayers, and needs to the Father as His own while He intercedes for them. Their names are engraved on His hands, and His pierced palms are the sign that people are engraved there through His sacrifice at the cost of untold agony, showing the price He paid for them. As He makes atonement and advocates for sinners the Father recognizes the price He paid for humanity, and the marks of His crucifixion speak in behalf of every truly repentant soul. He intercedes especially when they are tried, suffering, or tempted, with upraised, wounded hands as evidence of His right to ask for them, and His constant remembrance expresses His desire that they enter the heavenly city as conquerors and His continual impartation of grace preparing all who choose to follow Him to live with Him through eternity.
He presents His wounded hands before God as a memorial of His humiliation and anguish, and pleads those wounds as the ground for His church's blood-bought pardon and for the gifts God grants them. These wounds testify that He has paid for the church's pardon and secure for it the best gifts of God's power as He serves as its High Priest and intercedes for His people. In the heavenly judgment He presents His wounded hands raised before the Father and claims forgiveness for those who have repented and trusted in Him because of their penitence and faith, and He does not excuse their sins.
He presents the repentant sinner to the Father with His crucified hands held out, the engraving being the nail marks of crucifixion in His palms which He will bear throughout eternity. He takes the place of the sinner, espouses his cause, bears his iniquity, and asks the Father to lay the guilt on Him and to look on the sinner no longer as guilty but as guiltless before Him. In behalf of believers He claims them as His property and says to lay their sins on Him because He will bear their guilt, and because He has borne the repentant sinner's iniquity the sinner may be presented before the Father as guiltless. This pleading bridges the gulf made by sin, where justice and mercy meet together and righteousness and peace kiss each other at the cross, and God accepts the offering made for sin as enough and complete, so those for whom Christ died while they were yet sinners may come boldly to the throne of God for help in every time of need. A sinner receives that pardon by accepting Christ as a personal Saviour and accepting the robe of His righteousness.
His death for each person is the pledge of His personal love and of the happiness, peace, joy, and eternal riches He offers. The cross, where He endured death as the penalty of guilt, reveals the cost of redemption and gives sinners the hope of standing guiltless before God, and Christ's love has imprinted the name of every saint upon His hands. Their place on His hands was secured at the cost of untold agony, and remembering this love calls believers to humility, kindness, courtesy, tenderness, and pity, to give up self and take on Christ's character.
No matter how great a sinner a person has been, if there is true repentance of sins there is forgiveness and acceptance to stand before God, and every one who sincerely repents will be enabled to overcome. Though they have imperfections and have failed, they are forgiven and accepted when they repent, for Christ pleads for them because He gave His life for them and keeps His repentant people continually in mind and claims them as His own. He claims forgiveness for the penitent who have faith but does not excuse their sins, and He seeks another opportunity for backsliders. Believers can trust His intercession in the heavenly sanctuary and ask God for the Holy Spirit, who teaches, sanctifies, and revives. When they put away sin and come to Him in faith, He asks for their protection, and holy angels guard them and keep them from Satan's snares and from falling in trial.
Those Written on Hands
Like a shepherd who knows every sheep, Jesus knows His flock scattered throughout the world, calls each one by name, and cares for each as if no one else existed. Every distress touches His heart, and every cry for help is heard, for each person is kept continually in mind and known personally.
Those united to Him are never forgotten but are continually before Him, held in His care with a permanence as enduring as an engraving on His hands. Those whose lives are hidden with Christ in God are precious to Him, and He holds them in remembrance with their needs and circumstances continually in view, in contrast to the neglect and harsh treatment they may suffer from people. He will never lose interest in any soul that depends on Him, for He has engraved the names of His people on His hands. This assurance belongs to those who abide in Him and draw life from Him, who share His suffering and reproach and look forward to sharing His glory, and His appearing as the Son of man identifies Him with humanity even in His glory.
The names thus engraved are those of the penitent and repentant, the obedient, self-sacrificing, and faithful, even the remnant who purify their souls by obeying the truth and endure the sifting amid apostasy and testing. They are held close in everlasting, imperishable remembrance and kept securely through the time of testing. Though they have imperfections and have failed, when they repent they are forgiven and accepted, and Christ claims them as His own and pleads for them because He gave His life for them. The penitent who belongs to Him is owned and remembered, the name will not be blotted from the book of life, and the sins will be remembered no more.
He claims humble, trusting little children and faithful workers trying to save souls, knowing and watching each one, with their work remembered before Him. When they draw near to Him in full, humble, unselfish trust, as a child trusts its parents, He draws near to them in pity and love. He keeps His trusting people continually in view as His own, mercifully preserves them from the assaults of the enemy, forbids harm to touch them, raises a defense on their behalf, and never abandons one who trusts Him. Angels help and guard them so they are not left to face evil alone. The engraving is His mark of ownership and pledge of keeping care, and He teaches those thus kept unquestioning faith in His power to work in their behalf, giving assured victory over the world.
The promise is applied personally, as God engraving a person's name on the palms of His hands in personal, enduring regard, holding that chosen one continually in mind. Having children's names written on His hands means they are personally remembered and cared for and belong to Him because He died for them, even when some do not yet receive Him. So also a man tempted to remain in the Masons took the engraving of his name as a sign that God knew his case, while he was urged to flee to Christ and choose the path of safety.
This ownership and protection in judgment is Christ's claim over His faithful as graven upon His hands, His word to the avenging angel passing through the land to spare them: touch them not. He keeps their names before the Father, presenting them as engraved on His hands, pleading for them to be kept from Satan's snares, with angels sent to keep them from falling. Yet the assurance is not for the spiritually indifferent, for over professed servants who witness against Him by halfhearted, lukewarm works showing no religion in life, Christ cannot speak that word of ownership and protection nor receive and commend them.
Comfort and Protection in Trial
In suffering, persecution and imprisonment, when human help is absent, those who belong to God are not forgotten and no hardship can cut them off from Christ. They are continually present to Him as if cut into His hands, and no dungeon can break that connection. He knows their weakness and every trial, He remains above every earthly power, and He gives heavenly help and peace. He holds His tried and suffering people in closest sympathy in a persecuting world marred by the curse, linking them to Himself by love and truth while He ministers within the veil, and He pleads His own merits with power and efficacy for the most lowly, oppressed, suffering, tried and tempted ones, and even for the backslidden and rebellious.
To those who feel forgotten in dark times, who face discouragement, doubt and despair, or who think sin has made help and promises unavailable, the engraving on His hands is enduring remembrance that He keeps them constantly in mind and care and will not abandon them. His love is more constant than a mother's compassion for her child, giving grounds to trust Him, to resist gloom, to cast every care on Him and to rest in Him. In sickness and when prayers for healing seem unanswered, the Saviour's personal presence and care nourish the soul, dispel discouragement and lift it into God's presence. The image recalls that the sufferer belongs to Him, purchased with His blood, and is held as His own.
Jesus will never leave or forsake believers in illness and in the face of death, and this faithfulness is ground for comfort, strength and trust. Death in Jesus is sleep, from which He will raise the believer to glorious immortality, and those parted by death will meet again and know one another. He keeps His trusting people continually in view, claims them as His own, draws near to them in pity and love, raises a defense on their behalf and preserves them from the enemy. When they put away sin and come to Him in faith He asks for their protection, forbids harm to touch them with the word to the avenging angel passing through the land, Touch them not, and guards them by holy angels in fierce trial. This care is spread across the earth where each person must stand the test individually, and the chambers where His people hide are His protection and the angels' care.
To believers criticized and condemned by their brethren, Christ speaks these words to keep them from discouragement, claiming them as His own by creation and by redemption even while others condemn them. To be cut upon the palms of His hands means to belong to Him, to be precious to Him, to be held close and continually in mind and care, and to be secure as one family redeemed by His blood. No case is treated with indifference, for each name is engraved and each person is personally remembered. Therefore life and soul can be entrusted to Him as faithful Creator, confident He will keep what is committed until that day.
Trust and Faithful Living
To be graven on the palms of His hands means God does not forget His people but holds them continually in remembrance, and His love for them surpasses even a mother's love for her child. This gives grounds to trust God and to resist discouragement, gloom, and the thought that sin puts His help or promises out of reach. Being kept constantly in His mind and care is reason to cast every care upon Him and to rest in the Lord. Because Jesus lives and makes intercession, there can be peace and joy instead of dwelling on trials.
Those who accept Christ as Saviour are remembered as His own, marked on His hands by the marks of His crucifixion, belonging to Him as His heritage. This assurance rests on His death and His continuing work as Advocate and Intercessor in the heavenly sanctuary, not on changing feelings. Therefore trust may be placed in His intercession, with confidence that He accepts and keeps those who commit themselves to Him. In that confidence God may be asked in faith for the Holy Spirit, who revives, teaches, and sanctifies.
Jesus keeps His people continually in view and holds them close, assuring them of His love even in their weakness. He offers them His strength and will impart the reviving fullness of the Holy Spirit. Their names engraved on His hands mean they are continually remembered and held close by Him as their King, who calls for reverent and affectionate obedience. That love regards each one as His purchased possession, warns against danger and deception, and calls to follow the Saviour's path of self-denial and bearing the cross.
The place on His hands was secured at the cost of untold agony, while He continually presents the needs of His people to the Father. Remembering this love calls to humility, kindness, courtesy, tenderness, and pity, to give up self and take on Christ's character. That constant remembrance, with full knowledge of their work and labor, calls believers to show themselves worthy of His commendation by loving Him and loving fellow workers. They are to press together in unity, put away coldness and evil surmising, heal the wrongs that exist, and give no further place to Satan.
The engraved hands signify personal, enduring concern, with His people permanently remembered and cared for before God. This is assurance for missionaries departing to unfamiliar fields that God accepts prayers offered for them and will keep them. God does not forget faithful workers but knows and watches each one who is trying to save souls, and their work is remembered before Him. He knows them by name and presents their prayers to the Father with the request that they be answered, as when workers pray together in faith for the warning message to reach the great cities.
Those united to Him are continually before Him and held in His care in lasting connection with Him. His appearing as the Son of man identifies Him with humanity even in His glory. He carried His humanity, united with divinity, to heaven so He could work for humanity and understand its temptations, pleading with pierced hands on Calvary's account in behalf of those He redeemed as engraved on His hands. As heirs to enduring honors and imperishable riches, virtue and integrity need not be measured by worldly success.
After rising from the tomb Christ bears the marks of His crucifixion on His hands, standing with the Father as the slain Lamb. Those marks give hope and gratitude, with assurance that Christ is alive. The marks in His palms are for His people, whom He keeps continually in mind. When He comes He will see the result of His suffering in the people saved for His kingdom and be satisfied.
Christ bears His people before God and intercedes for them with tender, constant remembrance. He keeps His suffering people continually in remembrance and pleads for them before God. This is especially for them when they are tried, suffering, or tempted, assuring them of His close sympathy and unfailing care.
God has not forsaken His afflicted people but keeps them and the rebuilding of their ruined life continually before Him in unfailing remembrance and care. To be carved on the palms of His hands means permanent, imperishable remembrance, with each person individually known by name and never treated with indifference. Those marks are the wounds Christ received in His crucifixion, borne in His risen body as an eternal memorial of the price He paid to make humanity His own by creation and by redemption. As Intercessor and High Priest at the Father's right hand He keeps those He redeemed continually in mind, presenting their needs and prayers with uplifted wounded hands as the ground of their pardon and of every best gift. Therefore His people are not forgotten in suffering, darkness, sickness or death, but are guarded, claimed as His own, and given ground for trust, peace and faithful obedience rather than gloom and despair.
Promise to Forsaken Zion
The promise is spoken to Zion when she fears she is forsaken and forgotten, to assure her that God has not forgotten her but keeps her and her people continually before Him in enduring remembrance and care. As if engraved on the palms of His hands, she is held constantly in view and in mind, with her people and even her ruined condition remaining continually in His sight. His remembrance is more constant than a mother's compassion for her child, for that compassion may fail, while His love surpasses a mother's love and does not fail.
The walls that are continually before Him are Zion's ruined walls kept in His care, showing His continuing concern for the welfare of His church. They signify that her people themselves and the restoration of her community remain in His sight and under His attention. The certainty and constancy of the engraving therefore means the certainty of His care for their rebuilding and well-being.
This assurance stands within God's promise to comfort His afflicted people and to show them mercy. It belongs to His covenant with the people He is seeking to save. So understood, it made Christ's disciples confident that He would fulfill His promises and remain deeply concerned for them.
He keeps His people and their redemption continually before Him and carries forward His one united work in His own appointed way. He does so even when professed believers in the truth of the third angel's message lose its power because self has interposed and grown large, because Satan has wrought upon human agencies, because they will not recognize a Thus saith the Lord through appointed channels, and even though men sell themselves for a song. In true seekers He sees His own name and the word of truth magnified, the work of truth going forward in their hearts, and those who hold fast the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
Meaning of Engraved Hands
To be carved into the palms means to be held in lasting, unbreakable remembrance, never forgotten but kept continually in sight and in mind. The figure speaks of certainty and constancy, that welfare and restoration remain before Him, with love more enduring than a mother's compassion and power to resist discouragement and the fear that failure has cut off help. The chosen are represented on the breastplate of the great High Priest, and the Redeemer keeps those He has bought continually before the Father as His own while He pleads for them. Even in persecution and imprisonment, when human help is absent, hardship cannot sever connection with Christ, who sees weakness and every trial and stands above every earthly power to give heavenly help and peace.
The carving is personal and individual, naming each one by name with no case met with indifference. As a shepherd knows every sheep in a flock scattered across the world, so each person is known, called by name, and cared for as if no other existed, with every distress touching the heart and every cry for help heard. The names held thus are kept without loss of interest toward any soul that depends on Him, and the faithful are known by name and kept in remembrance while their penitence and faith are presented, without excusing their sins, under angelic guard through fierce testing where each must stand alone. The assurance is applied to the chosen individual as a sign of being chosen and continually held in mind.
The inscription means intimate acquaintance with every difficulty, history, and experience of all who profess His name. Every act of love and endurance is carefully treasured, and commendation and reproof are to be highly esteemed. That constant knowledge of work and labor calls for diligence, patience, and enduring hardness as good soldiers, and for proving worthy of commendation by loving Him and fellow workers, pressing together in unity, putting away coldness and evil surmising, healing existing wrongs, and giving Satan no further place.
To be carved on the hands is to belong to Him by creation and by redemption, as His own heritage and purchased possession bought with blood at untold cost. While others condemn, He claims the criticized and condemned as His own to keep them from discouragement, pleading for them and holding them continually in mind. In judgment He speaks over the faithful the word of ownership and protection, bidding the avenging angel spare them and not touch them, a word He cannot speak over professed servants whose halfhearted, lukewarm works witness against Him. One purchased by His blood is no longer his own but may entrust soul and life to Him in confidence that He will keep what is committed until the day of return.
The carving is the marks of crucifixion in the palms, with pierced side and feet, still borne after rising from the tomb. The wounded hands are a memorial of humiliation and anguish, presented before the Father in atonement and advocacy as the price paid for humanity and the ground of the church's blood-bought pardon and of the gifts granted to her. Standing as conqueror and intercessor in the heavenly sanctuary, confessing names before the Father and angels and pleading cases, He points to the engraving as His constant remembrance of those for whom He gave His life, desiring their entrance as conquerors into the heavenly city and continually imparting grace to prepare all who choose to follow Him to live with Him forever. The wounds remain until all the redeemed are in the kingdom of glory, giving hope, gratitude, and assurance that Christ lives.
Christ Pleading Before Father
The words are Christ's own as Intercessor, Advocate, great High Priest, and Chief Shepherd, standing at God's right hand in the heavenly sanctuary and courts after His ascension as conqueror. In the heavenly courts He presents the cases of repentant sinners before the Father, pleading His own merits with power and efficacy for His ransomed people, and a mighty working agency is at work there. He ministers within the veil making atonement for transgressions and confessing the names of His people before the Father and angels, pointing to the engraving on the palms of His hands as the still-present marks of the crucifixion. He holds up His wounded, pierced hands as evidence of His right to ask that men and women shall be overcomers, and He has His church in remembrance and will not forget His tried and suffering people in a persecuting world marred by the curse. His pleading embraces even the most lowly, oppressed, suffering, tried and tempted ones, and even the backslidden, rebellious, and those who sin against great light and love, holding them in closest sympathy and linking them to Himself by love and truth, and God loves to hear and answers this pleading of His Son.
He keeps those He redeemed continually in mind and knows their worth, bearing them before God and presenting them, their cases, petitions, prayers, and needs to the Father as His own while He intercedes for them. Their names are engraved on His hands, and His pierced palms are the sign that people are engraved there through His sacrifice at the cost of untold agony, showing the price He paid for them. As He makes atonement and advocates for sinners the Father recognizes the price He paid for humanity, and the marks of His crucifixion speak in behalf of every truly repentant soul. He intercedes especially when they are tried, suffering, or tempted, with upraised, wounded hands as evidence of His right to ask for them, and His constant remembrance expresses His desire that they enter the heavenly city as conquerors and His continual impartation of grace preparing all who choose to follow Him to live with Him through eternity.
He presents His wounded hands before God as a memorial of His humiliation and anguish, and pleads those wounds as the ground for His church's blood-bought pardon and for the gifts God grants them. These wounds testify that He has paid for the church's pardon and secure for it the best gifts of God's power as He serves as its High Priest and intercedes for His people. In the heavenly judgment He presents His wounded hands raised before the Father and claims forgiveness for those who have repented and trusted in Him because of their penitence and faith, and He does not excuse their sins.
He presents the repentant sinner to the Father with His crucified hands held out, the engraving being the nail marks of crucifixion in His palms which He will bear throughout eternity. He takes the place of the sinner, espouses his cause, bears his iniquity, and asks the Father to lay the guilt on Him and to look on the sinner no longer as guilty but as guiltless before Him. In behalf of believers He claims them as His property and says to lay their sins on Him because He will bear their guilt, and because He has borne the repentant sinner's iniquity the sinner may be presented before the Father as guiltless. This pleading bridges the gulf made by sin, where justice and mercy meet together and righteousness and peace kiss each other at the cross, and God accepts the offering made for sin as enough and complete, so those for whom Christ died while they were yet sinners may come boldly to the throne of God for help in every time of need. A sinner receives that pardon by accepting Christ as a personal Saviour and accepting the robe of His righteousness.
His death for each person is the pledge of His personal love and of the happiness, peace, joy, and eternal riches He offers. The cross, where He endured death as the penalty of guilt, reveals the cost of redemption and gives sinners the hope of standing guiltless before God, and Christ's love has imprinted the name of every saint upon His hands. Their place on His hands was secured at the cost of untold agony, and remembering this love calls believers to humility, kindness, courtesy, tenderness, and pity, to give up self and take on Christ's character.
No matter how great a sinner a person has been, if there is true repentance of sins there is forgiveness and acceptance to stand before God, and every one who sincerely repents will be enabled to overcome. Though they have imperfections and have failed, they are forgiven and accepted when they repent, for Christ pleads for them because He gave His life for them and keeps His repentant people continually in mind and claims them as His own. He claims forgiveness for the penitent who have faith but does not excuse their sins, and He seeks another opportunity for backsliders. Believers can trust His intercession in the heavenly sanctuary and ask God for the Holy Spirit, who teaches, sanctifies, and revives. When they put away sin and come to Him in faith, He asks for their protection, and holy angels guard them and keep them from Satan's snares and from falling in trial.
Those Written on Hands
Like a shepherd who knows every sheep, Jesus knows His flock scattered throughout the world, calls each one by name, and cares for each as if no one else existed. Every distress touches His heart, and every cry for help is heard, for each person is kept continually in mind and known personally.
Those united to Him are never forgotten but are continually before Him, held in His care with a permanence as enduring as an engraving on His hands. Those whose lives are hidden with Christ in God are precious to Him, and He holds them in remembrance with their needs and circumstances continually in view, in contrast to the neglect and harsh treatment they may suffer from people. He will never lose interest in any soul that depends on Him, for He has engraved the names of His people on His hands. This assurance belongs to those who abide in Him and draw life from Him, who share His suffering and reproach and look forward to sharing His glory, and His appearing as the Son of man identifies Him with humanity even in His glory.
The names thus engraved are those of the penitent and repentant, the obedient, self-sacrificing, and faithful, even the remnant who purify their souls by obeying the truth and endure the sifting amid apostasy and testing. They are held close in everlasting, imperishable remembrance and kept securely through the time of testing. Though they have imperfections and have failed, when they repent they are forgiven and accepted, and Christ claims them as His own and pleads for them because He gave His life for them. The penitent who belongs to Him is owned and remembered, the name will not be blotted from the book of life, and the sins will be remembered no more.
He claims humble, trusting little children and faithful workers trying to save souls, knowing and watching each one, with their work remembered before Him. When they draw near to Him in full, humble, unselfish trust, as a child trusts its parents, He draws near to them in pity and love. He keeps His trusting people continually in view as His own, mercifully preserves them from the assaults of the enemy, forbids harm to touch them, raises a defense on their behalf, and never abandons one who trusts Him. Angels help and guard them so they are not left to face evil alone. The engraving is His mark of ownership and pledge of keeping care, and He teaches those thus kept unquestioning faith in His power to work in their behalf, giving assured victory over the world.
The promise is applied personally, as God engraving a person's name on the palms of His hands in personal, enduring regard, holding that chosen one continually in mind. Having children's names written on His hands means they are personally remembered and cared for and belong to Him because He died for them, even when some do not yet receive Him. So also a man tempted to remain in the Masons took the engraving of his name as a sign that God knew his case, while he was urged to flee to Christ and choose the path of safety.
This ownership and protection in judgment is Christ's claim over His faithful as graven upon His hands, His word to the avenging angel passing through the land to spare them: touch them not. He keeps their names before the Father, presenting them as engraved on His hands, pleading for them to be kept from Satan's snares, with angels sent to keep them from falling. Yet the assurance is not for the spiritually indifferent, for over professed servants who witness against Him by halfhearted, lukewarm works showing no religion in life, Christ cannot speak that word of ownership and protection nor receive and commend them.
Comfort and Protection in Trial
In suffering, persecution and imprisonment, when human help is absent, those who belong to God are not forgotten and no hardship can cut them off from Christ. They are continually present to Him as if cut into His hands, and no dungeon can break that connection. He knows their weakness and every trial, He remains above every earthly power, and He gives heavenly help and peace. He holds His tried and suffering people in closest sympathy in a persecuting world marred by the curse, linking them to Himself by love and truth while He ministers within the veil, and He pleads His own merits with power and efficacy for the most lowly, oppressed, suffering, tried and tempted ones, and even for the backslidden and rebellious.
To those who feel forgotten in dark times, who face discouragement, doubt and despair, or who think sin has made help and promises unavailable, the engraving on His hands is enduring remembrance that He keeps them constantly in mind and care and will not abandon them. His love is more constant than a mother's compassion for her child, giving grounds to trust Him, to resist gloom, to cast every care on Him and to rest in Him. In sickness and when prayers for healing seem unanswered, the Saviour's personal presence and care nourish the soul, dispel discouragement and lift it into God's presence. The image recalls that the sufferer belongs to Him, purchased with His blood, and is held as His own.
Jesus will never leave or forsake believers in illness and in the face of death, and this faithfulness is ground for comfort, strength and trust. Death in Jesus is sleep, from which He will raise the believer to glorious immortality, and those parted by death will meet again and know one another. He keeps His trusting people continually in view, claims them as His own, draws near to them in pity and love, raises a defense on their behalf and preserves them from the enemy. When they put away sin and come to Him in faith He asks for their protection, forbids harm to touch them with the word to the avenging angel passing through the land, Touch them not, and guards them by holy angels in fierce trial. This care is spread across the earth where each person must stand the test individually, and the chambers where His people hide are His protection and the angels' care.
To believers criticized and condemned by their brethren, Christ speaks these words to keep them from discouragement, claiming them as His own by creation and by redemption even while others condemn them. To be cut upon the palms of His hands means to belong to Him, to be precious to Him, to be held close and continually in mind and care, and to be secure as one family redeemed by His blood. No case is treated with indifference, for each name is engraved and each person is personally remembered. Therefore life and soul can be entrusted to Him as faithful Creator, confident He will keep what is committed until that day.
Trust and Faithful Living
To be graven on the palms of His hands means God does not forget His people but holds them continually in remembrance, and His love for them surpasses even a mother's love for her child. This gives grounds to trust God and to resist discouragement, gloom, and the thought that sin puts His help or promises out of reach. Being kept constantly in His mind and care is reason to cast every care upon Him and to rest in the Lord. Because Jesus lives and makes intercession, there can be peace and joy instead of dwelling on trials.
Those who accept Christ as Saviour are remembered as His own, marked on His hands by the marks of His crucifixion, belonging to Him as His heritage. This assurance rests on His death and His continuing work as Advocate and Intercessor in the heavenly sanctuary, not on changing feelings. Therefore trust may be placed in His intercession, with confidence that He accepts and keeps those who commit themselves to Him. In that confidence God may be asked in faith for the Holy Spirit, who revives, teaches, and sanctifies.
Jesus keeps His people continually in view and holds them close, assuring them of His love even in their weakness. He offers them His strength and will impart the reviving fullness of the Holy Spirit. Their names engraved on His hands mean they are continually remembered and held close by Him as their King, who calls for reverent and affectionate obedience. That love regards each one as His purchased possession, warns against danger and deception, and calls to follow the Saviour's path of self-denial and bearing the cross.
The place on His hands was secured at the cost of untold agony, while He continually presents the needs of His people to the Father. Remembering this love calls to humility, kindness, courtesy, tenderness, and pity, to give up self and take on Christ's character. That constant remembrance, with full knowledge of their work and labor, calls believers to show themselves worthy of His commendation by loving Him and loving fellow workers. They are to press together in unity, put away coldness and evil surmising, heal the wrongs that exist, and give no further place to Satan.
The engraved hands signify personal, enduring concern, with His people permanently remembered and cared for before God. This is assurance for missionaries departing to unfamiliar fields that God accepts prayers offered for them and will keep them. God does not forget faithful workers but knows and watches each one who is trying to save souls, and their work is remembered before Him. He knows them by name and presents their prayers to the Father with the request that they be answered, as when workers pray together in faith for the warning message to reach the great cities.
Those united to Him are continually before Him and held in His care in lasting connection with Him. His appearing as the Son of man identifies Him with humanity even in His glory. He carried His humanity, united with divinity, to heaven so He could work for humanity and understand its temptations, pleading with pierced hands on Calvary's account in behalf of those He redeemed as engraved on His hands. As heirs to enduring honors and imperishable riches, virtue and integrity need not be measured by worldly success.
After rising from the tomb Christ bears the marks of His crucifixion on His hands, standing with the Father as the slain Lamb. Those marks give hope and gratitude, with assurance that Christ is alive. The marks in His palms are for His people, whom He keeps continually in mind. When He comes He will see the result of His suffering in the people saved for His kingdom and be satisfied.
Christ bears His people before God and intercedes for them with tender, constant remembrance. He keeps His suffering people continually in remembrance and pleads for them before God. This is especially for them when they are tried, suffering, or tempted, assuring them of His close sympathy and unfailing care.