Some people write in notebooks; others on their PalmPilots®. Still others write in the dirt (John 8:8). God once wrote on a wall (Dan 5:5), although we often discourage that in our children. When I have something important to write down—a phone number, a reminder—I tend to write it on my hand. When I used to shave, that didn’t always help, because the alcohol in after-shave would remove the ink. But I still would try to write important notes on my hand.
I find I’m not the only one to do this. There’s a guy in a commercial for a long distance phone service who does it, too. I’ve known kids try to get away with writing the answers to a test on their hands. But it seems we aren’t the only ones. Isaiah 49:16 says that God writes on his hand.
What could be so important that God would see the need to write on his hand? It couldn’t be the answers to test questions—God knows all the answers. It isn’t 1-800-COLLECT® because God already has free long distance; it’s called prayer. In Isaiah, God says that which is important enough to write on his hand is a name. He says that even though a woman could forget her child, he could never forget Zion, the holy city, Jerusalem. This is what God finds so important.
Yet the Revelation to John indicates that even that Jerusalem is passing. There will be a new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). While the Zion on this earth (and I’m not talking about Zion, Illinois) is where God chose to dwell, the New Jerusalem is his eternal abode.
Note how both are described. “You shall don them (your children) all like jewels, deck yourself with them like a bride.” (Isa 49:18) Of the New Jerusalem it is said, she is “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” He tells the temporary Zion “All the world shall know that I the Lord am your savior.” (Isa 49:26) To the New Jerusalem he says, “They shall be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” (Rev 21:3)
If God thinks this Zion of such value that he writes her name on his hand, how much more will he care about his New Jerusalem! And if he cares so much for his city, how much more will he care for her inhabitants, her children. And we are her children, if we overcome sin and Satan and those that would tear us from our Hope through persecution.
God writes on his hand. He also writes his laws on our hearts (Heb 8:10). But he also writes names in a book (Rev 19:12). Those names are the children of Zion, the real Zion. Is your name written there?