“But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” Can a mother forget her during child, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”
Is 49:14-15
Has God ever put a particular place on your heart?
Today’s passage speaks to this but requires a little unpacking.
Just before this passage, God had made a promise to restore the people of Israel in exile. At this, it is said that heaven and earth are rejoicing. The people who were beaten down have been cared for and restored by God.
Suddenly something unexpected happens. The land of Zion itself complains to God.
Zion was a name given to Jerusalem. It was the place where God had promised to dwell. It was the location of the temple and the spiritual center of Israel. Zion is personified in this passage as a woman who fears being forgotten. She worries that God will have taken the people away from her and she will be left alone and uninhabited.
God responds to this fear with assurance.
God says that just like a nursing mother can’t forget her own child so God will never forget this land promised to Israel.
If God is the mother in this analogy and Zion is the child, it seems God’s people would be the milk that God will use to nourish the land. God is raising up his people with a place and purpose that is destined for them.
What is clear elsewhere in scripture is that what God began with one people in Zion is meant to spread ad bless all people in all places.
It can sometimes be easy to fall into a spirituality where we look to be fed by God but never look for ways that God might be calling us to feed others. This passage reminds me that when God heals us and restores us it is not so that we can grow fat and happy, it’s so that we can join with God in the work of caring and restoring the world. God uses people to care for the world; people like you and me.
Question of the Day
Is there a place in our world today where God might be sending you?
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