The prophet Isaiah speaks about God’s hand, day of salvation and of God’s mercy and comfort in chapter 49. The first six verses is an appeal for Judah to return back to faithful service to God. In the sixth verse the reference is to the work of the Jesus by being a light to the Gentiles. The restoration then of Israel is not just about Jews but about all humanity that will come in contact with the truth concerning Jesus the Christ. As we move to verse 8 the theme of salvation is raised which shows the intent of God for all humanity to be saved (2 Peter 3:9).
The prisoners are set free (verse 9; Isa. 61:1). They will not hunger or thirst in God’s kingdom on the earth (Matt. 5:6). God will exalt the mountain of the church, which is the kingdom (Isa. 2:2,3). All nations will flow unto it. As the prophet states in verse 12, people from all nations will be coming to know of the Lord and of His way. In a few short years from Isaiah’s day Jerusalem will fall under the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The idea of hope and for a future restoration goes far beyond the time of Zedekiah, the last man to sit on the throne after Jerusalem’s fall at the hand of Babylon.
By verse 13 the promise is of God to bring comfort. It is a comfort to be brought by Jesus the Christ when His will came into effect beginning in Acts 2 (Matt. 5:4). But there is a response on the part of God’s people to the end they charge God with forsaking them and forgetting them (Isa. 49:14). God’s abiding promise and assurance to His people has always been, I will never forget thee or forsake thee (Heb. 13:5). When Jesus came there was beginning to be unrest with the world itself. The Jewish people had an occupying government of Rome to rule over them. Some had reached the conclusion that God no longer cared for them. Here then was God’s response in the future when His people would raise this issue.
Can a woman forget her child that she is nursing (Isa. 49:15). The nearness of the child to the mother and the growing love of the mother to be so needed gives answer. Would such a mother be apt to forget the child that needed her or her need for the child to give meaning to her existence? Would she not have compassion on the child that came from her womb. Normal thinking people would answer, she could never forget her child. As an example then, can God forget His people? His nearness to them and their need for Him, shows that no one should reach the false conclusion that God does not care for me.
When the child was in the womb did not the mother care for it? When Mary the mother of Jesus came to Elisabeth’s house and spoke the babe in Elisabeth’s womb, jumped (Luke 1:44). It was joy. The more common language is now that it is not a child until it is born into this world. As long as it is in the womb it, by the reasoning of the world is not human and therefore is not to be protected by law. God pronounced His verdict on Judah years after Isaiah by saying that Manasseh had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. What was the innocent blood? It was the babies being burned in fire to some false god. Perhaps most moral people today upon reading of such horror might reach a conclusion that such is wrong. Well, dear friend it is wrong to kill innocent little babies in such horrible ways. It is still wrong to kill innocent little babies in the wombs of their mothers. Kill them in as horrible means as anything done by sacrifice to false gods. The world avoids the guilt by claiming that what is inside the mother cannot feel pain.
Let us then step back for a moment from the legal end and what scientist say and make this observation. What woman can forget the life that grows inside of her? Her identity and acceptance with God is not based on the growth inside of her becoming a child. It is a child from conception. Her acceptance with God is based on her growing love for and the protection of the child to be born. May women never forget nor men avoid their responsibility in birth.