I am not sure where the idea originated, but it has been around for decades. If there was something really important you needed to remember, you were told to put a string (or ribbon) on your finger to remind you. I am sure other cultures may have similar figures of speech and times have changed in our world. More recently we talk about putting it on our calendar or putting a reminder on our cell phone.
It is remarkable that the Jews evidently did something very much like this. When Moses gave the law, he told the Jews to do two things to keep God’s word before them. They were to write them on the gates and doors of their houses or to write God’s words and put them in containers and wear these containers on their hands or around their heads, just above their eyes.
Moses said, “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your doors” (Deut. 6:8-9—in the New Testament these containers or frontlets are called phylacteries—Matt. 23:5). They did not put strings on their fingers, they wore them before their eyes.
Evidently, they also wrote words on their hands. Have you not at some time or another used a pen to write important numbers or details on your hand when you could not find paper you might use? Isaiah indicates the Jews did this when he described how and where God wrote His message.
What was that message that was so important that He wrote it down on His hand? It was written in that part of Isaiah where he told the Jews that they were headed for captivity, and he then began to give a detailed description of the coming of the Messiah. When they were in captivity, they might have felt that God had forgotten them. Such was not the case for after the captivity of the Messiah, the suffering Servant would come.
What was that message God wrote? Perhaps if we knew what He wrote it might help us know and understand our God even better. What was that message? Read these words slowly and carefully. “Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands” (Isa. 49:16). God had written the name of His people on the palms of His hand!
God had not forgotten Israel, and He has not forgotten us! It was not a string on a finger—it was your name written on the palm of His hand. As I thought about all of this, I could not help but remember the words of Thomas about not believing in Jesus unless he saw the nail prints in His hand. As you think about the fact that God remembers us, look at the hands of Jesus. Figuratively, your name is beside those wounds in His hands!