When Isaiah said that the Lord had His hands held out all day long to a disobedient and contrary people (Isaiah 65:2) he was speaking anthropomorphically. It’s a figure of speech, taking something a man would do and attributing that visible, understandable gesture to God’s attitude. A man with his hands out communicates a tender invite, shows an openness to welcome and a readiness to receive.
Isaiah must rejoice that his prophecy did not remain on the anthropological level but descended to the incarnational level. The Lord took on flesh, He took on His own hands, and His hands are proof of His readiness to receive the redeemed.
When Jesus showed up among His disciples in the locked room on the Sunday of His resurrection, He showed them His hands. When the other disciples told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, he said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my had into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later Jesus came again among them and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands.” (John 20:20, 25, 27).
The scars proved it was Himself risen from the dead, the marks are reminders of His sacrifice. His love is not only a gesture. The body language communicates more than a sentiment, it accomplished our salvation.
Every Lord’s Day we come to the Lord’s Table at the Lord’s invitation. He welcomes His people with open, and scarred, hands.