Erlo Stegen emphasizes that the certificate of divorce mentioned in Isaiah is not from the Lord but rather a result of our own rebellion and sins. He illustrates how we often blame God for our circumstances, similar to the prodigal son who lost everything due to his own choices. Stegen reminds us that God has not forgotten us; instead, we forget Him and fail to recognize our own role in our separation from Him. He encourages believers to remember that God has engraved us on His hands and that Christ bore our names on the Cross, highlighting God's unwavering love and commitment to us.

Isaiah 50:1 and Isaiah 49: 15, 16 The Lord speaks here about a certificate of divorce. Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, He asks? The certificate of divorce is not from the Lord. In those days a man wrote a certificate of divorce to his wife for any thing he did not like, not just adultery. However, here, the Lord says that He has not written out such a certificate. It is our rebellion, our wickedness, that has caused the separation. Through what we have done, we have written out the certificate of divorce ourselves, in departing. It not God who has written it. We so often complain that we are in a terrible place and that things are not going well just as God's people in Isaiah's day were moaning that the Lord did not care for them. The prodigal son ended up with the pigs. He left with wealth and possessions but lost everything. It was his own doing, and not his father's, that landed him in the situation that he was in. Isaiah says that it was because of your sins that you were sold. God does not lack the power to save you. God can not forget us but we forget Him. Yet we blame Him. There is the story of a landowner who went on a journey and left his manager in charge of everything. The manager had been complaining about Adam and Eve who had caused all the problems and hard work he had to endure. The owner said the manager could do as he wished in the house except touch an upturned bowl in the middle of the lounge. It wasn't long and the manager could no longer resist and he looked under the bowl and a rat suddenly escaped. Try as he would he could not catch it. When the owner returned he said that the manager must never again complain about his circumstances or say that it was Adam and Eve's fault. We blame people and our circumstances for the trouble we are in but it is our own sins that have caused the trouble, not others. God has engraved us on His hands and put walls around us. It is not Him who has written out this certificate of divorce. Never forget what He has done for you. Christ bore your name in His palms when He was nailed to the Cross. He does not forget you. Never forget Him.