Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
As you and I walk through each day, how often do you find yourself pausing to consider the options before you for your next steps? Do you think it’s an exaggeration to say you make 100 choices or more every day? How many of them are significant? And when you face decisions, where do you go for help in making the right choice? Do you Google the issue or maybe YouTube seeking internet advice? Do you think back over your life to see if you’ve learned lessons in your past that might guide you now? Do you call a friend for their advice? Do you pray, asking for God’s help?
Let’s join Isaiah, once again, as he is writing key messages from God for the people of Israel, in some ever-darkening days in Jerusalem, during the reign of wicked king Manasseh. In Isaiah 43:14 God says: “This is what the LORD says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel… ‘I am the LORD your God, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.’… He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: ‘Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland…” (Is. 43:14-19)
Do you notice God calling His people to recognize some of His titles and attributes in His relationship with His people Israel and all people in the world willing to know this one, true God? Do you know this God and are those titles of God vital in God’s work in your life? What titles you ask? Look at the key words God used: Creator; Redeemer; Holy One of Israel; the LORD; and King! Now consider how each of those words should describe your relationship with God.
Do you see God declaring His rightful role in the unique story of the people of Israel? And what role do you see God has had in your story and the story of your family, my friends? And do you see God calling Israel to REMEMBER specifically one of His greatest deliverances of His people in their past? You recognize the story, don’t you? It’s God’s amazing deliverance of His people through the Red Sea and then God’s destruction of Pharaoh’s army as they followed the fleeing Hebrew slaves into the water tunnel, but the water collapsed on the army! That account is found in Exodus 14:13-30 and was of course part of their annual Passover celebration remembrance. It’s an important lesson for all of us, how often do you and I REMEMBER God’s great actions in the past and the lessons we’ve learned as God has worked in the story of our families? Let the past, especially the work of God in your story, inform your choices today, my friends!
But what about God’s statement: “Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! …” (Is. 43:18) Sometimes our English language doesn’t help us gain the full picture and this is one of those times. God is NOT urging his people to FORGET the past or disregard the past. On the contrary, God very often calls His people to remember and learn from the past.
But in this case, God is challenging His people not to dwell on the past or find themselves living in the past, ignoring God’s involvement in their present. Rather, God challenges us to learn from the past and see the past as a roadmap pointing forward into our future. God is always working in the Present in ways that BUILD on the Past and BRIDGE to the Future!
Have you seen that in your life?
So here, God is challenging the people of Judah to celebrate their past with God.
learn from their past with God and because He has not changed; then:
look at their Present situation, as dark as it was,
anticipating God will in fact work in similar but NEW ways that fit into their contemporary situation.
Now watch this my friends, do you and I practice that? Do we seek to understand and anticipate that God is doing new things NOW that fit into our contemporary situation, just as powerfully as God did powerful things in the past which only God could do?
And then I notice God next warns His people about lethargy and boredom with God. Is that a problem in our day no matter where you and I live? God said through Isaiah: “You have not called on Me, you have not wearied yourselves for Me… You have not honored Me with your sacrifices… I have not wearied you with demands… But you have burdened Me with your sins and wearied Me with your offenses.” (Is. 43:22-24)
Oh, how easily worship or religious traditions or even rituals can become nothing but meaningless, repetitive actions. It can even happen with reciting prayers, can’t it? God was calling His people to look closely at their religious practices to discern if they had become empty, meaningless rituals and were no longer exciting encounters with the living God! I challenge us to the same. Is there any part of your spirituality or mine which has become boring, traditions, rituals, meaningless repetitive activity?
And finally, today, let’s look at one more statement God made through Isaiah. It almost takes my breath away: “I, even I, am HE who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.” (Is. 43:25) What? Now this is one of those verses I urge you to underline in your Bible, maybe even draw a box around it, and then in the margin write Isaiah 53:4,5,10; or 1 John 1:9 or Romans 3:23.
Do you recognize those as wonderful Scriptures which speak to us of the remarkable price Jesus Christ paid for the forgiveness of our sins and the miracle of our being cleansed from our sin? But here in Isaiah 43:25 how can it be God is declaring His primary purpose for our sin forgiveness is HIS glory, not our redemption?
Yes, my friends! You and I, and every human being, exist first and foremost for the glory of God, that’s why He made us in His image. (Gen. 1:26,27) Then, as we are redeemed from our sin by God it is again for His great glory! (Romans 3:23) And then as the Holy Spirit lives within us and guides us to live God honoring lives it is for God’s great glory more than it is for our good! (Col. 1:9,10) Do you agree with that profound statement, my friends?
Now we need to pause and celebrate these great God truths that are nearly overwhelming as we live each day building our lives on our past and bridging to our future for God’s great glory! And then experiencing God’s forgiveness of our sin for God’s great glory!
Oh my, we need to worship Him right now, do you agree? So, here’s a song which celebrates the wonder of Isaiah 43!
Today’s Scripture: Is. 43:14-25.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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