8/16 Midweek Bible Reflection

 
Behold, I am doing a New Thing
(ISAIAH 43:14-28)
 
Pause & Reflect

1. What has God been teaching you through last week’s message? Read the texts once more and discern what the holy Spirit is desiring to say through it.

 
14 Thus says the Lord,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“For your sake I send to Babylon
    and bring them all down as fugitives,
    even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
15 I am the Lord, your Holy One,
    the Creator of Israel, your King.”
16 Thus says the Lord,
    who makes a way in the sea,
    a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings forth chariot and horse,
    army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
    they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
 

1. [v.14-17] *Biblical principle – The best days are ahead of you, not behind you. The future is always new because of the LORD who makes all things new at each new day. We can live presently in this future grace because of His past faithfulness that made a way to redeem us from every former dark day. This future is secure not by who we are, but whose we are – the LORD, the Holy One, our Creator and King. God’s people had a bleak future awaiting them – 70 years of exile and imprisonment in the grip of the Babylonian Empire. Yet what did God already foretell would happen to the Babylonians who oppressed them, along with the Chaldeans (v.14)? *It does not matter what the future holds, but who holds the future. Who is holding the future of God’s people (v.15)? God calls His people to recall how He delivered them, making a way out of Egypt and through the Red Sea under the leadership of Moses (v.16-17). How do you need to live into God’s future by recalling His past faithfulness? How has God already made a way where there is no way? Are you trusting in the God who holds your future, and gives you hope and faith that the best days with Him are still to arrive ahead of you?   

 
18 “Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I am doing a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild beasts will honor me,
    the jackals and the ostriches,
for I give water in the wilderness,
    rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
21     the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.
 

1. [v.18-21] *Biblical principle – In order to live into God’s new future, we must lay aside our former past. We are to recall God’s faithfulness in the past, but do not remember your former ways of old. Don’t keep drinking the past into the present, but move forward and be quenched by new waters the LORD provides to declare His praise. 70 years in exile would be a long time, but God would eventually bring His people back to their homeland from Babylon through hundreds of miles of wilderness and desert (v.18-19). In that long journey back to the homeland, the LORD promises even the wild beasts will not hurt them, and He will provide water to sustain them, so that in the end they might declare His praise (v.20-21). But in order to cling this hope and future, they must not remember the former things or be entangled in their former ways of old. How are you entangled with living in the past while forfeiting what God is doing in the present and holds for you in the future? What past patterns and addictions are you going back to again and again, enslaving you from God’s future grace and growth in Christ? God is doing a new thing right now! Right now it is springing forth. How are you missing it? Are you perceiving it? What must you lay aside right now to discern what God is doing right now?

 
22 “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
23 You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense.
24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.
 

1. [v.22-24] *Biblical principle – Although the way into God’s future has been made for us, God is unable to spring it forth because we are burdening Him and wearying Him with our unrepentance. Turn from what you have failed to do, failed to bring, and failed to honor the Lord in your life. Be transformed by God’s grace to start walking with Him aright. God had an amazing hope and future for His people, yet they did not trust in it initially. It may have been too good to be true. It may have been their doubts. Despite this blessing of future grace, God’s people refused to call upon the LORD. Instead, they thought the LORD was wearying them and burdening them with His commands, especially in the giving of offerings (v.22-23). Yet God commanded the giving of offerings not because He wanted the offerings, but because He wanted their hearts. The offerings showed the condition of their hearts. Since they withheld their offerings, they were the ones who were wearying and burdening God with their sins (v.24). God had never wearied nor burdened them. How are you wearying and burdening God? How are you withholding God from bringing His future grace into your life? What are we failing to turn away from to be transformed by the grace of Christ? How can we start walking upright so that His commands are not a burden, but a joy for us to obey out of love for Him?

 
25 “I, I am he
    who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
    and I will not remember your sins.
26 Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.
27 Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me.
28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.

1. [v.25-28] *Biblical principle – Because our sins are many, we will never perfectly and fully repent of everything. Yet, God, by His grace and for His own sake, has forgiven us and does not remember any of our sins. By this, He restores His new future for us while we humbly grow in our repentance in the present. Although God’s people had failed to call upon Him and embrace His future grace, the LORD still promises to blot out their transgressions and remember their sins no more (v.25). He will do this not because of how much they will or will not repent, but because of His own sake – His own grace. Yet this free gift of forgiveness does not mean His people can just live the way they want now. They must know, like their first father (Adam), they need to repent daily and still be handed over to God’s judgment and discipline (v.26-28). Do you know that God forgave you because of His own grace and not by the measure of your own repentance? Does this transform you to live in the freedom to obey Him over the freedom to continue obeying yourself? When is the last time you repented of your own ways? When is the last time you have been touched by God’s grace with tears? How is your repentance restoring God’s future for you?

 

 
The central truth of this word was –
Your future doesn’t end with the past. In Christ, there is always a new day. God is doing a new thing, bringing you into a new future, making a new way for you to be more quenched to live by His grace and for His glory. Do not remember your former life of old. God doesn’t remember it either. He is doing a new thing in you, through you, with you! Live in His new day! The best days are yet to come!
– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

 
Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)