“Remember not the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;..”
– Isaiah 43:18,19 [ESV]
A New Year. A New Beginning. Regardless of how 2018 has been, the new year brings the hope of experiencing something new for all of us.
For me, 2018 was not a great year. Our family experienced deep personal loss with the death of a loving brother. Several of our close friends lost their fathers or mothers in the past year as well. For all of us, these promises create hope.
For the Israelites who were in captivity, God was promising to do a new thing – something spectacular. He was revealing it to them through his prophet Isaiah.
This new thing was going to be more spectacular than anything else the Israelites had ever seen or experienced in their lives.
So, He asks them to forget about all that they knew and experienced about God before (v18..remember not the former things). What were these former things? He explains them in Isaiah 43:16,17:
Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick. (Isaiah 43:16,17)
What is he asking them to forget? He is asking them to forget the splitting of the Red Sea, the swallowing up of the greatest King and his armies by the Red Sea. He is asking them to forget the greatest and most dramatic supernatural deliverance of a nation the world had ever seen. He is asking them to forget these because he is going to do something new and greater.
Now, years later, the Israelites are once again in bondage. They are back to where they were and are crying out for deliverance once again. Like before, they are crying out for a Moses to come and deliver them, for a mighty David to fight their battle to overthrow the Babylonians, and for a Priest who can intercede for them to grant them victory.
But God is promising to redeem them by doing a new thing. A new thing that far supersedes anything they have ever known or experienced. There is only one problem. He does not want them to think they deserve this or can earn this by their good behavior or becoming more religious. That’s the default response for most of us. We think God will bless us if we can make some New Year Resolutions and get more religious and do more good works.
He addresses that first. He says this new thing that he is going to do cannot be earned by the Israelites’ good behavior or spiritual exercises in and of themselves.
“Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! 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. You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. (Isaiah 43:22-24)
God’s favor cannot be bought by our external religious acts. The Psalmist knew this when he cried out:
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” – Psalm 51:17
This is where the problem was. He calls out their bluff in verse 25.
But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. – Isaiah 43:25
Though externally they looked great, their hearts had gone cold. The most dangerous place a person can be in their relationship with God is when their hearts become indifferent. It can happen to even the best of us. It happens when life becomes comfortable and busy.
It happened to an entire church. The Laodiceans said: “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked” (Rev. 3:17).
Jesus says, “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth”. (Rev. 3:15).
What is the temperature of our hearts? Is our heart cold or lukewarm towards God? God is calling us to revive our first love for him. He knows we cannot do it on our own. So he is promising to do a New Thing in Isaiah 43:25:
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
He is going to redeem us by himself. By giving himself. He uses the pronoun ‘I’ twice.
He is going to redeem us by sending someone greater than Moses. Someone mightier than David. Jesus Christ. He is the new thing. He is One who is far more excellent than any other of the mightiest acts of God in human history. He has broken into eternity and breaks into our hearts to redeem us.
This is what he wants us to experience this New Year. A new experience of our union with Jesus Christ. A new experience of dying to self by being united with the death of Christ. He is going to accomplish this by pouring out his Spirit upon us and our offspring (Isaiah 44:3). A new experience of living a victorious missional life that draws all nations (Isaiah 44: 4,5).
This was Paul’s greatest resolution. Despite all the suffering in life, despite all the persecution, despite being in jail, being flogged, and being shipwrecked, there was only one thing he wanted.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.Phil. 3:8-10 [ESV]
Hence he is able to forget the past and pursue this new thing.
Phil. 3:13 “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”
May this be our resolution as well this year. To experience Christ afresh, anew.