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God Is About To Do a New Thing!
Read: Isaiah 43:16-21
The story is told of a new recruit to the monastic order as he was warned of its severity, strictness, and vow of silence. At the end of ten years he was allowed to speak two words. To his confessor he said, “Food bad.” Criticism accepted. At the end of the second ten years, again he lamented, “Bed hard.” Accepted without comment. At the conclusion of the third ten-year period, the monk emphatically stated, “I quit.” To which the abbot replied, “Good! You have done nothing but complain since you’ve been here.”
The old rock group, the Eagles, had a hit tune that says, “Get over it!” Others may have replied to the monk, “Get on with it!” How do we do that? How do we get over the past and get on with the future, particularly as we look forward to the wonderful events of this Lenten season?
Isaiah told the children of Israel to “forget the former things; do no dwell on the past” (Isaiah 43:18 NIV). He did not say that the past was bad. In fact, there was much good – the deliverance of the Exodus, the Davidic Kingship, and Temple worship. He did not say that memory was unimportant. In fact, there is nothing more tragic then to the loss of memory, whether it be personal memory loss or the inability to recall one’s spiritual or national traditions. But to overly dwell on the past can be painful, even destructive. Isaiah would have agreed with Paul when he said, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13b)–in other words, get on with it!
Israel had to adjust to their God whose other name was “Surprise.” God wasn’t doing the “new thing” (v.19) the old way through leaders such as Moses and David. SURPRISE! God’s will was being completed through the heathen Persian King Cyrus! Deliverance from Babylon and return to Jerusalem was partially facilitated through a non-Jewish agent! Surprise indeed!
It is important then that we not try to restrict God to the familiar ways of the past but try to be open to the new ways God may be working in the present and future. We have to learn to cope with the tension and insecurity of newness. It can cost a lot to say, “yes” to God, but it will cost even more to say “no!”
We may not always be able to trust the process, but we always can trust the God of the process – the God who leads us. Israel eventually learned that God always honors promises (vv.16, 19-20). Deliverance and restoration were better than they imagined. Jerusalem was rebuilt, the Temple restored, and the Messiah came.
Lenten preparation is made richer by an abiding trust that God is going to use the process for God’s glory and our growth.
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