43:14 Thus says the Lord, your
Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel:
“For your sake I will send to Babylon,
And bring them all down as fugitives—
The Chaldeans, who rejoice in their ships.
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
And a path through the mighty waters,
17 Who brings forth the chariot and horse,
The army and the power
(They shall lie down together, they shall not rise;
They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):
18 “Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field will honor Me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
Because I give waters in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My people, My chosen.
21 This people I have formed for Myself;
They shall declare My praise.
Are you following the bigger
picture as God lays out the future? One disadvantage of going slowly through is
that we can miss the forest because of the trees.
At the time this was written all
was relatively well in Judah. Yes they were paying tribute to Assyria but God
prevented Sennacherib from doing them any harm. Babylon heard news of this
success as well as the miraculous healing of Hezekiah and came to visit. After their
departure God began presenting the future of Judah. In succeeding generations
wicked Babylon would visit again, only this time it would be to plunder the
wealth Hezekiah showed off to them. Their princes would be taken captive and
made eunuchs in the palace of Babylon.
Now God looks further into their
future. He will deal with Babylon. The captors will be themselves taken
captive.
Quite a prophecy. To back up His
claims He directs their gaze backwards into history. Their own history. The
deliverance from Egypt. The crossing of the Red Sea etc...
Then He says something strange.
He tells them not to remember the past. Odd advice for often He tells us to
remember. He even has them remembering in this very chapter. So what is it we
are to forget?
18“Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?"
What does He mean by this?
Judah has been in a cycle
downward. That cycle is not going to end any time soon but it will end. It
becomes difficult for the defeated to believe in victory. It becomes hard for
captives to dream of freedom becoming a reality. God wants them to forget their
failures and focus on His victories, both past and present and future. Even in
their capture God preserved.
I'm sure like me you have a trail
of regrets behind you. Forget them. Paul wrote centuries later "Forgetting
those things which are behind I press forward..."
Remember His exploits and forget
your defeats. This is the recipe for success.
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