Reading Scripture is a lot like eating and drinking. We eat cereal differently than we eat steak. We drink Gatorade differently than we drink wine. Why do we do this? It’s because some food and drink are different than others, and therefore, are to be enjoyed differently. The same principle can be applied to Scripture: some passages are historical stories—meant to be consumed in paragraphs—while others are rich promises—designed to be sipped on phrase-by-phrase.
My last post, New Morning Mercies | Transition, was based on a ‘Gatorade’ approach, i.e., a large, guzzling swig of the big lessons of the Israelites’ experience in the wilderness, which extended across many chapters in the Bible. This post also focuses on transition; however, it will take a more ‘Pinot Noir’ approach, i.e., a steady sipping of the complex, fine, but powerful truths that are loaded into a couple small verses.
Maybe you’ve read this passage before:
“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 desert.” -Isaiah 43:18-19
For context, God is speaking into another transition period of the Israelites. This time, they’re in exile—not enslaved in Egypt—but shackled by the Babylonians. They miss the old times of their strong nation, their renowned temple, and the joys of their homeland.
This passage is not only God’s timely message to Israelites in their period of exile; it’s also a timeless message to us in our times of transition.
Let’s take a slow, thoughtful approach to Isaiah 43:18-19. I’ll put the Scripture in quotes and bold, piece-by-piece, and then add the commentary directly below it. Here we go:
“Forget the former things,”
Coming out of the gate strong. Really, God? Forget the former things? Even the ones that were good, even though we miss them and like to talk about the ‘good ole times’? And even the ones that were bad, even though we like to dwell in bitterness and sadness? Just forget the former things altogether?
Unfortunately, we aren’t able to literally forget everything. Certain joys and certain scars are too significant to simply ‘forget’ at a whim. They’re embedded into our hearts, etched into our memory, and in many ways, they’ve made us into who we are today. The Israelites cannot literally forget the ‘good’ former things, such as their homeland, temple, and stability. And they literally cannot forget the ‘bad’ former things, such as their exile, oppression, and poverty. So, is God commanding the impossible? Not everyone has a neuralyzer, like in Men In Black. Is that what it means to ‘forget the former things’? No, I don’t think so.
I think it ultimately means: Do not allow your past experience—those ‘former things’ both good and bad—to color your perception of the present and expectations for the future. See, if we grow consumed with the ‘former things’, we won’t be able to fully take advantage of the present—including both it’s trials and joys—and we’ll also view our prospects of the future through the distorted lens of our past.
This is the way of sight (treating our circumstances as bigger than God) and not of faith (treating God as bigger than our circumstances). God does not want his children to live in delusion. Therefore, we must plead for God to free us from being mastered by ‘former things’—because it’s rooted in a small, disbelieving view of God.
The power to forget the former things lies in not forgetting the first things. Namely, that God is more loving, more powerful, and more wise than we will ever be or that any circumstance might suggest. This is the message God is preaching to us and that we’ll have to preach to ourselves.
“do not dwell on the past.”
The problem is not that we think about ‘former things’ but that we choose to dwell on them. Martin Luther once said, “You can’t prevent a bird from flying over your head. But you can prevent it from building a nest on your head.” This is the essence of how our ‘former things’ can destroy us. Satan gets a foothold with one thought. And the more we dwell on it, the more power we give him to feed us lies—dominating our present thinking and distorting our future hoping.
So, what can you do right now in your circumstances so that these thoughts of ‘former things’ do not hinder you in your period of transition and where God is taking you? Don’t let your memory or your past or your ‘former things’ master you. Cut the cords on the ‘former things’ that would otherwise make you a puppet to its false thinking and false living.
“See, I am doing a new thing!”
This phrase contains two loaded truths.
(1) God commands us to ‘See!’ It’s not ‘see.’ It’s a ‘See!’ with an exclamation mark! God is excited and eager for us to see what he is accomplishing and how he is working.
(2) God’s statement, “I am doing a new thing!” is a present, active verb. Behind the scene of Israel’s oppression, God was working for them in the present for their future. He did not want them to be so consumed with the past that they discounted the ways in which God was working for them in every detail of their circumstances.
“Now it springs up…”
Literally, God is moving right now! Not back in the past, not back in the ‘good ole days.’ Not after this season will pass. Not after another season will pass. No, God is literally at work right now, accomplishing his purposes.
John Piper famously says, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, but you may be aware of 2 or 3 of them.” Indeed, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:9).
“do you not perceive it?”
God understands our struggle in believing and perceiving his purposes. His question, “do you not perceive it?”, is aimed to drive home a point. Namely, that we oftentimes have a difficult time seeing or perceiving the hand of God at work in our life because trying circumstances incline us to look inward, instead of upward and outward. We become preoccupied with the most immediate need (us) and, as a result, immediately forfeit the bandwidth necessary for seeing or perceiving what God is undoubtedly accomplishing outside of us.
My encouragement to you is quite simple: in your pain, in your transition, in your trial—look upward to God, outward to others, and outward to other circumstances, not inward at one particular circumstance. I think you’ll be shocked at how much clearer your vision will become to the hand of God in your life.
“I am making a way…”
God is using repetition to create a needed emphasis. Again, he uses the present active tense. The phrase “I am making a way” means he is currently, actively, and presently working for us. Every circumstance in our lives—both the evil and the good—God works together for our good and his glory (Rom. 8:28). Before any circumstance comes into our life, it first goes through the providential hand of God—the hand that was pierced for us in love in the past, is holding us in our pain in the present, and working for our good in the future.
He’s not going to leave you as you are for now, and then get involved in your life later. He’s currently fighting for you now, “making a way…” some form or another in your life.
“…a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
God often puts us in positions where we are weak so that he can be strong for us. He puts us in places that are incredibly difficult and improbable, so that he can put his grace and glory on display. The bigger the obstacle, the bigger display of his greatness when he overcomes.
A way in the wilderness is an oxymoron. A stream in the wasteland is an anomaly.
But this is what it means to live with eyes of faith: perceiving your circumstances through the lens of who God truly is, not perceiving God through the lens of what your circumstances might possibly suggest.
John Piper said it best: “Stop defining and limiting your future in terms of your past. Start defining it in terms of your God.”
This is how we can have hope in the valleys and deserts of life.
I don’t know where you find yourself, but perhaps right now, you feel as if nothing is going right. It feels as if “Everything is against me!” as Jacob once cried out (Gen. 42:36). But according to this passage, you’re right where God wants you, and therefore, and you’re right where you’re supposed to be. And this is so you can receive the right provision from the Lord at the right time and for all the right reasons. That’s good news!
“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 desert.” -Isaiah 43:18-19
Promise on the Backdrop
What’s the backdrop of your life right now? While this passage is one of promise, it was given in a context of transition, trial, and temptation. In fact, the beginning of this chapter establishes sets the framework for a rather dark backdrop:
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze. (v. 2)
Notice that God does not say, “If you pass through the waters…”. He says, “When you pass through the waters…” The question is not ‘if’ you will face transition, trial, or temptation, but when. Significantly, God did not diminish or trivialize the Israelites’ pain one ounce; however, He told them to not give one ounce of weight to their current pain or circumstance insofar as their future was concerned and insofar as His ability and goodness was concerned.
Why? Because in Christ, the Israelites then and we today have a God who walks through the waters and fires with us, who works in them for us, who strengthens and refines his grace in us, and who reveals his glory to us.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). The same God who overcame the world, who overcame your sin, and who conquered Satan and sin, is the same one who can overcome in your life. For he is the same yesterday in the former things, as he is today in your transition, as he will be in your future (Heb. 13:8).
Satan laughs when we hate our circumstances, believing God to be so much smaller.
Satan hates it when we laugh at our circumstances, believing God to be so much bigger.
— Gospel Applied (@GospelApplied) June 19, 2018
