Forget
the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. (Isaiah 43:18,19)We’ve detailed Judah’s defeat by Nebuchadnezzar. Over 60 years has passed since the first exiles were marched from Jerusalem to Babylon, and over 40 years since the city was overrun – its walls and temple razed.
A generation
has been born with no memory of Zion. Parents try to tell their children that
being a displaced people is not normal.
There are
whispers of a new military power, rumors that Babylon’s place in the world might
be temporary. And then the prophet breathes words of hope: I am doing a new thing. The new
thing, according to Old Testament scholar Brevard Childs, is restoration which takes the place of the
old thing – destruction and exile. [1]
After the
passage of time, things and events that bulldozed through our existence can
stake out their own claim in our lives as normal.
Perhaps this is a God-given defense mechanism, designed to keep us from
being tyrannized by the past. But placing those things on the back burner doesn’t
mean they don’t still negatively affect us.
God doesn’t
want us dominated by the hurts of the past. At the same time, He doesn’t want
us to label them as normal. He wants
to do a completely new thing, and
take us into the freedom of his restoration.
Have you learned to live with chains from which God wants to set you free?
[1] Brevard
Childs in Walter Brueggemann, An Introduction to the Old Testament (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003),
167.
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