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.
From what chains that you've learned to live with does God want to set you free?
Walter Brueggemann. An Introduction to the Old Testament (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 167.
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