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! Walter Brueggemann credits
fellow Old Testament scholar Brevard Childs as saying the new thing is
restoration which takes the
place of the old thing – destruction and exile [3].
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.
TODAY’S MEDITATION
Have you learned to live
with chains from which God wants to set you free? What are they, and what are
you and God going to do about it?
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