New Horizons

Well, a new year has come…2022…I would say that there may be some people who thought we would never reach this point, but here we are. A new year, a fresh start, new adventures in life.

This morning, we are going to look at a passage of scripture that connects with a time when the Israelites were getting a fresh start, and how it can connect with us today. Not only does the title of the message match the name of our church, but it matches the same message that God gave His people back then, and still is speaking to his people today.

“I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King. I am the LORD, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea. I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses. I drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned, their lives snuffed out like a smoldering candlewick. But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

What is important to know about this text is the context from which it comes. The Israelites have been in captivity in Babylon for around 70 years, and now the Lord is stepping in and releasing them to go back to their homeland. Chapter 42 ends with God’s sorrow over the spiritual decay of his people. And in chapter 43, God says that despite the people’s spiritual failure, he will show them mercy, bring them back from captivity, and restore them. He would give them an outpouring of love, not wrath. Then the world would know that God alone had done this. (Expand on the grace of God)

This is the second exodus…we know that the first exodus was from the Egyptians and the rule of Pharaoh; this second exodus was from the powerful rulers of Babylon.

The Lord would bring about Israel’s redemption by turning Babylon from being the oppressor to being the oppressed. It was known that the Babylonians had great and glorious ships they would use for trading and commerce on the Persian Gulf and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; however, it would be these same ships that they would use one day to become their means of escape from their enemies. Simply because of the grace of God to redeem His people once again…It begins with a declaration from the LORD himself in verse 15.

“I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King.”

God wasn’t sugarcoating or hiding anything with this statement. He was declaring to the people of Israel through His prophet Isaiah that He was still who He said He was from day one. That even though the people turned their backs on God, He didn’t turn His back on them. Yes, they have experienced 70 years of being in captivity, but through all those years, God hadn’t forgotten his people. And now He is ready to restore them to what they once were…but it was clear that it wasn’t they who were getting themselves out of captivity, but it was the command of God that would bring them freedom once again.

I think there are times in our lives where we feel stuck, so we cry out to God for help and for freedom from feeling or being stuck, and then when it happens, we can be very quick to try to snag the credit for becoming free. We need to be reminded, just like the Israelites had to be reminded, it isn’t us who sets us free from our captivity from darkness, death, and sin…but it is the Holy One of heaven that brings freedom to the captive. He is the Lord, the Holy One, our creator and king!

Then God goes on to make a connection that would resonate in deep and mighty ways with the people of Israel…verse 16.

“I am the LORD, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea.”

Once again, we see God declaring boldly who He is and who is doing the redeeming here. There is no room for questions as to who is truly in charge. But God goes on to reference something that these people would have grown up hearing about: the first time he set the people free from slavery and bondage, the first exodus.

However, it was also a way to indicate how God would set them free from their current bondage. How the LORD would make a way through the waters of Israel, as the Babylonians would flee from their enemies in their boats down the rivers. God had used water to set the Israelites free from the Egyptians in the Red Sea when he destroyed the chariots and horsemen of Pharaoh…and now God has chosen the same means to set His people free once again; water.