I'd like to start today by setting you up, so to speak, and reminding you about your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
God proved his love for the world, and his affection, and his faithfulness, by sending Jesus to earth. Jesus, as King, ushered in God's kingdom onto earth. Jesus came to free people from their captivity to sin, and satan, and sickness, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Luke 4:18-19). He came to invite people to become part of God's kingdom. Sometimes, all of this is explained in a way that makes it sound like how Jesus lived doesn't really matter. Sometimes, the only thing focused on is the cross, and resurrection. But the good news about Jesus, is about the entirety of Jesus' mission-- his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension to God's right hand. When we think about God's great act of salvation, we think about Jesus. When someone asks us, "How good is God?," our immediate answer usually starts with the name Jesus.
Now, if you were an OT saint, your great act of salvation was the exodus from Egypt. God freed you from slavery to Egypt. He proved his power over Pharaoh-- and over the superpower of the day. He led you safely through the wilderness. He protected you from every enemy along the way. And He brought into the land He promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This land was to be the place where you and God would walk together in faithfulness, and loyalty. It was to be a sort of Garden of Eden, where all of you would live in peace and prosperity with each other, and with God. An OT saint thinks about the exodus like we think about Jesus. It was God's great saving event. And this event was to be remembered, and celebrated, through great festivals.
The Passover celebrates when the destroying angel passed over your doorway, and moved on to the next house, sparing your valuable firstborns.
The Festival of Tabernacles/Booths/Sukkot remembers and celebrates God's care for you during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness (Leviticus 23:37-43).
And the Festival of the Weeks (Shavuot) celebrates not just the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest, but also the giving of the laws to Moses at Mt. Sinai.
So if you were a faithful OT saint, life was to be lived in constant gratitude and thankfulness and remembrance of God's great act of salvation. And if you became forgetful because life was busy, and your attention wandered from God to God's gifts instead, the festivals would pull you back spiritually to a higher place of focus and praise. God built his saving acts into your calendar, so you wouldn't forget.
Now, we are not OT saints, and we maybe struggle to get into the exodus like we should. So let me read from Exodus 15 (NRSV updated no reason). This chapter is a song of praise, a celebration, of what God did for his people:
15 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD:
“I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
2 The LORD is my strength and my might,[a]
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him;
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The LORD is a warrior;
the LORD is his name.
4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea;
his elite officers were sunk in the Red Sea.[b]
5 The floods covered them;
they went down into the depths like a stone.
6 Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power—
your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries;
you sent out your fury; it consumed them like stubble.
8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;
the floods stood up in a heap;
the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue; I will overtake;
I will divide the spoil; my desire shall have its fill of them.
I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’
10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;
they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11 Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in splendor, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.
13 In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed;
you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
14 The peoples heard; they trembled;
pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed;
trembling seized the leaders of Moab;
all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.
16 Terror and dread fell upon them;
by the might of your arm, they became still as a stone
until your people, O LORD, passed by,
until the people whom you acquired passed by.
17 You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession,
the place, O LORD, that you made your abode,
the sanctuary, O LORD, that your hands have established.
18 The LORD will reign forever and ever.”
Once we have all of this in mind, we are ready for today's passage (everyone is sufficiently baited). Isaiah 43:16-21. Let's start by reading the first two verses:
(16) Thus has said Yahweh--
The One making in the sea a road/way,
while in the strong waters a path,
(17) The One bringing out horse and chariot, strong and mighty--
together they will lie down;
they can't rise;
they have been snuffed out like a wick.
they have been quenched (2 Kings 22:17)--:
In our passage today, the prophet begins in a typical way, by announcing a new word from Yahweh. "Thus has said Yahweh:"
But we don't actually get the contents of that word until verse 18. Instead, we get a detailed description of who Yahweh is. And when we read verses 16-17, what do we find ourselves thinking about? "Making in the sea a way?" "Bringing out horse and chariot?"
Every Jewish child whose ever heard the great Passover stories knows the answer here (*Klaus Baltzer). These verses sound like a reminder, and a celebration, of Israel's exodus from Egypt. Yahweh is the one who made in the sea a road, where a road couldn't be built, where there was no way out. Yahweh is the one who defeated the powerful military. He snuffed them out, quenched them, like a candle wick.
We find ourselves hearing this familiar language, and understanding it, and probably taking some comfort in this. The exodus story is a bit like some of our classic hymns-- "Amazing Grace," or "It is Well with my Soul." These things are like spiritual chicken noodle soup, comforting us.
So all of this gives us this picture of who Yahweh has been for his people, and of what Yahweh has done for his people in the past. It's a celebration, like we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead.
At the same time, if we are listening carefully to these verses, there is something about them that will mess with us. The verb tenses are a bit of a surprise.
Yahweh is the one who is right now making in the sea, a path (participle). He is the one bringing out horse and rider (participle), and their fate will be to lie down (future). The last two lines are past tense (qatals), but even here, it's complicated. Prophets often use the past tense to describe future events. It's called a "prophetic perfect," and the idea is that God's promised future is so sure that you can describe it as though it's happened in the past. And that's probably what's going on here. Horse and chariot will lie down together, and it's a sure thing that they'll be put out like a candle.
So if were God's people in exile, whose army are we supposed to be thinking about here? Egypt's? Or Babylon's? (*Klaus Baltzer). Is Yahweh doing something now, and in the very near future, or are we talking about something that happened hundreds of years ago? Is this a comforting reminder of the past? Or is it a promise for now?
At any rate, the prophet has set us up to think about these things. But probably, we ate the spiritual chicken noodle soup, and didn't notice the verbs, and we find ourselves thinking about how God, in the very distant past, proved his power by saving us from our enemies. How carefully do we really listen, when people tell us about God? So the prophet has reminded us of who Yahweh was/is, and now, in verse 18, we hear what Yahweh wants to tell us. Now we get the contents of the word of Yahweh:
(18) "May you not call to mind the first things,
while the former things, may you not look closely at (1 Kings 3:21)/consider with full attention (Job 23:15).
So the prophet/Yahweh first baits us into thinking about the exodus. And now what Yahweh says here, is this: "Stop thinking about the first things. Stop considering what I've done for you in the past. Don't focus on how I saved you, and brought you into the land."
God set us up. First, He reminds us about the exodus. Then, He tells us to stop thinking about the exodus. He pulled the rug out from under us.
What are we to make of this?
A literal, straightforward reading of this verse would encourage us to rip the book of Exodus out of our Bibles. God sounds like He's taking a dispensationalist approach to the Bible-- Exodus isn't something we need any longer, so we can set it aside. Is that right?
Why does Yahweh want us to stop calling to mind what He did in the past?
Verse 19, just the first three lines:
(19) LOOK! I am doing a new thing!
Now it sprouts!
Do you not know/acknowledge it?
There is a way to think about what Yahweh has done in the past that's crippling. It goes down like chicken noodle soup, but it's actually destructive, and messes us up.
How?
When we think about the old stories of what God used to do, it's easy to build a wall between the past, and today. We take comfort in knowing that in the past, God was very good at killing horse and rider. In the past, God made a way for his people where there was no way.
But there's a way to think about the past that blinds us to the present. When we read our Bibles, we expect to hear stories of God doing great things. But do we expect that now? Or do we live in the past, expecting nothing from God now?
And so Yahweh says, LOOK! Open your newspapers! Watch the nightly news!
God then uses another image, from agriculture. This new thing that God is doing is like a baby plant that's sprouted. "Everyone knows from experience that once a plant “springs up” it goes on growing; and God’s activity goes forward in just the same relentless way" (Klaus Baltzer, Deutero-Isaiah: A Commentary on Isaiah 40–55, 173-74). Do you not see this little plant shooting up? Do not notice this new life, after a long winter of barrenness?
This image is the same idea as the one from Isaiah 42:13-14, of Yahweh as the pregnant woman in labor. Once God bears down, and pushes, there is one possible end (*Klaus Baltzer). Do you not see this little plant? Do you not see God bearing down, and pushing?
So God has produced this little plant. It's sprouted. And this plant, again, is the Mystery Dude from the east. God is raising up a new king, and a new kingdom, and this king will free his people from exile, and bring them home. The prophet has been very careful to not give his name yet, because God's people are going to struggle to believe that Mystery Dude and God are working together. It's a stretch. But that's what God is talking about here. And the question the prophet asks is this: "Do you acknowledge it? Do you see that, when I point it out to you? Or are you stuck in the past, assuming that God is stuck in the past?"
Now let's pickup again at the start of verse 19, and read through 21:
(19) LOOK! I am doing a new thing!
Now it sprouts!
Do you not know/acknowledge it?
What's more, I will make in the wilderness a road/way, [Isaiah 40:3, 9]
in the desert/wasteland, rivers.
(20) to give drink to my people, my chosen one, [Isaiah 41:8]
(21) this people whom I have formed for myself,
my praise/glory [that] they would proclaim.
A long time ago, Yahweh made a way through the sea, where there was no way. He made dry ground. He then gave them water here and there in the wilderness when they were thirsty.
What's pictured here is something like that, sort of, but even more impressive.
God is going to build a road/way in the wilderness. The other way you can think about this (taking the parallelism seriously), He says, is that He will make rivers in the desert.
Wilderness, and desert places, are both almost impossible to travel. There's rough terrain, and drop offs, and an almost total lack of water. No one can live in either place for very long, and so there's no good roads.
What is this desert, and wilderness?
It's the land that stands between God's exiled people in Babylon, and their old home in Jerusalem. And what God is promising here, basically, is that He will be will a paved road running alongside a river. That's the definition of an easy path. Right? No easier traveling, than alongside a river. There will no dry camps, no wondering if the water in your canteen will get you to the next spring.
Now, we can stop, and ask, is all of this literal? Is a metaphor?
Who's to say?
But this is a comforting, chicken noodle soup type word from God. God will make a way for you to go home, and that road will be one without all the struggles of the past generations. It's an easier road than Israel took out of Egypt. There's no getting lost. There's no empty canteens. There's no 40 year struggle.
God will do all of this, for you, his chosen people, whom He formed for himself. And his hope, is that you will respond to all of by proclaiming God's glory.
So this is a passage that treads familiar ground. It picks up language from Exodus. And if we've been paying attention, it uses much of the same language as earlier sections of Isaiah 40-43. There's talk about Yahweh having a road built for his chosen people (Isaiah 40:3-4). There's talk about lots and lots of water (Isaiah 41:18). There's hints about the Mystery Dude (Isaiah 41:25). And underneath it all, there's the question about whether or not God's exiled people will really listen, and see, and acknowledge everything God is doing (Isaiah 42:18-25).
God hopes that his people will stop living in the past, will stop focusing on the past, and that they will instead recognize what God is doing now. He hopes this act of salvation will bring them from a place of spiritual apathy, and despair, to a place of trust and praise. If a master saves his servants, will they notice? Will they appreciate it? Will they become useful servants?
That's the open question, with no certain answer. God isn't forcing his people to do anything. He's not bullying them. He's going to save them, and hope that they respond by shifting from blindness, and deafness, to praise and faithful service.
So really, this entire passage can be boiled down to just a few questions that God asks of you.
Do you acknowledge what God's doing?
Will you recognize his hand at work?
Or are you remembering the past in a way that expects nothing new from God?
So that's our little prophetic oracle for today. This is a passage that really appeals to me, as a card-carrying Bible nerd (to echo Tim Mackie), because what God is doing here, really, is teaching his people how to read the Bible (hermeneutics, technically. God is encouraging his people to adopt a charismatic hermeneutic).
When we read the old stories of what God did for his people in the past, there are two very approaches we can take.
The first, is to read it like a history book. The Bible is the historical record what God has done in times past. If we lean nerd, we can rigorously study the grammar, and the text. We can try to combine the Bible with archaeology, and come up with a well-rounded history of Israel. But when we read it this way, there's usually two possible outcomes. Either, we end up reading the Bible in a way that doesn't really touch us at all. Or, we end up reading the Bible as spiritual chicken noodle soup. We take comfort in the fact that God drown horse and chariot in the sea. We worship God as the God of History, as the One who did great things, past tense.
The other option for how we can read the Bible-- how we can read the old stories of what God's done-- is as a blueprint for what's possible (*Robert Menzies). What God has done in the past, He is still doing now. God did old things, and He's doing new things. Some of these things, God simply does on his own. God works mighty acts, signs and wonders. But for many other things, God partners with his servants. With us.
The blueprint approach to the Bible doesn't result in God's people feeling comforted. It results in them gaining zeal, with them wanting God to do a new thing now, with God wanting to partner with them now. God is in the business of making a way, where there is no way. God is in the business of drowning his enemies, and fighting for his people. The God who rescued his people from Egypt, is the same God who is rescuing them from Babylon. And this God, is the one who will rescue us from our Babylons (cf. my Revelation series).
So that's the first thing I'd like to leave you with today. Read the Bible like a blueprint, as a record of what's possible today, and not as a historical record of what God used to do. The Bible should stir you up, and not lull you into a comfortable nap.
The second thing I'd like you encourage you to think about, is how to think about your own history with God. On a family vacation a couple years ago, we passed through the little town of Lemmon, South Dakota. And apparently in Lemmon, a few decades ago, a massive revival broke out at a charismatic church in town. God showed up in a big way. People saw tall warrior angels in the church, during the services. There were healings, and signs, and wonders. The lady who told me about all of this, did so with a mixture of happiness and sadness. She looked back on her life, and the life of her church, and she could see what God had done for them in the past, when God was fully, bigly present.
And many of us have stories like that. We can look back to a time when we were younger, when we saw God do great things, and when God partnered with us to do great things. We remember a time when we were overwhelmed with God's favor and blessing. We remember a time when we had great faith and courage, and we took enormous risks.
And at some point along the way, did we lose that? Did we get sloppy spiritually? Did we take in our own history as spiritual chicken noodle soup, and now we've comfortably settled in to mediocrity? There's a way that we can look at our own history, and what God did for us in the past, in a way that's toxic, and crippling, and makes it very difficult for God to do new things now. Let me reread part of verse 18-19:
(18) "May you not call to mind the first things,
while the former things, may you not look closely at (1 Kings 3:21)/consider with full attention (Job 23:15).
(19) LOOK! I am doing a new thing!
Now it sprouts!
Do you not know/acknowledge it?
I'm getting the strong sense that God is doing something new in town. Lots of people are talking about it. No one quite seems to know, at this point, what that new thing is, or what it will end up producing. At this point, all we see is this little baby plant. But let me just encourage you to be careful how you remember the past. Don't take comfort in the Bible, reading it as a historical record of what God used to do. Don't live in the past, taking comfort in what God used to do through you, and for you. Keep your eyes open, and be ready for God's new thing. And let God know that you want in. You want to be God's faithful servant, and play a role in whatever that thing is.
Translation:
(16) Thus has said Yahweh,
The One Making in the sea a road/way,
while in the strong waters a path,
(17) The One Bringing Out horse and chariot, strong and mighty--
together they lie down;
they can't rise;
they are snuffed out like a wick.
they are quenched--:
(18) "May you not call to mind the first things,
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Call to mind" is often translated as "remember," but Goldingay notes that the verb can be used of future events, and of the present. "Don't remember the present/future" doesn't make sense. The idea is more, "calling to mind."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
while the former things, may you not look closely at (1 Kings 3:21)/consider with full attention (Job 23:15).
(19) LOOK! I am doing a new thing!
Now it sprouts!
Do you not know/acknowledge it?
What's more, I will make in the wilderness a road/way,
in the desert/wasteland, rivers.
(20) to give drink to my people, my chosen one,
(21) this people whom I have formed for myself,
my praise/glory [that] they would proclaim.
