July 11 - Isaiah 43:14-28

July 11 – Isaiah 43:14-28

This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they took pride. I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.”

This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

“Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel. You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense. You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses.

“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence. Your first father sinned; your spokesmen rebelled against me. So I will disgrace the dignitaries of your temple, and I will consign Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn.

The Israelites hadn’t yet been sent in to exile and this was a prophecy regarding the army that would come up against the Babylonians.  That army would bring release for a captivity that they hadn’t even seen yet.

God was so specific in this prophecy.  When it finally came to pass, the children of Israel would remember these words and know that He had spoken of the days ahead. 

Isaiah reminds them of their first Exodus, when they came through the Red Sea and God destroyed the chariots of Egypt in the water.  Then he tells them that the next rescue from captivity won’t look like the first.  God will do a new thing.

The only thing we can expect from God is what we know.  It’s hard for us sometimes to realize what an incredibly creative Lord He is!  Yes, He could have ensured that the Israelites faced a large body of water in order to leave Babylonian captivity, but they had changed so much since then and His relationship with them was always transforming and growing.  He would make water in the desert and streams in the wasteland.  He would make dry places lush for His people.

Through all of this, God’s expressions of love for the children of Israel, they continued to refuse to honor Him.  I love the words, “You have not wearied yourself for me.”  His people had forgotten how to offer themselves up to Him.  And then He flips it around – yet they weary God with their sin.  What selfishness they showed.

What selfishness we show when we want God to answer all our prayers, yet live our daily lives as if He barely exists.

Everyone since the beginning of time had sinned against God.  The grandeur of His grace continues as He promises to blot out all of that sin and remember it no more.  We can’t understand grace like that.  But, God does.