We Dare Not Miss It: Isaiah 43:16-21

Note:  This was a sermon of mine I preached for New Year’s 2004.  It is a bit dated, and still reflects some of the struggles with Arminianism I was going through at the time.  But I think still makes some good points.  Have a Happy New Year everyone!

^16 This is what the Lord says-

he who made a way through the sea,

a path through the mighty waters,

^17 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:

^18 “Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

^19 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.

^20 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,

²¹ the people I formed for myself

that they may proclaim my praise. 

Isaiah was preparing the Israelites for what God knew was the coming Babylonian captivity.  It would last 70 years and was yet 100 years away before its occurrence.  This was the time of the event we know as the diaspora, the great spreading of the Jewish people to all nations of the then-known world, and it would accompany this captivity. 

Isaiah was a very politically-connected prophet and rubbed shoulders with the great kings of the day.  He was preparing the Israelites for the coming judgment and eventual deliverance of the Jewish people.  God was through Isaiah encouraging the Israelites to be alert and aware for the coming judgment and deliverance. Their situation as they knew it was going to change.  They were warned that if they were not prepared, they would be living out their lives right in the middle of what God was doing and would miss God’s move. 

And think about it.  Isaiah was preaching a message 170 years in advance.  This gives me food for thought.  I worry about what you guys will do with what I say right after my message this morning.  I can’t imagine preaching a message 170 years out! 

It gives me a great satisfaction that the truth Isaiah wrote, that whatever God says through his prophets and teachers that it will bring forth fruit, regardless of how long it takes. 

Isaiah brings 3 things to our attention in this passage that are very pertinent for our church today. 

The first is found in Verses 18-19.

^18 “Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

^19 See, I am doing a new thing!

He is saying don’t miss because of old paradigms.  Paradigm wasn’t even a word in our vocabulary 10-15 years ago, and now we use it every day.  It is the idea of the lines we draw around subjects or ideas.  It’s the way we approach things.  If we put God in this box, we limit the omniscient, all-powerful, all-knowing one from doing things that He chooses to do that are different from the ideas that we have about what should be done.

In this context, the Israelites’ openness to new paradigms was being messaged by Isaiah.  Jeremiah would be used 50 years later in a similar fashion when he writes in Jeremiah 16:

^14 “However, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when men will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’  ^15 but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.

This was a deliverance that had yet to come.  And God knew and was relaying through the prophet that when they were delivered from this captivity it would look different and would be different that the deliverance from Egypt under the hand of Moses.  It would be different.  It was a new paradigm.

When they thought of deliverance, they thought of Moses leading them to the edge of the Red Sea and raising his staff, and the waters parting.  All of the things that were associated with their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. 

And it wouldn’t look like that when they were delivered from the Babylonians.  In fact, they would have to be convinced to leave Babylonia. 

They didn’t feel the oppression that they felt under the bondage, making bricks, hay, and whatever.  They didn’t feel the need and the urgency to leave Babylonia like they felt to leave Egypt. 

It was a totally different paradigm.

Think about this.  How was traffic coming to church this morning?  How many people attend church this morning?  Most people’s sanctuary is the golf course, or the lakes, or their bed. 

It’s a totally different paradigm.  You go to these people and say they need to be delivered, and they will respond, “Delivered from what?”

I am happy, with a good job.  What do I need to be delivered from?

Joshua’s new way of water crossings would illustrate what I am saying today.  He had the task of leading the people into the land of promise.  I can just see it when they came up to the Jordan River.  He says, ” God says we are going to cross the Jordan today.  We are going intot he promised land.  As He was with Moses, He is going to be with me.”

He stands up to the river at flood stage.  He says bring all of the priests up here, with the Ark of the Covenant, and let’s just step into the water.  Remember the river was at flood stage. 

Right away, there are people in that crowd saying, “What…wait…wait a minute.  This is not like  Moses did it.  Now I wasn’t there, but I read about it and heard about it, and I know that Moses did things way different.   He raised up a staff…and the army was barreling down behind him…

And there are people in the crowd saying, “Don’t you think we need to form a river crossing committee and study this thing out?”

One guy says, “Chairman Joshua…I think Roberts Rules of Order allow me to make a motion to table this issue for further study.”

There are some folks who are saying, “Things are pretty comfortable on this side of the river.  Why do we need to cross anyway?”

But Joshua said, “God will be with me just as He was with Moses.  He does not change.  The God of the fathers is the God of the sons.”

If we put God in a box, and we forget about the fact that the common principle is that he will be faithful in whatever way he chooses to be faithful, we can miss his outpouring and his provision.

In the Gospel of John chapter 1, it was said of Jesus: 

^10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  ^11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 

And one of the primary reasons that he was not received by his own was that He did not look like what they were looking for!

They were looking for a lion, and he came as a lamb, and they missed him.  They were looking for a warrior, and he came as a peacemaker, and they missed him.  They were looking for a king, but he came as a servant, and they missed him.  They were looking for a liberator from Rome and he submitted to the Roman cross, and they missed him.  They were looking for someone to fit their mold, and he came as the mold maker, even the mold breaker, and they missed him. 

I think it would be a worthwhile exercise to ask ourselves, would we have missed him or caught him if we were around when he came to earth.  Would I have had a box that prevented me from seeing that Jesus was the messiah?  Am I in a place to catch the new things God is doing in our midst, or will I miss them because I am only looking for what he has done before?

Remember, today’s traditions were yesterday’s innovations.  Someone started those the first time.

It was a box!  And it was a lack of acceptance -  that insistence to a clinging to old paradigms that prompted Jesus to say, “ And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”

That’s why we do new things.  That’s why we try new things all the time. 

Second point, He said I am doing a new thing, and you might miss it because it springs up suddenly, seeming out of no where. 

^19 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.

So don’t get caught off-guard. 

Any opportunities from God seem to spring up out of nowhere, even though God has been laying the track for the train long before he makes it apparent or even reveals it to us. 

These are the surprises of Jesus.  They will come in the most unusual way, and they will spring forth.  And it we are not ready for it, we will miss it.

It was Molly’s job to hand her father a brown paper bag each morning before he headed off to work.  Molly was the daughter of Robert Fulgham, the author of the small book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.  In his book It was on Fire, he writes…

One morning Molly handed me two bags as I was about to leave. One regular lunch sack and one with duct tape, staples, and paper clips. “Why two bags today Molly?” “The other one is something else.” “What’s in it?” “Just some stuff – take it with you.” Not wanting to hold court over the matter, I stuffed both sacks into my briefcase, kissed the child, and rushed off.

At midday, while hurriedly scarfing down my real lunch, I tore open Molly’s bag and shook out the contents: two hair ribbons, three small stones, a plastic dinosaur, a pencil stub, a tiny seashell, two animal crackers, a marble, a used lipstick, a small doll, two chocolate kisses, and thirteen pennies.

I smiled. How charming. Rising to hustle off to all the important business of the afternoon, I swept the desk clean – into the wastebasket- leftover lunch, Molly’s junk and all. There wasn’t anything in there I needed.

That evening, Molly came to stand beside me while I was reading the paper. “Where’s my bag?” “What bag?” “You know, the one I gave you this morning.” “I left it at the office, why?” “I forgot to put this note in it.” She hands over the note. “Besides I want it back.” “Why?” “Those are my things in the sack, Daddy, the ones I really like – I thought you might like to play with them, but now I want them back. You didn’t lose the bag, did you, Daddy?” Tears puddled in her eyes. “Oh no, I just forgot to bring it home,” As she hugged my neck with relief, I unfolded the note that had not got into the sack: “I love you, Daddy.

Fulgham writes, “Molly had given me her treasures. All that a seven-year-old held dear. Love in a paper sack. And I had missed it. Not only missed it, but had thrown it in the wastebasket because there wasn’t anything in there I needed.”

So what happened.  It was the only thing Fulgham could do except to race back to his office, and one step ahead of the janitor, pull each of the pieces of Molly’s bag out of the trash can, wash them off, and bring them back home. 

So what has God wrapped up for you in a plain old brown paper bag?  The surprises of Jesus.  Don’t miss them because they will spring up suddenly or unexpectedly. 

The Third point is that we can miss what God is doing in our midst if we don’t remember who we are and where we came from. 

…because I provide water in the desert

and streams in the wasteland,

to give drink to my people, my chosen,

²¹ the people I formed for myself

that they may proclaim my praise. 

The Israelites were God’s chosen people in the Old Testament times when Isaiah was writing.  But now, God has taken this one step further with the introduction of His Son Jesus into the world.  Now, it is not simply the Israelites that are God’s chosen people, but it is the body of Christ that is God’s chosen people.  And who is the body of Christ?  We are! 

Paul writes in Romans, “¹⁶ Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring-not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.” 

Paul writes in Galatians, “26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,  27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

So what does all of this mean?

It tells us who we are.  We are sons and daughters of God.  We have been adopted as family into His family, never to be left alone again.  And as family members, then we should act like family.  Love like family.  Think like family.  Be like family.

But it also means that while we don’t let the past cloud our thinking or expectations of what God is doing or will do, it does mean that we remember where we came from and learn and celebrate that past. 

I am not the first pastor of this church family.  Previous pastors built this church, rebuilt this church, and we should celebrate that. 

Ecclesiastes 3 states, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven….”  We as a church family have been through several seasons that God has ordained.  We have had our ups and downs, just like any other family. 

Now we are entering into another new season, but we cannot abandon who we are or where we have come from. 

We are Christians, we are the family of God, we are children of God.  But we are also New Life Community Church. 

Lastly, we may miss the new things God is doing because we may forget the reason he does these new things:  To Glorify Him and build His church.

21 the people I formed for myself

that they may proclaim my praise.

Very quickly, Friends, these new things that God is doing are not about us, they are not about me, they are about God!  Jesus said He would build His church, and that is exactly what He is doing with New Life Community Church today!  But He is not doing these things for us, or for me to have a big megachurch someday.  Thank goodness!  He is building His church to glorify His name and to bring praise from us to Him, as it should be. 

And that friends is what we need to remember as we move into new phases, new seasons, of life and family.  That God is at work even today and we dare not miss what He is doing. 

Remember, just as the Israelites did, we need to be aware and alert or we will miss what God is doing.  We must not get locked into old ways of thinking.  We must not be caught off-guard because the things that God is doing may spring up suddenly and without warning.  We must not miss out on what God is doing by forgetting who we are and where we came from.  And we must not miss out on what God is doing because we fail to realize the reason for these new things is to build His kingdom and bring glory to Himself. 

Friends, we dare not miss it!