Lamplight 

Isaiah 43:18-19

“Remember not the former things nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing something new, do you not see it?”

 

This is the time when you’ll see a lot of programs on T.V. that look back at the significant events of 2012 and that is a good idea. Someone who is wise once said, “Those who don’t remember history are condemned to repeat it.”  We can learn from the past, from our victories and from our mistakes. 

I guess that’s why the Bible places such a high premium on memory.  There are 244 verses that call us to remember. For example in Deuteronomy 32 Moses sang new song about the old days, “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask your father and he will show you the elders and they will teach you.”  In other words those who are younger should ask those who are older what life was like back then, and how God moved. 

Now the people of Israel were great for remembering the old days.  Read the Old Testament and much of it sounds like the words of a parent to a teenager today. “You don’t have to do it just because your friends are doing it. I did it, and it was a foolish, and I don’t want you to make the same mistakes.”  

The Bible tells again and again that we ought to remember until we hit this prophecy in Isaiah, “Remember not the former things nor consider the things of old.” 

Now, I don’t believe that the Bible is squaring off against itself; that Moses and Isaiah are at opposite ends.  I don’t believe God has changed his mind.  I think he’s just telling us we need to have some balance.  We need perspective.  Sometimes we can get locked into the old days.  Memory can become a trap. 

That is what happened to Isaiah’s congregation.  For eighty years they had lived as strangers in a strange land.  Their grandparents had been hauled across a thousand miles of desert by a conquering Babylon army and there they served as slaves.   

To keep the memories alive, every night after dinner Grandpa would talk about the old days when he lived free in a land flowing with milk and honey.  He spoke of God and how great God was and the great things God did and the great men and women of faith who lived back then.  This was good and it was important, but all of it was in the past tense.   

So, after a while that’s the way people began to look at God – in the past tense.  Consequently, few considered that God might be with them today in the present tense, and fewer still had any notion that God might do something tomorrow in the future tense. 

That’s why God said, “Remember not the former things nor consider the things of old, behold I am doing something new, do you not see it?”  Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear? 

God of eternity, we know you old the future in the palm of your hands because you have promised through your Word, “I know the plans I’ve made for you for your welfare to give you a future and a hope.” Grant that we may have eyes to see this hope fulfilled in this coming year and throughout our lives.  Amen.