Over the Christmas break, I had asked my Dad what it feels like to have lived long enough to see the world repeat the same conflicts and angry rhetoric at home and abroad as he had seen and heard whilst growing up himself. As my Dad responded with melancholy at the state of the world, I also wondered how God sees our world today. After seeing us do ‘everything under the sun’ (Ecclesiates) I wondered if God laughs at humanity’s foolishness as we stumble around, trying to survive without Him? Does He cry at how lost we are in our brokenness and our stubborn refusal to turn back to Him? Does He do both?
The book of Isaiah illustrates that God is neither laughing nor crying in the face of humanity but calling and compelling us to see what he has in store:
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 wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43v 18–19)
Here in the second half of Isaiah, the people of Israel are now in exile across the Babylonian Empire and are longing to return to their homeland. God is reminding his people of his love for them and his protection over them. He compels them to see the new thing he is doing and will do restore his people from their ‘dry and desolate state’ (see Ezekiel 37) and grant them new life.
In light of the New Testament, we know that when the book of Isaiah speaks of a restored Israel, it is not just about the return of the Israelite nation from Babylon. It is about a restored humanity through the blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the new thing that God was doing, is doing and continues to do in our lives today. He was and is what humanity longs for though many do not know it yet. He is the Way (and the Truth and the Life- John 14v6) through the wilderness and the streams of living water that produces everlasting life (John 4v10–13).
As we are now well into the new year and a new term, what does this truth from Isaiah and Jesus tell us? It is firstly a call to leave the past behind. The old year has brought many things, many joys and sorrows, successes and disappointments, completed tasks and ongoing struggles. At CPS, it has been our joy over the past year to see and welcome new faces at our events but we continue to pray for the many who have heard of us but do not come or those that come but do not receive Christ. Now will we cast our eyes forward? What new thing is God already doing that we cannot yet see? How will God surprise us over this next year? Are we expecting to be surprised?
It is our prayer for ourselves and the wider Christian family at Warwick and beyond, that God will raise our expectations; that He will remove the scales from our eyes so that we can see exactly who God is in Christ and what He is doing in our campuses and churches. Knowing how great our God is, this will not be something to miss!
Recent Comments