The God of all creation is not bound to the past as he helps us

By Dean Collins

Paul Simon’s song says there are 50 ways to leave your lover. I am not proposing any marriage breakups here, but Simon’s song suggests you don’t have to stay stuck in a relationship. One is always free to do what they need to do. While there may be unhealthy relationships that need to be abandoned, our relationship with God is not one of them.

However, we may need to walk away from expecting God to act according to how we think he should. And we may need to consider that his ways are, in fact, not our ways. He is not limited to whatever we perceive he is supposed to do. Sometimes we get stuck thinking there is only one way for God to intervene in our lives and help us in time of great need. We often forget that the God of creation is always creating.

A new message

Consider the plight of the people of God who had been living in exile in Babylon. Isaiah had announced that deliverance was coming and that exile was ending. Those who had lived in captivity couldn’t get their minds around God’s plan. They had lived under Babylonian control for decades, and now a Persian king was going to be instrumental in their deliverance? That was simply hard to believe. But if you have lived as a person of faith for many years, I suspect you also have stories of how God intervened in ways you could have never imagined.

All through the Old Testament the Israelites were told to remember the past. On the night Moses would lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, God instituted the Passover meal that was to be celebrated every year so that God’s people would remember this grand deliverance. Now many generations later, Isaiah says something that at first sounds confusing.

Isaiah 43:16 opens with the familiar story of how God made a way through the Red Sea by creating a path for the Israelites to find escape. And after they were on dry ground and safely on the other side, God caused the waters to collapse on Pharaoh’s army. Chariots, horses, and warriors drowned in the sea. For centuries since, the Hebrew people have remembered this marvelous deliverance. 

Now suddenly Isaiah says something that sounds different: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” This is certainly a strange message for believers who are told to remember all God has done in the past.

A new means

Like you, I need to remember the many times God showed up in the past and rescued me! Remembering helps me hold on and find hope. And isn’t it true that the Scripture teaches us that God never changes? The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The psalmist declared that things on earth change but God remains the same: “You are the same and have no end.”

God is the same. His love, mercy, grace, and faithfulness are always present. Isaiah’s message was not intended to confuse God’s children in the past or in the present but rather to help us see that God is not limited to the same methods of deliverance.  Hear the word of the Lord from Isaiah:  “I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

Still in Babylon, the children of God could not imagine how their deliverance would unfold. They were miles from home with a desert between them and their homeland. Isaiah’s word was to help them consider that God is not bound to the same methods of deliverance he used in the past. He is our living God who still has all the creative powers he used to speak the world into existence. Now he can speak to creation in our situations no matter how difficult our current moment might be.

A new understanding

The exiles needed to understand that the God who could use the waters of the Red Sea to stop the Egyptian pursuit could now bring water out of the desert to provide for the pilgrims in their time of need. God is not bound by his former ways. He can create new avenues of hope, health, and deliverance in any moment.

Just as God did a new thing for his children in Babylon, God in Christ makes all things new for us now and will in eternity. Jesus’ words from Revelation 21 say, “Behold I am making all things new…these words are trustworthy and true.” 

Paul Simon might have mused about how one can leave a relationship, but we can rest assured that our God is faithful and true and has more than 50 ways to demonstrate his wonderful love for us and bring deliverance in our times of great need.

Charles Wesley wrote a hymn that speaks of Jesus as the great lover of our souls. May these verses give us great confidence and assurance of God’s eternal love.

1 Jesu, Lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
Till the storm of life be past!
Safe into the haven guide,
O receive my soul at last!

2 Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me:
All my trust on thee is stayed,
All my help from thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of thy wing.

3 Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in thee I find!
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick, and lead the blind;
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am,
Thou art full of truth and grace.

4 Plenteous grace with thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin,
Let the healing streams abound;
Make and keep me pure within:
Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of thee,
Spring thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity.

Your time with God’s Word
Isaiah‬ ‭43‬:‭16‬-‭21‬; Hebrews‬ ‭13‬:‭8‬; ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭102‬:‭25‬-‭28‬; ‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭5‬ ‭ESV

Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash
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