Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands. (Isaiah 43: 18-19, The Message)
Don’t keep going over old history…now there’s a challenge! Satan’s goal is for us to be stuck in and limited by our past. In his role as “the accuser of the brethren,” he keeps reminding us of the memories, the mistakes, and the moments of choice that took us downhill.
But as Isaiah said to Israel, God says to us, “Look right in front of you! Be alert. Be present to the now. There are new opportunities within your reach now, if you can only see them. If you are always looking backward, you can’t see what’s right in front of you.”
When Isaiah spoke this to the Israelites, his words came at a bleak period of their history. They had made a mess of things. They were in captivity. They had lost everything they thought they would keep forever. They were homesick for the land and the blessing God had promised them.
Though Isaiah had fully acknowledged the troubles Israel had brought on herself and the resultant captivity, he encouraged them with the fact of God’s restoring power. God was by no means through with Israel. He said that even then, in those troubled times, if they would open their eyes, God was making a way through the desert. There was cool, refreshing water where it was totally illogical that it should be there. God was providing right where they were, and if they saw it and embraced His provision, their lives would never be the same. They would come out different, stronger, on the other side.
Perhaps this is a bleak season of your own history. You spend a great deal of time and energy looking back, pondering, “What if…?” and “If only I…” Maybe you have even believed the lie of the enemy that your past has doomed your future. Well, not true! Satan, the accuser, is a great big liar.
Though you may be in a desert right now, Isaiah by God’s inspiration sends hope down through the centuries. Look! Right in front of you! Can you see it? Far from being barren, your desert times can be the greenest and most fertile for growth. Before you get situational relief, you can experience the joy that only comes from the Lord. God will send people across your path that you are to learn from and receive encouragement. Your desperation can drive you into an intimacy with and dependence on God that you might never have sought out in happier times.
Isaiah tells God’s chosen people that God is making a way in the desert, translated in The Message (cited above) as “a road through the desert.” This shows us that not only does God supply the refreshment you need while you’re there in that barren and disheartening place, He has a plan to move you out of that place when the time is right. Your job is to prepare for it and embrace it as it happens.
So Isaiah’s beautiful words revealing God’s mercy and grace echo in our own hearts today, posing a very important question:
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? (Isaiah 43: 18-19, NIV)
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