God is Doing a New Thing!

God is Doing a New Thing! – Isaiah 43:14-28 Part III

Spring burst on the landscape each year without fail.  I recall that a section of our yard in South Carolina was the place where a large group of daffodils would pop out of the ground and trumpet the arrival of spring.  This perennial natural occurrence was more reliable than any weather forecast supported by the state of the art technology of Doppler 4000.  I viewed it as nature’s way of informing the world that new life awaits those who can see it.  Creativity and vitality are all around us.

Likewise, Isaiah employs this natural image to remind us of how subtle God works in our lives.  The new things that unfold in our lives often emerge in the most simplistic way.  We miss them because we expect something grand and melodramatic.  Excessive watching of television and movies regrettably trains us to anticipate picture perfect Kodak moments.  We romanticize everything and expect the circumstances of our lives to progress like drama of a cinematic blockbuster movie with all of the sentimentality and saccharine worldview.  In total contradistinction, Almighty God mysteriously and magnificently embeds the seeds of providence into our lives just as a framer sows natural seeds during the planting season of early spring.  Embedded within our myriad, daily situations, God is doing a new thing.

The second half of the nineteenth verse offers the assurance that God is “making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”  Chances are the seemingly endless years of your pursuit of your ambitions have felt like a desert.  We know the horror of perpetual thirst for success and excellence.  We long to recapture the esteem of past achievements.  We desire the reputation of yesteryear in which some persons characterized us as “the crème de le crème.”  We drank freely from the waters of success and excellence.  Today, we can hardly find a fountain to quench our dried out mouths and very parched throats.  Nevertheless, the Lord says that He will lead us to an oasis.  There, we shall find an infinite supply of living waters that satisfy the soul instead of merely eliminating natural thirst. 

Interestingly, the exilic period was one of the most profitable eras in Israel’s history.  Rather than becoming bitter and allowing their doubts to morph into cynicism and inertia, the Israelites grasped the depth of the threat to their religion, history and literature.  They began to record their stories.  Several of the books of the Old Testament were written during the time of the Babylonian exile.  Lest they lose their culture, heritage and legacy, the Israelites secured it by recording it on scrolls which were in turn treated as national treasures.  They could no longer rely on the memories of the younger generations to tell the great story of God’s enduring covenant with Israel.  Ironically, instead of destroying Israel, the exilic period strengthened her.  God did a new thing through the writing of Israel’s history.  Few of them could have imagined that their quest for religious, historical and literary survival would benefit us. 

On an individual level, it is hard periodically to ascertain the will of God.  A person can feel as if he or she is in exile particularly if such an individual experiences a series of losses.  It is definitely possible to feel disconcerted about one’s relationship with God, specifically, and negatively about life, generally.  In those dry seasons of puzzlement when nothing appears to fall into place, one falls prey to asking the proverbial questions, “Why, Why me, or Why is God allowing this to happen to me?”  In response, theologian, Wendy Farley, insists that the question should be “What am I going to do in light of my predicament?”  She recommends the practice of spiritual disciplines: contemplation, patience, meditation, prayer and living through the “dark night of the soul.”  Farley who writes with the integrity of her personal experience reminds her readers that the Psalter insists that the darkness always yields to the dawn of a new day.  Regardless of one’s ability to define and accept the will of God during periods of personal exile, one must persevere in Farley’s estimation.

The late Adrian Rogers, longtime Pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN, offers five suggestions for persons living in spiritual and existential exile.  First, similar to Farley, Rogers recommends that a person does not try to understand what God is doing.  Second, he suggests that we forsake the tendency to become bitter.  Admittedly, this is very difficult to do in the midst of failure after defeat after loss.  Third, Rogers exhorts us to remain faithful.  Practically and colloquially speaking, “Keep on keeping on,”  Do the last right thing that God instructed and trust Him for greater revelation.  Fourth, formulate a willingness to wait on the Lord as He orchestrates the details of your life.  Fifth, do not let your dreams die because God will not fail you no matter what happens.

I posit that Rogers’ last recommendation provides a great ending.  While we await the necessary resources and good fortunate to ascend the summit of success, we cannot let the dream die.  The dawn of a day nears; we will enter triumphantly the winners circle.  The night of our wilderness period will be over finally.  As we start a new year, let’s do so with the full assurance that God is doing a new thing in us!