GOD OF NEW BEGINNINGS
Our
gracious and merciful heavenly Father allowed us to see another New Year, 2026.
It is going to be a fascinating journey with God into a fresh year filled with
opportunities and challenges. As we look back, I hope we have only a few
regrets and complaints, and a heart full of praise and thanksgiving for the
manifold blessings of God.
Before
we embark on the New Year, it is time to empty our trash (past sins, regrets,
broken promises, outbursts of anger, failed commitments, illicit relationships,
wasted resources, and indulgences) into a dumpster. It is like spiritual house
cleaning. Once we threw all that bad stuff in the dumpster, we were ready for a
fresh start with God and receive what God has for us.
On
this first Sunday of the New Year, let us open our eyes of faith wide and look at
what the Lord God Almighty, our dear heavenly Father, will do in us, for us,
and through us. Let us observe whether He has any warnings, pay attention to
any reminders, and hold on to the promises as we examine a familiar passage,
often quoted on New Year's Day: Isaiah 43:18-21.
I. Background:
Through
our CASKET studies, we have learned that due to relentless rebellion,
disobedience, and idolatry, God sent the Israelites into exile in Babylon. In
586 B.C Jerusalem is destroyed and Judah is brought into exile. The prophet
Ezekiel extensively writes about the destruction of Jerusalem and the
deportation of the remnant of Israel to Babylon.
Living
in a foreign land, away from their beloved homeland, was not something the
Israelites cherished; they wanted to return as quickly as possible. So they
called in prophets who could predict their future return. They were given false
hope by false prophets who predicted they would return to their homeland within
two years; in contrast, God sent his prophet Jeremiah, who prophesied that they
would remain in exile for seventy years. Jeremiah 28, 29.
During
their exile, they were to work the land, build homes, marry, and lead everyday
day-to-day lives while hoping to return to their homeland one day. Towards the
end of their seventy-year exile, God sent Isaiah to prophesy how He would deal
with Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian Kingdom, and to make a way in the
wilderness for the exiles to return to their home. This promise was fulfilled
in 539 BC,
when the Medo-Persians, led by Cyrus, overcame the Babylonian army. Let's look
at how the promise unfolded and its implications for us today.
II. Let Bygones Be
Bygones
Isaiah
43:18-19, "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? This loaded
phrase contains three crucial messages: a gentle reminder, a trustworthy
promise, and a question to respond to. First, a gentle reminder: What
does the phrase "forget the former things, do not dwell on the past mean?
In
contemporary language, it could be said: "let bygones be bygones." The phrase 'Let
Bygones Be Bygones' is used to indicate that unpleasant things that have
happened in the past are best forgotten. In the Chronicles of Narnia movie, when
Edmund finally came to realize his mistakes and was set free, Aslan brought him
to his siblings and made this profound statement: "Here
is your brother, and- there is no need to talk about what is past."[1] Aslan
in the movie represented God's intimate knowledge of our lives and His love and
forgiveness.
When
God said to the Israelites, "Forget the former things, do not
dwell on the past. He was speaking to them, "I know, how rebellious you
have been, to teach you the importance of obedience, I sent you to exile for seventy
years. Now it is all over, don't feel bad about what you have done. Please
don't dig up your past; it is better to forget it and move forward with me.
What does
this mean to us today? God disciplines us when we sin and walk in rebellion,
but when we repent, He forgives our sins and restores us to Himself. But the
devil would like us to dig up our past and feel guilty about all our mistakes
and failings. In the process, we begin to doubt God's love and His forgiveness.
The scriptures remind us that when God forgives, He also forgets our sins and
no longer remembers them. It doesn't mean that God has amnesia. Forgiving and
forgetting our sins is a deliberate choice of God:
Jeremiah 31:34, "For I will forgive their
wickedness, and I will remember their sins no more." Isaiah 43:25:
"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and
remembers your sins no more." Psalm 103:12, "As far as the east is
from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Hebrews
8:12: "For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember
their sins no more."
Here is the lesson we need to learn:
when God graciously forgives our sins, we have no business going back to keep
digging up past failures and regrets, only to feel miserable all over again. If
we do that, then what Christ has done on the cross to forgive our sins is
meaningless. Instead, we forget the past and focus on what God is doing in the
present. What past regrets or sins are still dwelling on? It is about time you
forget them and look at what God is doing.
III. The God of New
Beginnings
Isaiah 43:19, "Behold, I will do something
new; now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a
roadway in the wilderness Rivers in the desert." Here is the trustworthy
promise of God: that He is doing something New, and we need to behold it. It speaks to the fact that our God is the
God of New Beginnings.
Stephanie Rische notes in an article, "the
writers of Scripture didn't have commas or exclamation marks at their disposal;
they did have access to other tools to get their readers' attention. Most
notably, they used the word for behold, which means "to keep or to
hold." It comes from the Greek word "to see." It was intended to
force its readers to slow down, to hold this truth in their hearts, to
really see. The word behold is used more than a thousand times in
the ESV Bible, which makes me think there must be a lot God wants us to pay
attention to."[2]
Let's see what God wants us to pay attention to.
Behold, I will do something New. What was
that new thing meant for the exiles in Babylon who had been displaced from
their homeland and stripped of all their freedoms? The New thing was freedom
and restoration to their beloved homeland. Returning home seemed highly
impossible, but God said to them, " Don't you see, don't you perceive it,
I will make a roadway in the wilderness and Rivers in the desert. If we read
the book of Ezra, we will learn about the Joyous return and the resettlement of
the exiles in their homeland, Jerusalem.
What
does this mean to us on this first Sunday of the year 2026? The scriptures tell us that when we
sin against God, we become slaves to sin. John 8:34. When we live in sin, we
are, in one sense, exiled away into the enemy's land, far away from home. In
one way, Peter calls all believers exiles on this earth, longing to
return to our heavenly home. I Peter 2:11
No matter what we do, our longing to return to our heavenly home can not
be fulfilled because we were shackled in our sin and living in misery and
shame. For some of us, this life of bondage to substance abuse and addiction
may have lasted a long time, while for others, who might be struggling with deep
depression due to rejection, it may have lasted a considerable amount of time. Whatever
your situation is, you may feel there is no way out.
I have good news for you. Your struggles with sin and guilt are finally
over; your time to return home to be with God has come. If you think there is
no way out for you, Jesus is standing here and saying to you, I am the way, and
the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. The
Savior is here, declaring to you, "Behold, I am doing a new thing among
you. According to the scriptures, that new thing is the forgiveness of your
sins. Your deliverance from the bondage to Satan and death. John 8:36, "So
if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." 2 Cor 5:17,
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the New creation has come; The old has
gone, the New is here! Christ sets us free so that we might proclaim His
Praises forever.
[1] https://gospelaccordingtosuperheroes.weebly.com/posts/the-repentance-of-edmund-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-chapter
13#:~:text=Aslan%20calls%20Edmund's%20siblings%20to,known%20as%20Confession%2C%20about%20them.
[2] https://www.boundless.org/faith/the-power-of-beholding/
