YAHWEH'S MOUTHPIECE

Last, we looked at crossing the red sea and specifically hooked up with Isaiah 43:18 – 19: “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

The promise is preceded by a prerequisite action – “Remember ye not the former things.” It was mentioned in the last post that God taking Israel through the red sea was to make for a definite transition marked by a partition between Egypt and the promise, signifying the old and the new.

The sad truth is that Israel passed through the red sea but didn’t enter the reality that God wanted them to. After the crossing of the red sea, they constantly and consistently had Egypt in their remembrance, contrary to the intention of God. I realise that it is very possible for us to go through certain experiences that God takes us through but miss out on the lessons God intends for us to learn from those experiences. This is sad but true considering the life of the Israelites. Paul wrote saying, “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Do we take time to investigate and enquire about the good that God is working in every situation in order to be accurately situated in His purpose for our lives?

For Israel, they didn’t leave the old and so, couldn’t live in the reality of the new. Yes, they left Egypt, but not in their hearts. There was so much of a heart tie with the land of Egypt that at every slight difficulty encountered, they were quick to assert that they were better off in Egypt. We need to realise that God does not relate to us based on the past. He relates with us based on our present standing, and even much more by where He is taking us to. This understanding should also influence how we relate with God so that we remain in accurate alignment with Him.

Israel signed up for murmuring as though they were still in bondage and esteemed the seeming goodies enjoyed in Egypt above the good land that the Lord had prepared for them. Murmuring represents the life of those in bondage, where you’re under a taskmaster ruling over you with a rod of iron. God doesn’t deal so with us. In fact, He calls us to reason with Him. God is approachable, and so we can bring to Him our petitions with the assurance that He will attend to them, rather than grumbling and murmuring. They left Egypt but their hearts were still very much attached to Egypt. And because of this, many didn’t enter the land of promise. You cannot live in the new if you have not left the old. And God was asking them in Jeremiah 2:18 “And now, what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt…”

The writer of Hebrews urged us to “lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and run with patience the race that is set before us”. A heavyweight that will hinder our progression is the past, and so God says, “…remember ye not the former things. Behold…” If the former things are not off your remembrance, you will not see that which lies ahead, at best you will have an impaired view of what’s ahead. The last I checked, no one can look at his back, and face his front at the same time. The devotion of Paul was, “…this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things with are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13 – 14). Even God’s design for a marriage union requires that there must first be a leaving before a cleaving (Genesis 2:24).

Transition requires that our desire for the former is lost. God never transitions us into something worse, it’s definitely something better. We need to look beyond the seeming good we enjoyed and focus on the land of gold into which we are entering. God didn’t want them to forget everything about Egypt. They were to remember the hand of deliverance that brought them out, fear Him and follow Him faithfully as they journey with Him into the land of promise. We remember the Lord who has hitherto helped us, to strengthen our resolve to follow Him as He leads us henceforth.

We must be careful not to judge the promise by the path we are on in comparison with the past from which we’ve departed. Israel compared the path with the past. “We don’t have water to drink, but we had water to drink in Egypt…we don’t have bread to eat, but we sat by fleshpots and ate bread to the full in Egypt.” Well, the path wasn’t a part of the promise that God made. I will bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey. He never said I’ll take you through a path lavished with milk and honey. Although, God would have given them honey out of the rock, if only they could believe Him.

You will not really know in experience how much God has in store for you until you follow Him fully, not just with your feet, but with the fixity of your heart and focus on the future which He has promised to get you into. For “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). It is in your following that you enter into the economy of experiential knowledge, and can say, I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good and that His promises are sure. “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3). Paul highlighted that now, we see in a glass darkly; but then – when we enter into the full reality of the promise – the fulness of knowledge is gotten, not by an explanation, but by an experience.

Follow God. The end indeed is glorious, even as He has said.