In Isaiah 43, God talks about how Mighty He is, How Faithful He is, and what He is yet to do. In verse 3 and 16 He reminds Israel of their deliverance from Egypt.

Deliverance from the impossibility of slavery, Egypt’s armies and crossing the Red Sea, through the impossible.

But then God says in V18(NLT) “But forget all that – it’s nothing compared to what I am going to do.” In another translation (NKJV) it says “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.” I feel like God is trying to make a point here – DON’T focus on how I’ve DONE things in the past, but FOCUS on the fact that I’ve been faithful to my word.

You can see God get really excited at this point… Because He goes on to say in V19 “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?” (NLT)

We can get so caught up in past successes and failures that we miss what NEW things God has for us. We will happily close the door on bad things in our past, but the good things? We must be careful not to get stuck in the mindset of, “well that’s how God did it in the past, so that’s how He’ll do it in the future.” Because that is limiting God in your life, unintentionally, but still limiting. God can and will bring good and call you into new sessions in different ways and if you keep looking for the SAME way you will miss the NEW way.

In order for you to move forward you need to let go of the PAST, cherish the good memories remember the lessons learnt, but be willing to step into something completely NEW.

V19 continues to say, “I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.’’ Sometimes we can be in a desert or wilderness and we want directions like we were in a city. You can’t jump onto Google maps and type in “current location:’wilderness’, Destination: ‘promised land’”.

God’s not going to say “go straight for 10km then turn right at apply for this job and get it, continue on for 5 years then turn left at salary bonus and enough money to start your dream, continue on for 2 years and destination of perfect life is on your left.”

No, in your wilderness God says head East, and sometimes you have to figure out where East is because you can’t even see the sun through the clouds. Sometimes you have to climb mountains and your legs hurt and feel like they going to fall off before they carry you any further. You might get scrapes and bruises from climbing. Sometimes you walking through deserts sands and it feels like you are going nowhere because your feet keep sinking into the sand and it takes you days just to get a little bit ahead. And then you might just get to a giant thorn bush that you can’t see the end of, and you declare it to be moved or parted because you believe God can and will do it! Because that’s how He did it in the past or in someone else’s life . But God might be saying ‘I need you to walk around it’. You reply ‘No, I have faith for this thing to be moved!’ And God says, ‘Good. I’m glad you have faith, but I still need you to take the long way around.’

So begrudgingly as you walk the long way round, you see wild desert flowers blooming in spite of the harsh environment. You wouldn’t have seen this beauty if you hadn’t gone the long way round and hadn’t been in the desert. There is beauty that only exists in the desert, that can’t exist anywhere else. We need to be open to finding it and seeing it.

Have you ever been in the desert at night? If you look up you can see all of the stars, there’s no other light from cities and street lamps to hinder our view of heaven. Psalm 33:6 says “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth.”

You can see the very breath of God, but you need the clarity that the desert, the wilderness, brings to see God in that way. Look for the beauty in your desert; what God is bringing out in you, what He is showing you.

God is faithful to restore. He wont leave you in the desert. Israel is portrayed in the Bible as the land flowing with milk and honey, it’s a beautiful and prosperous land. However, in the 1800 Mark Twain visited Israel and described it as a “blistering and naked treeless land,” “solitude to make one dreary; unpeopled deserts, rusty mounds of barrenness that never, never do shake the glare from their harsh outlines,” “yonder desolate declivity where the swine of the miracle ran down into the sea and doubtless thought it was better to swallow a devil or two and get drowned into the bargain then have to live longer in such a place.” ⁽¹⁾

Apparently not a land flowing with milk and honey anymore! But God is faithful and He has restored Israel not to its former glory but to a new glory. He has done a new thing in Israel. Isaiah 35 v1-2 talks about how the desert shall blossom as the rose. Today there are millions of flowers grown in the desserts of Israel and exported to Europe, Holland even imports tulips form Israel. ⁽¹⁾ Isa 27v6 says Israel will fill the earth with fruit. Today Israel has a huge export of fruit to around the world. ⁽¹⁾

God restored the land and made it better than the old, He made it new. But in order for the new to come, the people of Israel had to do things a new way.

Are you ready to close the door on the old and embrace the new?

Do you need to ask God to help you see the beauty in the desert places you are walking through?

Reference:

⁽¹⁾ Israel and the Church: God’s Roadmap, R.J. Brimmer and other Bridges for Peace Leaders. 2006

Bible’s –            New Living Translation, New King James Version

Image from Propel Woman