Belonging in Isaiah: A New Thing

To kick off the new year, I was reading Isaiah 43 (principally because of v. 19, God doing “a new thing,” not highly original I know!) I found in it a tender account of God’s love (v.4), his relation with his people who he has created, formed, called (vv. 1,7 and a refrain throughout Isaiah). This is a fierce love which extinguishes and brakes oppression (vv. 14,17). It is also the forgiving, costly love of a Redeemer (v.3).

Curiously, after God has just recounted the Exodus (vv. 16-17) we are told not to remember the former things because he is about to do something new (v. 18). But I wonder if verse 25 gives a hint of what is to be forgotten -- our sins which God also forgets.

Isaiah 44 elaborates on this new thing: it will be a watering of the wilderness, an outpouring of God’s Spirit on his people, blessed and flourishing like willows by streams, a recognition and declaration of belonging to God (vv. 3-5). Such belonging seems rather hard-won, on the other side of captivity, judgment and redemption, and perhaps all the more precious on account of this.

It would be a bit presumptuous to claim God's words addressed to Jacob and Israel as speaking only to me, and yet I trust I can claim to be among those adopted in v. 5. And I needed to hear these words as spoken to me at the outset of year: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name and you are mine” (Is. 43.1b). I hope they are also an encouragement to you.

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