April 6, 2025
Dear friends in Christ grace and peace to you. The text for this week’s message comes from Isaiah 43:16-21.
There is a song sung by Joey and Rory along with Josh Turner entitled “I Gotta go Back.” In the song they sing about the need to go back to the past where life was slower paced, simpler, and more peaceful. It’s a beautiful song which in my mind has some significant meaning for us today. However, in our text from Isaiah this week, Isaiah relays a message from God in verses 18, 19; “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!”In this reading the Israelites are remembering the past when they were in bondage to slavery to Egyptians. They remembered that God had delivered them from the Egyptians. Now in bondage once again in the form of exile by the Babylonians they are preparing to start their lives over once again. Remembering that God delivered once before their hope is that he will deliver them again. God responds by telling them to forget about the past, I have a new plan for you now; I am about to do a new thing. God promises that he will lead them back to their homeland and restore them as his chosen people but it will be a different exodus this time.
Our lives and faith journeys are constantly changing. We wander here and there taking winding paths of our own excursions from time to time but if we remain faithful God always shows us the way back. For many of us, life in the present provides many challenges, whether it be our health, family dynamics, job concerns, losses ranging from the loss of life to the loss of control over things we used to have control over. Our heads are spinning trying figure out what’s happening in our nation and in the world. Perhaps we utter the words of the song, “We Gotta Go Back.” We gotta go back to what we know. But as followers of Jesus we should know by now that we can’t go back; God is leading us on a journey of faith that will end in glory.
It’s sometimes hard not to challenge Jesus or to question where he is leading us. This is where our faith is most important. We must remember that God loves all of his children and wants only the best for them. That doesn’t mean that life will always be a bowl of cherries; sometimes it feels like it’s the pits. But our faith reminds us to trust in the Lord. He has proven over and over again that he can and will deliver his people from whatever it is that they are in bondage to. Our challenge is to trust God. It’s clear that we as his people don’t know what we’re doing and what’s best for us but God does. Forget the past; God is leading the way to a new thing. Will we follow?
May the peace of God that comes from trusting in him be with all of you.
Michael Isaacson
March 30, 2025
Dear friends in Christ grace and peace to you. The text for this week’s message comes from Joshua 5:9-12.
In this week’s text the Israelites have come to the end of their 40-year journey. It has been a long circuitous journey since their escape from the Egyptians orchestrated by God in the parting of the waters of the Red Sea. Most, if not all of the original group including Moses have died. This is the next generation of Israelites who have entered the land promised to them. Moses had led them at God’s direction to this point. God had provided for their every need along the way. The people grumbled, lost faith, strayed from God’s commands and even worshiped idols at one point and yet God continued to be with them and provide for them on this journey. God had even provided for the water of the Jordan River to be dried up so that they could cross into the Promised Land which caused the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, to flee in fear. And now for the first time the Israelites eat food produced on the land instead of eating the manna that God had provided everyday for the last 39 years.
I’ve often wondered what it is like to reach the end of our earthly journeys. Much like the Israelites, our journeys are long and circuitous. We’ve toiled for years to provide for our families. We’ve endured hard times, we’ve rejoiced in happy times, we’ve experienced the heartache of the death of loved ones, our faith has been tested and we’ve likely wavered in faithfulness from time to time. And then we reach the end of our journey. What is that like?
Perhaps this passage this week gives us a hint of what it might be like for us as we come to the end of our earthly journeys and a new journey begins. I would like to think that the Israelites took a deep breath and praised God for his guidance and fulfilling his promise. I would like to think that as my earthly journey comes to an end that I would be at peace; that I would know that I am loved by God and that I have been forgiven for my transgressions and that a new world of splendor beyond my feeble imagination awaits me.
Jimmy Fortune sings a song that I absolutely love entitled Far Banks of Jordan. It is a song in which he describes his passing and waiting on the far side of the River Jordan at peace and waiting for his loved ones to join him. Such is the hope of followers of Jesus.
May the peace of God be with each of you as you journey through this life toward God’s Promised Land.
Michael Isaacson
