Do not call to mind the former things; pay no attention to the things of old. Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Is 43:18-19
How I often long for something new. When life had seemed the most unfair, when the ugly had contaminated my life, when what was meant for honor was defiled, I longed for something new and untouched. There is a theme of newness in scripture. Christ makes all things new. We are new creatures. New mercies are offered to us each morning. Even though I might desire newness, I often find myself looking back…returning to the old.
One story from scripture that we might remember is Lot’s wife. Jesus even instructs in Luke 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife! Lot and his family lived in a sinful, contaminated, ugly, and desecrating place. The Lord offered deliverance from this place before He destroyed it. God remembered Abraham and because of this, He sent Lot out of the upheaval. The angel of the Lord instructed Lot and his family to “Flee for your life, don’t look behind you, do not stop anywhere in the surrounding area. Escape to the hills (This reminds me of David’s words in Psalm 121) or you will be swept away.” Lot’s wife, however, looked behind and turned into a pillar of salt. I was recently listening to a sermon by Pastor Emy Vasquez and he made this statement, “You cannot receive what is coming to you in the future if you are chasing what left you in the past.”
Lot’s wife wasn’t the only one who ever looked back. The children of Israel often looked back to Egypt while they were moving toward the promised land. They didn’t just look back on their slavery and say, “Thank you Adoni for delivering us from captivity”, but rather they looked back longingly and complained that they had it good there. They even questioned whether God had brought them to the desert to die. This is after He performed miracles upon miracles like the plagues of Egypt but they were kept safe, He provided an escape through The Red Sea, daily manna, water from the rocks, and a pillar of fire and smoke to guide them, just to name a few.
In the New Testament after the death of Christ, the disciples went back to fishing. It’s what they knew how to do. Fishing for fish was their old way, Jesus called them to a new way of fishing…fishing for men, but their hopes for a Messiah King had seemingly just been decimated.
At the end of his life, Moses called Joshua to him. The Lord had chosen for Joshua to lead the Hebrew Children into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land of covenant and promise. Deuteronomy 32:44 says, “Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people—he and Hoshea son of Nun.” God had changed Hoshea’s (salvation) name to Joshua (Yahweh saves). Why did Moses revert to his old name? Maybe it was done as a reminder to not look back. Rabbi Jason Sobel says it this way in his book The God of the Way,
“Moses may have used Joshua’s birth name a final time to communicate that the old Joshua had to die and be buried completely. He could no longer be Hoshea but must fully embrace and step into the full meaning of his God-given name, Joshua. He could never go back to being Hoshea, no matter how challenging, stressful, or out of his comfort zone his life might be. His old name was eulogized, remembered one last time before being buried with Moses. He was never to go back to his old way of being, no matter how challenging things became.”
All throughout scripture we see examples of God encouraging His people not to keep revisiting things they cannot revive. In Samuel 16:1 we see the Lord speak to Samuel, the kingmaker, about this very topic…longing for the old in the face of something new. “The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” What speaks to me so much here is God’s direction to fill his horn with oil and be on his way. Each day I need to fill my horn with the oil and presence of the Lord and be on my way.
I want to be like Joshua and enter into all the Lord has for me. While Moses spoke to the Lord face to face, he never rooted out the old anger. He didn’t deal with his heart issue. This shows that God can still use you, you may see the vision of places He has called you, but you cannot enter into the fullness of that vision.
Another nugget to meditate on comes from Mark. “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” Mark 2:21-22
Father, you are above all and worthy of all my praise. I ask that you forgive me for often looking back like Lot’s wife. I long for the newness you give, but look back at the old instead. I want to walk in the new season you have for me. Today, I surrender my need to dig up old bones that you have buried. I give you permission to enter every corner of my heart. Reveal to me the places I need your healing, the places I need to root out and make ready for the new things you are doing. I want to fill my life with the oil of your presence and be on my way, about the business of today that you are sending me to do. You are doing a new thing! I can see it! Now I submit my will to yours so that I will not only see the vision but can walk into the fullness of it. You are great and greatly to be praised!
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