Although most cliche’s are based on some truth, they get old quickly. You know how it is, we often tire quickly of such cliche’s as “There is nothing new under the sun,” or “Unless we know our history we are doomed to repeat it.” It is unfortunate that we tire so easily and so quickly, especially of these two cliche’s, because they are so true and even today they are so appropriate. We live in a world where we can easily see that there is nothing new under the sun, just turn on the television, or go to see a movie. How often it is that what we watch is simply a remake, a rerun, a reworking of something that has already been done? And as for our history, it seems, to me, that we are not teaching history as well as we have in the past, because it seems to me that what is happening in our world today is a repeat of what has happened in the past and since we do not know our history, we are simply repeating the mistakes that were made once before.
In our text for this morning we have a prime example of the truth of these two cliche’s. When it comes to the history of the children of Israel, we can see that their history consisted of a constant making of the same mistakes, a constant sinning of the same sins, and a constant suffering of the same consequences, but let us get to our text.
Our text begins with the Lord asking the children of Israel to remember, verse sixteen, “16Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old ” (v. 16-18). Interestingly enough, as the Lord reminds the children of Israel of former things His asks them to not remember them, nor to consider them. Perhaps this is God’s way of expressing the cliche’, “You have to leave your past behind you.” Actually, what God is saying, to Israel, through the prophet Isaiah, is that although Israel had a sorted past, that past was forgiven and God has better things in store. So, although they were not to dwell on their past, certainly God would have them remember their past lest they may be doomed to repeat it. So, the Lord reminds them of their past, their former sins, and their enslavement in Egypt.
God reminds them of their enslavement in Egypt so that He might also remind them of His deliverance of them from their bondage of slavery in Egypt. It was the Lord who made a path through the sea, through the mighty waters so that they might escape from Pharaoh and his army.
Yet, not only did God rescue and deliver Israel through the Red Sea, He also allowed for Pharaoh and his army to follow and then He destroyed them, He extinguished and quenched them like a wick. Although the children of Israel constantly tried the Lord, He constantly and consistently took care of them.
After a bit of a history lesson, next, the Lord asks the children of Israel to look forward, picking up at verse nineteen, “19Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise” (v. 19-21). Just as God, in the past has taken care of and delivered the children of Israel, so he will deliver them from their present enslavement to sin.
God’s promise is that He will make their way straight through the difficulties of life. This world and the struggles of this world are often compared to traveling through a wilderness with danger all around. God’s promise is that while the children of Israel travel through the wilderness of this world and this life, He will be with them to protect them and to take care of their needs.
Finally, God’s promise is that in the end, He will give them a heavenly home. God chose Israel. God promised Israel that the Savior of the world would be born through their seed. God promised that if they remained faithful, to death, they would receive a crown of life, eternal life in heaven, where they would declare His praise.
So, what does this mean? Sunday after Sunday we gather as God’s people in this place and Sunday after Sunday we hear pretty much the same thing. And, unfortunately, very often we hear people express their dismay in this fact as we hear people say, “Why would I go to church or why do I need to go to church, because I always hear the same thing?” Well, we are very much like the children of Israel, we too have a great tendency to commit the same sins over and over again, so we need to hear the same message over and over again.
There is a story about a congregation who installed a new pastor. The first Sunday he preached a wonderful sermon, as a matter of fact, several people told him how wonderful his sermon was. The next Sunday, he preached the same sermon and although the people were a bit surprised, they still thought it was a good sermon and told the pastor so. The third Sunday, he preached the same sermon again. This time, several members got together and asked the pastor about this preaching the same sermon over and over again. To which the pastor replied, “I know you heard the sermon and liked the sermon, but I will keep preaching it until you live the sermon.” We need to hear the fact that we are conceived and born in sin. If we did not know we were sinners, then we would not think we would need a Savior and if we did not think we needed a Savior, then we would not cling to Jesus as our Savior.
Likewise, we need to be reminded that every inclination of our heart is evil all the time. Well, maybe we do not need to be reminded, certainly our lives and our actions show that this is true, yet, we need to be reminded that God knows how we act and as well He even knows what we are thinking.
We need to be reminded that we sin and that we sin sins of omission and commission. My contention is, that as Christians, although we pretty much know what we are not supposed to do, we do it anyway, but even more, I believe our biggest struggle is that we sin sins of omission. We fail to do what we are supposed to do. We fail to fear, love and trust in God above all things. We fail to call upon God’s name in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks. We fail to hold God’s Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it. We fail to honor, serve and obey, love and cherish our parents and those in authority over us. We fail to help and support our neighbor in every physical need. We fail to lead sexually pure and decent lives, loving and honoring our spouses. We fail to help our neighbor improve and protect his property and business. We fail to defend our neighbor, speak well of him and explain everything in the kindest way. We fail to help and be of service to our neighbor and urge their workers to stay and do their duty. We fail to live as priests in the priesthood of all believers always being ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in our Savior Jesus. We fail to live God’s love, speak of Jesus’ love to others and invite others to come and see Jesus.
And we sin in thought, word and deed. Sin does not start with an act. Sin begins in one’s heart. What else do you think Jesus means when He says, “If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out . . . ” (Mt. 5:29, 18:9; Mk. 9:47)? How else can an eye cause you to sin except that it begins in the mind and heart. Yes, we sin. We sin in our thoughts, in our words and in our acts. And we need to be reminded of our sins so that we can see our need for a Savior, lest we think we do not need a Savior and lest we think we can save ourselves by our actions, by our being good enough or by earning enough good to cover our sins and the cost of our sins.
Thanks be to God that Jesus came to deliver us from bondage and slavery to sin. Jesus did not come for Himself. Jesus did not come to be served. Jesus did not come to be an earthly king, nor to set up an earthy kingdom. Jesus came to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
The fullness of the Gospel is seen in the fact that Jesus lived for us. Jesus gave up all the glory that was His in heaven, and as God certainly He was enjoying all the glory that was His, yet for our sakes and because of His great love for us, He gave up the glory that was His in order to be born as one of us, a human being. Jesus was born perfect and He never sinned. He lived as the demands of the law demand us to live, perfect and holy.
Because Jesus was perfect and holy, He was able to take our sins upon Himself. And He did and He suffered and died, paying the price of sin for us. Remember, the price for sin was set in Eden, the price for sin was death, physical death, but even more, apart from Jesus and faith in Jesus, eternal spiritual death. Yes, Jesus died, our God, in Jesus died.
But, as we know the whole story, death and the grave had no power over Him, because on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. He showed Himself to be alive for forty days, and then, He ascended to the place from which He descended, back into heaven. From heaven He is watching over us, ruling over us and interceding for us.
Before He ascended, Jesus promised that He would return. To this point He has waited some two thousand years. Does that mean He will wait another two thousand years? Not necessarily. He may wait another thousand years, maybe not. He may return tomorrow. We do not know the day nor the hour, which means that we need to be always ready. We do know that as He kept His first promise to come to redeem us, so He will keep this second promise. We do know that He will come again to deliver us from this vale of tears to be with Himself in heaven.
I hope and pray that what we are seeing and what we are hearing time and time again is that it all points to Jesus. The Old Testament pointed to Jesus. The New Testament points to Jesus. The center of the Word of God is Jesus. It is all about Jesus, just Jesus. Jesus is the one who with the Father and the Spirit created all things out of nothing. Jesus is God in flesh who came to redeem us. And Jesus is the One who sent the Holy Spirit to work in and through us to be the people He would have us to be and even when we fail, we are reminded that He continually gives us the forgiveness He earned for us on the cross.
There is a cliche which says, “Seven days without God’s Word makes one weak” and the word is W - E - A - K. How true it is and how important it is that we do not refuse and reject the gifts God has to give by absenting ourselves from the very place He gives the gifts He has to give, His divine service on Sunday mornings. Thanks be to God that He has seen to it that He has given us a place to gather, a pastor to preach, and His Word and Sacraments through which He gives us, lavishes us with and pours out on us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give. We do need a Savior and we do need to be reminded of our need for a Savior. And Jesus is that Savior. What is it all about? Jesus, just Jesus. To Him be the glory, for His name sake. Amen.
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