I AM [Is] Doing a New Thing
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| The Baptism of Boden Diggs Bucher |
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19a).
Grace and
peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
The
children of Israel had been in this situation before. About seven hundred years
earlier, they’d been captives in Egypt, slaves to a Pharaoh who ruled them with
an iron fist. But God had not forgotten His people. He met Moses on Mt. Horeb,
spoke to him from a burning bush, and introduced Himself as I AM. The Lord told
Moses He was sending him to Pharaoh with the command to let God’s people go.
When Pharaoh refused, the Lord sent a series of plagues to convince him of the
futility of resistance. The tenth plague was the worst of them all, where the
Lord took the lives of all the firstborn sons of Egypt—all, of course, except
for those who killed the Passover lamb and painted their doorposts with its blood.
It was not
easy. It was not pretty. The Lord had to use a lot of muscle to get
hard-hearted Pharaoh to release Israel from their bondage. Finally, Pharaoh folded
and freed God’s people…then foolishly, he changed his mind one final, fatal
time. Pharaoh and his chariots charged after the Israelites, ready to bring
them back alive or leave their corpses in the desert. The situation appeared
hopeless. I AM miraculously intervened. He moved, in His glorious pillar of
cloud and fire, stood guard to protect His people. The following day, God
parted the Red Sea. His people passed through safely. Pharaoh’s armies pursued,
but were drowned.
By the
time of Isaiah, the people of Israel were in need of that sort of deliverance
again. This time, they weren’t captives because a friendly pharaoh had been
replaced by a hostile one; they were captives because they’d forsaken God and
turned to idols. And their idols couldn’t do a thing to stop the Babylonian army.
So they were exiles by their own fault, by their own faithlessness.
They were
faithless, but God remained faithful. Furthermore, God was still powerful; and
perhaps He would save them again the way He had delivered them from the Egyptians.
Maybe Isaiah would be the new Moses who would go before the Babylonian king on
behalf of the Lord and demand, “Let My people go!” The Lord, however, had a
different message for His people. It was still a message of hope and
deliverance, just not the way they envisioned. “Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs
forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19b).
It seems
somewhat contradictory. Throughout much of Scripture the Lord calls His people
to remember their deliverance from Egypt by His mighty hand. Only three
chapters after today’s text, the Lord will tell Israel in so many words:
“Remember the former things of old” (Isaiah 46:9). But the Lord’s intent here
is not that the people forget His deliverance of Israel from Egypt, but rather
that they not give their full attention there now, for He has a new deliverance
on which He wants them to focus. Remembering the past deliverances by God
should not generate nostalgia for the “good old days,” but a sober appreciation
for the new thing the Lord is doing for them now, and give them hope for the future.
“I will
make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The 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, the people whom I
formed for Myself that they might declare My praise” (Isaiah 43:20–21, ESV).
I AM is
doing a new thing. This new thing that the Lord is going to do is the
deliverance of Israel from captivity in Babylon. And further, the text states,
“now it springs forth.” God’s deliverance is imminent, right on the verge of
happening. In fact, the question, “Do you not perceive it?” may be more of an
affirmation than a question. In other words, it’s right in front of you; you
can’t miss it!
In the
verses prior to our text, the Lord tells His people how this will come to pass.
The ships of the Babylonians, which now carry precious cargo, will transport
them as fugitives in the future. The Lord will dispatch the necessary forces to
make this happen, much as He done in the days of the exodus when He destroyed
Pharaoh and his army (Isaiah 43:14-17). Not only will God break the power of
the Babylonians, but God will also release His people. They will find a way
through the desert so they can travel back to Jerusalem. They will return to
their homeland and God will cause Israel to flourish again (Isaiah 43:20-21).
Their deliverance
will be grand! Yahweh will achieve it in an amazing new way—He will cause a
pagan emperor to lift up his captives for special honor and send them back to
rebuild Jerusalem and the temple (Isaiah 44:28-45:5; Ezra 1:1-4). How many
times had that happened before? Never! I AM, the Lord, Israel’s Holy One, their
Creator and King, is indeed doing a new thing!
Not only
that, but the Lord goes on to name this Gentile king who will be their
deliverer some two hundred years in the future. Surprisingly, the Lord calls
this pagan “My shepherd,” “My anointed” and promises, “He shall fulfill My
purpose.” Why, He even predicts his proper name will be Cyrus! (Isaiah 45:1). History
tells us that in 539 BC, Cyrus II, king of Persia conquered Babylon. Shortly
after he took over, the Israelites found favor with the king. Cyrus issued a
decree that allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the
temple under the leadership of Ezra the priest, and Nehemiah the governor of
Judah. And so they did. God’s people were delivered once more.
But God
was not finished delivering His people. In fact, all of His others deliverances
were to set the stage for His greatest deliverance. This new thing would
something completely different. Rather than the effect of a crushing flood that
breaks and drowns, this new thing would be like a spring of water in the arid
desert. It would provide streams of water to give life to all. Most of all,
however, it would be living water to His chosen people. By this spring of
water, people would be the people of God. This new thing would be a stream of
mercy and life.
The
prophecy, of course, is of Jesus. Like Moses, Jesus was sent to lead His people
from captivity to the Promised Land. However, the Son of God is greater than
Moses: where Moses led the people from the bondage of Egypt to the edge of the
Promised Land of Canaan, Jesus leads His people from the captivity of sin and
death to the Promised Land of heaven. So we hear of Jesus in John 7: “On the
last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone
thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture
has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”’” (vv. 37-38).
Back in
Exodus, it was Moses and God, the man following God in a glorious cloud. In the
Gospels, it would be Jesus, both man and God in one person, present with His
people to save. God was keeping His promise, and God was delivering them by
doing a new thing: God in the flesh to save His people. Oh, and one more thing:
this time around, the climax of God saving would not be the terrible, crushing
death of His enemies. The climax would be the death of Jesus, the only begotten
Son of God. That is the Gospel, after all: Christ died for the sins of the
world, that all who believe in Him might have eternal life.
Not
surprisingly, God continues to use water to save. In this new age, God still
kills and makes alive by water. Even more so than with the “former things,”
water is important in our faith history, too. In fact, without water we have no
faith history. I AM is doing His new thing in Holy Baptism.
We, too,
were born into the bondage of Satan, death, and hell. We, too, have fallen into
sin and idolatry. We, too, must confess with David: “Have mercy on me, O God,
according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my
transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my
sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You
only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be
justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment. Behold, I was brought
forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:1–5, ESV).
You and I
were conceived and born as sinners. And every day since we have sinned against
God in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left
undone. And that includes little Boden over there, who, in my biased opinion,
is one of the best babies ever. He is a sinner. The only thing that keeps him
from acting out that sinfulness is not yet developed gross and fine motor
skills.
But as
the Lord delivered His people in the past, so He delivers Boden and you and me from
the guilt of our sin. The Passover lamb, the passage through the Red Sea, the
return from Babylon, each of these were Old Testament shadows of the one great
deliverance. Because God then did something completely new: He sent the
fulfillment of the old things—the Lamb of God, who died for the sins of the
world, but passed through death to new life, returned from the grave to raise
us also. Christ’s victory is personally
applied to every believer in his Baptism.
It’s no
accident that the Church to this day precedes Baptism with the renunciation of
Satan and all his works and all his ways. We all come into this world as slaves
of sin, death, and hell. In Holy Baptism you are set free from slavery in the
victory Christ won by His death on the cross. You are baptized into Christ’s
death and resurrection. Your sin and rebellion becomes His sin, His obedience
and righteousness becomes yours. Baptism is when your life of faith begins. You
are born again, born from above, born by the water and the Word.
To be
sure, your Baptism did not look powerful by the world’s standards: odds are
that it looked like a handful of water gently poured on a baby’s head—like just
happened to our little brother Boden a few minutes ago. But that is where the
eternal I AM is doing a new thing, bringing you a greater deliverance.
Baptism
works forgiveness of sins, rescues you from death and the devil, and gives
eternal salvation to you and all who believe this as the words and promises of
God declare. Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Mark: “Whoever
believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be
condemned” (Mark 16:16, ESV).
Obviously,
it’s not the water itself that does such great things, but, as Luther explains
in the Small Catechism, “the Word of God in and with the water…along with faith
which trusts this Word of God in the water. For without God’s Word the water is
plain water and no Baptism. But with the Word it is a Baptism, that is a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a
washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.”
In
Baptism, I AM is still doing a new thing for you. The water may long ago have
dried from your skin, but the words that made that water a Baptism are still
with you, and so is their power. Live in your Baptism daily through contrition
and repentance. “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of
old. Behold, I AM [is] doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not
perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:18-19a). For Jesus’ sake, you are forgiven for all of
your sins.”
In the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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