The thought we have been focusing on over the past few weeks has been this: Sometimes God allows the props beneath our feet to fall away in order that we rest our full weight upon Him our God and depend on Him rather than on earthly securities that have the tendencies to fail. This is as true for nations as it is for individuals. Today we are in the midst of a great shaking ideologically and outwardly –perhaps the greatest shaking our planet has ever seen. Someone has called it ‘the great cosmic sifting hour’. Every alternative to God’s program for the world is failing and breaking down. Materialism is failing. Humanism and political ideologies are failing. Capitalism is failing. Democracy is failing. Where is all this leading us? Perhaps it is for us to realize the great need for our dependence only on God and the things of God! It is my conviction that what is shakable will crumble to dust and the one thing that will survive the ages is the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and our God. Believe me; the day is coming when wealth and material things will become meaningless. Earth’s inhabitants will begin to see that their one and only hope is in Adonai –the Lord of glory and Master of every situation. Taking a more personal perspective for a moment, I wonder, as you look back over the past twelve months, what kind of a year it has been for you. Has there been an upheaval resulting in the loss of many things on which your security was based? Have you experienced, as Isaiah did, an end to your hopes, your expectations, and your ambitions? Then take heart, for a new vision of God is about to break upon you. You will be able to say, as did the great prophet, ‘In the year that my hopes vanished, my security was destroyed and my expectations came to nothing, in that year ..... “I saw the Lord…’” (Isaiah 6:1). And the rest will be history, the history of how your God started you on a new perspective that usher you into things you wouldn’t have known about Him God and His righteous ways!

Now let us read Isaiah 43:8-21; 8 Bring forth the blind people who have eyes and the deaf who have ears. 9 Let all the nations be gathered together and let the peoples be assembled. Who among [the idolaters] could predict this [that Cyrus would be the deliverer of Israel] and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, or let them hear and acknowledge, It is the truth. 10 You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know Me, believe Me and remain steadfast to Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. 11 I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior. 12 I have declared [the future] and have saved [the nation in times of danger], and I have shown [that I am God]—when there was no strange and alien god among you; therefore you are My witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God. 13 Yes, from the time of the first existence of day and from this day forth I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I will work, and who can hinder or reverse it? 14 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent [one] to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, [with] all their nobles, even the Chaldeans, into the ships over which they rejoiced. 15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. 16 Thus says the Lord, Who makes a way through the sea and a path through the mighty waters, 17 Who brings forth chariot and horse, army and mighty warrior. They lie down together, they cannot rise; they are extinguished, they are quenched like a lampwick: 18 Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The beasts of the field honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen, 21 The people I formed for Myself, that they may set forth My praise [and they shall do it].

What does Isaiah 43 mean? Even in the midst of suffering, so often we humans cling to the old adage: “The evil you know is better than the evil you don't know.” But Isaiah 43 compels us to view our experience of God's grace in the past as a springboard so that we view neither present nor future with fear but with expectation, why because our God is always in the business of doing New Things for the human eyes to behold and know that He is truly God, and there is none like Him! In Isaiah 43:8-21, God calls His people to remember His past faithfulness and to trust in His future promises, urging them to "forget the former things" and embrace the "new thing" He is doing, promising that He will guide and protect them through any challenges. Here’s a deeper look at some of the Sermon message: • God's Call to Witness: God challenges His people to be His witnesses, proclaiming His identity as the One true God and the only Savior. So let us always trust in our God for whatever He says He will do, He does and it has been so all through the ages, our God never change! • Remembering God's Past Deeds: The passage highlights God's powerful actions in the past, such as making a way through the sea and bringing down mighty enemies for His people. So the question is, are you one of God’s people, then know that He will do same for you! • Embracing the New: God encourages His people to look forward to a new beginning, urging them to "forget the former things" and to "see, I am doing a new thing". This new beginning whenever things seem to have come to an abrupt end is what many people are always afraid of because they do not know how it is going to be, but God said that He is the One that is doing it not us! Our requirement here is Only to Trust and keep following Him. • God's Unwavering Love and Protection: God reassures His people of His unwavering love and protection, promising to be with them through difficult times and to guide them on their path and to provide for them. • Overcoming Fear and Doubt: The message encourages believers to overcome fear and doubt by trusting in God's power and promises, even when facing seemingly insurmountable challenges. • God's Purpose for His People: The passage emphasizes that God's purpose for His people is to show forth His glory and to be a light to the nations through them. The word “self-disclosure” is an important technical word that we don’t usually use, but we should get used to. The idea behind self-disclosure is that God takes the initiative and provides the means by which we know Him. God is the object that discloses the subject — Himself — to us. In Isaiah 43, God is directly speaking to His people. But before we look at the content, remember that God is disclosing Himself by His direct speech. For Christians, self-disclosure is the key mechanism by which we know God. If God did not reveal Himself, we do not know Him. What is the kind of God being revealed? How do we know? As we read Isaiah 43, let us compare what we know of God with how God has revealed Himself to us through the pages of Scripture. Here, God’s self-disclosure has something to do with His work in salvation (c.f Isa 43:3).

In Isaiah 43:8, God has in mind Israel, the people who are spiritually unresponsive (Isa 43:8, c.f. Isa 42:19-24). He also wants the nations to gather and for the peoples to assemble (Isa 43:9). Here, Israel is on trial, and this trial is between God and Israel. God, in His self-disclosure here, presents Himself as the plaintiff. He is the one with or having an issue with Israel His people. He is basically taking Israel to court and is seeking justice. This God has expectations of His relationship with Israel. When this relationship doesn’t work out, He seeks justice and wants things to be righted. He is not afraid to confront them because He loves them. Many of us think of God as one who is distant. But His word shows us that because He has a covenant; God can take offense with us. He calls the nations to be His witnesses because He wants vindication, justice and clarity. What does God want to prove or confirm at this point? God is eager to vindicate Himself as Israel’s only God and Savior (c.f. Isa 43:10-14). But, we might ask, doesn’t that seem a bit petty? It is not petty if it’s true and in their interest for them to be single-minded having their focus only on God. God does so because He desires that His people are not confused. What kind of God is He if He doesn’t care about our choices? What kind of a God is He when He doesn’t want us to suffer non-clarity and confusion, and harbor a divided heart? Instead, He desires for us to know Him alone as Savior. In Isaiah 43:14, Hebrew parallelism is shown here to say one thing in two ways. We read of how God says that it is for their sake that He brings down and allow the capture of the Babylonians/Chaldeans. Their military will fail them and their might that they are so proud of will not last. God will do to Babylon what they did to Israel, and this is for Israel’s sake. Their strength will be revealed to be nothing and in contrast, Israel’s God will be revealed to be their Savior. The God of the Bible does not arbitrarily afflict people. He acts in poetic justice. What the evildoer does will be done back to them. God lets us have the consequences of our sins. The God of the Bible who brings justice also brings mercy (“for your sake”). He shows His compassion for Israel, a fulfillment of the exchange mentioned in Isaiah 43:3. The events being mentioned in Isaiah was also previously prophesied in Daniel 5:13-51. As we read the book of Daniel, we see in Daniel similarities with another Old Testament figure — Joseph. Like Joseph, Daniel was in a foreign land and encountered a foreign king with a dream that cannot be interpreted. Not coincidentally, an Israelite is able to. Daniel interprets the dream in Daniel 5:26-31, and a transition of world history is foretold here — the might of Babylon will be brought to nothing and the kingdom will be given away. In fact the great king Belshazzar doesn’t make it through the night the interpretation was given (Dan 5:30). Daniel 6 picks up with Daniel under the Persian king when he started out under the Babylonian king Daniel shows us what we read about in Isaiah: how God works out His plans when His people are in exile. Even though they lost their land and were away from their temple, God had not completely abandoned His people, He knows all what is happening. Through the story of Daniel, we see how God has not left His people and continues to work for their good even though they’re in spiritual exile. Thus, what did God want them to know without a shadow of doubt? That He is their Savior. He will save them from the Babylonians and Persians when His time is fulfilled. It will not be a false God that saves them. It will always be Him. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Always know this truth, and always ask the Lord to help and to save you! We are not that different. We are not home and not yet in our Father’s home. Promises have been made and we have tasted the goodness of God. But like Daniel, we are exiles in the foreign land. It can be tiring as we wait to be saved. Yet God wants us to know that our salvation will not come from any false saviors we appoint for ourselves. We have one God and He wants us to know that we have no other salvation apart from Him. Psalm 3 should be our regular prayer. This is one of the best thing we can pray in this life. What is your relationship to your Savior? Has your heart wandered away from Him? Does your life reflect that you know this one and only Savior, are you sure? What do you take delight in and what does it reveal? What are you worried about. Are some of the likely questions that we have to settle in our hearts/mind about our relationship with our God.

How does the Lord introduce Himself in Isaiah 43:16? God’s might and power is shown as He points to His work in parting the Red Sea in the Exodus account (c.f. Exo 15:2). Isaiah 43:16 refers to this event. This is the Old Testament picture of the God who saves! Why is God saying this now? They are now in Babylon, far away from the Promised Land and feeling cut off from all the things that are endeared to them. It is in this time that God says that He will make a way for them to get through and get home. All the opposition will not stand against Him. Belshazzar will see God’s writing on the wall and then die (c.f. Dan 5). God will save them and do so in a way that they never imagine. This similar act of God is happening everyday in people’s life and some people lack the ability to link it with what happened in Isaiah 43! What is God doing that He wants His people to perceive? God tells them not to remember the former things (Isa 43:18). He is telling them that the Exodus was indeed in the past, but that’s not the end of His works. Yes, they are to see what He did before but not stop there. He will do something new. He will continue to perform the act of saving, and saving His people! He wants them to perceive that this new thing looks like a way in the wilderness (Isa 43:19). Even in the desert, the desert animals will drink because God will provide so richly and abundantly for His people just as He did so in the past (Isa 43:20). They will be provided for even as they journey home. What kind of a God is this who wants His people to understand the work He is doing for them? God uses the pictures of the Old Testament to explain how He is working a new Exodus! God saves us out of captivity and He makes a way through the wilderness even though there is no way. How did you come to Christ? Most of us might give a sociological telling; recounting the people we met in a certain place at a certain time. But how does the Bible speak about our salvation? He tells us that He devised the plan before the world began. We did not look for salvation and were enemies of God in our sin. At the right time, He God took the initiative and broke our captivity, especially our captivity to Sin, our sins. He redeemed us from a life of futility, brought us to Himself and made us His own. Now, we are waiting for Him to bring us Home, the home He has gone to prepare, one thing at a time! This is all our story by faith! We have a new Exodus by the cross of Christ. Through the cross, we have left our life of captivity, our captivity in sin which God used Babylon to exemplify. This is who we are. This is why we sing, “Amazing Grace”: Amazing grace how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I'm found Was blind but now I see. In the issue of Israel, Babylon and God, our God uses it to keep teaching man how his wrong decisions and actions called Sin always will get him swallowed up by situations and conditions that will spell hardship and discomforts to him and letting man to know that it is only a strict adherence to His Word and Commands that will bring peace and comfort to him man. Let us learn this great lesson and keep making efforts to adhere to it.