April 7, 2025

Today's Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 2:1-22; Mark 14:32-52

 

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

 

Perhaps our Lord misspoke when divinely inspiring Isaiah to write the words set forth for us in today’s reading. At best, it seems like the Lord God is contradicting Himself a bit with these words. Are we sure that God meant it when He said, “Remember not the former things?” Are we sure He wants us to forget what we have done? After all, this is the very God who knows all, makes all, directs all, and is all the omnis from Luther’s Small Catechism.    

 

How can THAT God tell us we should forget the past? Does He? Remember this is the same God who told Moses on Mt. Sinai, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me” (Exodus 20:5). Does the God who visits iniquity really forget what you have done?   

 

So, what is God trying to tell us? First, take note of His words in Exodus 20. Remember, and do not forget, that He is the Judge of the living and the dead. Meaning He remembers iniquity. Here, though, He is clearly talking to those who are lost in their sin, who see no need for repentance, and who have followed the ways of their forefathers. 

 

But He confidently calls us, who are called according to His purpose. We who are sanctified, redeemed, and marked to “Remember not the former things.”  Forget the past! Why? Because, as He says through the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, I am doing a new thing” (Isaiah 43:10a). You are the new thing! He is making you into His new creation. He does so once at your Baptism and daily through confession and Absolution.

 

Our Lord forgets the past. That is what the Psalmist David tells us. Remember what David did and the forgiveness and cleansing that he needed? After that, he wrote these familiar words: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

 

Forget the past! Our Lord does! Kill the Old Man. Deny him every single day. And, by the grace of God, live in righteousness and purity forever in His presence.   

  

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

 

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