Things Past

Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past.

Man is of such continence that he has the capacity to consider past, present, and future, all the time he lives under a Creator Who has no beginning or end. You’ve entered onto the brief stage called life in this world, with no recollection of your conception, and now, being baptized into Christ Jesus, with a certain hope in the life of the world to come. But even that future life is somewhat vague, inasmuch as it is beyond all you could ask or think.

There came a point in time when the LORD, through His prophet, Isaiah, enjoins His people not to ponder things of the past. By that time there was a lot of world history. In particular for the people of Israel, there was the amazing history that saw a people chosen of God rescued with great power and might as Moses (whose name, by the way means “drawn from the water”) led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, right up to the Promised Land.

It is common for you in pondering the past to think back both on the blessings and problems that have come about in life. More often, unfortunately, you think of the problems; the sin; the deeds of the past that cannot be undone from history, each of which is firmly embedded as fact. Point the finger any way you wish, ultimately the past bears with it an inglorious fountain of bad water, spewing forth from a bad source, which in turn derives from Adam’s fall.

As your dear LORD Jesus makes His way into a garden totally different than the one of paradise lost, He bids you not to ponder the things of the past, when all of creation was subjected to the curse of sin; when mighty deeds of unparalleled history took place at the Red Sea and through many other miracles of the Old Testament. For He makes his way quietly, meekly, with pure love to lay down His life for you. He opens not His mouth to defend Himself, but to rescue you through His innocent suffering and death, and through His resurrection from the dead.

In times past, as God spoke to His people of old through the prophets, it was necessary that certain miracles and great works attended the prophets words. It was also necessary that just the right signs attended our dear Lord Jesus as He took your place under the law, showing Himself to be a merciful, patient healer and Lover of those like you, whose hearts are weighed down by the past. Of course it is fitting to be reminded of these things.

Today, however, now that He has made atonement for your sin and is risen from the dead, He needs no mighty deeds as we would consider mighty deeds. Instead, He washes you in baptism, and feeds you with the same body and blood given and shed for your sin, and speaks to you ever so gently through the mouths of people just like Him (and just like you) say, "I forgive you all of your sins."

It is to this fact the LORD God of all history refers when He bids you not to ponder things of the past, as it is His chief aim to bring you to Himself in love through quiet, meek, and humble means.