A Necessary Reminder By: Min. Nicholas Christian

 A Necessary Reminder  

Isaiah 43:1 NLT 

Triumph Baptist Church 

1648 West Hunting Park Ave. 

The Sacred Desk 

December 7, 2020 

The Minister Nicholas C. Christian, M. Div 

 

“But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1, (NLT) 

 

Some of the most persistent and urgent questions are often centered around one’s personal identity. How we identify culturally, economically, sexually, politically, and even spiritually are often questioned by others in an attempt to create a hypothesis about who persons think we are or will become. There is so much stock in our personal identities, that it has created an entire underground market for things like identity theft, the birth or creation of a brand-new identity, and even information on another person’s identity to blackmail.  

Even further, our personal identities and quest for a better social status has birthed an entirely new lucrative media platform - social media. In just 20 years, social media has taken the nation by storm, not because it adds so much value to our lives, but because social media allows each individual or business to control what the world gets to see about its identity. Persons have become overly consumed with the identity and the personal lives of others. People love to compare, gossip about, and judge others who are different or that they feel are superior. In majority, social media is not some place where people share their failures or short comings. You will rarely read about a business’ bankruptcies, or the closing of many of their stores from their own pages. We will not often witness the divorce or the cheating scandal from the scapegoated spouse’s page. It is rare that we will hear about the foreclosure, felony conviction, or child who had the courage and intestinal fortitude to come out as a proud member of the LGBTQIA community. No, in majority, we will miss the storms and turmoil in the lives and legacies of social media users because social media has become an oasis of success, love, and prosperity as determined by society’s simple, and selfish standards. As a result, because we are imprisoned by the fear of what others will say or think about our lives in its totality, social media has become nothing more than a way to lie about our identities. We do not lie intentionally, but because we intend to tell the story or paint the picture of our lives with only half the details, we end up lying by omission.  

We do not need to go far to find the variance between the full and half-truth concerning celebrities and businesses on social media. We do not need to go far to find lies spread with a hope for a like, retweet, recount, or even a reelection. We can just check pages like “ShadeRoom”, “WorldStar” and dare I say, twitters pages like “Donald J. Trump” and we will find all the lies and half-truths we need to validate this point.  

However, the questions that we must answer, is why? Why is it that we have become so consumed with the hope that persons who follow us might like, love, or even laugh at what we share? Why have we become so influenced, and even encumbered by the opinions of others concerning our lives and our legacies that we are willing to omit the truths that might create a safe space and community for those like us to come, share, and be free? And why have we put so much care and stock in America and society’s construct of success, when we know that America and society have more skeletons in their closets than the graves at the cemetery? I will tell you. The answer to all these questions and so many more, is that all of us who are guilty of these truths either do not know, or have forgotten who we are, and most importantly, whose we are and that’s what shows up in our text.  

At the time of our text, the people of Israel were a nation under distress. The Bible would suggest in the established pericope preceding our verse of choice, that Israel found themselves trapped and hidden in the holes and houses of imprisonment, while civil disorder and looting took place outdoors (sound familiar?). Even further, the prophet Isaiah teaches us that Israel had lost their goods and found themselves living trapped or imprisoned, not because of the great power that the enemy or any looters possessed, but because of Israel’s sin that required the judgement of God. In fact, in Isaiah 42:21, Isaiah writes: 

“The Lord was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness, to magnify his teaching and make it glorious. But this is a people robbed and plundered, all of them are trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become a prey with no one to rescue, a spoil with no one to say, “Restore!” 

 

In other words, God had given Israel the means and opportunity to understand the will and way of God. God had granted them access to the Law, and showed the people of Israel God’s teachings, and made it clear and glorious in their sight. The people of Israel had the opportunity to find their identity, purpose, and God’s will and way for their lives. They were given a reminder or a revelation of who they were and whose they were, but the Bible teaches us that Israel ignored the teachings. Isaiah suggests that Israel made the choice to live according to their own will and way, and as a result, God allowed His judgement to fall. God allowed the civil unrest, their possessions and goods to be looted and stolen, and their circumstances to make them hide and be trapped in the houses of imprisonment; God let His judgement fall because Israel prioritized their own desires and social constructs over the will and way of God. Israel did not understand, or somehow forgot who they were and whose they were. However, there is some good news in the text because the Bible suggests, just when it looked like the civil unrest, looting of their possessions, and conditions of imprisonment were the end, God stepped in and sent the people of Israel “A Necessary Reminder.”  

In verse one of chapter 43, God says “But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.” In other words, after all that Israel had done to deserve the judgment of God and the circumstances they were in, God did not abandon them. In fact, before God would say anything to remind Israel who they were and whose they were, God said first, “But now”. The word “but” is a conjunction which is often defined as an instance of two or more events or things occurring at the same point in time or in space. Which means at the same time Israel was going through what they were going through, God was right there with them, speaking to them, and working on their behalf. Isn’t it good news to know that even when we are the reason we are going through what we are going through; even when we are responsible for the hell and high waters we are in, that God will not leave us nor forsake us?! (Isaiah 57:18) 

God says “But now!” The “now” in this text suggests that God was saying, “I know what you have done Israel. I know what you have been through. I know how you got here. I know how you messed up. I know how you have fallen. I know how you have failed. I know how my judgement has fallen on you before. But, “now” is not yesterday. Now, you don’t have to stay where you are. Now you are not the mistakes you have made. Now, you can be above and not beneath. Now you can be the lender and not the borrower. Now you can come out of depression. Now you can overcome your anxieties. Now you can overcome low self-esteem. Now you can make the enemy your footstool! But first you must remember who you are, and whose you are.” So God says, “Listen to the one who created you.”  

I am reminded of my daughter Skylar’s second Christmas. She woke up and came to look at a tree filled so many different toys. Most of the toys were wrapped and constructed according to the manual, however there was one toy that daddy had not yet put together. Of course, that toy was the one Skylar was most intrigued by, and thus she began to try to construct the toy on her own. At just two years old, my baby could not read the manual. Her cognitive thinking skills were still being developed and she could not think like the person or engineer who created this toy with a specific purpose in mind. Skylar ended up building this toy the best way she knew how, and she ended up using it for the purpose she saw fit (a hammer). In reality, the toy was not a hammer. She had found some sense of value and purpose in the toy. She had determined it was a hammer because when she hit things with it, it made noise, and did not fall apart. But, it was actually a small piece to a Paw Patrol lookout station that had a much bigger purpose than a hammer. Skylar did not read the manual the creator of the toy wrote, that would enable her to construct it in a way that would fulfill its purpose and deliver its maximum value. Skylar did not have the thinking ability of the toy engineer, and thus, her futile attempt to build the toy and use it for its purpose drastically fell short.  

My brothers and my sisters, trying to find out who we are, whose we are, and the purpose for our lives without reading the manual from our Creator, the Bible, is like trying to build a toy as a child. Living without the divine instructions concerning our lives and purpose, and with no ability to think like the One who created us, is to aimlessly wander in this world, finding some level of success or happiness, but never really reaching our full potential or fulfilling our divine purpose. It is time that we as a nation commit ourselves to the Word of God and listen to the One who created and formed us.  For far too long, whether consciously or subconsciously, we have suffered from the crippling clutches of carnality and the strangling strongholds of social status. For too long we have anchored our identity, purpose, and even dreams in occupations, and economic and social statuses because we care too much about what other people think and not enough about what God thinks. Perhaps some, more the others, but we all are guilty. All of us have, in some nominal or monumental way, tied who we are, or judged who someone else is based on the sorority or fraternity, job occupation, neighborhood, economic status, political party, college or university, or far worst, the color of one’s skin, or choice of religion. Race being tied to a person’s color is not God’s will. The only race God created is the human race. Race is a social construct that has done nothing but help create division and sin. Even political parties are just another form of division and now serve as the scapegoat to deprioritize the preservation of human life and the planet earth. Since when did health care to preserve human life, or environmentally friendly initiatives to preserve the earth become debatable topics? As a nation, we are living our lives contrary to God’s will, distant from our destiny, and in fear of rejection from persons, groups, or businesses whose affiliations in our minds make us better in the eyes of society. However, what about the eyes of God? Are we willing to sacrifice possessions, order, and freedom on the altar of disobedience and idolatry? Like the text alludes to in Isaiah 42:21-22, things have gone wrong and are as bad as they are because we as a nation have yet to anchor ourselves in the Word, will and way of God. We as a people have been blessed with free and unrestricted access to the Word of God. We have been gifted with the manual to read about and know God’s will for our lives and the lives of His people, but instead we have chosen to prioritize our fear of public opinion over our fear of God’s judgment.  

This text gives us a necessary reminder that if we are going to walk in our destiny, and be who we were created to be, it is time that we as a nation, and people stop prioritizing what the world, its people, and its systems have to say about who we are and what we will become. It is time that we start existing in our full, authentic, and unapologetic selves; which will only be revealed if we are anchored in the Word of God. And, in our text, after God says, “listen to the one who created (and) … formed you”, He goes on to tell us not to be afraid. It gives us a necessary reminder that not only should we not fear, but that God has ransomed us, called us by name, and that we are His people.  

In other words, even though we as a nation and people have been imprisoned and trapped by the fear of judgement and rejection of others, God says there is no need to fear because He has already ransomed us. God did not just accept us by default, but He chose us. He paid the price for us so that if we believe in Him we would be accepted into the greatest club or affiliation there is – the Kingdom of Heaven. God reminds us that He has chosen us not just as a people, but individually, and He knows us by name. We are His people. If we believe in Christ Jesus, then we are all children of the Living God. We were created in the Imageo Dei - the very image of God. We are not some mistake that our parents made, or some accident that someone needs to apologize for. No, we are God’s children. God created us and formed us. He knew us even before we were formed in our mother’s womb and He has a master plan for our lives.  

So, before you throw in the towel of life, and give up on the quest to find out who you are and the purpose for your life, turn to your Creator. For He knows the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Before you give in to society’s suffocating suggestions about who you are and what you will become, turn to your Creator, because it is written in His manual that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has in store for you. Lastly, when the storms of life are ragging, and it becomes hard to tell the night from day, do not forget what the text reminded us; even during the trouble, God is right there with us. For He is not just our Creator, but God is our Sustainer, and it is in Him, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that we live move and have our being. (Acts 17:28) 

So, let us start living our lives not in fear of rejection, but in celebration of the Rejected Stone. Let us anchor our souls, not in society’s standards, but in the Word of the true God who sits high upon the throne. My brothers and my sisters, it is time that we as a people recognize we are children of the Living God. It is time that we prioritize our lives and actions, not based on the opinions of man, but on the One who died on Calvary’s cross for our sins so that no flaw we possess, mistake we make, or sin we commit would leave us rejected from God who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith.