“Do not remember former things…” is written to a people who taunted by their captors, “Sing us songs of Zion” sit by the waters of Babylon and weep. Forgetting former things is not easily done and so Isaiah calls to mind a time before the former things. Remember the time when the Lord called his people out of Egypt and made a way through the sea and wilderness to the land of promise. Forgetting the former and remembering something before when the threat of chariot and horse, army and warrior was extinguished leads to the perception of something at once the same and new. Like those of the time before you will be led out of captivity and weeping songs will be turned into songs of praise and even the jackals and ostriches will get it. The something new that springs forth is the hope of the promise that what you can’t forget will one day not be remembered. It is a new thing for us as well when weighed down by former things of shame and pain we live into the promise that one day we will not remember what we cannot forget.
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