“Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.” Isaiah 43:16
In John’s gospel, the Lord Jesus declares that He is the only WAY to knowing God. His “ways” revealed in Scripture are perfectly in conformity with Christ, HIs nature, perspective, and purposes. There are the multitude of His ways, and then there is the singular way, a way that is particular, and provided and revealed at a single point in time. That which often characterizes the ways of God, however, is the fact that they are hidden until the moment when God chooses to reveal them. Such was the case of Israel, when fleeing Pharaoh, with her back to the Red Sea with no apparent way out or “way” of deliverance. When the Apostle Paul writes concerning temptation, he declares that God promises to the believer that he will not be tempted above that which he is able. God will always provide a “way of escape.” He does not tell us what that way will be for all circumstances, only that He has gone before to provide it. It is for the believer to trust Him for the knowledge of it, and to obey Him in it. When the Lord, by the hand of the prophet Isaiah writes of “a way in the sea,” and a path in the mighty waters,” He certainly is providing us with the knowledge that, just as He was faithful to Israel, He will be to the believer today. Though the path and the way might be hidden for the present moment, He is faithful to reveal it in His time and way, so that all will see and know that He has done so for His glory.
In the study of the book of Isaiah, in particular chapters 40 through 48, we are brought face to face with such a “way in the sea.” What is it? It is first a declaration and revelation of a point of entrance. In chapter 40, the Lord lays the groundwork for what He will reveal in Chapter’s 42 and 43 concerning a “new thing,” a new beginning. The point of entrance is the revelation that the time for judgment upon the people has come to an end, and that all of her sins are forgiven, blotted out, washed away. She has been set free from the guilt and wages of her sin, in order to begin to grasp the enormity of the opportunity that God is laying out before her. But first, she must truly see and understand what this means. If she is to be free, she must grasp and lay hold upon God for what He has declared to be true from heaven’s standpoint. Not only is it revealed to her by Isaiah that she is free, but that God’s strength, and power, have been provided to her by the Spirit, so that she can rise up, shake herself free from the thoughts that pertained to that period of judgment, to embrace all that God desires to do in the present and future. If she would know God in the present, she must forget her past.
In chapter 41, the path leads into a “promised land.” It may be physical, but it is primarily spiritual. The Lord, exhorting her, encouraging, and consoling her, calls her to believe that He has taken her by the hand, that she is His chosen one, called, and “not cast away.” She is commanded not to fear, or be dismayed, for He is present, and His promise is that He will help her, making her to become a victorious, “sharp threshing instrument,” in the face of her enemies.
In chapter 42, God unveils to her something of her calling, bringing about justice and judgement to the nations. This “servant of Jehovah” is primarily the Lord Jesus but has a clear application to the nation of Israel, whose hand the Lord has taken.
In chapter 43, the path leads to a declared new beginning, with the command not to look back, but to believe in God’s new beginning, springing forth.
Dear Father, Show us Your paths. In Jesus’ name, Amen.