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For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

God’s Mercy and Israel’s Unfaithfulness 14 This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they took pride. 15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.” 16 This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, 17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. 20 The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, 21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. 22 “Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel. 23 You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense. 24 You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses. 25 “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. 26 Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence. 27 Your first father sinned; those I sent to teach you rebelled against me. 28 So I disgraced the dignitaries of your temple; I consigned Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn.

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God’s plan of deliverance is further unfolded. He will bring down Babylon, which is mentioned explicitly for the first time. Is God able to overcome Babylon? Of course! It is because he is the Lord, Redeemer, Holy One, Creator, and King (vv. 14, 15). Hearers are reminded of the exodus from Egypt, but God says, ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past’ (vv. 16–18), since he is going to do something new for them. He is making a way in the desert, rather than through the sea in the exodus. In addition, he will provide water to transform the desert and sustain his chosen people in the wilderness (vv. 18–20).2

God now points out why the Israelites were punished. Verse 22 reads in Hebrew, ‘It was not me you called upon, Jacob!’: they were refusing to worship God. Sacrifices should symbolize changed hearts and lives, but the false worship of the Israelites has dishonored God. They have wearied him with their sins and offenses (vv. 23, 24). That’s why God brought disgrace and destruction to Israel (v. 28). Amazingly, God asserts that he is a forgiving God, who blots out and no longer remembers their sin (v. 25), which is part of the old things to be forgotten (v. 18). God truly forgives and forgets!

God reminds his people not to dwell on the past, which includes the former way of deliverance and failures. This is exactly what Paul admonishes: ‘But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.’3

1Mic 7:18 2 cf. Isa 41:17–20; 42:15, 16 3Phil 3:13, 14.

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