But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace. – Isaiah 30:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 21, 2017): Isaiah 30

I love old TV shows. I sometimes have a yearning to watch shows that just aren’t on anymore.  There are great shows that didn’t last very long on network TV. I still remember a show called “It’s about Time.” The show lasted one whole season in the mid-'60’s and then disappeared. The critic’s hated the show, but what I remember of it – I liked (apparently the show was much loved by children, which probably explains me liking it – it is a childhood memory.) It was about two astronauts that traveled back to the simpler times of the Stone Age and cave dwellers. (Later in that only season the Cavemen moved to modern day New York, making the show more like another hit show of the time – The Beverly Hillbillies.) It was the ultimate nostalgic comedy, remembering a time when life was simple – and all you had to worry about was fire and food.

Nostalgia is a neat thing. With nostalgia, we get to imagine the past as it never was. That was the central theme of “It’s About Time,” but also of shows like “Happy Days” and “Father Knows Best.” We like them because they remind us of a time in the past, but the truth is that the time that they bring to memory never really existed.

From the moment of the Exodus, Israel started to remember the time that they had spent in Egypt fondly. It was a nostalgic remembrance of a time that never was. And whenever things began to get tough, the people began to remember the good life they had experienced in Egypt. Egypt was almost becoming a security blanket for the nation. But God wanted them to put their trust in him – not in a foreign power.

We sometimes run into the same tendency. There are times, or practices, in our past that we begin to put our trust in – and the truth is that those times or methods never actually worked the way that we remember them. But God doesn’t want us to trust in things, or practices – or even belief systems. His desire is that our confidence would be in him.

Nostalgia is great for T.V. shows, but not so much when applied to the things of faith. Our past isn’t what is important to God – our future is. And that is where he wants to walk with us. As hard as this might sound, God isn’t concerned with the nostalgic security blanket that we all tend to carry around with us. The future is where he wants our focus to be – a future that is filled with him.

Originally Published on February 12, 2011.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 31

Note - VantagePoint Community Church - Death Happens at the End of Passion - can be watched here.