In 5 days, each of us who awakens to another sunrise, will also be given a “new horizon” in our lives – a NEW YEAR, 2023. None of us knows for sure how many of those 365 days we will awaken to, only the LORD knows. As I was thinking about preparing a sermon on that “new horizon”, I began to envision some of the new horizons in the Scriptures.
CREATION was the first one, right there in Gen. 1. Everything was new and perfect; GOOD in the eyes of God. So what did humanity do with that new horizon of CREATION? Gen. 3 paints the depressing portrait. Humanity sinned, hid from God, lost Eden and tumbled downhill further and further into the barrel of sin; so far that God repented that He had made humans. The result? The global flood; every human wiped from the planet except for 8.
The next new horizon opened about a year later. Gen. 8 records humanity’s exit from the ark into another new world. However, this one was not perfect, God did not say it was GOOD. How did humans handle this new start, this second chance? Only God’s promise, marked by the sign of the rainbow, prevented another global flood. Humans continued their fall, all the way to new horizon #3.
God chose ONE NEW FAMILY to do what humans had proven they could not do and He made a covenant with them and promised to bless all of humanity through their lineage. Result? It worked fine for a couple of centuries and then ended with 400+ years of slavery at the hands of cruel taskmasters. Not a pretty story, huh.
But then another new horizon, a deliverance, an Exodus from enslavement to a new PROMISED LAND, the fulfillment of God’s promise to that ONE NEW FAMILY. Outcome? Humanity’s race began well again, but due to the poisoned influence of the surrounding idolatrous nations, that ONE NEW NATION, except for a few starlike moments, followed the same fallen path into destruction. Eventually they were conquered and carried off into foreign captivity, but with a promise of future deliverance.
Then another new horizon, a return was granted by God to that Promised Land. But as by now I’m sure you have figured out that humans, even that one nation, even the descendants of that special family, would not remain faithful to Jehovah. Within a little more than a century there was another wreck, that new horizon evaporated.
This time God’s heart was so broken that He went SILENT FOR 400 YEARS. Most wondered if God would ever speak again, if there would ever be another new horizon.
About that time, as had been promised by the prophet Daniel, at the perfect time, the greatest of all the new horizons showed up on the scene in a manger, surrounded by animals and two humans who had been chosen to parent Him into adulthood. So how did humans handle this new horizon, this Savior? Humans followed their same pattern, they murdered Him.
However, as had been the plan of the Godhead from the foundation of the world, that lifeless body began to breathe and that silent heart began to beat and JESUS, the SAVIOR, the greatest of all the NEW HORIZONS, conquered sin and death and paved a way for humans to spend eternity with God.
So when the first sunrise of 2023 shows its face for all to see, let it be a tiny sign of another new horizon, another opportunity for each of us humans to choose what we will do with it. Please choose well. Choose the Savior, the greatest of all NEW HORIZONS. God bless.
