New Things
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 5, 2012 under Ask the Pastor | 
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A visitor to our website writes:
How does Isaiah 43:19 relate to us today?
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Dear friend,
Thanks for writing and visiting our website. Thanks also for your question. I’ll do my best.
The verse you’ve mentioned—as it is in the New King James Version—says, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” This was a specific word of prophecy that God gave to the people of (more accurately, to Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel) concerning their captivity in Babylon.
Much of the surrounding passages concern God’s promise to show His greatness to them by mightily delivering them from their captivity in Babylon and bringing them back to their homeland after their 70 years of captivity. One of the most remarkable promises concerning this is in Isaiah 45:1-7. About 150 years after these words where spoken, and after the people of Israel had been in captivity for seventy years, God raised up the Media-Persian kingdom to assume world dominance, and conquer Babylon in just one night in 539 B.C. (The story of the fall of Babylon is told to us in Daniel 5.) And the conquering Persian king, Cyrus, ordered the Jewish people to return to their land, and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. (You can read about this command from Cyrus in Ezra 1.) He himself provided all that was needed for this rebuilding project from his own treasury! It was a great miracle; and it happened just as God promised. Isaiah writes,
“Thus says the LORD to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut; I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none beside Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things’” (45:1-7).
The “road in the wilderness” and the “rivers in the desert” are figures of speech that describe the deliverance and return of His people to their homeland in ways that no human effort could have predicted or brought about. Nothing would hinder their return. This is the “new thing” God would do; and truly afterwards, the people of Israel would know that it was God who did it.
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But I think that there’s a figurative application to Christians today. It reminds us that God is able to bring about His glory in the lives of those who trust in Him—and their good—in ways that seem humanly impossible.
Perhaps you remember the story of the rich young ruler that came to Jesus. He wanted to know how he could “earn” his way to heaven by his good works. Mark 10:23-27 tells us the story. When he went away, we’re told,
“Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, ‘Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, ‘Who then can be saved?’ But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible’” (Mark 10:23-27).
That last verse really says it all—that what is impossible for men is not impossible with God; because “with God all things are possible.” Truly, nothing is too hard for Him—not even our salvation.
I think that’s a great New Testament passage to compare with Isaiah 43:19. When a “new thing” is needed, God is able to say, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?” If He is able to even bring His captive people out of their bondage in Babylon—doing so through the man He called out by name 150 years before he was born; and at the exact time He said that He would—then is anything to hard for Him to do? It’s wonderful, isn’t it, that—in Revelation 21:5, at the creation of the new heavens and the new earth, and at the descent of the New Jerusalem—God says, “Behold, I make all things new”?
I hope this helps. May you be blessed in Christ by the God of “new things”.
Pastor Greg