Isaiah 43:19: 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 particular verse has a powerful encouragement woven into the fabric of its message. God says, “I will do a new thing; it shall spring forth.” The language here is strong and there is an equally strong sense of promise.
As I take you into another episode of Sunday Spice, could I ask . . . Are you like me? I love this verse! I love this idea! The idea of God causing the springing forth of a new thing!
In times past I have become too easily bored with how life can become. Can you relate? I have found myself too easily satisfied with status quo living and frustrated with the moral compromises that characterize the world we live in. What I want now are the fresh stirrings of God’s Holy Spirit. Give me something new … something new directly from God. Not something new for newness sake. I’m not into spiritual fads, but something that manifests the very uniqueness and essence of God Himself. Something that makes me know what His intentions are for me; what my sense of purpose is in this mixed up world.
I would love to see all over again the healing and miracle working Jesus of the gospel stories; the grandeur around the events of the Old Testament prophets making their stand for God’s ways in their culture. Or in a different vein, perhaps new songs and books springing forth crafted by the most creative among us (singing songs and writing books are of special interest to me personally); and even speeches, sermons, and presentations from innovative thinkers that help the world around us navigate foundational truths; where a life-saving Biblical worldview becomes priority to our thinking and our behavior.
On another level, maybe we’ve just tolerated the sufferings and challenges of life too much. We’ve put up with what life deals us. With all that in mind don’t you want something from God that would represent His visitation to our existence? I use the word “visitation” and in defining a visitation of God, I would start with the idea of a divine visit talked about in Revelation. This visit is characterized by the fact that Jesus first comes knocking on my heart’s door where He seeks a relationship with me. He said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Now that idea (the idea of Jesus knocking on your heart’s door) might serve as a “new thing” for many of us. But having heard the knock, are you inclined to say what I have prepared myself to say? “Come on in Lord Jesus; I need You here. I need You in my life”
The next five words of Isaiah 43:19 are both personal and significantly reassuring and phrased as an interesting question. “Shall you not know it?”
Let me read it from the top:
Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
First of all, the question is personal in that the word “you” is used. “Shall you not know it?” This makes me want to own this verse, this promise, as my very own. You can do the same.
And what makes this verse obviously reassuring is what the word “not,” n-o-t, brings to the message. Shall you not know it? Let me explain what I mean: A couple of young girls are admiring an extremely handsome young man from afar and one says longingly to the other, “Is he not wonderful?” By asking the question this way “Is he not wonderful?” It is the girl’s way of announcing that in her eyes he is absolutely wonderful and that there is no question about it. She asks the question that way because she knows the answer in advance of the question. And makes the assumption that the other girl feels the exact same way. “Is he not wonderful? Of course he’s wonderful.” ahhhh … young love!
The way the question in this verse is worded also helps us know that Isaiah knows the answer in advance of the question; and that there is an obvious answer. And Isaiah, too, assumes the reader feels the same way. So, the intended response from this question in Isaiah “Shall you not know it? is “Well, of course you shall know it! Of course, a new thing shall spring forth!!”
This is the same kind of bold reassurance Jesus gave his disciples, and even us, when He told them the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. After telling the story of the widow and the unjust judge who was finally convinced by the widow that he should avenge against her enemies and in her favor, Jesus asked a similar question in response, this time about God—and it included another “not” question—
Jesus asked, “Shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out to Him day and night?” And the answer to such a question—worded in this way—is, “Yes, of course God will avenge His own elect; of course He will.” And Jesus affirms this conclusion even further when He went on to say one verse later, “I tell you that He (God) will avenge them speedily.”
I hope you are now agreeing with what I said at the beginning when I said the language of this verse in Isaiah is very strong. But the remainder of the verse proves equally strong.
The last part of Isaiah 43:19 points to roads and rivers where they do not naturally appear. “I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
The audacious encouragements of God are obvious here again. God seems so committed to springing forth a new thing in our lives that he “even” goes to the measures of creating roads where roads do not now exist, and are not likely to exist without his intervention—in remote wilderness territories. He is so devoted to this ideal of a new thing springing forth—so that you and I can “know it”—that he even makes rivers in places where they do not now exist and are not likely to exist unless He
Himself puts them there—in parched isolated deserts. These words give me the idea that God seems intentionally committed to such a mission and is equally committed to moving in powerful ways to fulfill it.
So one more time … Isaiah 43:19 again:
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.
And that is what I want. I want roads and rivers for all of us running through those places in our lives that we might describe as wildernesses and deserts.
If you have found yourself wrapped up in the mundane of a parched life and your soul drained by the overgrowth of fear and your spiritual expectations are at low ebb, where the idea of a new thing springing forth seems incredibly foreign to you, I highly recommend you seek and get to know this God of new things. I am confident He will not fail to show Himself generous on our behalf.
Shall you NOT know it?
I’m Tammy Renee and this is Sunday Spice. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed are the people who take refuge in Him!
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