The Gospel of Isaiah: Highlights of Chapter 43:18-21
The Gospel of Isaiah: Highlights of Chapter 43:18-21.
WANTED: An imaginative scribe who can write exquisite poetry. A faithful, articulate believer in Yahweh who can switch from one extreme to another at the Lord’s command… from a sublime vision of God’s glory, to a ridiculous demonstration of shameful nakedness; from confronting the people over their sinfulness, to comforting people with hopefulness; from being an outspoken messenger one minute, to a living object lesson the next; from having one foot in the immediate surroundings one minute, to one foot in the future messianic realm the next. Must be adaptable, thick-skinned, and extraordinarily brave. Person who answers, “Here I am. Send me!” will be especially considered. (from The Jerusalem Post, 740 BC).
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold! I am about to do something new! I have already begun, even now it springs forth! You shall suddenly perceive it. Will you not be aware of it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor and glorify Me, the jackals and the ostriches. It is bursting forth, for I supply water in the wasteland and rivers in the desert, to satisfy the thirst of My chosen people, the people whom I formed for Myself that they might declare My praise.” (Isaiah 43:19).
Behold! There are some individual words and short phrases in Scripture that need to be highlighted as they are read, words or phrases that are significant or point to something meaningful. Some phrases might be: Fear not. Here I am. Woe to you. One another. And maybe some words are: Amen. Hallelujah. Blessed. Abba. Come. The word Behold! is one of those significant words, an exclamation that is intended to get our attention. Listen, people, this is something you need to hear! Behold says to the audience, Look at this and take note! You would be wise to remember these words and think about them! Careful now, don’t be deaf to what I am about to say! Stop what you’re doing and listen up! As the Eastern Orthodox Christians say before they read the Gospel in the Liturgy… “Attend! Attend!”
Isaiah’s Rocket. This prophecy of Isaiah is like a three-stage rocket booming through the atmosphere. His words can be applied to the immediate, the distant, and the far distant. This prophecy is fulfilled soon, then within 700 years, and then after a few thousand years. Of course, God is outside of time, where the blinking of the eye is the same as a thousand years. So a three-stage prophecy traveling through time is nothing to Him.
The first stage of the prophecy is intended to be an immediate source of comfort and encouragement to those in Babylonian exile. Things look bleak there in Babylon, the Jews have lost their homeland, their freedom, and their center of worship where they could meet with their God. This first fulfillment of the prophecy is a promise of restoration to the people of Judah. This first “new thing” is God’s deliverance of the Jews to their beloved homeland, and it looks forward to Judah’s return from Babylon. Behold, says the Lord. You who are in exile will be newly restored, and you will be free to worship me once again in your promised land. I will make a way for you to return home, says the Lord, and your new life will be fruitful. You will enjoy the Fountain of Living Water as this river will make all things fresh and green once again.
The second stage of the prophecy is clearly messianic. The “new thing” will be a Redeemer that will emerge in Jerusalem. This Savior will be a Suffering Servant who will redeem the people from their sins, a Messiah who will live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of sins. This New Thing will result in a fresh new movement of the Holy Spirit. This Messiah will replace the obsolete Law of Moses with the new Covenant of the Messiah between God and man. This new Law of the Lord will fulfill the old Law of Moses, resulting in a heart of transformed flesh instead of a heart made of stone. Old believers will become new creatures, with a new righteousness and a new way of life in the Lord. This Messiah will change everything in newness of life.
The third stage of the prophecy is in the far distant future at the End of Days. God will do a “new thing” in every way conceivable. The Redeemer will usher in a new kingdom of God, a new heaven and a new earth. Believers will dwell with the Redeemer and His Father and His Spirit in a new creation. As was declared by He who is seated on the throne at the end of time, “Behold! I will make all things new! Consider this… I am making everything to be new and fresh. In fact, I will be making the whole of creation new!” (Rev. 21:4-5). The Greek word used for ‘new’ here means fresh; unused; new; unprecedented; novel; innovative; unique. In all three stages of Isaiah’s prophecy, God is declaring that He will make a way to newness that will change everything. The God of newness is declaring, ”The old conditions and the former order of things have passed away. Behold! I am making something new! Do you perceive it?“
All Things New – Hillsong Worship – YouTube
New and Getting Newer! “Oh, but I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now.” (Bob Dylan)
1. “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.” (Psalm 98:1)
2. “We were buried with him by the baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so we too might habitually live and behave in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)
3. “Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelations 21:5)
4. “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up, flowing and bubbling, continually within him into eternal life.” (John 4:14)
5. “God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great is your faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:22-33)
6. “Offer and yield yourself to God as though you have been raised to perpetual life.” (Romans 6:13)
7. “All of us, as with unveiled faces, because we continue to behold and to reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transformed into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
8. “With you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” (Ps. 36:9, NIV)
9. “He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of His own pity and mercy, by the cleansing bath of the new birth and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5)
10. “Once you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light – lead the lives of those native-born to the light.” (Ephesians 5:8)
11. ”’We do not become discouraged. Though our outer self is decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being progressively renewed day after day. For this slight distress of the passing hour is ever more and more abundantly preparing, producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory – beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17)
12. “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits… who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:2,5)
13. “Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ, the Messiah, he is a new creature altogether, a new creation; the old has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
14. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew the right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Grant me the joy of your saving help again, and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.” (Psalm 51:10-12)