Daily Devotions
Isaiah
"Behold, I will do a new thing"
Text: Isaiah 43:19
FORGETTING THE PAST
The past history of Israel was pock-marked. The nation had inclined itself to wicked and idolatrous ways. It had been chastened by the LORD many times. A wonderfully new start was offered to Israel.
“Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
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.”
Isaiah 43:18-19
1. The Past
a) God urged the nation to forget “the former things”.
b) The nation is not to consider “the things of old”.
i) The idolatrous past.
ii) The wars.
iii) The suffering.
2. The Future.
a) God will do “a new thing”.
b) It will “spring forth”.
c) This would be made clear when God begins this new thing.
3. What the LORD promised.
a) A road in the wilderness.
i) This was almost unheard of.
ii) What may one expect from the wilderness?
iii) God would make a road for the people to travel on safely.
b) Rivers in the desert.
i) This seems impossible to imagine.
ii) There are no rivers in the desert.
iii) Yet, this was what God had promised He would do.
iv) Would Israel exercise faith in what the LORD had promised?