"I Am About To Do A New Thing;” Series

The book of Isaiah is divided into three sections: (1) events leading up to the captivity and exile in Babylon, (2) redemption and restoration (Comfort), and (3) the Messianic Reign. Today’s message comes from the Messianic Reign and describes the suffering servant.

Today’s reading is the first stanza of a long salvation oracle running from Isaiah 43:14 through 44:5 which, in turn, is part of Second Isaiah’s amazing proclamation of deliverance to the Babylonian exiles (Isaiah 40-55).

Whereas God had previously used Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian hordes to destroy Jerusalem and haul the fruit and flower of Judah into exile in Babylon in 587 and 582 BCE, Second Isaiah now dramatically announces that God is about to use Cyrus and his Persian forces to defeat Babylon and release captive Israel, allowing them to return to their homeland.

“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19)

For the original audience, this word came to them in exile—their past a trail of broken dreams, disappointments, shame and horror, their present filled with the constant ache for home. Consumed by the past and present, I imagine there was little mental or emotional energy to think about the future.

Understand the same God who brought this people out of the land of Egypt is not yet done with them. Babylon is not an end but rather, an opportunity for God to display his power and his grace to his people once again.

The prophet’s vision doesn’t emerge out of nowhere. It is not a fantasy of his own imagination. Instead, it is rooted in the memory of what God has done for Israel in the past, of God’s faithfulness to their ancestors. They know how God released the grip of the Pharaoh, how God led them into the wilderness and cared for them, and how, beyond all that is humanly possible.

Perhaps you remember the 2008 ABC News compilation of short clips from the sermons of Jeremiah Wright, pastor of then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The clips, which aired repeatedly, showed Wright calling for God’s judgment on the nation for the sins of racism and imperialism. The controversy lay not in the fact that a black church was politicized, not because his religion inspired political action, nor because he endorsed a candidate from the pulpit. No, Wright’s preaching proved controversial because of his ideas. He narrated God’s relationship to the nation in a way that challenged how many white Americans understood themselves, their nation, and their God.

Nineteenth-century black preachers and politicians made similar moves. Like Wright, they spoke often of God’s judgment and favor upon certain peoples.

Consider William H. Hunter, a black Union chaplain who was in Wilmington, North Carolina, on the day of emancipation. On February 22, 1865, as black Union soldiers occupied the city, free and enslaved blacks lined the streets to cheer, dance, and celebrate. One woman spotted her son among the soldiers. He was one of many young men who had left home as slaves and now returned as liberators. Their presence meant the end of slavery. Marching with the soldiers was Chaplain Hunter who, like many of them, was born a slave in the area. He now returned with authority and good news. At a Methodist prayer service for the newly emancipated a few days later, an observer described Hunter as stretching “himself to his full size and displaying to the best advantage for a profound impression his fine uniform.” He announced that emancipation was the work of God and that Confederate defeat was God’s judgment against slaveholders. The congregation erupted in shouts of joy.

To Hunter and many black Christians, emancipation marked the end of one era and the beginning of another. How Hunter and other black Christians understood God’s plan for the race and the nation figured into their political activity. Historians have missed important aspects of black politics by paying little attention to the content of black religious ideas, by thinking of black religion as only providing motivation or institutional resources. For decades, black Americans had prayed for and prophesied the coming of freedom.

Isaiah is best known as the Hebrew prophet who predicted the coming of the Messiah, who would Free the people from their sins. His name means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” His main message is focused on judgment and salvation.

In each of the scriptures, the word “Behold,” is a command to pay attention, fix it on your mind. This word is used 1,298 times in the Bible. God’s new thing was something that God had never done before. He was going to make a path in the wilderness and water to spring forth in the desert.