Behold I Am Doing A New Thing
Ryan Smith
A new season: Haley and her diamond engagement ring. I had to let God do a new work in my heart for that new season. We are always coming up on new seasons in our life…graduating high school, graduating college, starting a new job, transitioning out of a job, getting married, having kids, all the kids moving out, retiring, turning 40 like me. That’s a new season, and new seasons are an opportunity for God to do new things in our life.
Turn to Isaiah 43.
Who is Isaiah?
Isaiah was a prophet, some considered him the greatest prophet ever. A prophet was a person who spoke to the people on behalf of God. Prophets would give words of correction and exhortation, and often they would tell the people what God was going to do in the future.
Isaiah 43:16-19
Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea
And a path through the mighty waters,
Who brings forth the chariot and horse,
The army and the power
(They shall lie down together, they shall not rise;
They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):
“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.”
Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea
And a path through the mighty waters,
Who brings forth the chariot and horse,
The army and the power
(They shall lie down together, they shall not rise;
They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):
“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.”
In a literal sense this is a Messianic prophecy, meaning that Isaiah was foretelling the coming of Jesus as Savior. But it also had a dual meaning in that the Israelite people would fall into Babylonian captivity for 70 years. This was speaking to the fact that God would deliver them. I also believe that God is wanting to speak these words to you and me today. God is saying to us, “Behold I am doing a new thing.”
This passage is recalling the story of the Exodus. Moses had led the people out of Egypt. God had freed His people from the slavery of Egypt but Egypt was coming after them. It’s like a picture of us being freed from sin but those old sins still try to come after us. But God always makes a way of escape, a way out, just like He made a way for the Israelite people to go through the sea and escape the Egyptian army.
What God has done in the past should encourage us about what He’s able to do in the future. If He’s done it before He can do it again. God is giving the Israelite people this reminder of what He’d done in the past because they were facing Babylonian captivity, and God is saying, “I’ve delivered you before and I will do it again.”
Isaiah 43:18 – Do not remember the former things – “do not dwell on the past” (NIV). This is for the person who is living in the past – stuck in the past.
Genesis 19 tells the story of Lot and his family living in Sodom and Gomorrah – not a great place to raise your family. But God sends angels to Lot and tells him that he is going to destroy the city, to take his family and get out of the city and don’t look back.
As Lot and his family are escaping the city as God is destroying it, Lot’s wife looks back at the city and immediately she turns into a pillar of salt. Lot’s wife forever symbolizes the person who keeps looking back and can’t let go of their old life, unable to step into the new things that God has for them. They get stuck like Lot’s wife.
Philippians 3:13-14 One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Sometimes Haley will tell me, “You know our bedroom closet is getting pretty full. I think I’m going to give away some of my old clothes.” I know exactly what she’s doing…she’s making room for new clothes! I’m not dumb!
God wants us to let go of some old things so that He can do a new thing in our life. God wants us to forget what lies behind so that we can move forward in what He has for us. Old habits, old ways, old guilt, old lies, old excuses…what is He asking you to let go of so that He can do a new thing in your life?
Sometimes I’m ready for God to do a new things in my life but sometimes I’m not wanting a new season and I don’t like change. I’m a creature of habit. I like having my coffee first thing in the morning. I wear Birkenstocks almost every day. I know many of you are creatures of habit because you sit in the same chair every Sunday.
Isaiah 43:19 – “Behold, I will do a new thing.”
“Behold” means “stop and pay attention to what I’m about to say.”
God is a God who loves to do new things.
There are so many scriptures where this word “NEW” shows up:
- God’s mercies are NEW every morning.
- God has made a NEW covenant with us.
- His word tells that we enter God’s holy presence by a NEW and living way.
- In the closing chapters of Revelation, God says “Behold, I make all things new.”
God is a God who is doing a new thing and making all things new, and He wants US to keep growing and branching out in new ways. New growth is a sign of life, and new growth in our life is a sign that we are alive to God.
It is the great irony that the Comforter wants to make us uncomfortable. The Holy Spirit wants to push us out of our comfort zones so we can keep growing. If you keep a plant in a small pot, then the plant will remain small. If you want the plant to get bigger, you need to put it in a bigger pot.
God want us to keep growing in our faith. We never want to stop growing and just slip into cruise-control. God wants to keep growing closer to Him – it’s a dynamic relationship. In a relationship, if you’re not growing closer to somebody, then you’re growing apart from them. God wants us to keep growing closer to Him.
Mark 2:22 No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.
A wineskin expanded under the pressure of fermentation. So if new unfermented wine was put into an old, brittle wineskin, it was sure to burst. Jesus was trying to explain to the religious people of that day that God was doing a new thing and that they were going to need to let go of old traditions in order to embrace the new thing God was doing. Sometimes religion gets stuck in tradition, and sometimes we aren’t open to the new thing that God wants to do.
Although the word of God doesn’t change, the work of God is always fresh for today. God is saying to His people that we need to be like new wineskin in order to receive the new things He has for us. We have to let go of some old things in order to walk in the new things He has for us.
When Moses led the people out of Egypt, that was new for him.
When Noah built the ark, that was new – he’d never done that before.
When David slayed the giant Goliath, that was new.
The Bible is full of stories of God asking people to do new things that they’ve never done before!
We have people here who are living life this way:
- Rick Fletcher— professor at OSU for 32 years, 8 years ago God called him to become a pastor.
- Jerry and Denise Bumgarner started Break Every Chain to help people walk in freedom and victory.
- Alex Autio is leading a missions trip to France this summer for the first time.
We all want to be like that. We all want to be alive to the new things that God has for us to walk in! We all want to be stepping out in faith in new ways. It’s not a question of “if,” it’s a question of “how.” Lord, how do you want me to step out in faith in new ways?
Luke 8 tells the story of the healed demoniac known as Legion. Jesus cast the demons out of him and put them in the pigs, and the pigs ran to their death into the Sea of Galilee.
Luke 8:38-39 Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Jesus that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.
The man who is healed asked Jesus if he could come with them, but Jesus told him to stay in his hometown and tell them what Jesus had done for him.
Jesus told him to stay in the same town, but he was a new man.
Same town, new mission.
Same town, new heart for God.
I think there’s a lesson here for us as well. As we are praying for God to do something new and fresh in our life, maybe we thought God needed to change our circumstances but He’s saying, “no, I need to change you first.”
Same circumstance, new you.
Same job, new you.
Same marriage, new you.
Same school, new you.
Same town, new you.
2 Corinthians 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
God has made us new, to live life in a whole new way. When you allow God to make you new, then everything changes. God always works from the inside out.
When we tell God we’re open to Him doing something new in our life, we don’t get to decide what that new thing is. He gets to decide that and we have to trust Him with whatever that means for us. It always starts with allowing Him to make us new, to give us new hearts so we can fully walk in the new things he has for us.
Leave the old things behind and embrace the new things that God has for you.
What old things is God asking you to let go of?
What new thing is He inviting you to walk in?