See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up. Isaiah 43:19
A star quarterback in American football stepped onto a stage that wasn’t a sports stadium. He spoke to three hundred inmates in the Everglades Correctional Facility in Miami, Florida, sharing with them words from Isaiah.
This moment, though, was not about the spectacle of a famous athlete but about a sea of souls broken and hurting. In this special time, God showed up behind bars. One observer tweeted that “the chapel began to erupt in worship and praise.” Men were weeping and praying together. In the end, some twenty-seven inmates gave their lives to Christ.
In a way, we are all in prisons of our own making, trapped behind bars of our greed, selfishness, and addiction. But amazingly, God shows up. In the prison that morning, the key verse was, “I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19). The passage encourages us to “forget the former things” and “do not dwell on the past” (v. 18) for God says, “I, even I, am he who . . . remembers your sins no more” (v. 25).
Yet God makes it clear: “Apart from me there is no savior” (v. 11). It is only by giving our lives to Christ that we’re made free. Some of us need to do that; some of us have done that but need to be reminded of who the Lord of our life truly is. We’re assured that, through Christ, God will indeed do “a new thing.” So let’s see what springs up!
Isaiah 43:11-19
11 I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior. 12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God. 13 Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”
God’s Mercy and Israel’s Unfaithfulness
14 This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians,[a] in the ships in which they took pride. 15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.”
16 This is what the Lord says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, 17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
INSIGHT
1. In what way are you imprisoned by your own sin?
2. What do you need to do to break free from your brokenness?
We have more background information on Isaiah than on most other prophets. There’s much speculation, though no actual proof, that he was a priest. He had two sons: Shear-Jashub (7:3), which means “a remnant will return,” and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:3), which means “swift to the spoils, quick to plunder.” According to tradition that goes back to the second century ad, Isaiah was executed by King Manasseh, who allegedly had him sawn in two, perhaps referenced in Hebrews 11:37. Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament book (Psalms is the second most quoted).
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, please free me from the prison bars of my sin. In Jesus name I pray and believe. Amen.
Read: Isaiah 43:11-19 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 87-88; Romans 13
