"Behold, I will do a new thing.” Isaiah stood on a hill overlooking the once great city of Jerusalem. His shoulders were bent with age, his long beard a tangle of gray. It had been years since he first spoke the prophecy of Israel’s downfall...and of the Messiah. The promised Rescuer had not yet come. Still, Isaiah clung to God’s words like a lifeline: “Behold, I will do a new thing.”

Israel needed newness. They needed something beyond themselves, something greater. They had failed so many times, turning their backs on God, running in the opposite direction and straight into a life of slavery at the hands of their enemies. Yet even despite their unfaithful wanderings, God promised them a Savior.

Isaiah squinted over the horizon, beyond the peaks of Jerusalem, over the lush countryside, to the sun dipping out of sight. Dusk was falling. A brisk wind rustled the treetops. "A new thing." The words sang in his memory. After hundreds of years of captivity, of endless sacrifices, and of countless prophecies, the hope of a Messiah assured him that one day they would be free from their greatest enemy. Sin. The evil that twisted everything would one day be gone forever. And this promise was not just to Israel, but to all the nations.

“Blessed are you, oh Adonai,” Isaiah murmured, “that you remember your people and offer us a way of escape and redemption if only we will accept it.” Isaiah let his gaze wander the horizon, remembering the toils of his life as a prophet. His journey was nearing its end, but there was the promise to wait for, and all of Israel would be waiting—breathless, anxious, and hopeful. Until his final breath, so would he. • Anita Seavey

• We are all like Israel; we fail, turn our backs on God, and run away from Him and straight into the trap of sin that brings only death. What sins are you struggling with today?

• Because God loves us, He did a new thing: He sent the Messiah, Jesus, to rescue us from sin and death. How is Jesus the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy? (See our "Know Jesus" page.)

“Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 (WEB)