FROM THE WORD:
New things springing forth: A reflection on Isaiah 42:1-9 Daniel Tham
—
People love new things. In our contemporary, capitalist, and consumerist world, “new” is often understood in terms of things that can be bought, often in replacement of things deemed “old”: new phone, new clothes, new furniture, etc. We also often seek new things that are not material: a new job, a new resolution, a new season of life. In the latter cases, “new” is contrasted against stasis and stagnation; humans naturally seek to grow, develop,
things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them” (Isaiah 42:9). Here, “new things” has to mean something far more significant than anything money can buy, and much greater in scope than any individual’s life pursuit. But what exactly are these new things, and what new things could a statement made more than two and a half millennia ago possibly mean for us today?
and progress, and the pursuit of the “new” enables that.
A prophetic marker Centuries before Christ’s birth, a divine declaration was recorded in the book of Isaiah, in what is commonly regarded as the first “servant song”: “Behold, the former
The historical context this passage refers to is that of Babylonian captivity, which took place after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC. Foreign rule, whether under the Babylonians, or previously the Assyrians, was a major threat to the fate, identity, and faith of God’s people. Was He truly sovereign and in control, and what
