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Text: Isaiah 43:15-21 In the children’s sermon I talked about a cutting my daughter got and which is now growing roots and budding after being put in water and given sunlight. But it sure looked like a stick. In fact, we joke about it and ask how stick is doing and have given it names like ‘Stick’ and ‘Sticky’. That’s what this past year has felt like… kind of like asking Santa for one thing and getting a bag of coal in its place. Or a stick. You may have even felt like you got beat with that stick. In our passage today, God’s people know what that feels like. They have suffered in Exile and you can pick your metaphor – it has felt like asking for a blooming tree and getting a stick, or getting the short end of the stick, or being beaten with a stick. But God speaks a message of hope to them through the prophet, Isaiah. And while the message is particular to their time and circumstance, there are some timeless questions and teaching for all who share similar experiences and put their trust and hope in God. On this first Sunday in the New Year it seems fitting to look at God’s declaration in verse 19: “Behold, I will do something new.” There are two parts to what we’ll look at: WHO God is and WHAT God has done. WHO God Is (v.15) Realize that this is just one short passage in one book in the whole of scripture. It is just scratching the surface of who God is. Look at verse 15 where God identifies Himself: “I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” Those are four different descriptions of WHO God is! Lord – Lord is the revealed name of God given to Moses at the burning bush. It is translated “I am who I am, I will be who I will be.” Holy One – God is holy, righteous, and pure. God alone is God and God’s people are to be holy, or distinct, in the world as belonging to Him. Creator of Israel – God not only created the world, but also created Israel through a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. God set apart this people to redeem and bless them, and through them the world. Your King – God is also the Sovereign over His people (and the world); this is a reminder that though in the time of Isaiah there was an earthly emperor in power, God held more power and was the True King. Though this naming of God has several purposes – for example it can lead to worship – the purpose here seems to be to underscore the message, “Listen up, God is speaking!” WHAT God Has Done and Will Do (vv.16-21) The rest of the passage describes both what God has already done for His people as well as what He is going to do. You may be able to tell what the first part references: the Lord “makes a way through the sea and a path through the mighty waters” and “brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and mighty man… they will lie down and not rise again.” (vv.16-17) Anyone? It’s a description of God delivering His people from Pharaoh when God led Moses through the Red Sea and then it closed in on the Egyptian army. God has delivered His people before and can do it again! But then God says, “Do not call to mind the former things.” Salvation is coming, but not in the same way. Instead, God says, “Behold, I will do something new!” (v.19a) With vivid imagery, Isaiah describes this new thing springing forth unexpectedly like a road in the wilderness or a river in the desert. While the purpose will be to bless and deliver God’s people, the result will be the praises of creation and humanity, with the beasts of the field “glorifying” God as well as humanity “declaring God’s praise.” It’s easy to just zip right through that, but the claims are staggering. God promises another salvation of His people on the scale of what happened with Moses and the Red Sea, but it will be new and surprising and garner the attention of the whole created world. We’ve talked before about how Hebrew scripture, including the preacher-prophets, always has an immediate context. This was a message to Israel about h