BEHOLD I WILL DO A NEW THING
(With acknowledgments to Bible Truth)
Solomon the wise said:
‘The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us.’
Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
But God the all-wise said:
‘Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, 1 will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?’
Isaiah 43:18-19
IT IS undeniably true that mankind is incapable of achieving or creating anything new on earth. Certainly man is constantly trying to present life in new ways, altering the wrapping papers or the names on the labels of things: but underneath it all the essential qualities of human existence remain the same. For instance, Cain the first child of man, murdered without cause his fellow man Abel, and today the children of men have still not reversed the ‘trend’ and begun to genuinely ‘follow war no more’. Whole generations of men have raised their hands to peace only to march shortly after to yet another unjust war. ‘There is no new thing new under the sun’ and so history repeats itself, meandering or cavorting through a series of loops and circles. Repeatedly mankind stands in situations identical to those experienced by previous generations. ‘And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man’ (see Luke ch. 17 v.26), said Jesus, predicting one particular long term gyration that history would make.
While it is impossible for man to do or find anything really new, ‘…with God nothing shall be impossible’ (Luke ch.1 v.37), so we find God promising that He ‘will do a new thing’. We should not find this surprising because God is by nature the creator, consequently He must always be doing new things.
We live in an age when men find it hard to believe that God does anything at all, let alone that He will do anything startlingly new. Nothing changes with men and they always have been the most unbelieving, impatient and ignorant of beings. At the time of Jesus Christ’s first Advent, men would not believe that God would do something new. The Old Testament prophecies made it crystal clear, first that God would come to His people at Bethlehem in Judah, and second regarding the time of his arrival. Although the wise men in Jerusalem knew these scriptures, and could tell Herod where Christ would be born, not one of them was waiting at Bethlehem to welcome Him. It was left to wise men from elsewhere to follow God’s guiding light until they saw ‘THE LIGHT’ of the world. Instead of the Bethlehem Town Council debating how best to mark the Messiah’s arrival, and an expectant air filling the area as they awaited the ‘new thing’ which God was about to do, it was left to shepherds hustled off the hillsides to greet the Lord and maker of the galaxies. Bethlehem Town Hall was full, so was the inn and all the other houses, but they did allow a stable for God’s action and innovation. Nothing changes. God’s new thing was officially ignored and generally disregarded. Eventually, when officialdom, in the shape of Herod, did suspect that God had acted without them, they attacked unmercifully the very thing that God was doing.
With man nothing changes, and now they are busy ignoring or disbelieving His second coming.‘… Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation’ (II Peter 3:4).
When we celebrate the season of Christ’s birth it is a time when faith is strengthened, for in remembering that He came, we reaffirm that He will come again. As sure as He came to Bethlehem the first tirne, He will come to the Mount of Olives the second. Wise men will still scan the skies looking for the light of His coming amid the gross darkness of the night which has settled on the nations and even the nations of Israel.
Mankind is not faced with a choice between God’s new thing or man’s old things. The choice is between God’s new thing or man’s self destruction. Mankind is reaping the whirlwind consequences of doing the old things for many generations. Unless God does His new thing soon we are finished. We thank God that all His promises stand sure in the Lord Jesus Christ and treasure the promise of His coming.
‘Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’ (Revelation 22:20)
