Isaiah 42: A New Thing
Lent 2025
On July 29, 2006, I was formally diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and put on bedrest for a week to ensure that I rested and didn’t try to keep working. By the end of that week, I wrote in my journal, “God is about to do a new thing!” I was channeling more Isaiah 43:19, but 42:9 is similar:
“See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.” Isaiah 42:9
“Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?” Isa 43:18-19a
Isaiah 42 is rich with imagery, and yet, right now, the “new things” in verse 9 and the “new song” in verse 10 are what are sticking out to me. I know something about those.
In 2006, the “new thing” was that it was time to leave my work with an NGO in Nicaragua and move back to the United States, back to North Carolina, and apply to seminary. It was a process, wrapping up with my students. I moved back in November and continued working with the NGO as an educational consultant on USAID grants, and applied to two seminaries, starting at Duke Divinity School in the fall of 2007. God told me what the new thing was before it happened. It gave me time to wrap my head around it, because that had not been my plan. I was in Nicaragua on a three-year contract, which I thought I might extend for longer. Instead, God gave me some advance notice that life was about to change, and God gave me time to adjust to it. That is not always how change works.
Isaiah 42:10 begins, “Sing to the Lord a new song.” This verse is not the only place in Scripture where that phrase appears; it is in a few psalms as well. Psalm 96 begins with the direction to “sing to the Lord a new song.” This psalm is the assigned lectionary reading for Christmas Eve. I know this tidbit because I preached on singing a new song in my Christmas sermon of 2015. I know the date because it was the year my beloved Kansas City Royals won the World Series after a thirty-year drought. My favorite line that I read in the days that followed their championship was that “it’s been thirty years; you need a new wardrobe.” I was not still wearing anything from 1985, but perhaps some of the older fans were. Either way, it was time for new clothes; it’s time for a new song.
Why is it time for a new thing and a new song? Because the old things have passed. Because life has changed. We have changed, for better or worse, out of choice or necessity. And God chooses change and new life instead of death. What’s done is done; it’s time to move on. A George Brett jersey may be a classic, AND we can’t keep reliving those glory days. It’s time for NEW glory days. Time for a NEW song. Time for a NEW thing. God said it’s coming. Get ready.