I
am doing a new thing!
Isaias 43:19a (read 43:18-25) NIV
During the time
of the prophet Isaiah the people were barred from returning to their
motherland. They were at the mercy of the powerful of the world, without
friends and condemned to insignificance. Isaiah used poetic language: “paths
and fountains in the desert”, “roads and rivers in drylands” and “the praise of
animals” to comfort them.
The prophet said
that sufferers should not get attached to things of the recent past. Something
new was going to happen! This time God was going to use the pagan king Cyrus,
the king of Persia, to release them and allow their return home.
Nature is full
of examples of reverses.
For 130 million
years dinosaurs ruled the earth and seemed unbeatable. Mammals existed, but
were limited to small creatures that could survive hiding in holes and under
rocks and fallen trees. But 65 million years ago there was a global catastrophe
that destroyed dinosaurs, leaving the land free for mammalian development from
which evolved primates, including Homo sapiens. The all-mighty fell and the
insignificant took their place [1].
Human history,
too, is a series of turn arounds.
About 2500 years
ago the inhabitants of northern Europe were divided into tribes with primitive
technology. "Civilization," the Greek/Roman culture, which ruled that
the ancient world was focused on the area of the Mediterranean Sea. Today,
those primitive tribes are the owners of a technology that has come to dominate
the world, bringing globalization with all its benefits and aberrations.
In both nature
and in human history the powerful are destined to fall and disappear with the
insignificant and weak rising to take their place, probably repeating the same
errors!
Never before in human
history has there been so great an inequality between rich and poor. The
richest 0.001% of the people in the world has together 30% of the world’s
wealth and the poorest 99.9% has only 19%.[2]
A large segment of the world population lives in a state of misery, with no
prospect of improvement. Their situation is aggravated by the power plays of
major economic powers that control politics and the military. In Brazil the
situation is little different with the landless, homeless and jobless having
small prospect of escaping their situation. The economic system uses technology
which replaces the workforce with machines and electronic equipment. This
increases profits for the wealthy and contributes to the growing inequality
between the economic classes.
The current
world needs "something new". The "deserts" are in need of
"fountains and paths" and "dry land" of "rivers and
roads". This text from Isaiah gives hope that something new can come to
liberate the oppressed from their oppressors. Thus far things seem to be
getting worse, but, who knows, there may be something new coming up that we can
be thankful for.
We can only do
our best and hope.
[1]
Many scientists say that birds are descended from dinosaurs.
ISAIAH
43:18-25 – NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell
on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it
springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams
in the wasteland.
The wild animals honor me,
the jackals
and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and streams
in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
the people
I formed for myself
that they
may proclaim my praise.
“Yet you have not called on me, Jacob,
you have not
wearied yourselves for[a] me, Israel.
You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings,
nor honored
me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with grain offerings
nor wearied
you with demands for incense.
You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me,
or lavished
on me the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins
and wearied
me with your offenses.
“I, even I, am he who blots out
your
transgressions, for my own sake,
and
remembers your sins no more.
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