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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) “Behold, I am doing a new thing” sounds like something Jesus would say.
He didn’t. It’s from Isiah. He told the Israelites what the Messiah would be like 800 years before Jesus. And Isiah spoke of a time of exile. Jews wondered aloud if they were indeed God’s chosen people, or if the covenant had been broken.
Isiah continued, “I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”.
I go to church with people who have a past. I suppose we all do. If all the things I’d done in my past were laid bare, I’d be humiliated. I’d slink away from this microphone in embarrassment and never be heard from again. And that’s even though I know I’m forgiven. Some of the people I do to church with are felons; drug dealers, hustlers, thieves. Many have been incarcerated. Others have been homeless. Addicts.
And yet you would not guess the pasts of many of these people today. Some have become leaders in our church. Many volunteer. They are immersed in their faith; people who pray and read the bible daily. I’m sure people who knew them before and after they were saved would find them unrecognizable.
So, who am I to say, when I come across someone who is struggling, ‘No, this person is too far gone. They’re not worth helping.’ I worship alongside people like that. Only they’re completely different now.
What happened to them? They turned their lives over to Jesus Christ.
Isiah is not to be taken literally. He does not say that rivers will suddenly flow through the dessert. But his words are still true. For hardened, sinful people I’ve seen wellsprings of kindness spring up in their hearts. Mercy and tenderness and humbleness are now parts of who they are; qualities that weren’t parts of their lives before.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing.” Indeed God is, from the inside out, within people who put their trust in Him.
Chris Conley
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