The world is changing so fast in so many ways that the message of change promised throughout the Old Testament might be overlooked. Familiarity breeds the possibility of over-familiarity, and over-familiarity can breed many things, including neglect.

Yet, in Isaiah 42:9 the prophet looked forward to a time when God’s people will be impacted by “new things” God promises to do. The “former things” were wonderful, but they are former. God was going to do a new thing.

God had a servant who would bring forth justice to the nations. He would be powerful and authoritative but He would also be humble and gentle. His mission was not to crush but to heal and to bring the spirit of justice into the human situation. He would live in justice but He would conduct Himself in such away that it is said of him, “A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish” (Is. 42:3).

As Christians we believe it is Jesus in whom God has ultimately spoken to the human situation. Through Jesus, God’s new thing breaks into history, and He is present to speak to the deepest needs of the human experience. In His life the very life of God comes among us. The God who “created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it” (Is. 42:5) has come up-close-and-personal.

Through His Servant God fulfills a promise. He draws near in intimacy and communion to “hold you by the hand and watch over you’ (Is. 42:6). He is a living “covenant to the people” (Is. 42:6), and a constant reminder that God is not off at a distant but present in His world, and present here to be God.

God is up to something wonderful.