Come to Understanding

They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding,

and they that murmured shall learn doctrine. — Isaiah 29:24

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense,

and caused them to understand the reading. — Nehemiah 8:8

June 1, 2006

Volume 5 Number 11

A New Thing

Many today are excited to proclaim that there is a "new thing" happening in Christianity. All over the world, there is a call to cast out the old and bring in the new. Place the "ancients" on the shelf and bring in the youth. Global leaders of the new Christian movement point to the prophet Isaiah for Scriptural support for this "new thing," which is a worldwide movement of enormous proportions:

19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. -Isaiah 43

This Scripture is often interpreted as a forward movement by the church that leads to its own expansion. Those who are willing to join in with the movement are encouraged to join in either a role of leadership or a role of submission. Those who refuse must be discarded.

What is this "new thing?" How can we grasp its meaning and significance? To understand the Scriptures, we must go back to the Scriptures. Its called "rightly dividing the word of truth." First, let us study the Scripture from the prophet Isaiah in context through which it was written. Yahweh declares that He is the only God that ever was or that ever will be. He also says He is the only Savior. There is no other God and there is no other Savior. He is the everlasting. He existed before their was even a day:

10 You are my witnesses, says Yahweh, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

11 I, even I, am Yahweh; and besides me there is no savior.

12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore you are my witnesses, says Yahweh, that I am God.

13 Yes, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? -Isaiah 43

Yahweh continued. He identified Himself as Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, who is both their Creator and their King:

14 Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.

15 I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. -Isaiah 43

He then says that He is the one who makes a way where there is no way:

16 Thus says Yahweh, which makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

17 Which brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as a wick. -Isaiah 43

What kind of a way does Yahweh make? He makes a highway. That highway is the for the way back home, to the promised land, for the remnant of His people:

16 And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. -Isaiah 11

In that day, the day that the highway is made, Yah Yahweh is become our salvation. In that day, He reveals Himself as the Savior:

1 And in that day you shall say, O Yahweh, I will praise you: though you were angry with me, your anger is turned away, and you comforted me.

2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for Yah Yahweh is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. -Isaiah 12

This says Yah Yahweh is become my salvation (hewsy yshuwah). In short, Yah is become my yshuwah. Putting the two words together, He is become Yahyshuwah, which is written phonetically as "Yahshua" and translated through Greek and Latin into English as "Jesus." He is, therefore, Yahshua, which is Yah the Savior. He is the well of living water, whose name we are told to declare, as we remember to mention that His name is exalted:

3 Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.

4 And in that day shall you say, Praise Yahweh, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. -Isaiah 12

Through the prophet Jeremiah, Yahweh also told His people to set up markers showing the way to the highway by which they could return home:

21 Set you up markers, make you high heaps: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities. -Jeremiah 31

Yahweh further details how He has created "a new thing," which will be the highway to lead His peopel back home to Him. He says that a woman shall compass, or encircle, a man:

22 How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man. -Jeremiah 31

When we study this passage carefully, it reveals to us something that we would not consider at first glance. The word, "woman" which is used in this passage does not mean a "special" woman. The word is hbqn naqebah is a common word for "female," whether animal or human. It is based on the root word bqn naqab, which has such meanings as curse or blaspheme. In contrast, the word "man," as used here is rbg geber, which means a "mighty man." It is based on a word which means to be strong or have might. In other words, the passage says a common female shall encompass a man of might.

When we study this passage in the context in which it was presented, we learn that Yahweh is indeed talking about "a new thing." He says He will establish a "new covenant:"

31 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh:

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says Yahweh, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. -Jeremiah 31

Unlike the old covenant under which the law of Yahweh was written in stone, the law in new covenant would be written in the hearts of His people. The old covenant was a figure of the new, which is the true covenant. Under the new covenant, sins are forgiven through faith that Yahshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) offered Himself as the single and complete sacrifice for sins:

25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others;

26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. -Hebrews 9

Therefore, by accepting the new covenant the unrighteous are made righteous and our sins are forgiven and forgotten:

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

13 In that he said, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and becomes old is ready to vanish away. -Hebrews 8

Therefore, we should not remember the old things of the old covenant because a new thing has indeed come.

18 Remember you not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

20 The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise. -Isaiah 43

Yahweh kept His promise. He did do "a new thing." He offered Himself as Yahshua (Jesus) as the highway to heaven. He came in the flesh, born of a woman, to cleanse His people from their sins:

25 I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.

26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare you, that you may be justified. -Isaiah 43

By faith, we also put on the"new thing," erasing our unrighteousness with His righteousness:

24 And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

How can a new man or new woman remember or even consider the unrighteousness of the things of old?

 

 

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Scriptures are taken from the Proper King James Version (PKJV)

 

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