Isaiah 12:18-19, Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

Yahweh who made a path through the Red Sea for Israel to pass from slavery into freedom was the great salvation event of the Old Testament.  That is, until Yahweh planned a new act of salvation.  On the shores of the Red Sea Israel didn’t know how they would escape the onslaught waiting for them at the end of the charging Egyptian swords.  But now, some 800 years later God is doing a new thing which will be new story of salvation.  He is letting his people in on his plan before its set into motion.  He will restore the fortunes of Zion, when he frees them from their exile in Babylon.  He will turn the desert into a meadow with plenty of water.  The animals living on the edge of subsistence will thank God for freeing Israel, because they too will have an abundance of water to drink.  As psalm 126 reports, “We were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.”

We too enjoy the new thing the Lord has done for us.  St. Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17).  The acts of God’s salvation in the Exodus and the return from Babylonian captivity in which nature was transformed, is replaced by a renewal of our nature through Christ.  Finally, in Revelation 21:5 God brings together the renewal of our self and the renewal of creation.  “And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making ALL things new.”