Question: Do we have any idea what the “new things” are the Lord will do that Isaiah predicts?
Answer: Isaiah’s literary devices, such as word links, leave few mysteries unanswered to one who searches his words diligently.
Two instances of “new tings” (Hebrew chadashot) appear in the Book of Isaiah: “The prophecies of the former events indeed came to pass, but new things I yet foretell. Before they spring up I declare them to you” (Isaiah 42:9); “You have heard the whole vision; how is it you do not proclaim it? Yet as of now, I announce to you new things, things withheld and unknown to you, things now coming into being, not hitherto, things you have not heard of before, lest you should say, Indeed, I knew them! You have not heard them, nor have you known them; before this your ears have not been open to them” (Isaiah 48:6–7).
The words, “you have not heard of before” and “you have not heard them,” form word links to the mission of God’s end-time servant, who declares to the Gentiles’ spiritual kings “what they had not heard: “My servant, being astute, shall be highly exalted; he shall become exceedingly eminent: just as he appalled many—his appearance was marred beyond human likeness, his semblance unlike that of men—So shall he yet astound many Gentiles, kings shutting their mouths at him—what was not told them, they shall see; what they had not heard, they shall consider” (Isaiah 52:13–15; cf. 3 Nephi 21:8, 10).
Those who haven’t “told them” are the people’s leaders: “Present your case, says Jehovah; submit your evidence, says the King of Jacob. Let them come forward and recount to us their prophecies of events heretofore. What were they? Tell us, that we may examine them and know whether they were fulfilled. Or predict the future for us: Tell us of events to come hereafter, so that we may know you are gods. Perform something good or evil at which we will be dazzled and all stand in awe. It is clear you are of no account, that your works amount to nothing; whoever accepts you is himself an abomination” (Isaiah 41:21–24).
Unlike the people’s leaders, God’s servant prophesies new things that come to pass: “I have raised up one from the north who calls on my name, who shall come from the direction of sunrise. He shall come upon dignitaries as on mud, tread them as clay like a potter. Who announced this beforehand, so we would know, [declared it] ahead of time, that we might say, He was right? Indeed, not one could foretell it, not one make it known; no one has heard from you any [prophetic] utterance. But to Zion, he shall be its harbinger; I will appoint him as a herald of good tidings to Jerusalem” (Isaiah 41:25–27).
While on the one hand Israel’s God Jehovah affirms that he is the one who raises him up to his end-time people, on the other, the servant isn’t shy about declaring his mission: “I myself have spoken it, and also called him; I have brought him, and I will prosper his way. Come near me and hear this: I have not made predictions in secret; at their coming to pass, I have been present. Now my Lord Jehovah has sent me; his Spirit [is in me]” (Isaiah 48:15–16). Because each context in which the “new things” and their word links appear are about God’s end-time servant, we can be certain that an entirely new chapter in God’s dealings with his people opens with his coming.
