Verse of the Day for January 27

Isaiah is speaking to people in exile, to whom the past was better and the present is a desert, and the promise he brings has a question buried in the middle of it.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?

That question is not decorative. He is asking whether they will recognise it, and the answer is genuinely in doubt — because the verse before says forget the former things, and people looking backwards do not see forwards.

The new thing is described as springing forth, which is what a seed does. Small, low, easy to walk past.

And the location is the wilderness. He does not promise to take them somewhere better and then act. He promises a road in the place they are already standing.

A new thing that arrives small in a hard place is very easy to miss if you are still comparing everything to the old thing.

Look down. Springing forth starts at ground level.