Roads & Rivers: How God Carries You Forward

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Isaiah 43:18-19 NKJV, Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. 

Isaiah 43:18-19 MSG, 18 Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. 19 Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands

Isaiah 43:18 GNT, But the Lord says, "Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago.

Enduring Word Commentary:
As Isaiah wrote prophetically to Israel, they were mired in the desperate circumstances of captivity and exile. God wanted to put their eyes on the new work He would do, so He began with a reminder to not remember the former things. If they were stuck in the failure and sin and discouragement of the past, they would never go forward to the new thing God had for them.

“God wanted to put their eyes on the new work He would do…”

Often, when God makes a promise, we worry about the details or the obstacles for the fulfillment of the promise. God replies to us, “Don’t worry about it at all. I will even make a road in the wilderness. I have resources and plans you don’t know about. Leave those problems to Me.”

Moving forward and upward requires both natural and supernatural intervention

Roads speaks of the natural—Things you can do with God’s help

Rivers speak of the supernatural — Things only God can do.