Monday, June 29, 2026 | Into the Wilderness, Week 5

“But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

Isaiah 43:18–19, NLT

Devotional Thought

God is speaking to people in exile — Israel in Babylon, far from home, certain their best days are behind them. And he opens with a startling command: forget the former things. This from the God who’s always telling them to remember — remember the exodus, remember what I did at the Red Sea. Now he says forget it. Why? Because what he’s about to do is so new that even the great rescue of the past will look small next to it.

And then the promise, and it’s the perfect word to land on as this series turns toward home: I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Read that carefully. God doesn’t say he’ll airlift them over the desert or wait for the desert to disappear. He says he’ll make a road through it, and put rivers in it. The wilderness doesn’t become the obstacle to the way forward. The wilderness becomes the way forward.

That’s the whole reframe of how you come out of a dry season. You don’t emerge by pretending the desert never happened, or by waiting for it to turn green before you’ll move. God makes the road right through the middle of the dry place. The very ground that felt like death becomes the path to something new. And there’s water there now — rivers in the wasteland — provision showing up exactly where there was none.

Look at the urgency in his words: See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? God isn’t promising something for the distant future. He’s saying the new thing is already underway, already breaking ground, and the only question is whether they have eyes to see it. The road out is being built while they’re still standing in the sand convinced they’re stuck.

So if you’ve been in the desert a long time, hear this today. God is making a way — not around your wilderness, but through it. The new thing has already started. Look up. The road is right where you’re standing.

Going Deeper

Scripture Reading

Isaiah 43:18–21, NLT

Historical Context

This section of Isaiah (chapters 40–55) speaks to Israel during or anticipating the Babylonian exile — God’s people uprooted, far from Jerusalem, wondering if God had forgotten them. Into that despair, God speaks repeated promises of a “new exodus”: just as he once led them out of Egypt through the wilderness, he will now lead them home from Babylon. The imagery of a road through the desert and water in the wasteland is the language of homecoming for exiles.

Literary Context

“Do not remember the former things” is deliberately provocative coming from Isaiah, who constantly appeals to God’s past acts. The point is comparative, not dismissive: the coming deliverance will so outshine the first exodus that it deserves fresh wonder. The passage uses creation language — “I am about to do something new,” “I will create rivers” — echoing Genesis. The desert blooming and providing water becomes one of Isaiah’s signature pictures of God’s redemptive future.

Theological Context

This text reframes the wilderness from dead end to pathway. God’s redemption doesn’t bypass the dry place; it runs straight through it and transforms it. The “new thing” is both historical (return from exile) and forward-pointing — Isaiah’s road-in-the-wilderness imagery is later picked up to describe the way prepared for the Lord (Isaiah 40, quoted of John the Baptist). For anyone emerging from a wilderness season, the promise is that the very ground of their suffering becomes the road forward, and that God provides — “rivers in the wasteland” — precisely where there seemed to be nothing.

Key Insights

1. God makes a road through the wilderness, not around it. The dry ground itself becomes the way forward.
2. He puts rivers in the wasteland — provision shows up exactly where there was none.
3. “I have already begun! Do you not see it?” The new thing is underway now; the question is whether you have eyes to see the road being built.
4. “Forget the former things” — even the past rescue looks small next to what God is about to do. The best is ahead, not behind.

Looking In the Mirror

1. Have you been waiting for your wilderness to turn green before you’ll move forward? What changes if God is making the road right through it?
2. Where might “rivers in the wasteland” already be showing up — provision in the exact dry place you assumed was empty? Are you looking?
3. God says “forget the former things.” What past — even a good past — are you clinging to in a way that keeps you from seeing the new thing he’s starting?

Guided Prayer

God, I’ve been standing in the sand convinced I’m stuck, waiting for the desert to disappear before I’d believe there was a way forward. And you say you’re not going around it — you’re making a road right through it, and putting rivers where there’s only ever been dust. You say you’ve already started. So give me eyes to see it. Show me the road being built under my feet, the water in the wasteland I’ve been too discouraged to notice. Help me stop clinging to the way things were and watch for the new thing you’re doing. Lead me out — through, not around. I’m looking up. Amen.