Isaiah 43:18-21

Remember ye not, &c.— Call not to mind former things, &c. Another specimen is here produced of a mighty work of divine providence and grace, of a singular and wonderful benefit to be conferred upon the church, which is here described as greater and more excellent than the former ones. From which work foretold and effected, the truth of the God of Israel is asserted against idolaters, and an argument is drawn for the support and establishment of the hope of believers. God says, that he will make a way in the desart, rivers in the wilderness; that he will cause the beasts of the field, the dragons and the ostriches, to honour him, for the advantage of his people. There can be no doubt that the prophet speaks here of the conversion of the Gentile world under the new oeconomy. The same metaphors and ideas have before occurred and been explained. See chap. Isaiah 35:1, &c. Isaiah here embellishes the figure which he makes use of, with all the graces of variety. He describes the wild-beasts of the desart, and the dragons themselves, as having been parched with thirst, and praising God with their hisses and nocturnal howlings, for watering the sandy plains of Arabia. There is no image in which the eastern writers delight more than this; and he who has travelled himself into those parts, or read the travels of others, can be no stranger to the numerous concourse of wild beasts on the banks of rivers or other waters, and to their tremendous howlings in the night-time. See Michaelis and Vitringa.