Isaiah 48:6

"Thou hast heard it; behold all this; and ye will not declare it? I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, which thou hast not known. They are created now, and not from of old, and before this day thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from of old thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou didst deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb".

The scriptures here confront the fundamental truth of the excessive wickedness of the chosen people. Moreover, "This is not a new trait with them; they've been that way from the beginning. When Jacob, their father, was given a name which means `cheater' and `guile,' the name well described him and his descendants as well. Ezekiel in Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 25 bluntly tell the story of a wicked nation whose history is one shameless narrative."[6] Even in the times of Jesus, the nation showed no improvement; because, one day when a true Israelite, an honorable and truthful man by the name of Nathaniel, came to Jesus, Christ pointed him out as something of a phenomenon, saying, "Behold! an Israelite in whom is no guile!" (John 1:47).

The words thus far in this chapter give the reason for subsequent developments in the ranks of the captive nation. We should always remember that, "The great mass, even of Judah, no less than of Israel `remained behind' in Babylon, where they came more and more to be assimilated by and identified with paganism."[7] Josephus tells us that, when Cyrus gave his decree authorizing the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, that, "Many of them stayed in Babylon, as not willing to leave their possessions."[8] He gave the number of returnees as 42,462; and a combination of the statements by Biblical writers sets the number at about 52,000; but neither of these totals, nor even the adding of them together, gives us a numerically significant number when compared with the millions that once constituted Israel. The captive nation under Cyrus, having achieved a local acceptance which they wanted, simply joined up with their pagan captors and became, themselves, a part of Babylon.

"New things ..." (Isaiah 48:6). What are these? The new revelation could not possibly have been the deliverance from captivity. That a remnant would return had been prophesied ever since Isaiah named his first son; and, therefore, we hold that the "new things" mentioned here refer primarily to the marvelous revelation of the Saviour under the figure of the Ideal Servant, which revelation would occupy the foremost place in the second section of these last 27 chapters. "I have showed thee new things" is therefore prophetic and shows that the "new things" will reach into the far future. The statement that they are created now, and not from of old is a reference to their revelation to Israel; because all of the things of the new covenant were planned in the heart of God, "before the world was."