Parenthetically Speaking

by Nancy Turley

15 “I am the Lord, your Holy One,
The Creator of Israel, your King.”
16 Thus says the Lord,
Who makes a way through the sea
And a path through the mighty waters,
17 Who brings forth the chariot and the horse,
The army and the mighty man
(They will lie down together and not rise again;
They have been quenched and extinguished like a wick):
18 “Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
19 Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert."
                          Isaiah 43:15-19, (NASB)

I found it unexpectedly one morning...a parenthesis around a particular verse in the Bible...as if it were God giving us a specific "e.g." (an abbreviation for the Latin words exempli gratia, which means "for the sake of example) to further illustrate what he meant in the previous verse. I don't think I've ever seen a parenthesis in the Bible before and it therefore piqued my interest. I often use parentheses while writing, for added emphasis.

I think Isaiah did the same thing but more specifically the emphasis acted as a transition from past to future. He, in essence, reminded the Israelites that, despite their exile into Babylon, He still had a plan for them. When backed up against the Red Sea with no place to go, He led them through the impossible. Isaiah emphasizes here that the enemy was drowned, quenched, extinguished like a candle wick. 

He then admonishes them to look for the future and NOT to think of the past.

I continue to hope for those roadways God will make for us in the wilderness and how He will provide rivers in our deserts! I look forward to Spring, for those bulbs that have been hidden in the darkness but will rise from the earth to flower into glorious colors.