Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
Behold, I will do a new thing - unprecedented in its wonderful character (Isaiah 42:9).
Now it shall spring forth - as a germinating herb: a beautiful image of the silent but certain gradual growth of events in God's providence (Mark 4:26-28). Here, however, the growth shall be unprecedented in its rapidity. The new thing shall spring forth as it were in a day.
I will even make a way in the wilderness - just as Israel in the wilderness, between the Red Sea and Canaan, was guided and supplied with water by Yahweh; but the "new" deliverance shall be attended with manifestations of God's power and love eclipsing the old (cf. Isaiah 41:17-19). 'I will open a way not merely in the Red Sea, but in the wilderness of the whole world; and not merely one river shall gush out of the rock, but many, which shall refresh, not the bodies as formerly, but the souls of the thirsty, so that the prophecy shall be fulfilled: "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation"' (Jerome). "A way" often stands for the true religion (Acts 9:2; Acts 18:26).
(And) rivers in the desert. "Rivers" express the influences of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39). Israel's literal restoration hereafter is included, as appears by comparing Isaiah 11:15-16.