Isaiah 43:19

The sentence before this one is startling. God has just spent two verses recalling the exodus — the path through the sea, the army drowned — and then says: don't remember the former things, neither consider the things of old.

He is telling them to stop looking at his own greatest work. Not because it did not happen, but because the memory had become the place they lived, and a rescue that is only remembered starts functioning as evidence that nothing like it happens now.

Then: behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don't you know it?

That question is the sharp edge of the verse. It implies the new thing has already started and has not been noticed. Which is how these things usually go — the beginning of a change is rarely obvious, and looks at first like nothing, or like an inconvenience.

And the two examples given are specific to the audience. A way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. These were people in exile with a long journey home across bad terrain. He is not promising them a different location. He is promising provision along the route they are actually on.

Which is worth noting: the wilderness is not removed from the plan. It gets a road through it.