Isaiah 54:1-7 – Prepare to be Blessed!

Translation and Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 13 Jan 2008

Translation

1. Sing, barren one – she has not given birth;

Break forth into song and cry aloud, she [who] has not been in labour,

for the children of the desolate one are more than the children of one who has a husband,

says Jehovah.

2. Enlarge the place of your tent,

and your bedroom curtains, they will stretch them out!

Do not hold back!

Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.

3. For right and left you will burst forth,

and your seed will take over the nations!

And they will cause desolate cities to be inhabited.

4. Don’t be afraid, for you will not be shamed,

and don’t be embarrassed, for you will not be caused to blush.

For you will forget the shame of your youth,

and the reproach of your widowhood you will not remember again.

5. For your Maker is your Husband – “Jehovah of Hosts” His name.

And the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, and He is called “God of all the earth.”

6. For when you were a forsaken woman and one grieved in spirit, Jehovah called you

- even a wife of youths when she is rejected, says your God.

7. With a little moment I forsook you, but with big compassions I will gather you.

8. With flood of wrath I caused my face to be hidden from you for a moment,

but with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you, says Jehovah your Redeemer.

INTRO: Excerpt from God's Smuggler, pgs. 109-110

At a rest stop in Germany I got out my Bible and opened it to the back cover where I had recorded God's hard answer to a prayer that I had made. I sipped my coffee and remembered the night in Yugoslavia when I had made it. I had been feeling lonely that evening too. "Lord," I had said, "in a year I'll be thirty. You made a helpmeet for man, and somehow I have not found my own. Lord, I'm going to ask You for something. I ask You tonight for a wife." I'd noted the specific prayer request in my Bible: "April 12, 1957, Nosaki. Prayed for a wife." Beside the notation I had left a place for an answer. And five days later the answer had come. In my Quiet Times I had suddenly known—with quite uncanny certainty —that Isaiah 54:1 was God's reply to me. I flipped excitedly through the pages of the Old Testament and read, "The children of the desolate are more than the children of the married." Again and again I read the words, trying to apply them to myself, trying to rejoice in God's will. I might feel desolate, but He was going to give me more "children," spiritual children, than I could ever have as a flesh-and-blood father. I had written the answer beside the request.

But now as I drained my coffee cup beside a field of spring flowers, I knew that spiritual children were not at all what I had in mind. I wanted real, live, noisy, running-and-jumping children, with sticky faces and wooden shoes to mend after the fights. Above all, I wanted a wife, a living, loving human being who would make my life one fabric, instead of this patchwork quilt of places and people based nowhere, instead of this heading home to no one.

Suppose I asked Him again, right now? Suppose I just opened my Bible anywhere, just let my finger fall where it would, and took this new verse for His real answer? I had always laughed at people who looked for guidance this way. But it was a glorious spring day when anything could happen, and so I closed my eyes, opened the Bible at random, and plunged my finger down on the page. When I looked down, I could hardly believe my eyes. My finger was pointing to Isaiah 54:1. "The children of the desolate are more than the children of the married." I told myself I must have creased the Bible open to that page from reading it so intently before. But it was no good. Thoroughly chastened, I recorded in the back of the Bible the repeated question and the reiterated answer. "I don't like the message, Lord, but at least it's clear."

Well, Brother Andrew ended up marrying Corrie pretty soon after that. Impressions in our minds and flip-and-dip Bible reading are not the best way to get life direction. But the question remains: what is this verse talking about? Rather than a contrast between a child-bearing couple and a celibate who gives himself to making spiritual disciples, I think this passage is talking about a different contrast. It is the contrast between the present and the future of God’s people, between what the Jewish believers were experiencing during the exile and what the church would experience in the age to come. Remember that this chapter follows on the heels of Isa. 53 which outlines the redemption accomplished in Jesus Christ which lays the foundations for a dramatic change in the way God will relate to mankind.

Three figures are laid out here in chapter 54.

A husband and wife in their home
The Flood of Noah
A City

1. Children Coming

· Think about all the women who were unable to have children and who bore key children in the line of God’s covenant people: Sarah who bore Isaac, Rebekah who bore Jacob, Rachel who bore Joseph and Benjamin, All three of the patriarchs of Israel had barren wives. God arranged that intentionally to underscore that this was not a natural human nation to which God was giving birth, but a spiritual one. I am also reminded of Elizabeth who bore John the Baptizer and Mary who bore Jesus in the New Testament at the birth of the church. These were children of promise, children who were more than just physical offspring but spiritual offspring also. And you are a child of promise, spiritual offspring of these great men and women of God if you share their faith in Jesus as your Redeemer.

· This is what we heard in the call to worship in Galatians 4:22-28 “For it is written that Abraham had two sons… 23 the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants… 25 Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, ‘Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.’ 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.”

· We have already seen this promise in Isaiah 49:13. “Heavens, sing for joy, and earth, rejoice! Let mountains break forth into singing, for Jehovah has comforted His people, and will show compassion to His afflicted ones. 14. Yet Zion said, ‘Jehovah has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.’ 15. Can a woman forget her nursing baby - from having compassion on a son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I, I will not forget you… 19. Surely your wastes and your desolate places and your demolished land – surely now you will be cramped from the settler, and those who swallowed you up will be far away… 21. Then you will say in your heart, “Who has given birth to these for me while I was bereaved and barren, exiled and rejected? And who has brought up these? Look, I, I was left all alone; How did they get here?” 22. Thus says the Lord Jehovah, “Look, I will lift up my hand to nations and raise my signal to peoples, and they will bring your sons in the bosom and your daughters will be carried upon the shoulder, 23. and it will come about that kings are your supporters and their princesses are your nurses! …Those who will not be ashamed wait for me!” Many children brought to life miraculously will be gathered to the people of God after the exile.

· The gist is to prepare for an influx of children.

· v.2 Many homes in Isaiah’s day (and still today in traditional parts of the Middle East) are actually tent structures made out of animal skins.

· The subject that matches the gender and number of the verb “stretch out” in v.2 is the noun “children/sons” at the end of v.1. You’re going to have so many children, they will be bursting the seams of your tent! Get ready for growth!

· v.3 is a quote from Genesis 28, when God spoke to Jacob and gave him the dream of the ladder after he had tricked his older brother and had to flee from his parent’s home: v.13 “…Jehovah stood above [the ladder] and said, ‘I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’”

· Isaiah wrote in v.3, “You will spread abroad/break forth/expand” literally “burst/spill out” all over the place on both hands – filling the world “and you will possess/inherit/take over the nations/Gentiles.” God is repeating the prophecy that was part of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying to Isaiah, “The fulfillment is still coming.”

· The “you’s” in this chapter are feminine singulars, referring to Zion or the church.

· This time of blessing to come will bring God’s people into contact with the whole rest of the world in such a way that they will take over the Gentiles and be a blessing to them.

· We’ve already seen echoes of this same prophecy earlier in Isaiah, such as in 14:2 “…the house of Israel will … take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

· God is preparing post-exilic Israel for the coming of Gentiles to faith. This is fulfilled in Gentiles joining the church.

· This kind of growth is also what Jesus talked about in His kingdom parables in Matthew 13:
“31…The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in its branches.
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened…
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind.” An intrinsic quality of God’s kingdom is that it grows and has worldwide impact!

· STORY: Influence of Isaiah 45 on William Carey:

William Carey, the father of modern missions, realized this too, when he read Isaiah 54. He was a Baptist preacher in 18^th Century England before the time when Baptists started to send out missionaries. At one point he had stood up in a church meeting and called upon them to send missionaries, and was told by one of the older men to sit down and be quiet because “if God wants to save the heathen He can do it without your aid or mine!” On Wednesday, May 30, 1792, William was asked to give the devotional message at the annual meeting for the pastors in his Northamptonshire Baptist Association. He preached on Isaiah 54:2-3 and applied it to world missions, saying that if God expects His people to burst out into all the nations, and if He calls His people to “enlarge,” “lengthen,” and “strengthen” “without holding back” in order to facilitate the spread of God’s kingdom to all the nations, then the Baptist Association needed to “Attempt great things [for God and] expect great things!” They needed to start some sort of missionary-sending organization. Nobody knew what that would look like because they had never seen anybody do it before. But through Carey’s influence, they started one that year, and sent him over to India as their first missionary. And despite Carey’s faults, it is largely because of his faith and obedience to God’s message in Isaiah 54 that India has a thriving church and that mission agencies have been started in almost every protestant denomination. (Source: www.wmcarey.edu/carey/baptreg1790-93/418.jpg & /419.jpg)

In v.4, Isaiah brings out another command which he has spoken many times already in previous chapters, and he gives a whole chain of reasons to obey this command:

Chain of Reasoning

v.4. Don’t be afraid, for you will not be shamed,

and don’t be embarrassed, for you will not be caused to blush.

· ILLUSTRATION: If you were all by yourself in the car with the windows up and the music on, I bet you could sing most anything, but if I were to bring you up front here and put the microphone on you, and ask you to sing a solo, I bet you would suddenly have feelings of fear and embarrassment. Why would you not have those feelings by yourself in the car, but have them when you are performing them in front of a bunch of people? Because you know that if you choke in front of an audience, they will laugh and make fun of you!

· What if God promised that no matter what you did, nobody would laugh or make fun of you – no matter what you did, you would never have reason to be ashamed? That’s what God promises here. Don’t be afraid to step out in faith and praise God out loud and prepare for large numbers of people to come to faith in Christ, because I’m going to reward that kind of faith and obedience, and you will never have reason to be ashamed of what you have done in faith!

WHY WON’T YOU BE ASHAMED?

BECAUSE YOU WILL FORGET THE THINGS THAT USED TO CAUSE YOU SHAME:

v.4b For you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will not remember again.

WHY WILL YOUR FORGET THE THINGS THAT USED TO CAUSE YOU SHAME?

BECAUSE OF WHO YOU’RE MARRIED TO!

v. 5. For your Maker is your Husband – “Jehovah of Hosts” His name. And the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, and He is called “God of all the earth.”

WHY/HOW WILL YOU BE MARRIED TO HIM?

HE WILL CALL YOU & GATHER YOU TO HIMSELF:

v.6. For when you were a forsaken woman and one grieved in spirit, Jehovah called you - even a wife of youths when she is rejected, says your God. 7. With a little moment I forsook you, but with big compassions I will gather you.

WHY? BECAUSE, LIKE THE DAYS OF NOAH, GOD HAS SWORN OFF THAT MODE OF PUNISHMENT. A COVENANTAL SHIFT IS COMING TOWARDS COMPASSION.

Isaiah continues the theme of this marriage relationship between God and His people.
v.4 - The shame of Israel’s youth was her slavery in Egypt – shameful to have begun as a nation of slaves. “So what does your Dad do for a living?” “He was a slave.” Doesn’t impress people, does it?
The reproach of her widowhood was her captivity in Babylon.

The exile is also referred to in v. 6 “as when a wife of youths is cast off/rejected”

like Joseph was going to do to Mary when he found during their engagement that she was pregnant and he knew it was not because if him.
(In Hebrew a 3fs verb is spelled the same as 2ms, thus the KJV rendering “you were refused” when all the rest opt for “she is refused”).
It was terribly shameful to be put away because your husband found fault with you. You weren’t likely to get married again. You would feel like an inferior person for the rest of your life.
But God says, “No, because Christ has given Himself as a sin-offering and covered all your faults, I won’t reject you. In fact, I will choose you and give you a high status.” No more inferiority complex.

The exile was a time when it seemed God had removed Himself from His people.

As we saw in Isa 50:1, there had been no divorce after all: “Thus says Jehovah, ‘Where is this document of divorce from your mother by which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Look, by your iniquities you were sold, and by your sins your mother was sent away.’”
If you have placed your faith in Jesus, there will be times when it feels like God has forsaken you. That’s what Isaiah is talking about here. God never really does leave us or forsake us. He never actually writes up that divorce paper, we just have these feelings, when “we seem to be rejected by God when we do not perceive His presence and protection.” (Calvin)
Don’t be afraid of being forsaken. You won’t be forsaken.

This theme is continued in v.7, where the 70 year exile is referred to as a “brief moment.”

How can 70 years be called brief? It is in comparison to the eternity of God’s love for us. “Moment” is contrasted with “eternity” in v.8.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Don’t let the pain of this chastisement drive you away.

The “God of all the earth” (5b) is “your God” in particular (6b) because He “calls” you (v.6) and “gathers” you (v.7) into a relationship with Him.

“From Heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride.
With His own blood He bought her and for her life He died.” – Samuel Stone
Isa 41:10. “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I chose/strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Our faith is unique among world religions, having a Creator who binds creation to Himself and Himself to His creation by covenants like this. It’s like a marriage.
In a covenant relationship with the Creator of the universe, we have nothing to be afraid of. He is near and loves us.
Isaiah 62:1-4 “For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. 2 And the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings thy glory, and you will be called by a new name, which the mouth of Jehovah shall name. 3 You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4 You will no more be termed ‘Forsaken;’ neither shall your land any more be termed ‘Desolate:’ but you will be called ‘Hephzi-bah,’ [My delight is in her] and your land ‘Beulah;’ [Married] for Jehovah delights in you, and your land shall be married.”

This relationship is not initiated by you; it is initiated by God.

Isa 43:5. “Fear not, for I am with you. From the East I will bring your seed, and from the West I will gather you.”
Jeremiah 31:3 Jehovah appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
“I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me;
it was not I that found, O Savior true, no, I was found of thee.” -Anonymous

Maybe you don’t feel worthy of God’s love. Maybe you have been rejected by others. Can God really want me? Yes! Two chapters past this one Isaiah wrote (56:6-8) “Also the foreigners that join themselves to Jehovah, to minister unto Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be His servants, every one that keeps the sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant; 7 even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 8 The Lord Jehovah, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “I will also gather others to him, besides his own that are gathered.”

Conclusion

This prophecy of a population boom for God’s people not only applies to Israel flourishing after the exile under Nehemiah and Ezra, not only applies to the apostles and the church at its New Testament beginning, but it also applies to us today. There are a lot of imperatives here:

Sing/shout/break forth singing/cry aloud (v.1)

Sing praise songs and hymns whenever you can throughout the day! Sing with your family during family devotions; sing in the car when you’re driving, sing in the shower, sing when you’re working; any time is a good time. (Well, maybe not in the library; they’re not too keen on singing there.)
Praise God for what you admire in Him right now rather than complaining about what you don’t like about what He’s doing. “Your Maker is your Husband.” Think of how every exclamation of praise really butters a man up, and then exclaim away throughout the day to the glory of your God!
You can even praise God for what you know He will do even before He does it!

“Don’t hold back/spare not.” (v.2)

As William Carey put it, “Attempt GREAT things for God & Expect GREAT things from God.”
ILLUSTRATION: I bought a 4BR house in Manhattan, not expecting to have a ninth child. I held back on buying a big house.
What do we need to do as a church to have the strength and resiliency for more members?

Might God bring more children into you home though natural birth or adoption? Would you be ready for that? What would you need to do to get ready?
We are going through an evangelism study on Sunday nights. What do we need to do to prepare for God’s blessing on our evangelistic efforts? We need to be ready to disciple an influx of new believers. Do we have people ready to teach? Do they have time available? What discipleship materials would we use?
We need to be ready for growth in new church members. That is going to include moving to a larger facility – we’ve already been planning on moving downstairs where there would be more meeting space soon. We’ll need to print more bulletins and buy another set of communion trays and start more small-group Bible studies to accommodate the growth.
Once our church is no longer a church planting situation itself, we intend to begin planting another church. How will we plan for that? We need to prepare our hearts even now for sending church leaders we love here out to start that new church. We need to be on the lookout for the opportunities God opens up for us to start a new church.
We also need to press on to make disciples in all the world. We need to grow financially so we can double and quadruple the support our church gives to mission work like the Vaughns and Calls and Pevrills and Wosses are doing and the support we give to mercy ministries like Shepherd’s Crossing, the Women’s Pro-Life Clinic, and the TentMaker Project.

Are there other things we can do that would not make human sense in our current circumstances, but which would be acts of faith to prepare for the growth God promises?

Fear not… be not confounded/humiliated/fear disgrace/abashed/overwhelmed (v.4)

Do not let former hardships cause you to close up toward God. Don’t try to protect yourself from future hardships. Don’t allow bitterness to live in your heart; trust God; don’t be afraid.
God’s promise not to forsake us does not preclude hardship. Romans 8:35-39 Paul describes the love of God and how He is with us, but it is in the context of hardship: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, ‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’ 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In all these things we are more than conquers through Him who loves us.
Don’t be afraid. You have a great God who is with you like a husband and who will treat you with great compassion and kindness – trust Him.

Nate Wilson’s website – Isaiah Sermon Expositions

Christ the Redeemer Church website - Sermons