Thoughts on Isaiah 54

Isaiah 54 

1“Sing, barren woman,

    you who never bore a child;

burst into song, shout for joy,

    you who were never in labor;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

    than of her who has a husband,”

says the Lord.

2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,

    stretch your tent curtains wide,

    do not hold back;

lengthen your cords,

    strengthen your stakes.

3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;

    your descendants will dispossess nations

    and settle in their desolate cities.

4 “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.

    Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.

You will forget the shame of your youth

    and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.

5 For your Maker is your husband—

    the Lord Almighty is his name—

the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;

    he is called the God of all the earth.

6 The Lord will call you back

    as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—

a wife who married young,

    only to be rejected,” says your God.

7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you,

    but with deep compassion I will bring you back.

8 In a surge of anger

    I hid my face from you for a moment,

but with everlasting kindness

    I will have compassion on you,”

    says the Lord your Redeemer.

9 “To me this is like the days of Noah,

    when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.

So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,

    never to rebuke you again.

10 Though the mountains be shaken

    and the hills be removed,

yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken

    nor my covenant of peace be removed,”

    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

I have been totally wrecked and encouraged by this passage so I wanted to share some of my reflections. 

The Lord (through Isaiah) compares Israel (his chosen people who were in exile from their homeland at the time) to a barren woman, and gives them the command to sing in their distress. 

In all that I can imagine about the dire situation that Israel was in of captivity, shame and oppression, I can tell you for sure that I cannot imagine singing or worshiping being an instinctual response. This word that the Lord gives to sing in the face of great trial is not only unexpected...it is radical. 

Why was this call given to celebrate, praise, and expand in preparation for growth amidst a season of nothing but lack?

In 1 Samuel we find the story of Hannah, who could not conceive, crying out to the Lord for a son. She was grieving and desperate, praying with all of her heart at the temple. After receiving a word that she would have a son, she got up, went home, and ate...a symbol of coming out of her grief. This is very profound to me. After years of tears and praying many desperate prayers, she trusted the Lord enough to take him at his word, beginning to prepare and partner with Him to see the fulfillment of the word come to pass. She did not wait until she saw fulfillment of the promise to begin acting in accordance with it and believing what she had heard. 

I bring up that story because the attitude of faith and preparation that Hannah embodies seems so similar to that found here in the verses “enlarge your tent…stretch your curtains wide.” Why were they told to prepare for increase in the middle of decrease…rain in the wasteland…life in the lifeless? The revelation I feel so strongly here is that there is something so tangible that happens when we respond to the call to praise before we see the fruit of our praise. 

Prayers that rise from the valley of the shadow of death are prayers that bring forth life. 

What is the fruit of choosing the Lord in the desolate place? This choice forges the way into deeper intimacy with Him, uncovering the messy myriad of unanswered questions that if left hidden tend to stifle our worship as we pretend they do not exist. This choice admits and exposes our lack, inviting a greater level of dependence on a loving God. 

Desperate seasons force us to make a harder choice in how we will relate to Him...will we back away, distancing ourselves because of the difficulty of our circumstances? Or will we trust Him enough to believe that the wilderness is intended to bring a greater depth of oneness with Him? 

There is so much significance in responding to the word of the Lord with concrete action. Just as Hannah did in 1 Samuel, here the Lord urges his people to prepare for life. What if it is actually in whatever the “wasteland” happens to look like for each of us that we are paving a pathway for new life through our cry of worship? 

I look around me and see such sorrow, such loss, such anger and fear. And I have come to be so entirely convinced of the Lord’s heart to use all of this for good. It may sound strange to say it this way, but times of hopelessness give me so much hope. This is true because of the joy I find in the nature of God to redeem all things, heal all things, restore all things, and to always bring something out of nothing. Hopelessness is NEVER the end of the story. 

For your Maker is your husband, the Lord Almighty is his name, the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit, a wife who married young, only to be rejected.

When I read this part I was seriously taken aback that this was in the Bible. The union between a husband and wife is the most intimate union we can be a part of on this earth. Could it really be that this is the level of oneness that God desires with His children? Could it be that all that is desolate in our lives is intended to draw us to know our Maker with this kind of closeness? 

Do we really believe that God keeps His promises?

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

I don’t know about you, but it is pretty hard for me to imagine literal hills being removed from where they are sitting. Mountains seem pretty securely situated to me. Yet this passage says that even these immovable structures are nothing compared to the unshakable nature of the covenant of God’s PEACE. 

God is not surprised when your world is shaken. And His love, his compassion, his faithfulness...those things remain the same when nothing else does.