Introduction
I have some good news and some bad news.
That’s a classic setup we often hear. It’s a phrase that can make our hearts race a little because we never quite know what’s coming next. We often ask ourselves, “Will the good news be more good than the bad news is bad? Or will the bad news be far worse and overshadow the good news, making the good news disappointing?”
Now, in our study of the book of Isaiah, it feels a bit like that. And we could only imagine what it may have felt like for the exiled Israelites reading Isaiah’s words as it’s been a wild ride of good news and bad news. One moment, Isaiah is promising wonderful things, like the deliverance of Israel, and the next, he’s warning of impending destruction and scorn. It’s been chapter after chapter of good news, bad news.
In Chapter 53, the Everest of Isaiah (as pastor Jon describes), we learned about the suffering servant, which points directly to the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the Gospel, which literally means good news!
And as a result of the work of the suffering servant in chapter 53, we reach Isaiah 54—a chapter that breaks this pattern. Today, we’re moving from good news, bad news, to good news, great news!
Isaiah 54:1-5
“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.
“Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations
and settle in their desolate cities.
“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.
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.
Joy Replaces Shame
Isaiah opens in verse 1 with a call to sing for joy to a childless, barren, husbandless woman.
Isaiah 54:1
Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
Isaiah is using this woman in verse 1 to describe Israel’s depth of shame and despair. In Isaiah’s time, a childless woman, who couldn’t get pregnant and who had no husband was the triple whammy of shame in their culture. To put it in perspective, imagine for a moment, your worst nightmare of circumstances in your life. Perhaps, if you are a man, it would be that you caught your spouse having an affair after you were fired from your job and when you got to your house you found a foreclosure notice hanging on your front door… Imagine how you’d feel; alone, hurt, hopeless, desperate, depressed… Imagine your life as you know it… canceled! And now imagine in your lowest time where you feel ashamed and alone, and your mom says, “Yeah you messed up, and I know your life feels like it’s over, but don’t worry, be happy!”
It doesn’t make much sense, but instead of despair and shame, Isaiah says, “Burst into song, shout for joy!” WHY? “Because more are the children of the desolate (or husbandless) woman than of her who has a husband.”
Burst into song! Shout for joy!
Isaiah is saying that the children of Israel (who is the desolate woman in Isaiah’s metaphor here)… will one day outnumber those in the surrounding nations. So in verse 2 he tells them to get ready!
Isaiah 54:2
“Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
When Martha and I got married, we lived in a two bedroom apartment, then we got pregnant with Cooper and moved into a three bedroom house. Then we had Claire and got pregnant again and we were like we need a bigger house (I know, so American of us.) So in anticipation of more children we built a bigger house. Of course Israel spent many generations living in tents so Isaiah is saying, “you’re gonna need a bigger tent!” WHY?
Isaiah 54:3
For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations
and settle in their desolate cities.
In a sense, this did happen. When Cyrus, the Persian king, came and freed the people of Israel, many of their descendants did return and inhabit the cities conquered by Babylon and Assyria. But certainly, not the part about more children of Israel than the surrounding nations… Jews make up only .2% of the world’s population. Certainly not the part about spreading to the left and the right as the NATION of Israel currently occupies a narrow piece of land in the middle east. But this is not about Israel as a Nation. This is not about the restoration of a country. This is about the restoration of God’s people. Again, we just came off of Isaiah 53 and we see that restoration and redemption of God’s people comes through the suffering servant of chapter 53—Jesus!Now read these verses in light of Jesus’ kingdom! Today there are Billions of Christians from the East to the West (right to the left) and the best is yet to come as Revelation 7:9 describes as “A great multitude of which no one could number!”
So what does this mean for you and for me? It means that the Gospel takes our shame and replaces it with joy. But there’s something else going on here. God first invites his people to exercise faith, first in verse 1, by singing for Joy when the circumstances don’t warrant it and then in verse 2 by expanding their tents in anticipation for God’s work. God was inviting them to trust him and put their faith into action! This is what the Gospel does for us when we exercise faith; hope rises, we move in obedience, we bear spiritual fruit, experience God’s blessing and all along the way, JOY replaces SHAME! But let’s continue because it gets better!
Isaiah 54:4
“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.
Not only will God’s people be restored and fruitful, they won’t even remember the shame of their youth, which means one day they won’t remember the shame of when they were slaves in Egypt. And one day they won’t remember the reproach of their widowhood which refers to the desolation of their nation and exile in Babylon.
And for us, this is huge! So many of us live in the shame of our past life of sin, bad decisions and their consequences! And instead of living in the joy of our salvation we live in the shame and guilt of our past failures and disappointments and God says forget it! It’s over!
Don’t live in the shame of your past nor in the fear of the future!
Isaiah 54:5
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.
I love this verse! This is beautiful stuff, it’s like God flexin’. Joy replaces Shame because God is Israel’s faithful husband, he’s their protector, provider, their promise keeper, their redeemer. Oh and by the way… He’s called God of the earth… He’s not just any old husband… He’s the perfect husband!
And just as God causes Israel to forget their shame, we have a bridegroom in Jesus Christ, that does the same for us. Paul in Romans shouts to our past: Therefore now, there is no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus! (Romans 8:1)… Because anyone who believes in Him (Jesus) will never be put to shame! (Romans 10:11)
The good news is that when the Gospel is at work in our lives… Joy Replaces Shame!
Accepted not Rejected
Isaiah 54:6
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.
This language is so beautiful and poetic you can miss something so important. Isaiah continues the metaphor of a woman in distress, but now a woman who was so distressed who had married young was deserted and rejected. And when you really think about this young woman you can really sympathize with her because she was deserted by her husband! But we have to realize this woman is Israel and God did not desert Israel, Israel turned their back on God. Israel’s pain is one of their own doing! Such is the way of our own sin!
Sin is like poison that tastes like honey. We tend to lap it up like a dog going after table scraps only to be miserable later. And so eventually what happens? Paul explains in Romans 1, Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts… He allows us to be taken captive by our sin. But he always calls us back. “Here I am!” says the savior in Revelation 3:20, I stand at the door and knock… Oh the good news keeps getting better!
Listen to how Isaiah continues in verse 7, the poetry is exquisite:
Isaiah 54:7-8
“For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
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.
It’s not just a moment… but a brief moment that God abandons. It’s a surge of anger… a surge may be intense, but it comes and goes quickly? The statement “I hid my face from you for a moment”… is God’s face is his blessing or his favor. Rest assured that Israel at this point did not feel blessed or favored…My guess is they were likely echoing the words of David, “O God why do you hide your face from me?” And God promises this will be just a moment. Furthermore, God’s anger was against sin, the “moment” of exile would purge the rebels, draw contrition, and build faith.
I don’t know if this parenting technique is in vogue anymore, but remember when putting your children in time-out was a thing? I remember putting our son Christian in a timeout. There was a period when he was particularly stubborn when it came to being obedient. So he would go into a timeout. But you can’t just put a child in timeout for a few seconds and then expect them to have a change of heart! Sometimes they have to sit there for… several moments… Because it’s the duration of the discipline that causes a change of heart. Do you think for one moment I didn’t love that little turkey? I may have been angry at that little sinner’s behavior, and yes he didn’t get to be in our presence, but don’t think for one moment that every second he was in that corner being sad that I wasn’t standing around the corner waiting to scoop him up in my arms and love on him as my son!
How much more is God waiting around the corner for us to acknowledge our sin so he can wrap us up in his blessings? For the moment you might be in a timeout… but you are not rejected! So good!
Isaiah 54:9-10
“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.
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.
Remember the story of Noah’s ark and the great flood in Genesis 9? Well, God promised Noah that there would never again be a worldwide flood, remember the rainbow? If you didn’t know this, when you see a rainbow in the sky after a storm, it reminds us that God would never again be so angry as to end all life with a global flood. So just as God promised Noah, here God promises his people he will never be so angry again to reject or abandon them.
God’s Hesed – his unfailing, selfless, loyal, faithful, and often underserved love and covenant of peace will remain with His people “though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed.” It is an eternal covenant that will outlast the earth itself; This “covenant of peace” is a reference to what the exiled prophet Jeremiah would later describe as the “new covenant.”
Remember, Isaiah 54 follows Isaiah 53. What was Isaiah describing? The new covenant through the suffering servant, Jesus. Just as Paul explains in Romans 5:1 … since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
The good news for those of us who have felt rejected is that NO MATTER WHAT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR LIFE, Jesus is the only one who will never leave you or forsake you. Not my words, His! If you have confessed Christ as Lord and are following Jesus… rest assured, you will never be rejected, because you are eternally accepted!
Now onto verse 11 and more good news!
Isaiah 54:11-12
“Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
your foundations with lapis lazuli.
I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of sparkling jewels,
and all your walls of precious stones.
If you are a little younger you may not remember this, but Sarajevo Yugoslavia hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. It was considered one of the most beautiful venues with the most magnificent stadiums at the time, but in 1992 the country fell and the city of Sarajevo would be war-torn for nearly a decade. And the once home to the international games that signified the peace of humanity became a literal battleground leaving the former Olympic village in rubble. The city has never recovered. But here, God promises to build back better!
Build Back Better!
This is a picture of the afflicted city in verse 11, Jerusalem conquered and ravished by war. And yet there is a promise to Jerusalem envisioned here. And it’s BUILT BACK BETTER!
The city rebuilt with precious stones and jewels can also be found in the New Jerusalem found in Revelation 21:10. This is an eternal city, never again subject to the ravaging of war. But it’s not just a physical rebuilding for the new Jerusalem, it’s a spiritual renewal for God’s people!
Isaiah 54:13-14
All your children will be taught by the Lord,
and great will be their peace.
In righteousness you will be established:
The children, who are the descendants of exiled Israel, are the future of God’s people and will be taught by the Lord through the new covenant. Jeremiah’s description of the new covenant is really helpful in understanding what is meant here: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.
God’s people would no longer need a priest to teach them as they would have a Great high priest in Jesus to teach them. We were meant to know God personally through Jesus Christ and taught by the words of Christ through His word and by his Holy Spirit! And our peace in our lives will be like the peace that passes all understanding. We will have peace even when it doesn’t make sense. That’s the good news of verse 13… God is spiritually building us on the Rock… so when the storms of life come, we can stand in peace and not be washed away with anxiety.
In the same way, our righteousness will no longer be about our ability to live good lives and be a good person, because if that was the case, I’d be in screwed! No, our righteousness is found in the shed blood of Jesus… He can take our broken-down lives and build them back better than ever… It begins with spiritual renewal and then physical.
Stop holding onto the past. God can not only restore you, and Build you Back, better than ever! Maybe you don’t have a past (or think you have a past), but you’re living in the unrealized hopes and dreams of your present life, your “meh” life, and the Gospel says, “Let go of what you think, and put your faith in action, trust me, I’ve got more for you than you can possibly ask, think, hope or imagine when Christ is at the center!”
Lastly, guess what? More great news!
Assurance of Protection
Isaiah 54:14b-17
Tyranny will be far from you;
you will have nothing to fear.
Terror will be far removed;
it will not come near you.
If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing;
whoever attacks you will surrender to you.
“See, it is I who created the blacksmith
who fans the coals into flame
and forges a weapon fit for its work.
And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc;
no weapon forged against you will prevail,
and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
In these verses, Isaiah contrasts God’s past use of the nations to discipline Israel with a new promise to protect Israel from them. If nations gather against Israel now, it will not be by the LORD’s doing, and thus they will not succeed in their mission (verse 15). I have heard many people ask… Did God cause the Holocaust to punish Israel? No he did not! The promise is right here in Isaiah 54:15.
God asserts in verse 16 “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. God has sovereign control over both the maker of weapons and the one who wields them; however, no more will God cause the nations to attack his people.
How then, do we reconcile all the horrific acts that have been done to God’s people, especially in light of verse 17? no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
Because the emphasis is not only on physical protection, it’s spiritual protection. To quote of my favorite songs, In Christ Alone; “No power of hell, nor scheme of man, could ever pluck me from your hand.”
These promises were not fully realized by the returning exiles. Hebrews states that they all died without receiving the promise, indicating that the ultimate fulfillment is still to come. These promises are a function of what we might call the “now and not yet.” Joy that replaces shame, Acceptance instead of rejection, Lives Built back Better, Assurance of Protection… all of these are available now to us but they will not be fully realized this side of eternity. This comes to light in the second half of verse 17:
Isaiah 54:17b
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
and this is their vindication from me,”
declares the Lord.
All the promises in Chapter 54 hang on our understanding of this verse. Isaiah is not speaking of Israel as a nation. He’s not speaking of Israel as we know it today. Heritage throughout the Old Testament is an individual or personal word. It means an inheritance to an individual. It’s like my Dutch ethnic DNA and heritage is passed on to my children, not to anyone else’s children. Isaiah is talking about an individual here.
Furthermore, notice that the word servants here is plural. Up to chapter 53, the word servant was commonly used as a singular servant, whether it was the nation of Israel or the suffering servant of chapter 53. Chapter 53 is the last instance of the word servant used as a singular nation or collective people. From here on out Isaiah is speaking of individual servants… Whether Jews or Gentiles, the reality is, that the good news of this chapter is individual promises for individual servants of the Lord.
…and this is their vindication from me,” I think the ESV here makes more sense as it uses the word “righteousness” instead of vindication. And we know righteousness is found only through Christ for each person.
So the message for us today is the same as the message for the returning exiles in Isaiah 54. God through Christ, has called us to be his servants; a kingdom of priests and a holy nation displaying the mercy and righteousness of God.
God through Christ, has called us to be his servants
Are you a servant of the Lord? The big idea for today is really a question. Are you a servant of the Lord? Have you confessed and surrendered your life to Jesus as Lord? Servants of the Lord, are putting their faith into action. Faith in action is not, You do and therefore you are saved. No, it’s you believe that Christ already saved you, therefore, you do!
Are you a servant of the Lord? Are you seeking Jesus and being taught by his word? Are you walking in obedience? Is there evidence in your life that the Holy Spirit is at work? If so, you are called son or daughter of God, and let me tell you, the future is bright, you have an inheritance that can never be snatched away both for the here and now, and forevermore!
Conversely, all people who do not serve God through the Lordship of Christ are not called sons and daughters of THE Servant and therefore lose out on this inheritance God promises to both Jew and Gentile. OK, I guess that IS a bit of bad news… But of course good news is only good because of its reference point…bad news.
Are you a servant of the Lord?