Isaiah study & commentary

Isaiah 54:1-3

Isaiah give the command to 'sing'; this can also be praise.  It is to cry aloud with emotion that can be with joy or sorrow.  The barren one is Zion; pictured as a barren woman having no children.  She is to rejoice because he future is about to be reversed by the redemptive work of the servant of Isaiah 53.  She is to make preparations by expanding the tent.  It's almost like Isaiah says, 'Think bigger!'  Enlarge, stretch, lengthen and strengthen, to the right and to the left.  Though she has no children, she will have countless descendants that will inherit the nations.  See Gen 12:3; 28:14; Romans 11

Isaiah 54:4-8

What is there to fear?  To not fear though, we must trust.  Trusting is hard for us, we want to control our life and know the outcome.  How can we trust the one we were once unfaithful to?  We know what we deserve.  The shame of youth for Israel was idolatry, likened to infidelity.  The reproach of having her children stripped away in judgment left her like a barren woman.  While it's clear that disgrace, shame and reproach are appropriate because of the distrust, yet the Lord asked her to trust.  The Lord, the one who made her, is her husband. 

Israel is called.  That never changed.  They took a long and tortured path to arrive at their calling, stiff-necked and hard-hearted.  The call was one of hope to the forsaken and grieved; to the young wife rejected.

The judgment would seem lengthy, in reality it was brief.  They would feel forsaken, hidden from God's sight.  But the promise and mercy of a gathering sat on the horizon as their hope.

Isaiah 54:9-10

The covenant of peace is likened to the Noahic covenant.  As God swore the waters would not cover the earth, He likewise swears that His covenant of peace would by way of the redemptive work coming out of Israel.  This peace is God's kindness, as the promise not to flood the earth.  It is an unbreakable covenant.

Isaiah 54:11-15

Israel was the afflicted one in Isaiah's day, but not yet in exile.  The day would come when they would long for that comfort.  God is giving them that hope, that vision of the future day on the horizon.  No more empty religion, seeking God but failing constantly.  They would be taught directly by the Lord.  In many ways, this was what Jesus did as he brought salvation to the Jews.  Once rejected, that salvation would come after the fullness of the gentiles.  The day would come, when they would be established in righteousness.  No more fear, no oppression, no terror.  Anyone coming against Israel would fall by the hand of protection of the Lord.

Isaiah 54:16-17

The blacksmith stokes the fire, judgment.  Assyria and Babylon were these tools used.  But now, no weapon formed against them will be successful.  Every tongue against them will speak its own judgment.  This is the heritage for us if we claim to be servant of the Lord.  Our righteousness is from the Lord.

©2018 Doug Ford