“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.

Here is a repeated theme in the Bible: a barren woman made fertile by God’s power. It happened to individuals, but here it speaks of what is going to happen to little, exiled Israel.

I see in these verses:

  • Supernatural births (1);
  • Spectacular growth (2,3a);
  • Stunning conquest (3b).

In ‘The Message’ version, this chapter is headed: ‘Spread out! Think big!’ The first three verses read:


 “Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby.
    Fill the air with song, you who’ve never experienced childbirth!
You’re ending up with far more children
    than all those childbearing women.” God says so!
“Clear lots of ground for your tents!
    Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!
Use plenty of rope,
    drive the tent pegs deep.
You’re going to need lots of elbow room
    for your growing family.
You’re going to take over whole nations;
    you’re going to resettle abandoned cities.

Barry Webb helps us to see this part of Isaiah in context:

‘Isaiah…conceived of the ideal future for which he and all God’s faithful people longed in terms of a covenant of peace that would be the culmination of all that was promised in the covenants that had marked Israel’s history from the very beginning…Just as in chapter 53 the atoning death of the Servant is already viewed from the divine perspective as already accomplished, so here in chapters 54 and 55 it is assumed as the basis of a new covenant of peace which will be the fulfilment of all previous covenants.’ ‘Isaiah’, p.215.

Verses 1-3 call to mind the Abrahamic covenant (see 51:1-3/Gen.12:1-3). Just as God overcame Sarah’s biological barrenness, so he would deal with Israel’s ‘barrenness’ during the exile. As Abraham received God’s promises when he was a tent-dweller in a foreign land, so his descendants are to stand on those promises as they live in a strange land.

Here is encouragement for us all: we may stand on God’s promises because He stands by them.

PRAYER: Lord, please give us ‘children’, and many of them.