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In righteousness you will be established:
tyranny will be far from you;
    you will have nothing to fear.
Terror will be far removed;
    it will not come near you.
¹⁵ If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing;
    whoever attacks you will surrender to you.

¹⁶ ‘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;
¹⁷     no weapon forged against you will prevail,
    and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
    and this is their vindication from me,’
declares the Lord.

Just a final word on Isaiah 54 before we move on. It is simply to make the observation that there is much here that will only find full and final fulfilment in the future Kingdom of God. Only then will believers be finally beautified and beyond the reach of all malevolent attack.

‘What a grand vista opens up before us in verses 11-17 – a whole renewed universe! And at its centre is the city of God, the point where heaven and earth meet and God is present with his people for ever (11-17). This city is the final resting place of the servants of the LORD, the reward and vindication for all that they have suffered because of their faithfulness to God (17).’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, p.216.

‘In verses 11-12, Isaiah gives a figurative description of Jerusalem following the exile. But it is even more a description of the new Jerusalem, which will come down from heaven at the end of history; this heavenly Jerusalem will be prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, the Lord Himself (Revelation 21:2,10-11, 18-21).’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1058.

All your children will be taught by the Lord,
    and great will be their peace.

I had a book on my shelf for many years entitled ‘The Spiritual Warrior’s Prayer Guide.’ It dealt with praying for many areas of life, such as marriage, family life and children. In each chapter, Bible verses were referenced that seemed to have a bearing on the particular issue in view. Isaiah 54:13 was one such Scripture, pertaining to prayer for one’s children. At the time I thought this was a great prayer to pray. I still do!

PRAYER: Lord, I pray today for__ that he/she will be taught by you, and know the peace that accompanies obedience to divine education. Give me the grace to ‘always pray and not give up.’

‘Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
    I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
    your foundations with lapis lazuli.
¹² I will make your battlements of rubies,
    your gates of sparkling jewels,
    and all your walls of precious stones.

There’s a little booklet called ‘The 4 spiritual laws’. It is a simple tool for sharing the gospel. The first of these goes: ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.’ But I remember reading an article in a ‘Campus Crusade’ magazine in which a girl called Ruth wrote, ‘God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life. So why do I so often act like He made a big mistake when He made me?’

It’s not the plans we have for ourselves, but God’s plans for us that matter.

PRAYER: Lord God, please will you rebuild my broken down life, and make me all you want me to be. Beautify my life so that I shine for you.

‘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.

¹¹ ‘Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
    I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
    your foundations with lapis lazuli.
¹² I will make your battlements of rubies,
    your gates of sparkling jewels,
    and all your walls of precious stones.

Who gets to heaven without, at times, feeling battered?

‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’  Acts 14:22.

But the other side of battering there can lie building (or ‘re-building’).

And not only building but building with beauty.

Truly, in God’s Kingdom, it is repeatedly those who have suffered the most who ‘sparkle’ the most.

This is God’s work. Note the repeated ”I will”.

If we shine as lights in the world – as we surely pray we will – it is His doing, and to Him be all the glory. Just as the moon cannot boast that its light is its own, neither can we.

It will be in the final and full expression of God’s Kingdom that we will be most lustrous. But even now, our radiance can increase in our on-going relationship with Jesus (see 2 Cor.3:18).

‘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.

There are times in the Christian life when we may feel deserted by God, and as a result we are ”distressed in spirit”. At times it may indeed appear ”as if” we are abandoned. But the truth is we are not. The Lord remains the faithful Husband of His bride, the church.

So, in the face of all contrary negative emotions, let us affirm the truth of Scripture:

‘…God has said,

”Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” ‘ (From Hebs 13:5).

‘God says it, I believe it, that settles it.’

‘Enlarge the place of your tent,
    stretch your tent curtains wide,
    do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
    strengthen your stakes.

I remember reading a book by a well known Christian author, and his counsel was, ‘Every day, read in the Bible as far as something ‘hits’ you, and then carry that with you all through the day.’ Of course, it is not the only approach to Bible reading (and it’s not my own pattern), but I thought it had merit: take the text God has impressed on you into the day. Meditate on it. Turn it into prayer. Perhaps share it with others as the Lord leads you.

Just the other day, as I was re-reading Isaiah 54, and seeking to translate it into prayer, I was hit by the words: ”do not hold back”. They resonate with me at the moment, and I simply want to ask the question, ‘Is there any area in your life where you are aware of ‘holding back’? God is speaking to you, and you know it. But possibly fear, or some other reason, is causing you to drag your heels.

You know, and I know (but let’s remind ourselves) that if God is in it, we need not fear it, and He will ‘give the growth’ as we step out in obedience.

Something else ‘struck’ me in my Bible reading this morning. In 1 Sam 19, Jonathon is speaking up for his beloved friend David, in the presence of his hostile father Saul. In verse 5 he says:

”He took his life in his own hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad.’

Note: there was something brave David had to do, but look what God did!

”…do not hold back”

PRAYER: Thank you Lord that you graciously speak to us. Please give me the faith and courage to obey.

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.

‘With reference to the LORD as Israel’s Maker, husband and Redeemer in verses 4-8 the focus shifts to the Sinai covenant. In her youth Israel had suffered the shame of slavery in Egypt; in her maturity she was to suffer the disgrace of widowhood in Babylon. But as the LORD took her to be his bride, entering into a covenant with her at Mount Sinai, so he would take her again and renew his relationship with her. He would not cease to be her husband and Redeemer. The Sinai covenant would stand.’ Barry Webb, p.216.

I have highlighted in bold, in the text ’emotional’ words, and reading it prompts me to pray:

Lord, we bring to you all those who are feeling shame and disgrace, fear and distress. We lift to you those feeling the pain of abandonment and rejection. Cause them to turn to you, and find in in you ‘deep compassion’ and ‘everlasting kindness’. Call them back to yourself, Lord, and they will return if you turn them. May they (we) know for sure that through the blood of Christ’s Cross there is lasting peace (v.10).

“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.

See, my servant will act wisely;
    he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
¹⁴ Just as there were many who were appalled at him–
    his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
    and his form marred beyond human likeness –
¹⁵ so he will sprinkle many nations,
    and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
    and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

One of the most esteemed Bible teachers in my denomination lived in Leeds during his retirement. He was just down the road from Boston Spa where I lived and pastored a church. So I invited him to come and speak for us regularly, and what a privilege it was to sit under his ministry. He was such a kind and gracious man, and his life was always an even finer sermon than any of the great messages he brought.

Anyway, as a church, we often worked through Bible books and passages, and he would be happy to be given a text to address in his preparation. But I remember when we allocated to him Isaiah 53. When he got up to speak, it became obvious that he had never, in decades of ministry, expounded this chapter. Such was the reverence he felt for it. I’m sure he had often quoted it, and alluded to it, but he hadn’t approached it in the way we had asked him to. His very attitude was the sermon that day. I have never forgotten it, and I know others were also affected by it.

I have spent a lot of time, in the early months of this year, studying the fourth ‘Servant Song’, for various talks I’ve been doing. I am aware that there are depths here I have not begun to fathom. I feel the inadequacy of my words, and my unworthiness to write about it.

Perhaps the best we can do is to join our esteemed brother in ‘removing our shoes’ and marvelling at all we see around us on this ‘Holy ground’ of Isaiah 53.

PRAYER: ‘May I never lose the wonder, the wonder of the Cross.’