ENLARGE THE PLACE OF YOUR TENT
Isaiah 54:1-17
Key Verse: 2
“Enlarge the place of your tent,stretch your tent curtains wide,do not hold back;lengthen your cords,strengthen your stakes.
As we embark the New Year, may we keep the unity of the Spirit by making every effort to build up the church,the body of Christ.Today’s passage is Isaiah’s prophecy about the future glory of Israel which will be accomplished by the Messiah. God gives His people a great hope and comfort through His promises. May we learn who God is and what His desire for His people is. May we find out our God as the Redeemer and Husband.
The previous chapter of today’s passage is Isaiah 53. In this chapter Isaiah’s prophecy points to Jesus- the suffering Messiah. Isaiah 53:12b says, “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.” God gave His people the promise of the Messiah as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. God set the stage to proclaim the message of hope and vision for His people.
Look at verse 1. “Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor.” What an uncomfortable encouragement to a fatalistic woman! What kind of feelings may a barren woman have? A barren woman may feel that her life is fruitless, useless and meaningless. Hannah in the Bible was not able to conceive. When her rival Peninnah kept provoking her, she became downhearted and weeping and not eating. Hananh could not but pray in deep anguish weeping bitterly. Yes! Shame, guilt, pain, sorrow, depression and misery overcome the heart of the barren woman. But God challenged the barren woman to sing and shout for joy.Why? Verse 1b says, “because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”
In this passage, the relationship between God and Israel was compared to Husband and wife. The current marital status of the Israelites was widowhood (v4).She was a wife deserted and distressed in spirit. She was a wife who was rejected. For a brief moment God abandoned her due to her sins- sins of unfaithfulness, adultery of idol worship, forgetting her holy mission and losing her identity as a bride. In a surge of anger, God hid His face for a moment. When God hid His face momentarily, her destiny became so miserable, sorrowful and desolate. She had to go through the period of restoring purity toward her Husband through discipline. The Babylonian army ravaged the city Jerusalem and destroyed the temple and kept them as prisoners for 70 years. When they returned, they were sorrowful and bitter.
How could desolate woman bear more children than the woman who has a husband? Look at verse 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.” These 6 names tell us who God is. God the Maker is her Husband. No matter how great a human husband is, he is not perfect. Sometimes husbands disappoint their wives and give them more trouble. When Rachel became jealous of her sister Leah, she said to Jacob, “Give me children or I’ll die!” Then Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” Jacob couldn’t bear even the nagging of his beloved wife.
But God says that He is their husband. He is their Maker and Redeemer. What are the characteristics of God the Husband? The word “compassion” appears 3 times in this chapter. God said in verse 7b, “With deep compassion I will bring you back.” Verse 8b says, “With everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you.” Our God husband has everlasting kindness and compassion. Israel can trust in His everlasting kindness. She can lean on His everlasting arms.
We should not make our God Husband angry because of our unfaithfulness. We need simple trust in God who has everlasting kindness and compassion. We need to restore our relationship with Him.The sorrowful woman Israel could rejoice because God had hope for her and He gave her His word of promise. God’s promise gives us hope. When the promises of God come into our heart, hope takes root. Fear, despair, grudges and bitterness go out.
Apostle Paul quoted verse 1 in Galatians chapter 4 explaining the hidden spiritual meaning. He contrasts the son by the slave woman Hagar and the son by Sarah. The son by Hagar was born according to the flesh, but the son by Sarah was born as the result of a divine promise. Although Sarah’s womb was barren, but by the power of the Spirit, promised son was born.(Gal 4:29)
Sarah in Genesis remained childless for a long time until she became 90 years old. Her womb was dead. Abraham’s body condition was also so old that his body was as good as dead. But against all hopes, God gave Sarah one son “Isaac” miraculously in an impossible situation. All her shame, sorrow and misery disappeared through the promised son “Isaac.” Sarah had only one son, but through this son, God raised the nation of Israel and numerous spiritual descendants of Abraham. Likewise, we are the children of promise through the new covenant.
Look at verse 2. “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” What an amazing command it is! NLT version translates this as follows: “Enlarge your house; build an addition. Spread out your home, and spare no expense!” Why does God tell her to expand her house? It is because her children will be so many and her house won’t accommodate them all. It sounds like that they need to move into bigger house with many rooms instead of staying in an bachelor apartment.
A barren woman didn’t need for a bigger tent. One room tent was enough for her. “Enlarge the place of your tent” means widen your heart. She needs to have God’s vision.
It was the same situation with Abraham. When Abraham stayed at a dark tent in despair with childless problem, God took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars, so shall your offspring be.” Though Abraham didn’t have even one child in his arm, He took God’s promise as his own. Vision comes when one hears God’s word of promise. That’s why God changed the name from Abram, a noble father, to Abraham “a father of many nations.”
Verse 2b says, “Lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” If one wants to make the place of his tent larger, he must have longer tent ropes and he must hammer the tent stakes deeper into the ground. Our prayer and bible study need to go longer and deeper for God’s kingdom to come to earth. Our prayer reaches as high as the heavens, to our Father God and our prayer reaches to the far places of the earth. We must root ourselves into the word of God by daily Bible reading and study.
MSG version gives this passage a small title, “Spread out! Think big!” God’s people should think big. They should see the future beyond present situation. Holy nation people need to have different mentality. We, holy nation people need to build up spiritual capacity through prayer and deep bible study as if athletes build up their muscles through physical trainings.We, a kingdom of priests need to restore kingdom mentality that is to view everything from the perspective of the kingdom of God.
Look at verse 3. “For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.” This verse is God’s vision for his people to conquer the world with the gospel. The Crusaders tried to conquered the world with swords.But they failed. But God’s people need to conquer the world with the word of God and the love of God.
Look at verse 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.” What is this covenant of peace? This is the covenant made through Jesus’ blood. The night before Jesus was crucified, he had a last supper with His disciples. He gave them a cup and said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”(Mt 26:28)God made His Son a guilt offering and forgave all our sins. Jesus brought us peace and healing through his suffering. Through the blood of Jesus, broken relationship with God was restored. God’s vision would come true through the gathering of believers around the world through the gospel.
Look at verse 11. “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted. I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli.” Jerusalem was an afflicted city by many enemies. But God promises that He will rebuild the city with all kinds of precious stones. What kind of city is this? It is the new Jerusalem whose architect and builder is God. God prepared this beautiful celestial city for His children.
Look at verse 13. “All their children will be taught by the Lord and great will be their peace.” This is the image of the kingdom of God. We will live there in perfect peace and joy. God will live with us and we will see Him face to face. This is the heritage of the children of the Lord.
Our family experienced the feeling of barrenness since my wife became barren after she had delivered her first child. She went through many procedures to bear more children for instance consulting doctors in fertility clinics, having countless blood tests and injections, laparoscopy and even taking oriental herbal medication to fit her body for pregnancy. Often her tears had been her food day and night. I was discouraged by her flat tummy for long years in spite of all our effort. When doctors said, “we cannot find any medical reasons not to conceive,” we were more discouraged. Virtually we gave up all human hope completely and surrendered to God for His mercy through prayer. But one day after 10 years of long silence, suddenly, she got pregnant and delivered her baby not only one but also the third one. We learned a painful lesson that bearing children belongs to God. It would be the same way that bearing spiritual children belongs to God as we look up on God and His mercy and wait on His time.
When the Moravians were fleeing for their lives as refugees from persecution, they settled on Count Zinzendorf’s land and became a praying community. Ludwig called the gathering “Hidden Seeds.” After one Sunday service, Zinzendorf began to pray fervently. Congregation stayed on their knees, praying until after midnight. They prayed for true unity among the gathered pouring out their hearts to God. Then they felt a new closeness to God and to each other. Many pledged themselves to spend one hour a day in prayer. Singing also became a vital part of everyday life. Members were encouraged to recite “Daily watchword” from a Bible verse. Revival was taking place. Then they began to concern about people who haven’t heard the gospel and send missionaries to all over the world including Greenland, Africa, North America and South America. Wherever they built a mission station, they put motto, “Together we pray, together we labor, together we suffer, together we rejoice.” This small band of homeless, persecuted Christian community prayed and studied the Bible until God enlarged the place of their tent.
God gathered each one of us here to build up a church, the body of Christ. This is God’s vision. God has His divine purpose to produce the children of promise through His church. Jesus is our Bridegroom and church is His bride. When church becomes Jesus’ centered, and our gathering is offered as a radiant church, children of God would be growing. God is the one who will make us fruitful. He challenges us to reach out to draw the whole world into the tent of God. Though we live in asmall corner of the city of Toronto, we need to look up at God and catch His vision and pray for the world. We look forward to seeing the future, 5years, 10years and even beyond our generation. Like the Moravian community, may we gather together, pray and sing together, study the bible together and suffering together until revival arrives in our community.
Because of Jesus’ sprinkling blood, we have been restored from our broken relationship with God. Our lives can be fruitful only by the grace of our true Husband and Redeemer, God. When we are united with God Husband, our lives can bear fruit to God. His Holy Spirit indwells us. When His words is in us and we are in the word, we bear fruit. May God bless each family to restore the relationship with God and build up a fruitful church holding on to God’s vision this year.