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Isaiah 54:1

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  • Isaiah 54:1

    Isaiah 54:1

    “Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth;
    burst into song and shout,
    you who have not been in labor!
    For the children of the forsaken one will be more
    than the children of the married woman,”

    says the Lord.

    What does the bold and underlined verse mean?

    Thanks.

  • #2
    Originally posted by Christian3 View Post
    Isaiah 54:1

    “Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth;
    burst into song and shout,
    you who have not been in labor!
    For the children of the forsaken one will be more
    than the children of the married woman,”

    says the Lord.

    What does the bold and underlined verse mean?

    Thanks.
    The forsaken one is Jesus and his children are us believers, the church. The mother (wife) is referring to Israel and the Old Testament who were put aside as a faithless wife.

    --------
    Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
    CHAPTER 54

    Isa 54:1-17. The Fruit of Messiah's Sufferings, and of Israel's Final Penitence at Her Past Unbelief (Isa 53:6): Her Joyful Restoration and Enlargement by Jehovah, Whose Wrath Was Momentary, but His Kindness Everlasting.

    Israel converted is compared to a wife (Isa 54:5; Isa 62:5) put away for unfaithfulness, but now forgiven and taken home again. The converted Gentiles are represented as a new progeny of the long-forsaken but now restored wife. The pre-eminence of the Hebrew Church as the mother Church of Christendom is the leading idea; the conversion of the Gentiles is mentioned only as part of her felicity [Horsley].

    1. Sing—for joy (Zep 3:14).

    barren—the Jewish Church once forsaken by God, and therefore during that time destitute of spiritual children (Isa 54:6).

    didst not bear—during the Babylonian exile primarily. Secondarily, and chiefly, during Israel's present dispersion.

    the children—the Gentiles adopted by special grace into the original Church (Isa 54:3; Isa 49:20, 21).

    than … married wife—than were her spiritual children, when Israel was still a married wife (under the law, before the Babylonian exile), before God put her away [Maurer]. So Paul contrasts the universal Church of the New Testament with the Church of the Old Testament legal dispensation, quoting this very passage (Ga 4:27). But the full accomplishment of it is yet future.The blessings and fulness of the gospel church, Isaiah 54:1-3; the Gentiles becoming Christ’s spouse; to whom his love is everlasting, Isaiah 54:4-10. Her glories, Isaiah 54:11,12. The gifts of the Holy Ghost, Isaiah 54:13. Her sure preservation, Isaiah 54:14-17.

    Sing, O barren. The prophet having largely discoursed of the sufferings of Christ, and of the blessed fruits or effects thereof, among which one is, that he should have a numerous seed that should believe on him, and that when the Jews rejected him, the Gentiles should gladly receive him, and here foreseeing by the Spirit of God that glorious state of the church, he rejoiced in it, as Abraham did upon the like occasion, John 8:56, and breaks forth into this song of triumph. He turneth his speech to the church and spouse of God, or of Christ, as is manifest from the following words, and especially from Isaiah 54:5, and from Galatians 4:27, where it is so expounded. And although this chapter is by some understood of the flourishing condition of the Jewish church and state after their return from Babylon, yet the magnificent and glorious promises here following do so vastly exceed their condition at that time, which was full of uncertainties, and distractions, and troubles, as all the histories of those times assure us, and far from that glory and lasting tranquillity which is here assured to her, that it must necessarily be referred to the times of the gospel, in which all that is here said was or will be remarkably fulfilled. And therefore as the foregoing chapter doth directly and literally speak of Christ, so doth this literally speak of the church of Christ, or of the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom the ancient Hebrew doctors understood it. And this church, consisting at first of the Jews, and afterwards of the Gentiles, who were incorporated with them into the same body, he calleth barren, not because it now was so, but because before and until the coming of Christ it had been so; as Simon is called the leper, Matthew 26:6, after he was cured. Now this church of the Jews might well be called, and had been, barren, because the sincere converts brought forth to God by her ministry had been but few among the Jews comparatively, and simply few among the Gentiles.

    More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife: the church or congregation of the Gentiles, which in the times of the Old Testament was desolate, having neither husband nor children, doth now under the gospel bring forth unto God a far more numerous posterity than the church of the Jews, which had been married to God for many ages, until by her apostacy from God, and from her Messiah, she provoked God to put her away, He alludeth here either to the history of Sarah, who was long and naturally barren, but by the supernatural power of God was enabled to bring forth a numberless issue; or to that remarkable passage of God’s providence concerning Hannah and Peninnah, 1 Samuel 2:5, The barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

    Comment


    • #3
      Sparko,

      Thanks. I'll put this into my own words. Add or subtract what you don't agree with.

      Isaiah 53:6 (speaking of Jesus the Messiah)

      He will see His seed, He will prolong His days,
      and by His hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.

      The childless one is Sarah. She was barren, could not have children, but God opened her womb and she conceived Isaac, the child of promise and through Isaac, there would be many spiritual children, the Gentiles.

      This from "The Message."

      1-6 “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.

      Comment


      • #4
        Some though, would say this passage refers to the nation of Israel:

        Source: OT Survey Series

        Like a barren woman Zion had borne no children during the Exile (cf. 49:14–23). That, however, would change. The family of believers would become so numerous that the tent of dwelling would have to be enlarged (cf. Zech 9:10). Zion would spread abroad in every direction due to the fact that she would “possess,” i.e., conquer, the nations with the sword of God’s Spirit. Zion’s desolate cities would thus be populated.

        © Copyright Original Source


        And the reference to Isaiah 49 is pertinent:

        “For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land—
        Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants,
        And those who swallowed you will be far away.
        The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears,
        ‘The place is too cramped for me;
        Make room for me that I may live here.’
        Then you will say in your heart,
        ‘Who has begotten these for me,
        Since I have been bereaved of my children
        And am barren, an exile and a wanderer?
        And who has reared these?
        Behold, I was left alone;
        From where did these come?’ ” (Isaiah 49:19–21)

        Blessings,
        Lee
        "What I pray of you is, to keep your eye upon Him, for that is everything. Do you say, 'How am I to keep my eye on Him?' I reply, keep your eye off everything else, and you will soon see Him. All depends on the eye of faith being kept on Him. How simple it is!" (J.B. Stoney)

        Comment


        • #5
          It's saying that the children of Sarah, meaning Christians, will outnumber the children of Hagar, who represents everyone else.

          Comment

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