02/05/2014 S-T-R-E-T-C-H
Isaiah 54:1-4, 5 Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child....Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. Do not be afraid...For your MAKER is your husband—the LORD ALMIGHTY is HIS name....HE is called the GOD of all the earth. [New International Translation]
Summary
In Isaiah 54, the prophet Isaiah prophesied about the future glory of the church. The church is compared to a "barren woman." The analogy is powerful. To understand the significance of this analogy it is helpful to remember that it is said that one of the daily prayers of every orthodox Jewish male during biblical times was to "Thank God, he was not born a gentile, a slave or a woman." If women were considered the "bottom rung" of the Jewish social order, then "barren women" were in the "sub-basement." Even other women "looked down" on barren or childless women. [If you have time, read about some of the barren women in the Bible: Sarah (Abraham's wife-Gen 16:1-4); Rebekah (Isaac's wife Gen 25:21) Rachel (Jacob's wife Gen 30:1), Hannah (1Sam 1:1-6) or the Shunammite woman (2Kings 4:1-14). Yet here, in Isaiah, the "barren woman" is told to stretch her tent wide. She has no children yet she is told to stretch the curtains and lengthen the cords as if she already had a tent full. She is like Abram. Even before Abraham had a single child, God gave Abram the name "Abraham," which meant "Father of a Multitude." Like Abraham, the barren woman must live "by faith." Despite the way "things look," or how others view her, she has to live as if "things that are not are." (Romans 4:17) She must stretch and simply trust GOD that HE will "fill the tent."