Isaiah 54:1 - Meaning and Application

If we apply this to the Jews after their return from exile, it points to the growth of their nation after they settled again in their own land. Jerusalem had been like a wife left childless, or a lonely widow without hope. Now God promises that the city will be filled again and the land repopulated, so that not only Jerusalem’s ruins will be repaired, but its outskirts will spread out, and many new houses will rise on fresh foundations. Land that had been wrongly held by the Babylonian nations for many years would return to its rightful owners, and God would again be like a husband to them. Their shame from captivity, and the small number they had become, would be forgotten.

We should also notice that this connects with God’s old promise to Abraham that his descendants would increase greatly. When the Jews were restored to God’s favor, they multiplied. Those who first returned from Babylon were only 42,000 (Ezra 2:64), about one-fifteenth of the number who left Egypt. Many more joined them later, but that first company was probably the largest group that ever returned together. Even so, more than 500 years later, just before the Romans destroyed the nation, a count of the Passover lambs showed that the people were far more numerous. By the lowest estimate, allowing ten people for each lamb, the nation numbered nearly three million. Josephus says it was about 2,700,000.

But we must also apply this to the church of God in general, meaning God’s kingdom among people, his city in the world, his children gathered together. First, religion in the world had long been weak and fading before Christianity came. It was like a woman who could not bear children, or a widow who had lost husband and children. The church was small, and it produced little fruit. The Jews were officially married to God, but few outsiders were brought in. The rising generation gave little promise, and serious godliness was clearly losing ground among them. The Gentiles had even less religion than the Jews. Their converts were scattered, and God’s children, like the children of a broken family, were scattered abroad (John 11:52) and made little public appearance.

Second, this low condition was recovered through the preaching of the gospel and the planting of the Christian church. Multitudes turned from idols to the living God. These were the church’s children, born again through the word and made partakers of a new, divine nature. The children of the desolate woman were more than the children of the married wife. There were more true believers in the Gentile church, once far from God and without him in the world, than had ever been found in the Jewish church. God’s sealed people from the tribes of Israel are numbered (Revelation 7:4), and they were only a remnant compared with the thousands of Israel. But the believers from other nations were so many, and spread so widely, that no one could number them (Isaiah 54:9).

Sometimes the power of religion is found more in places and families that have made little outward display of it, and have had few means of grace, than in places with a very strong religious profession. Then the children of the desolate woman are more numerous, and the fruits of their righteousness are greater, than those of the married wife. The last becomes first. This is spoken of as a great joy to the church, which is called to burst out in song because of it. The growth of the church brings joy to all who love it and gives them strength. The longer the church has lain desolate, the greater the joy when it begins to recover lost ground and gain more.

Even in heaven, among God’s angels, there is special joy over one sinner who repents, much more over a nation that turns to God. If a barren fig tree finally bears fruit, that is cause for joy, and others rejoice with it.

The church’s boundaries were extended much farther than before (Isaiah 54:2, 3). This assumes that the church in its present form lives like people in tents, as the heirs of promise once did (Hebrews 11:9). Its dwelling is plain, movable, and unable to stand against a storm. The permanent city is still future. A tent can be taken down quickly and moved, and so can the lamp of church privileges be removed from its place (Revelation 2:5). When God chooses, he can just as quickly set it somewhere else.

Yet even though the church is in a tent-like condition, it can still grow very greatly. If this family increases, that is enough, even if it still lives in a tent. That is what happened when the gospel first went out. The apostles were to make disciples of all nations, stretch out the curtains of the church’s home, preach where Christ had not yet been named (Romans 15:20), and bring gospel truth into towns and countries that had never known it. In that way they lengthened the cords of this tent, so that more people could be included, and then the stakes also had to be strengthened to support the larger covering. The more the church grows, the more careful it must be to guard itself against error and corruption, and to uphold its seven pillars (Proverbs 9:1).

This also showed God’s power working with the gospel, because it grew and spread strongly everywhere (Acts 19:20). It broke out like water bursting forth on every side, on the right hand and on the left. The gospel spread through all parts of the world. There were churches in the east and in the west. The church’s offspring inherited the Gentiles, and cities that had once been deserted, meaning empty of the knowledge and worship of the true God, came to be inhabited, meaning that religion was established there and the name of Christ was openly professed.

This was both the comfort and honor of the church (Isaiah 54:4). “Do not fear,” because you will not be ashamed as before of your narrow borders and the small number of your children, which your enemies mocked you for. You will forget the disgrace of your youth, because there will be no more reason for that disgrace. In the early days of Christianity, it was a shame that none of the rulers or princes of the world accepted it, and that it was received by a small and lowly group. But after a time, nations were taught, the empire became Christian, and the shame of its early days was forgotten.

This was because of the relationship God had with his church as her husband (Isaiah 54:5). “Your Maker is your husband.”

Believers are said to be married to Christ so they may bear fruit for God (Rom 7:4). In the same way, the church is joined to him so she may raise a holy people for God, a people counted as his own family. Jesus Christ is the church’s Maker, the one who forms her into a people, and her Redeemer, the one who brings her out of captivity and the slavery of sin, the worst slavery of all.

This is the one who joined himself to her. He is the Lord of hosts, with irresistible power, complete authority, and rule over all things. Earthly kings may command many armies, but there are always other rulers with armies of their own, just as strong as theirs. God, however, is Lord over all hosts. He is also the Holy One of Israel, the same one who guided the Old Testament church and served as the Mediator, the go-between, of its covenant. The promises given to the New Testament people of God are just as rich and sure as those given to Israel before, because our Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

He is and will be called the Lord of the whole earth, both as God and as Mediator, the one through whom God rules and saves, because he is heir of all things. He will be known in that way when the ends of the earth see his salvation and all the earth acknowledges him as their God and finds life in him. For a long time he was known especially as the God of Israel, but now the wall that separated Jew and Gentile has been torn down. He will be called the God of the whole earth, even in places where he was once unknown, as he was in Athens, where people spoke of an unknown god.