Now, here we are at the beginning of the year 2023. Even though we have no idea what this year holds for us, I know that God wants us to grow deeper in our relationship with Him and take steps of faith to trust Him for even greater things, to watch Him take seemingly impossible situations and make them possible.
Please turn with me to Isaiah 54:1-3
1“Shout for joy, O barren one, she who has not given birth; Break forth into joyful shouting and rejoice, she who has not gone into labor [with child]! For the [spiritual] sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD. 2 “Enlarge the site of your tent [to make room for more children]; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not spare them; Lengthen your tent ropes and make your pegs (stakes) firm [in the ground]. 3 “For you will spread out to the right and to the left; And your descendants will take possession of nations and will inhabit deserted cities.
We can see three things in this passage…
The Cause of our Joy
The Challenge to our Faith
God’s Commitment to His Promise
Let’s look at:
1. The Cause of our Joy
Verse 1 says,
“Shout for joy, O barren one, she who has not given birth; Break forth into joyful shouting and rejoice, she who has not gone into labor [with child]! For the [spiritual] sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD.
In the book of Isaiah, Israel is described as a nation who separated themselves from God because of their continued disobedience and rebellion. They were seeking after and serving other gods, and in a sense divorced from the Lord their God. Exiled from their homeland and powerless to deliver themselves out of slavery to the Babylonians, they had become lifeless and spiritually barren for quite some time.” In this case, their barrenness, or the inability to have children, was seen as shameful because they would have been fruitful if they hadn’t divorced themselves from the living God.
How did a once blessed nation go into such despair? Even though God was right in their midst, they didn’t see their need for Him, & they stopped walking with Him and hearing from Him. They stopped living for Him and instead lived for themselves and their own pleasures. They should have been a shining light as a nation, going out into the world with the knowledge of God but they became inward focused and that light had turned into darkness. They were now spiritually barren.
This was their situation and their condition. God knew this yet in verse 1 of Isaiah 54 God tells a barren woman to be joyful, to sing it aloud! How can a barren woman who has never had any children rejoice? How is it possible for one who has had no ability to produce any children to have more children than a married woman? What do you mean to widen the tent to make room for more children when I don’t have any at all? Is God mocking this nation? Asking them to do the impossible? This is when their wearisome existence became the scene where none other than the very Spirit of God was poured out to impart the fullness of true life.
And this teaching of barrenness, emptiness, and the powerlessness of human strength vs. the power of the Spirit of the Lord to accomplish the impossible is a favorite theme throughout the Scriptures. God made a covenant or promise to Abraham that only He could fulfill - that his wife who was barren would have children and that their descendants would be as numerous as the sands of the sea. God called Moses to do the impossible - deliver 2 million children of Israel from the most powerful nation on the face of the earth and take care of all their needs everyday for 40 years as they wandered around the wilderness. God called David, a shepherd boy, the youngest and least in his family to be the king of the nation of Israel, when no one believed in him. Jesus asked the disciples to do the impossible - feed 5,000 people (not including women and children) with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. In every one of these cases, it was only the Lord God who had the power to make the impossible possible.
So what would cause someone who is spiritually dead and barren to rejoice? Especially in things he or she knows is humanly impossible? The answer is found in the chapter before. The people were able to rejoice because of the announcement of God’s salvation in Isaiah 53 - because of the coming of the suffering servant, His Son, the Savior of the nation and of the world. He did the impossible - took the human race’s incurable sickness, sorrow, rebellion, shame of sin that carried a penalty that no one could ever repay. He removed the stain of sin that no one could cleanse.
God makes a promise that whosoever trusted in His Son for their redemption, would be perfectly restored into the right relationship with Him, healed and made righteous once and for all. Because of the work of the servant, all who feel barren and dejected and alone as a result of their sins could shout for joy now. All, Gentiles and Jews alike, may become the blessed people of God. All who are thirsty and weak, no matter who you are, you can come to the Lord and drink without cost, and experience the full benefits of your new relationship with Him.
God is saying the same to us today. Apart from the Lord and the life He offers we are spiritually barren, powerless to change our lives or circumstances, but because of the work of the servant, God’s gracious gift of eternal life is available to all. We have reason to rejoice and shout for joy not only because we have new life but because our lives can be far more fruitful than ever before. Only God made the impossible possible. As we read in this passage, that same life, that same hope was not meant to be kept to ourselves but shared with others. So next comes…
2. The Challenge
Verse 2 says,
Enlarge the site of your tent [to make room for more children]; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not spare them; Lengthen your tent ropes and make your pegs (stakes) firm [in the ground].
Because of the work of the Servant in Isa 53, God is telling this barren woman to extend her tent, make room for a bigger family. There is obviously an element of faith here, since the woman is presumably still barren when she receives the challenge to enlarge the tent for more children. In other words, because the righteous Servant took the punishment for the sins of the nation and brought peace between them and God, she can rejoice because she is no longer infertile but has new life within her. This new life was not to be kept inside a small tent for just a few people, but God wanted the barren women (Israel) to rejoice and extend this message of hope with the rest of the world. If God can do the impossible in Israel, He can do it in anyone’s life.
What does this passage in Isa 54 mean to us today? Because of the fulfillment of this prophecy, the coming of the Savior 700 years later, Jesus would be lifted up on the cross and draw all peoples and nations to Himself. In the same way God commanded the nation of Israel to rejoice in Isa 54, He commands us to rejoice. Jesus also gave us, His New Covenant people, new life, endless resources and called us to continue to take the message beyond our church doors - Great Commission. We are given all authority in heaven and on earth and are therefore to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we are to teach these new disciples to obey the commands Jesus gave to us (Matt 28:18-20). But we aren’t called to bring the good news on our own - we are called to proclaim the Gospel together, in community. When we minister together it is easier for people to recognize that we don’t come in our own name but in the name of the Lord Jesus who saved us and sends us. We do not come in our own strength but in His.
Stretch out your tent, create a place of shade in every direction so that people from other backgrounds and nations can come in. What will it mean if we are going to make room for others? It means we will need longer cords and stronger tent pegs. God is challenging us to greater personal growth, spiritual stability and maturity. This means that God will bring tests and trials to deepen our trust Him so that we aren’t so full of ourselves or waiting for others to deliver us. It means we will need to establish and strengthen the areas that the Lord has already given us as a community. Was the early powerful because their daily experience was popping with a miracle a minute? Hardly. They rolled up their sleeves and worked. They sweated. They suffered. They locked arms together in shared effort. They did menial tasks, visited the sick, shared meals, prayed for each, wept with each other. And they refused to quit.
Because of the work of the servant, we don’t have to live empty, barren, unfruitful lives anymore. We don’t have to be preoccupied with ourselves. As children of God, we can rejoice because we have everything necessary for a dynamic spiritual life and godliness through true and personal knowledge of the One who called us to Himself. We were the recipients of salvation, and now we are the means to bringing this same hope to others not only here in Vienna, but beyond the city limits. Lengthening the tent in many directions means making room for others, who may be quite different from ourselves so that they feel welcome in God’s house. Because of all that we have received from the Lord, we will be far more productive and more fruitful, we will do “greater things” when we do it in community because there is a synergistic effect. Henri Nouwen said,
“In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that reaches out and wants to heal.”
This is why we have a welcome/fellowship team, life groups, family ministries, women and men's Bible studies, why we evangelize at Viktor Adler Platz, why we worship together and livestream our services. It is to do greater works right here in Vienna, to take this life into Ukraine, and the uttermost parts of the world. Extending the tent, making room for God to work in the lives of others comes from a heart that knows Him intimately. This means trusting God, not controlling Him and the processes. Trusting that as we love and invest the truth of God’s Word in people's lives, that over time, His Spirit will work in their hearts, He will bring about the change. His grace is enough, that His mercy never fails even when things get messy. God will fill His house. God will make the impossible possible. But how can we be sure of this? This brings me to my last point. Because of…
3. God’s Commitment
Verse 3 says,
For you will spread out to the right and to the left; And your descendants will take possession of nations and will inhabit deserted cities.
Isaiah was reiterating the commitment to the promise God had made to Abraham almost 1000 years before concerning his future. A promise that He would accomplish and is accomplishing through the church, the spiritual family of Abraham. That God would make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the sands on the seashore.
God is committed to fulfilling His promises and committed to His children.
The Lord wants to take us far beyond the faith that saved us, from just believing and receiving Christ as our Savior, to actually sharing the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His incredible light. So why can we be courageous when God challenges or calls us to do the impossible? Because God is committed to us.
Phil 1:6 says:
And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
He has already done the miracle of saving us from death and hell and done the miracle of setting us apart for Himself. God is committed to finishing what He started in us. God is committed to answering prayer so we can believe Him for the impossible. We can see this in the passage that Rob Shaffer just spoke on just last week.
Jesus told us in John 14:12-14:
I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
The “greater works” of which He now spoke to them would still be Jesus’ own works, no longer accomplished by His visible presence among them but by His Spirit within them. Since the Father denies nothing to the Son, a request made in the Son’s name is treated as if the Son made it. This “greater work” speaks about what God will accomplish over time through His people through the power of the Holy Spirit. Knowing that God is committed to us, are we courageous enough to ask God to use us as His people and His church to do these greater works, to reach people in places beyond these walls to hear and receive the gospel and be changed forever.
Personally, as I read through this passage, I was thinking about how important is to know that God is committed to His word, His promises, and His people. Specifically, I was thinking about when my dad stepped into eternity. His bed was just a few feet away from my mom’s bed. Because she has dementia, she couldn’t grasp what had happened even though we brought her over to his beside. The next day when she looked over and saw his bed was empty, she asked me “where is your father?” Pearl and I knelt down next to her and said “Mom, dad is no longer here, he is in heaven.” My mom responded, “I want to go to heaven, I know if you pray for me, I will get to heaven.” My mom had completely forgotten that she had accepted Christ many years ago and even though we prayed for her again, I was reminded that even if she had forgotten what God has promised through His son, God will never forget His promise to her, He is committed to keeping it no matter what. He will always finish what He starts. Even if we in the midst of our impossible situations, our sorrows and sadness or whatever we may face, even if we doubt that God is faithful, that he loves us and is for us, our unbelief cannot stop the faithfulness of God. God is committed to His Word, to His promises and to His Children. God knows what we will face, God knows how to bring us through it, only He makes the impossible possible. In this we can rejoice!
