"Although this chapter is primarily intended to express Zion's joy over redemption,
it has also a very personal, long-neglected, and often overlooked message for women-
the lonely, the disappointed, the childless, the widow. It has all the glorious confidence
and assurance, the incentive and understanding for which feminine hearts have
longed throughout the ages!
Every woman who will read it every week for a year with a receptive heart
and mind will find herself not only spiritually prepared for her own childlessness
or widowhood, should it come, but also supplied with a rich treasure with which
to address the similar needs of countless other aching hearts
to whom the Holy Spirit is here speaking.
-The Amplified Bible
ISAIAH 54
Sing, O barren one, you who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud,
you who did not travail with child! For the spiritual children of the desolate one
will be more than the children of the married wife, says the Lord.
Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched
out; spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread abroad to the right hand and to the left; and your offspring
will possess the nations and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
Fear not, for you shall not be ashamed; neither be confounded and depressed,
for you shall not be put to shame. For you shall forget the shame of your youth,
and you shall not seriously remember the reproach of your widowhood any more.
For your Maker is your Husband-the Lord of hosts is His name-and the Holy One
of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole earth He is called.
For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken, grieved in spirit, and heartsore-even
a wife wooed and won in youth, when she is later refused and scorned says your God.
For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion
and mercy I will gather you again.
In a little burst of wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with age-enduring love
and kindness I will have compassion and mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.
For this is like the days of Noah to Me; as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more
go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.
For though the mountains should depart and the hills be shaken or removed, yet My love
and kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace and completeness
be removed, says the Lord, Who has compassion on you.
O you afflicted city, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in
fair colors in antimony to enhance their brilliance and lay your foundation with sapphires.
And I will make your windows and pinnacles of sparkling agates or rubies, and your gates
of shining carbuncles, and your walls of your enclosures of precious stones.
And all your spiritual children shall be disciples taught by the Lord and obedient to
His will, and great shall be the peace and undisturbed composure of your children.
You shall establish yourself in righteousness, rightness in conformity with God's will
and order; you shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you
shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
Behold, they may gather together and stir up strife, but it is not far from Me.
Whoever stirs up strife against you shall fall and surrender to you.
Behold, I have created the smith who blows on the fire of coals and who
produces a weapon for its purpose; and I have created the devastator to destroy.
But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that
shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This peace,
righteousness, security, triumph over opposition is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced; this
is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me, this is that
which I impart to them as their justification, says the Lord.
Corresponding Scripture:
John 6:45
Galatians 4:27
Revelation 21:19-21
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