Yesterday we began Chapter 53 in which the Lord reveals to Isaiah that there is a glorious future for his people. In today's text the Lord says: "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." (Isaiah 54:2-3)
Yesterday we talked about how the people had become spiritually unfruitful, which is why the Lord allowed Assyria and Babylon to conquer them and take them captive. The majority had fallen into idolatrous practices and into immoral living. But their defeat and captivity was intended to correct their behavior, not to destroy them as a nation. Following their defeat and captivity and eventual return to the land, we don't find them bowing to idols anymore. They will be physically fruitful (will bear many descendants) and they will be spiritually fruitful (due to worshiping only the Lord). This is why the Lord uses the analogy above of setting up enormous tents and stretching them far and wide.
In the Old Testament we often find the Lord referring to Himself as the "husband" of the descendants of Jacob. He refers to the nation as His "wife"---usually His unfaithful wife. Just as a human husband has the right to separate from an unfaithful wife or to divorce her, the Lord had the right to do the same. In that sense He and His wife were separated during the era of captivity. But the captivity will make them repent of their unfaithfulness and He will forgive them and take them back, just as many a human husband has forgiven a sincerely repentant wife and has taken her back. This is the situation the Lord speaks of next. "Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood." (Isaiah 54:4)
An unfaithful wife could be shamed publicly, with the wronged husband announcing her sins and declaring himself separated from or divorced from her. Under Old Testament law, the husband could even have her stoned to death along with the man who committed adultery with her if the two of them had been caught in the act by two or three witnesses. I assume that rarely happened since adulterers take great care not to get caught, but because the Lord Himself witnesses everything that humans do, He would have been within His rights to destroy the nation for unfaithfulness because as the Holy Trinity there are always three witnesses who see everything done on the earth. But He did not want to destroy them. So He says a time is coming when His wife will not feel disgraced and shamed for her sins. He is going to forgive and forget. He will never bring the subject up again, which is how a human who has truly forgiven their spouse will behave. True forgiveness means not bringing up the person's wrongdoing to them again. It means leaving the subject behind and moving forward.
The Lord makes it very clear in this next passage that He will extend true forgiveness to the nation. He will put the people's past mistakes in the past, as though the mistakes never happened, and He will move forward toward a better future. He promises: "For your Maker is your husband---the Lord Almighty is His name---the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth. The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit---a wife who married young only to be rejected,' says your God. 'For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,' says the Lord your Redeemer.'" (Isaiah 54:5-8)
Why does He call her back? Because He loves her! Because He loves her with an everlasting love! (Jeremiah 31:3) He doesn't separate from her forever. He doesn't divorce her. He doesn't destroy her. He loves her so much that He doesn't want to be without her. This is also how He feels about you and me! He wants us to be with Him forever, so He made a way of redemption for us.
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