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Guilt and sin often makes us think that there is no way to restore our relationship with God. After explaining the rescue of God’s people through Jesus’ suffering and death, Isaiah now turns to persuade us that God means it when he offers forgiveness: our creator wants to marry his people and promises to make them secure forever.
“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;
break forth into singing and cry aloud,
you who have not been in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;
do not hold back; lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
3 For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,
and your offspring will possess the nations
and will people the desolate cities.
4 “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed;
be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth,
and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
5 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.
6 For the Lord has called you
like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of youth when she is cast off,
says your God.
7 For a brief moment I deserted you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.
8 In overflowing anger for a moment
I hid my face from you,
but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,”
says the Lord, your Redeemer.
9 “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,
and will not rebuke you.
10 For the mountains may depart
and the hills be removed,
but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
11 “O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,
behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12 I will make your pinnacles of agate,
your gates of carbuncles,
and all your wall of precious stones.
13 All your children shall be taught by the Lord,
and great shall be the peace of your children.
14 In righteousness you shall be established;
you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
15 If anyone stirs up strife,
it is not from me;
whoever stirs up strife with you
shall fall because of you.
16 Behold, I have created the smith
who blows the fire of coals
and produces a weapon for its purpose.
I have also created the ravager to destroy;
17 no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,
and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.”
This transcript has been automatically generated
Isaiah 54.
Sing, O barren one who did not bear! Break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labour! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married, says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out. Do not hold back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities. Fear not, for you will not be ashamed. Be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced. For you will forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no 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 wife deserted and grieved in spirit. Like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I’ve deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer.
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 and will not rebuke you.
For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you. O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted! Behold, I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.
In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me. Whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy.
No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgement. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.
Ella, thank you for reading. Please keep Isaiah 54 open, page 743.
Last week Isaiah told us the wonderful truth at the heart of his big plan, of God’s big plan to rescue his people. The heart of it is that we are guilty but that God has laid the punishment for our sin on Jesus. And we finished last week with just the sheer scale of Jesus’ success. God’s servant has taken away sin and guilt and death, and he has found a way to make us, make many righteous. Look back at 53:11.
53:11, out of the anguish of his soul, so despite what it cost Jesus, he shall see and be satisfied at what he has done. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. We said his death is a swap. Jesus carries our guilt and gives us his righteousness. That’s Isaiah’s understanding, that is God’s understanding of the event at the heart of God’s plan.
And we recommended this book last week. I’m really grateful that Phil’s got more of them to work out thoroughly all of the consequences of that, to work it right through into your head. The books of theology like this one call this understanding penal substitution. So, penal meaning punishment and substitution meaning Jesus substituted Himself. It was Jesus who died instead of us.
God’s punishment fell on Him. And that theology, that understanding, it has been attacked and criticised, particularly in the last 100, 150 years. And one accusation of it goes like this, is that it is too cold. That penal substitution, it is mechanistic, legalistic, and formulaic. It’s a cold transaction.
About sin. And Isaiah got in 2,700 years ago with the answer to that accusation. See, chapter 53 is a mechanism. It’s not mechanistic, but it is the how of God’s rescue. And then chapter 54 today is the result.
If penal substitution is true, then here is what you get. Here is what Jesus went through the pain for. So look down at 54 from verse 4, and Isaiah is speaking to Jerusalem, imagined as an individual woman. Fear not, for you will not be ashamed. Be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced, for you will forget the shame of your youth.
And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no 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.
So this is about a girl, about a girl who is fearful and ashamed. She was married. It was a real love story. It was a great marriage. She was treated well with respect and honour and kindness and understanding.
But as she remembers now, she has shame in her youth and reproach in her 20s and 30s. In any normal human story, if this was a normal human story, we would expect figure to share the blame. But here, this woman is Israel, is Jerusalem. And Isaiah has spent 50 chapters to make sure we understand God the husband. He was patient and forgiving and long-suffering, but he was cheated on and stolen from and abandoned and lied about and disregarded and mocked and bitterly, bitterly bitterly hurt.
Isaiah the author, he is part of this woman. He’s not pointing the finger at someone else. He’s saying, this is what we were like. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. So that’s her.
She was fearful. She was ashamed. And then the servant of God does Isaiah chapter 53, makes many righteous, and bears their iniquities. Which means that by 54:5, we are holding a wedding. And the only thing better than a wedding is a re-wedding.
Have you ever been to a re-wedding? I’ve known people whose parents did this. So, parents sadly split up, broken relationship, divorced even, all the hurt and the pain. And then time passes, and the friend comes and says, my mum and dad are getting married. And it can cause some confusion, a statement like that.
You know, my mum and dad are getting married. You mean they are getting married again? Yes, isn’t it great? Well, okay, I don’t know why you are so pleased about that, having a stepmum and a stepdad in the same year. No, no, no, my mum and dad are getting married to each other again.
Isaiah 54:5, this woman Jerusalem, she is not ever going to remember her shame again. Why? For your Maker is your husband, and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. See, God and Israel, they are getting married again. Because of what the servant did, because God’s servant has dealt with sin and made her righteous, then they can get married again.
And anybody who says that penal substitution, sounds like a cold transaction about sin, I think they have 2 problems. They don’t understand what guilt does to a relationship. They can’t see why dealing with guilt might help. But also, they have not got the first idea how wonderful God’s big plan is, who it is that wants to marry the people. What kind of relationship he has in mind for sinners after they have turned back to Jesus.
And I’ve put on the sheet some verses from chapter 49, because back in chapter 49, maybe for the first time, we got a clear sense of what the servant was supposed to achieve. He’s supposed to be God’s servant to bring Jacob, bring Israel back to me. And actually, some of the language in 49 is the same as the language here. It’s the same work. But in 49, the bride gives her opinion.
And the bride says, nice idea, but that is never going to work. Verse 14 there on the sheet, where Zion is just another word for Jerusalem. It’s the same girl, the same past history, the same shame. The servant’s going to put the family back together, says Isaiah. No, Isaiah, that is never going to work.
The Lord has forsaken me. And she’s not blaming the Lord, she’s just terribly, terribly sad. The verse goes on, the Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me. It’s one thing trying to put a human mum and dad back together again, and you can see, if you were going to try and do that, then dealing with past guilt and forgiveness and shame, that’s going to be very important. But this woman, she was married to God.
She was married to her Creator, to her Maker, the Lord of hosts, the God of all the earth, who is also the Holy One, it says in verse 5. So she has very good reasons for thinking this is not going to work. Isaiah, I have my sin and my shame, and He cannot, cannot overlook that. It’s not like I’m some equal of His who let Him down. I’m a created being who rebelled against my Creator.
I made the Holy One angry, rightly angry. And the stability of the universe, really, if you think about it, depends on God being right, fair and holy. He has to punish sin, otherwise He becomes evil with it. So, she has excellent reasons for thinking there is no way back for her. And can you imagine being Isaiah?
So, I think the way Isaiah puts the book together, it’s as if he gets these messages one by one and he’s learning as he goes. So, chapter 49, God’s putting the family back together. No, he isn’t, Isaiah verse 14. Don’t joke about what I want more than anything. It can’t be done.
And then he gets chapter 53, gruesome and horrible and shocking. The Servant destroyed in our place, carrying all of our guilt, punished thoroughly for everything that God’s people deserved. Can you imagine being Isaiah? Do you think he enjoyed writing chapter 54? Just maybe a tap on the shoulder, Jerusalem, I have some news for you because he has found a way.
You can get married. And not just married into some sort of nervous probation, some kind of guilt-ridden last chance, don’t you put a foot wrong again kind of marriage. An open, close, trusting love is so wonderful and so fragile, isn’t it? But here in chapter 54, the Lord is like a giddy young lover. In places, this chapter for an English person is embarrassing, I think.
Why, God, why are you so excited? Well, because He has found a way to make it all okay. And the reason that many people hate penal substitution is because it changes God more than it changes us. It changes God more than it changes us. It’s not about cleaning us up and chiselling off the bad bits until we are good enough for God.
It’s about recognising that that is never going to work and changing God’s anger instead, till He is no longer angry with us, but is angry with Jesus in our place, until He is not angry with us at all, until He sees us as righteousness. And that is the only secure place for sinners to ground a relationship with God, because it actually deals with His anger. It redirects it away from us onto Jesus. So, you have got a handout with some headings. Let’s let Isaiah deliver the good news to this woman Jerusalem.
So, point 1 about the wedding. Verse 1 says, get ready to sing because everybody is coming home. There are going to be children you never had are going to come home. You are going to need a bigger tent. Verse 2.
And as we go through, the metaphor of woman and city just sort of blend into each other. So verse 3, it’s about cities full of people because the shame is over. The shame of her widowhood, verse 4, that almost certainly means the exile to Babylon. So Isaiah is looking ahead through events that haven’t happened yet to when Israel is going to be widowed and sent away to Babylon. Which was God’s fair and right decision to call time on this wrecked marriage.
And she went away ashamed and guilty, facing life without God, without all the benefits she had taken for granted from him, widowhood. But now, and now it is over because chapter 53 has happened, because Jesus took that shame, and said, shall we call that mine? Named it as his. So she lifts her head to be told, you are not even going to remember what you did wrong. You are not even going to remember the shame.
And verse 5 is the wedding, and verses 6, 7, and 8 is the re-courtship. And verse 7, I— sorry, verse 6, I loved. Looking at this. Verse 6 says, when God comes to get you, it is going to be like after that first stupid argument among young lovers. You know, when you have an argument about something silly and trivial and she is grieved in spirit, it says, and sobbing, and he comes to her senses and goes calling for her.
This is the moment in every film. This is the scene in the film when he jumps security at the airport. It’s the scene when he goes to the family cafe to shout that he loves the daughter. Will you have me back? This is it.
Snuggums still loves his squishy. That’s the tone here. God is saying, after everything that has happened, we will go back to innocence and young love and security. This is how God says it is. When he wants to explain how he feels about getting back the people who let him down.
Because of the achievement of the cross of Jesus, it feels to him like young love. And it doesn’t matter that she is actually 900 years old at this point, 900 years of difficulty and shame, that doesn’t matter because the God who created time and was Ancient of Days before planets existed, He says, verse 7, that Babylon was just a brief moment. There was anger, verse 8, for a moment, but from now on there is great compassion and everlasting love. The Holy One is your Redeemer and your Maker is your Husband. If the Creator says this is how it’s going to be and His Son Son dies to make it happen, well, then you need to trust that he means it.
And point 2, point 3 are the reasons to trust this, and they are both about God as Creator. So, point 2, verse 9 and verse 10, this is a Noah moment. You see, she is thinking there is no way back, and they need to be sure, she needs to be sure that this is permanent. So verse 9, God says, well, let me tell you what this is like for me. This is like the days of Noah.
So back then after the flood, God made a promise. He swore an oath that the waters should no more go over the earth. And that is a promise that God has kept for thousands and thousands of years. By the time he’s talking to her here. God, he created the world and then he was angry with what he has made because of sin and he judged it with the flood.
And then after the judgement had passed, he made a promise that he would not do that again, a promise that they know he has kept. And you see verse 9, as I swore that the waters of Noah would no more go over the earth, So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. If you are a Christian here tonight, if you believe in Jesus, you have turned to him, you are trusting him, did you know that God has made a solemn oath not to be angry with you ever? And that he has actually pinned his reputation as Creator to that promise. It’s like in his head he made 2 really big promises ever in his life, one to Noah, one to you, never to be angry with you.
And verse 10, here’s the reputation of the Creator, even if his mountains come unravelled, okay, even if something goes wrong with Mount Everest and it all falls apart, still his promise won’t. The mountains may depart, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you. And my covenant of peace shall not be removed.
And I think what we’ve got here is a sense of how the Holy One and sinful humanity can walk up the aisle and be at the altar together. It’s because actually the equivalent of the flood has happened. In Jesus, global judgement has fallen. The cross is an event as significant, more significant than the flood. Jesus carried our iniquities.
God was angry with him, not with us. And so now, after the flood, God is in a position to make an oath, to swear that he will never be angry. I wonder, did you realise that boring, old, cold, emotionless, transactional penal substitution was so emotionally wonderful. Every sin that I ever did, every sin I did today, every sin I will ever do between now and my death and when I see Jesus for this wedding, it is all permanently transferred to Jesus’ account and he has already paid the price for it. It’s like sunshine after the flood and a Creator’s promise, I will never be angry with you.
Then point 3, verses 11 to 17, and your future is therefore guaranteed. And we don’t have time for every verse. 11 and 12 is, she’s a city and she’s a beautiful woman. And in 11 and 12, you can’t really tell whether 11 and 12 is a makeup session or it is architecture. Okay, it’s the same vocabulary for both.
Being used both ways. But either way, she is glorious and she is secure. Then 15 to 17, this is why if the Creator is your husband, no one is ever going to be able to hurt you again. So, Babylon was an example of strife that came from God. It was judgement because of sin.
It was deserved. It was brought by Him. But from now on, verse 15, if anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me, which means that it has no chance of succeeding. Your Maker is your husband and he is everybody else’s Maker too. So verse 16, he created the smith, the coals, and the weapon.
So there is no chance that any piece of human technology could succeed. Verse 17, no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed. Seat, safe now. And death itself cannot break up the marriage that you have with your Maker. There is nothing that can be made, invented, put together, used that would smash up that relationship that you have.
And the metaphor then more or less breaks down as Isaiah focuses on righteousness, the reality of what the Servant won. See, sin was the problem, fatal in a relationship with the Creator, but Jesus has now made us righteousness. And she in these verses is the righteous one now. It was just Jesus in chapter 53, and now it is her as well. So, verse 13, all of her children are going to be taught by the Lord.
That was true of the servant, now it’s true of all of her children. There’ll be a future without sin. So verse 14, in righteousness you shall be established. The Creator says you are right with God, you are perfect in his eyes, which means you are secure. And then verse 17 is perhaps the most wonderful of all.
No weapon can touch you, but what about an accusation? What if somebody tries to accuse you? If a tongue rises against you in judgement? Because remember, she has so much to feel shame about. There is so much in our past to feel shame about.
It’s why the Bible uses the word Satan for the great opponent of God’s rescue of His people, because Satan means accuser. What can she say when Satan comes to tell the truth about us, tell us what we’ve been like, what we’ve done? Well, you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgement. How? This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication.
And actually, look at the footnote, their righteousness from me. That’s the key word in these 3 chapters, 52, 53, 54. She is righteous now. And if you have righteousness from Jesus, then you’re secure. And there’s a word in verse 17 that has been part of her shame.
If you’ve been following the whole series, God was looking for a servant, And Israel thought that it might be her. She was God’s servant. And then as we’ve been through the series, we’ve learned that Israel can’t do it. Israel is no good as a servant. Israel lets God down.
We’re going to need Jesus to be the servant. And servant has been a word in the singular every time through this unit, again and again and again, servant, servant, servant, servant. But from now on, in the book of Isaiah, the word is plural every single time. Because once Jesus has done Isaiah 53 and his people are righteous, then they are married, accepted, and they are servants. This is the heritage, the inheritance of the servants of the Lord.
So last week I encouraged you to make this understanding of Jesus’ death your understanding. If you are not sure about that, buy the book, talk to people, read it through. Isaiah thinks this is the central event in world history and this is the central explanation of it. And this week, see how secure this makes you, how married, how loved. It’s not a cold legalistic transaction; it’s the way back to young love.
In the security with the one who made you. And next week, come for the invitation. Bring people who you think would appreciate an invitation to be forgiven, secure, and married to their God. But for tonight, we are going to finish. 54:1 says that we should sing.
So, I am going to pray and then we are going to sing.
Our Father, thank you for what you have planned and purposed from before the creation of the world, that with your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, you planned and intended that on the cross he would bear the punishment for our sin. And Father, thank you that from that horrible death comes the wonder of righteousness. For those who will turn to you and of a perfect, eternal, secure relationship with you. And we ask, our Father, you would lift our hearts to sing and praise you for what you have done in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
