The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Right after the suffering of chapter 53 comes a song. Isaiah calls to a "barren" woman, one who "didst not bear", the image of a desolate, exiled Zion who feels she has no future. Yet she is commanded to "sing... break forth into singing, and cry aloud." Why should a childless woman sing? Because God promises, "more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife." Her emptiness is about to become the greatest family of all. So she is told to prepare: "Enlarge the place of thy tent... lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." Make the tent bigger, for it will be filled. Her family will "break forth on the right hand and on the left," and, remarkably, "thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles", her children will spread far beyond Israel to the nations. The desolate cities will be repopulated. What looked like a dead end is the beginning of an explosion of life.

Gospel Focus

Paul quotes this very verse and tells us plainly what it means. Writing of the "Jerusalem which is above," the mother of all who believe, he cites, "Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not... for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband" (Galatians 4:27). The barren woman made fruitful is the church, the family of the redeemed, born not by natural descent but by the new birth. After the cross of chapter 53, where the Servant would "see his seed," comes the harvest of chapter 54: a countless family spreading to the Gentiles, "inheriting the nations," exactly as the gospel has done. If you feel barren, fruitless, with nothing to show, this is God's word to you: sing, and enlarge your tent. The God who justified many through the Servant delights to bring abundant life out of emptiness. Make room; He is about to fill it.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God now comforts Zion as a husband comforting a wounded wife. "Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed." The shame of her past, "the shame of thy youth" and "the reproach of thy widowhood", will be forgotten. Then comes one of the tenderest titles God takes in all Scripture: "thy Maker is thine husband." The Creator of the universe, "the LORD of hosts," "thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel," "the God of the whole earth," is also, personally, her husband. He had called her back "as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit," a wife once "refused." God does not deny that there had been estrangement; there was a real "forsaking" and a real hiding of His face. But look at the proportions He gives it: "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee." The wrath was brief, "a small moment," "a little wrath"; the mercy is vast and everlasting. God's anger is the exception; His steadfast love is the rule.

Gospel Focus

"Thy Maker is thine husband." The whole Bible is, in one sense, the story of God wooing back an unfaithful people to be His bride, and it climaxes in Christ. The New Testament calls the church "the bride, the Lamb's wife" (Revelation 21:9), and says Christ "loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Ephesians 5:25). The One who made us and redeemed us weds us. And notice the beautiful math of grace in verses 7-8. Whatever seasons of God's hidden face a believer passes through are "a small moment" measured against "everlasting kindness." Paul, who knew deep suffering, echoes the very same scale: "our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17). If you feel God has hidden His face, hold on to His proportions: the wrath was momentary, borne fully by the Servant in chapter 53; the kindness is everlasting. Your Maker is your husband, and He is gathering you back with great mercies that will never end.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

To make His promise of mercy utterly certain, God reaches back to Noah. Just as He "sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth," so now He swears "that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." The rainbow has stood for thousands of years as proof that God keeps such oaths; His promise of enduring peace is equally sure. Then He gives the measure of that certainty in verse 10, one of the most reassuring verses in the Bible: "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee." The mountains seem the most permanent things on earth, yet they are less permanent than God's love for His people. Sooner will the hills be uprooted than God's "kindness" (chesed) and "the covenant of my peace" be removed. And the anchor of it all is not our performance but His character: "saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee." The covenant rests on His mercy, so it cannot fail.

Gospel Focus

How can God swear He will never again be "wroth" with His people? Chapter 53 answered it: the wrath was spent on the Servant. "The chastisement of our peace was upon him" (Isaiah 53:5), and now the "covenant of my peace" stands forever, purchased at the cross. This is the new covenant in Christ's blood, of which He is the Mediator and Surety (Hebrews 7:22), and its guarantee is the unchanging mercy of God. Jesus made the same point about the permanence of God's word: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35). Here the mountains may depart, but His kindness will not. For the believer this is bedrock assurance. Your standing with God does not rise and fall with your moods or your failures, because it rests on His chesed and a covenant of peace sealed in the blood of the Lamb. Nothing, "neither death, nor life... nor things to come," can "separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:38-39). The mountains will move before His love for you does.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God turns to the "afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted," and promises breathtaking restoration. The battered city will be rebuilt in jewels, "stones with fair colours... foundations with sapphires... windows of agates... gates of carbuncles." Every part will gleam with precious stones, a picture John reuses for the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21). But the greatest treasures are not the gems. First, "all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children", God Himself will be their teacher, and deep peace their portion. Second, "in righteousness shalt thou be established," free from oppression, fear, and terror. Enemies may still "gather together," but "not by me", without God's backing, and they "shall fall." God even reminds them that He created "the smith" who forges weapons and "the waster to destroy"; every potential threat is a creature under His control. So the great promise stands: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn." Weapons may be formed, tongues may accuse, but neither will finally succeed. And this security is called "the heritage of the servants of the LORD," with their righteousness coming "of me", a gift from God.

Gospel Focus

Verse 17 is one of the most quoted promises in Scripture, and rightly so, but notice its foundation. "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper" is not a charm against all hardship; it is the covenant security of God's people, grounded in the final clause: "their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." The promise belongs to those whose righteousness is a gift from God, exactly what the Servant secured in chapter 53, "by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many." Because our righteousness is His and not ours, no accusation can stand. Paul makes the same argument: "It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" (Romans 8:33-34). The accusing "tongue" of the enemy is answered not by our record but by Christ's. Weapons will still be formed, and tongues will still rise, Jesus never promised otherwise, but they "shall not prosper" in the end, because the servants of the LORD are clothed in a righteousness God Himself provides. And every child of God is "taught of the LORD" (54:13), for "they shall be all taught of God" (John 6:45), led into "great peace." This is your heritage in Christ: taught by God, established in a righteousness not your own, and shielded so that no weapon can finally win.