Sing, O barren
Jerusalem: barren, then fruitful
The direct address refers to Jerusalem, which resembled Sarah in her early barrenness and later fruitfulness Isaiah 51:1-3).
(F. Delitzsch, D.D.)
The relation between Isaiah 53:1-12; Isaiah 54:1-17
From Calvin to Ewald and Dillman, critics have all felt a close connection between Isaiah 52:13 -
53. and chap. 54. “After having spoken of the death of Christ, ‘ saysCalvin, “the prophet passed on with good reason to the Church: that we may feel more deeply in ourselves what is the value and efficiency of His death.” Similar in substance, if not in language, is the opinion of the latest critics, who understand that in chap. 54. the prophet intends to picture that full redemption which the Servant’s work, culminating in chap. 53., could alone effect. Two keywords of chap. 53. had been “a seed” and “many.” It is “the seed” and the “many” whom chap. 54. reveals. (Prof. G.A. Smith, D.D.)
The two Chapter s deal with the same subject from two distinct standpoints. Whatever view be held as to the Servant’s personality, there is no doubt that His exaltation implies the restoration of Israel, and that His work is the indispensable condition of that restoration being accomplished. Thus while chap. 53. describes the inward process of conversion by which the nation is made righteous, chap. 54. describes the outward deliverance which is the result; and the impression is probably correct that the glowing hopes here uttered are sustained in the last resort by the contemplation of the Servant s mission as described in chap. 53. (Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.)
Isaiah 54:1-17 is peculiarly a missionary chapter. After the death and resurrection of the Saviour has been foretold, the great results that would follow thereon are appropriately described. In Isaiah 54:1-3, she that was “barren” (whether a reference is made to the Jews on their return from captivity, or to the Gentiles to whom the Gospel began to go forth on the day of Pentecost, or to the enlargement of the true Church by the gathering in of souls from Jews and Gentiles alike) is exhorted to rejoice in the increase of her offspring. God’s mercy in gathering this Church and bestowing upon her His favour is described (Isaiah 54:4-10); the attractiveness of this Church follows (Isaiah 54:11-12); and lastly (Isaiah 54:13-17) her establishment in righteousness and her permanence are set forth. (W. H. Barlow, B.D.)
The Church of the future:
The prophecy of this chapter follows naturally on, and is a continuation of, that in the fifty-third. The former foretells “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” The latter speaks of the Church, the foundations of which the Saviour died to lay, the superstructure of which He lives to build.
I. WE HAVE A PICTURE OF THE CHURCH IN HER SADNESS. The figures used by the prophet, while easy enough to apply generally, present some points of difficulty when we attempt the detail.
1. At the first glance of the opening verses of the chapter we see that the figures are drawn from the very closest tie that nature knows, even that of the marriage relationship. This figure, so frequently used in the Old Testament, is based on a profound truth. The truth on which it is based is this: that as both male and female are incomplete without each other, so the happiness of God is incomplete without the love of the creature whom He has made to love Him, and the happiness of man is incomplete without an object above him in which his love can rest. Such a figure served a holy educating purpose to Israel, and ought still to do so to us. In one direction it shows us how holy and tender is the relationship between man and God, and how loving is the heart of God towards man; in another direction it lifts up the sacred tie of marriage into a higher and Diviner light, and lets us see it in the light of the Divine idea, as not only a union of bodies but also of spirits, in a tie which can never be broken without a rupture of the laws of God!
2. Another truth lying at the foundation of the chapter is this, that the Church, in God’s eye, is seen at a glance, through all the vicissitudes of her chequered career, till her completion in the fulness of time. That Church, chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world, in Him is one. He sees that Church passing, through gloom to glory! And truly, sad enough is the picture of the Church s sorrow which is presented here. She is like one whose husband has forsaken her. She is barren, desolate, rejected, contemned; and is consequently sad, afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. The chief question is, at what period was God s Church like this, and what Church was ever in such gloom?
(1) The Hebrew Church was primarily intended. Her bondage in Egypt was “the shame of her youth, her captivity in Babylon was” the reproach of her widowhood.”
(2) The figures would apply, to some extent, to that idea!, Gentile Church which the Saviour saw in vision when He said, “Other sheep I have, etc., including all those in the east and west and north and south who were yearning after God, but to whom the Lord had not yet revealed His love, and who were not yet brought to rest in the Infinite heart of God.
(3) The description will apply also to the whole Church of God now: which, during the transition period through which we are now passing, while the great problem of sin and its treatment is being worked out, is often in shade, often mourning the paucity of those who join her ranks, often the object of the world s ridicule and scorn!
(4) The passage will befit also the individual believer, in whose chequered experience of sorrow, temptation and care all the varied phases of the troubles of the Church are presented in miniature.
II. WE HAVE A SECOND PICTURE AS BRIGHT AS THE FIRST IS DARK. The second is given on account of the gloom of the first, for the special purpose of cheering the saints of God, throughout the period of shade. In the picture given with this view, an entirely different set of figures is made use of; even such as belong to the erection of a building. And there are, scattered throughout this chapter, no fewer than nine main features which go to make up the outline of this beauty and glory which, in spite of present gloom, the prophet sees far ahead. Regarding the Church of the future, then, under the figure of a building, let us observe--
1. God Himself is the Founder of it. The foundation is Jesus Christ.
2. Men from every nation under heaven will gather within it. “The God of the whole earth shall He be called.” The restrictions of the past shall be done away.
3. Righteousness shall he its basis (Isaiah 54:14).
4. Close and endearing relationship with God will be its privilege (Isaiah 54:5). “Thy Maker is thine Husband.” He who formed by the hand of His power, will make Himself known to you in the tenderest love.
5. Light will be its heritage. “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord” (Isaiah 54:13).
6. Peace will be its possession. “Great shall be the peace of thy children” (Isaiah 54:13).
7. Beauty will be its adornment. “Behold I will set thy stones in stibium” (Isaiah 54:11). Stibium was a peculiar dye with which the Hebrew women tinged the eyelashes, in order that, being surrounded with this tinge, the beauty of the eye might flash forth more brightly. So the stones with which this building of God was to be erected, were to be set, as it were, in cement of so rich a dye as to set forth their lustre in richer beauty. And thy battlements of rubies, thy gates of flashing gems, and all thy borders of precious stones.” Thus the mineral world is made to yield its meed of illustration; its choicest gems are used as symbolic of the glory and beauty of the Church. Why? Because all beauty and glory of jasper, amethyst, ruby, sapphire, and pearl, when so set that their radiance gleams out most brilliantly, are but a reflection of that higher spiritual beauty of Him who created all.
8. Divine protection will be its safeguard (Isaiah 54:14-15). “Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they (thine enemies) shall surely gather together, but not by Me (not by My consent): whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake” (rather, shall fall upon thee). “Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall he broken.” Adverse weapons shall be blunted. Adverse tongues shall be condemned--both by the force of powerful argument, and by the mightier demonstration of a holy life (Isaiah 54:16). “I have created the waster to destroy,” the same power which builds the Church, has created all her foes; hence the inference is inevitable, God will not suffer those who arc opposed to Him to use their power so as to destroy that part of His work which He values most.
9. Perpetuity shall be its everlasting law (Isaiah 54:7-10). This is expressed in various forms of antithesis. Everything is wrapped up in this ninefold glory! (C. Clemance, D.D.)
“Sing, O barren!”
In the previous Chapter s we have heard the exiles summoned to leave Babylon, and beheld the Divine Servant becoming the Sin-bearer for them and the world. Here our attention ,is startlingly recalled to the desolate city of Jerusalem. “Barren;” “Forsaken; “Desolate”--such are the terms applied to her by One who cannot err. And they arecorroborated by the testimony of a contemporary (Nehemiah 1:3; Nehemiah 2:3; Nehemiah 2:13-17). But how is this? Have we not learnt that the Mediator has put away sin at the cost to Himself of wounds and bruises, stripes and death? Is that redemption complete which fails to grapple with all the results and consequences of wrong-doing? This opens up a great subject, and one that touches us all. Though our sin is forgiven, yet certain consequences remain, of which that ruined city is a type. We cannot undo the past; God Himself cannot undo it. It can never be as though it had never been. The seventy years of captivity, the shame, the sorrow, the anguish to God, the forfeited opportunities, attended by a multitude of hypocrites, and her courts were crowded with formalists, but the genuine children of Israel were sadly few; and when the Lord, the Husband of the Church, Himself arrived, the Church was in no happy condition. After that the Lords had been lain in the grave and risen again and ascended and left the Church, then were the days of refreshing, and the times of the visitation of the Spirit. At all seasons when the Church has been desolate and has become barren, God has appeared to her.
II. I now intend to use the text in reference to ANY ONE CHURCH.
1. There are some separate Churches which are in a very sad condition, and may most truly be said to be barren and desolate.
2. Brethren will ask me what is their present duty as members of such Churches? Your duty is very plain Labour to be conscious of the sad barrenness of the Church to which you belong: Spread the case before Jehovah, and be sure that you look away from everything that you yourself can do to Him, and to him alone. But mind you do not pray without proving the sincerity of your prayers by action.
III. THE POOR HELPLESS SINNER HAS HIS CASE WELL DESCRIBED BY THE PROPHET AS BARREN AND DESOLATE. “Barren! ah, that I am. I have not one meritorious fruit that I can bring before God.” You are desolate, too; no one can comfort you. Your barrenness is barrenness for ever if left to itself, and your desolation is utter and helpless unless some one intervene. May I ask you to look at the chapter which precedes my text? Jesus has taken the sinner’s sin upon Himself, and made a complete atonement; therefore, “Sing, O barren!” The mighty Redeemer has come out of His dwelling-place, and has fought the enemy, and won the victory. “Sing, O barren!”
IV. Does not this text belong to THE DEPRESSED BELIEVES? You and I, though we have brought forth some fruit unto the, Lord Jesus, yet sometimes feel very barren. What are we to do? “Sing, O barren, etc. But what can I sing about? I cannot sing about the present; I cannot even sing concerning the past. Yet I can sing of Jesus Christ. What is my barrenness. It is the platform for Divine power. What is my desolation? It is the black setting for the sapphire of His everlasting love.
V. Our text ought to have a special voice to THOSE CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN DOING GOOD. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Gentile Church a joyful mother
I. THE CHILDLESS MOURNER. The passage is the present heritage of the Gentile Church. Gentiledom was for a long time without a spiritual child. Now she may sing over a multitudinous family of true Christians. Addressed to the Jews as a prophecy--showing, in their sadness and depression, that though matters looked so dark for the cause of God now, yet there was a bright and blessed hope. Cheers them, not so much by showing grounds of present rejoicing, but by providing a telescope by which they might behold “the good time coming.” We may here note--
1. One great use of prophecy. It can cheer when things immediately around cause depression.
(1) To a sad Church the minister should speak much of unfulfilled prophecy.
(2) The Christian, in the “present distress should do the same for himself 2 Peter 1:19).
2. The imagery. It rings poetic changes on the idea of childlessness. Expressive imagery to Jewish women, who so longed for children, in hope of Messiah.
(1) Such should be the Church’s longing. Her prayer should be, “Give me children, or I die!” Bad sign when a Church seems content to be barren or to have no spiritual increase.
(2)When she remains without new births (or conversions), she should mourn. Contemplate the once barrenness of Christendom. Its comparative barrenness in vast tracts now, even in Christian England!
II. THE REJOICING MOTHER. Gentiledom for ages “unmarried”--“desolate.” When Christ came, He “called her by name,” and espoused her. Then how rapidly a family was brought forth. In Pentecostal times, what “multitudes were added to the Lord” (Acts 6:7; Acts 16:5). What joy this caused! (Acts 2:46-47, etc.)
1. The great subject of the verse, the joy of the Church in multitudes of conversions. This joy of the Lord is her strength (Nehemiah 8:10). She is then encouraged to labour with fresh zeal and hope in works of evangelization. Therefore “new births should be, as it were, registered; the successes of the Gospel should be published to evoke this healthful joy hence the reflex benefits of missionary gatherings.
2. Reasons for such joy. Not only because souls are saved, but because--
(1) Increase is a sign that God’s power is with His Church.
(2) It confirms our own faith. The more they are who believe what we believe, the more confident we must feel in the truth of our faith.
(3) It makes heaven appear attractive by the “sympathy of numbers.” We may use the text as a test How far are we in sympathy with the Church in joy over conversions to God? (R. Glover, M. A.)