Verses 1-5
That though the beginnings of it were small (The Christian Church), it would be greatly enlarged by the addition of many to it among the gentiles (non-Jews), who, to that point had been entirely without church privileges. And has already been pointed out, this prophecy doesn't just deal with the enlargement of the church by the addition of the gentiles but also through the multitudes that will come to her doors during the end times.
“Sing, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations
and settle in their desolate cities.
4 “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.
5 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.
If thought about as the state of affairs of the Jews after their return out of captivity, then this is a prophecy of the increase of the nation after they settled back in their own land. Jerusalem had been in the condition of a wife written childless, or a solitary widow, but now it is promised that the city should be replenished and the country populated again. This is a theme that is repeated throughout the bible. Sara was 90 or 91 when she gave birth to Isaac. Samson's mother was childless until an angel of the Lord appeared and told her she was to have a child (Judges 13). John the Baptist Mother, Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, was well past the age of childbearing and had not had a child when she amazingly conceived a son. We all know the story of Mary. Given all these instances it should not surprise us that we see the church here compared to a barren woman who has not given up her hope in the Lord. Not only for the church during the time of growth by coming out of captivity and adding the Gentiles, but also by bringing in multitudes during the tribulation period of the end times as well. Wanna take a guess who else hasn't had a child? Wanna take a guess who has never given up her hope in the Lord? Yeah, Lucy. You're in great company sweetheart. So not only should the ruins of Jerusalem be repaired as it were, but the suburbs of it extended on all sides and a great many buildings erected upon new foundations. The church shall grow in other words, in true faith. Estates which had for many years been wrongfully held by the Babylonian Gentiles should now return to their rightful owners.
Here is your modern day equivalent of the church being wrongfully held by Babylonian Gentiles.
God will again be a husband to his true church, and through the reproach of their captivity (The taking over of the church by forces not Christian), the small number to which true believes were reduced shall not be forgotten. It is observed that by the ancient promise made to Abraham of the increase of his seed, when they were restored to God’s favour they multiplied greatly. It happened when the Jews came out of captivity, when the gentiles were added to the church and it will happen during the end times as well. This fact must be applied to the Church of God in general, the Kingdom of God among men, God's city in the world, the children of God incorporated.
Let's consider:
The low and faltering state of religion in the world for a long time before Christianity was brought in. It could be seen as like one that was barren, that did not bear, or have painful or laborious effort with child. It was like one desolate, that had lost husband and children. The church had little direction, it brought forth little fruit. Sound like a familiar state of affairs? The metaphor of the barren woman as the church just matches up exactly with Lucy's story. It just does. They are one in the same. The Jews were indeed by profession married to God but they had few recent converts among them. The coming generations were said to be unpromising and serious godliness manifestly lost ground among them. The Gentiles has less religion among them than the Jews, the recent converts were dispersed, and the children of God, like the children of a broken, reduced family, were scattered abroad. John 11:52, "and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one."
The recovery from this low condition then, as it shall be again,
was by the preaching of the gospel and the planting of the Christian Church.
The true one.
Multitudes then, as will be again, were converted from worshiping idols (anything between you and God) to worshiping the one true living God. Those were the church's children that were born again, they became partakers of a new and divine nature, by the word. The same word that created the heavens. The same word that restored the dry bones in Ezekiel 37. The same word that is sharper than any two edged sword. The word of God. More were the children of the desolate than of the married wife; there were more good people to be found in the gentile church when it was established, that had been away from and without God in their world, than were to be found in the established Jewish church. I believe this is exactly where we are headed today. Multitudes of non believers will come forth to outnumber by far the holier than thou Christians who fill the pews these days. It's a matter of time before they come forth believing in God and his true church. There is just something wrong when church members wanna look down their noses at two pews full of people brought in for service because of the way they look, dress or smell, or for someone to look down at somebody for the kind of shirt they happen to be wearing at a church function. All to often it's more commonplace than not. What if God almighty showed up Sunday to your service in ratty jeans and a Pink Floyd t-shirt? You gonna wish he wasn't there? You too good to say hello? You wouldn't dare give up "your place" in "your pew" for him? Shame on you. Your days are numbered. Mark 2:17 "On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” There are more people out there just waiting, looking, hoping for a reason to believe than there are hoity-toity church members looking down their nose at others for whatever reason. I firmly believe that. I firmly believe were at at stage where we're about to see them come forth is droves. Sometimes more of the power of religion is found in the places and families that have made little show of it and have enjoyed but little of the means of grace than in others who have distinguished themselves by a flourishing profession of it. Such that more are the children of the desolate, more are the fruits of their righteousness, than those of the married wife; so the last shall be first and the first shall be last. (See the story of Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath, she wasn't Jewish, yet he was sent there to save her instead of a Jew and their son 1st Kings 17:7-16)
Now this is spoken of here as a matter of great rejoicing to the church, which is called upon to break forth into song upon this account. The increase of the church is the joy of all it's friends and strengthens their hands. The longer the church has lain desolate the greater the joy will be when it begins to recover the ground it has lost and to gain even more. (It's coming) Even in heaven, among the angels of God, there is an uncommon joy for when a sinner that repents, much more for a nation that does so. Luke 15:10, "In the same way, "I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” If the barren fig tree at long last bring forth fruit (and it finally is, right Lucy?), then it is well, it shall rejoice and others with it.
The boundary markers of the church were and will be extended again much further than ever before. Isaiah 54: 1-2.“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities." Here the state of the church is used in it's earliest state. It dwells in tents, like the heirs of promise of old. Hebrews 11:9 "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise." It's dwelling is movable and of no strength against a storm. The city, the continuing city, is reserved for hereafter. A tent is soon taken down and moved, so to the candlestick of church privileges is soon removed out of its place and, when God pleases, it is as soon fixed elsewhere.
Revelation 2:5 "Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."
Through the church be in a young state, it is sometimes very remarkably a growing state; and, if it increases in number, then it doesn't matter that this church is in a tent. This is was in the first preaching of the gospel, it was the business of the apostles to disciple all nations, to stretch forth the curtains of the church's dwelling place, to preach the gospel where Christ had not yet been named. Romans: 15:20 "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation." To give the gospel to those towns and countries that had to this point been strangers to it, and thus to "lengthen the cords of this tabernacle" that more might be enclosed, which would make it necessary to strengthen the stakes proportionally, that they might bear the weight of the enlarged curtains. The more numerous the church grows the more cautious she must be to fortify herself against errors and corruptions, and to support her seven pillars. Proverbs 9:1 "Wisdom has built her house;
she has set up its seven pillars." Ephesians 4:13-15 "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ."
It is proof of divine power going along with the gospel that in all places it grew and prevailed mightily. Acts. 19:20, "In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power." It broke forth, as the breaking forth of waters on the right hand and on the left, that is everywhere. One of the reasons for this, as explained in the book "The New Mystics" was the fact that people were witnesses to miracles being performed right in front of them. Word of mouth spread and more came forth and witnessed more miracles being performed by the disciples and it just snowballed. In the last days when God pours forth his spirit on all peoples, (Joel 2:28-32, I've referenced it enough lol, look it up if you need to) the same types of miracles will be seen, and in the age of cell phones and social media and world wide instantaneous news feeds, many will see, many will see and fear (Psalm 40:3) The gospel spread itself into all parts of the world, there were eastern and western churches. The church's seed inherited the gentiles, and the cities that had been desolate, that is without knowledge and worship of the true God, came to be inhabited, that is to have religion set up in them and the name of Christ professed as Lord of Lord and King of Kings.
This was the comfort and honor of the church Isaiah 54:4 "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." It was the disapproval of the Christian religion in its infancy, that none of the rulers or princes of this world embraced it and it was practiced by a handful of men thought to be deserving of disapproval. (It will be the same all over again.) But after a while (just like I said, long after we're gone Lucy), nations were discipled, empires became Christian and then the disapproval of the church's youth and infancy forgotten. As it was then? So shall it be again. The old will become new and the new shall become old. The first the last, the last the first, the beginning the end, the end the beginning etc.
This was due to the relation in which God stood to his church as her husband. Isaiah 54:5 "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. Your maker is your husband." Believers are said to be married to Christ, that they may bring forth fruit unto God. Romans: 7:4 "So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God." So the church is married to him, that she may bear and bring up a holy seed to God, that shall be accounted to him for a generation. Who's getting married again here shortly :-)? Jesus Christ is the church's maker, by whom she is formed into a people —her Redeemer, by whom she is brought out of captivity, the bondage of sin, the worst of slaveries.
This is he that espoused her to himself.
Lucy's message to me :-).
Were not having a child.
It's a metaphor for the new church that's coming.
He is the lord of host, who has an irresistible power, an absolute sovereignty and a universal dominion. Kings who are lords of some host, find there are others who are lords of other hosts, as many and mighty as theirs; but God is the Lord of all hosts.
He is the holy one of Israel, the same that presided in the affairs of the Old-Testament church and was the Mediator of the covenant made with it. The promises made to the New-Testament Israel are as rich and sure as those made to the Old-Testament Israel; for he that is our Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
He is and shall be called the Lord of the whole earth, as God, as mediator, for he is the heir of all things, but then he shall be called so, when the ends of the earth shall be made to see his salvation, when all the earth shall call him their God and have an interest in him. Philippians 2:10-11 "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Long he had been called, in a exclusive manner, The God of Israel. But now? The partition wall between Jew and Gentile being taken down, he shall be called the God of the whole earth. Matthew 27:51. "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split". No longer would a high priest need atone for your sins in the holy of holies. The highest priest of all high priest had atoned for everybody's sins and opened the door to the father for all those that wish to seek him. Even in those places where he had been, as in Athens itself, an unknown God.
Acts 17:22-28
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
It shouldn't be lost on us what Athens is considered to be the birthplace and the cradle of.
I love you Lucy.
I miss you girl.
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