BREAKING OUT OF THE BOX

When you look around yourself, do you see four walls? Perhaps others built the walls, or perhaps you built them yourself. Perhaps it was a joint operation. However it happened, you ended up being surrounded by walls, and you ended up in a box. You’ve come to believe that certain things are true about you and maybe always will be true about you. Your vision of what God can do through you never reaches beyond the walls. If you feel that way, Isaiah 54:1-5 is the passage for you. It tells you to break out of the box. How do you do it? You rejoice, even in your spiritually barren condition, and take steps to prepare for the fruitfulness to come out of your life.

Isaiah’s magnificent Servant Song, in Isaiah 52:13-53-12, portrayed the Servant the Lord, who ends up being Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection. The focus of the song was the Servant’s work of atonement. Now that the Servant has done this work, what does it mean for us who benefit from it? The prophet tells us in Isaiah 54-55. What it means is a new covenant. Thus, we see covenant language in Isaiah 54:1-10. There are allusions to God’s covenant with Abraham (verses 1 through 3), Israel (verses 4-8) and Noah (verses 9-10). What do you do when you’re inspired by a great song? You seek to make a change.

The family theme, which was evident in the last stanza of the Servant Song, in Isaiah 53:10-12, shows up again in Isaiah 54:1-5, the first stanza of the next poem. Each section in the stanza begins with commands (verses 1ab, 2abcd and 4ab) and offers reasons for obedience to those commands, in each case beginning with the word "for" (verses 1cd, 3abc, 5abcd).

The "barren one" is Jerusalem, which represents the people of Israel (Isaiah 40:1-2). Barrenness was cause for shame among women. Isaiah is anticipating the time when Jerusalem will go into exile, when she will feel the shame of barrenness. Yet, the Lord tells her to "shout for joy" and to "break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud."

The reason for such an outburst is that "the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman." The desolate one is Jerusalem. The married woman could be Jerusalem in its former glory, but the point of the comparison is to show that something supernatural is at work. For Jerusalem, a barren woman, to be fruitful will require a supernatural act. The barrenness of Jerusalem, then, serves to prepare her for something great. Even before she sees something great, the Lord tells her to rejoice.

Jerusalem, seen here as a woman, is like Sarah, who was barren but gave birth to Isaac with the help of the Lord (Genesis 11:30, 18:9-15). Thus Abraham’s "seed" was multiplied and he became the father of a great nation (Genesis 22:17). Now, Israel herself, seeming to be as barren as Sarah, is on the verge of giving birth to a new seed.

The barren one is not only Jerusalem/Israel but the Servant of the Lord, who turns out to the Messiah, who would represent his people. Jesus, the Messiah, was himself born supernaturally (Matthew 1:18). His coming was hailed by a man, John, who was born of a previously barren woman, Elizabeth (Luke 1:7). Jesus, the Messiah, died without any "seed," or offspring. Yet Isaiah told us in the previous poem that the Servant would "prolong his days" (be resurrected) and "see his offspring" (Isaiah 53:10). Barren Jerusalem comes to be singularly expressed in Jesus of Nazareth, who will have "many" offspring (Isaiah 53:11). John writes that those who receive Jesus become "children of God" (John 1:12). The supernatural birthing process begins when the Spirit of God descends on the apostles in Acts 2 and thousands of people come to faith in Christ. We who believe in Jesus are his children and the children of Jerusalem. We have experienced a supernatural, spiritual birth. We have a new family, a new city.

Yet together we are also Jerusalem itself, the people of God. At this time in history, together we may feel like a barren woman, but a look down the road shows us that we will be rejoicing in the new heavens and new earth with a great multitude, which no one can count, "from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues" (Revelation 7:9). Because of what’s coming, we must rejoice together now.

As an individual member of Jerusalem, you may feel spiritually barren. There may seem to be no fruit coming from your life. It may seem as if you’re having no spiritual impact. You feel desolate, like Jerusalem herself. It may cause you shame. You need to know some things about your barrenness. God often withholds fruitfulness only to make us more fruitful in the end. In this God-given barrenness, we are broken of our attempts to create fruit on our own. Fruit comes from dwelling in the vine of Christ (John 15:1-5). In our desolation, our relationship with Christ is nourished, and it is that relationship that enables us to handle the blessings of fruitfulness. The condition of barrenness, then, is preparatory. It is not permanent.

How do you know this? Because if you examine your heart, you will find, even in your barren condition, that there is something within you that wants to be released. Something within you wants to "shout for joy" and "break forth into joyful shouting." This text gives you every reason to do so. Jerusalem is not commanded to rejoice when she bears children; she is commanded to rejoice in anticipation of bearing children. It may seem like an impossible prospect. Such fruitfulness seemed to be an impossible prospect for Jerusalem as well, but look what happened when Christ came. Something supernatural happened. The impossible is God’s specialty. Rejoice, even in your barrenness—especially in your barrenness! And watch for something supernatural to happen. When we rejoice in the midst of our barrenness we are declaring that our barrenness is not final.

If Jerusalem is going to have numerous children, she has to find a place to put them. So the Lord, using a tent as in illustration, tells her to get ready for the influx. He tells her to enlarge the place of her tent, to stretch out her curtains, to lengthen her cords and to strengthen her pegs. In so many ways, the Lord tells Jerusalem to make her tent bigger and stronger. The new seed spoken of in verse 1 will need more land.

The tent illustration calls forth Israel’s history. Israel dwelt in tents in the wilderness, when it was separated from Egypt in preparation for entering the promised land. Once again, Israel is being called to prepare for something. She’s going to enter the land again, so to speak, to take possession of it once more, after the exile, and to expand beyond previous borders.

In verse 1, barren Jerusalem was called to rejoice before she saw any children. Now she is called to prepare for those children, though she still doesn’t see them. Such preparation will require diligence fueled by faith. That’s what it required for Noah, who built the ark and even entered it before the rains came (Genesis 6:13-7:5). In all this, Jerusalem is to "spare not"; she is to cast off restraints and work and hope with abandon.

This preparation is necessary because Jerusalem will not only resettle her own desolate cities but "spread abroad to the right and to the left," to the south and to the north. Her descendants, her seed, will "possess nations." Thus will be fulfilled the Lord’s promise to Abraham, that his seed "shall possess the gate of their enemies" (Genesis 22:17).

All this has been and is being fulfilled in Jesus, the true representative of Jerusalem. The tent metaphor was applied to David. Isaiah looked forward to a time when a judge would sit on the throne in the "tent of David" (Isaiah 16:5). The Lord speaks to the Messiah in Psalm 2:8, when he says, "Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations and your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession." When David’s dynasty tottered because the kings that came from his seed proved unfaithful, the Lord, speaking through the prophet Amos, said, "In that day I will raise up the fallen booth [or tent] of David, and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins, and rebuilt it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name" (Amos 9:11-12). James refers to these verses from Amos when speaking about Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus, the Davidic king, the Jewish Messiah (Acts 15:14-18). When Jesus, as the epitomy of Jerusalem, possesses the nations, the nations come to faith in him and become part of his family. Jesus himself launched this strange conquest by telling his disciples to "make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19). We who have come to faith in Jesus have been "possessed" by him, so to speak. We are not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We belong to him.

Yet we, as members of his family, are also Jerusalem—the city of God and the family of God. What do these verses say to us?

You may feel that the Lord cannot do very much through you. If you’re feeling barren and desolate, you may not feel that he can do anything through you. These verses contradict those feelings. Have you placed limits on your life that God has not placed? Have you closed in on yourself, thinking that life is really about going to work and having a few friends and not much else? God has a vision for you to be an enormously fruitful.

What are you doing to prepare for spiritual fruitfulness? The Lord called Jerusalem to prepare for her children even when it looked as if she would never have them. To prepare for spiritual fruitfulness, first of all we need to enlarge our vision, to think bigger thoughts about God and what he can do through us. Then we need to see if there’s some way in which this faith can inspire action. It’s quite likely that this action will take you beyond the current borders of your life. Like Jerusalem, you will have to enlarge, stretch and lengthen yourself.

Go someplace you haven’t gone before. Do something you haven’t done before. Enter a realm that scares you. Make some more room in your life. You’ll be surprised how much room there is if you make room for the right things. Take on a new ministry. Spare not—don’t hold back. This will require a certain diligence and discipline. As you enlarge, stretch and lengthen yourself, you will find that you will need to do one more thing. Just as Jerusalem was called to strengthen its tent pegs, you’ll need to strengthen yourself. You’ll need to hammer your pegs deeper into the Lord and become more firmly established in him. Going beyond ourselves means depending on something beyond ourselves. You’ll need to be stronger in the Lord. Such actions will prepare you to be spiritually fruitful.

Jerusalem was going to spread out to the right and the left, and her seed was to possess nations. As noted, Jesus launched this invasion. It’s one that he calls us to participate in. The borders of the promised land have expanded way beyond a little strip of land called Palestine. The promised land is becoming the whole earth. And we’re called to invade it, not with swords and arrows but with truth and love—truth that exposes hearts like a sword and love that pierces hearts like an arrow. Jesus has bound the strong man, Satan (Matthew 12:29), and the whole earth is there for the taking. So go wherever God calls you with the truth and love, carrying with you the good news about a King who sets the captives free.

In fly fishing, you try to "match the hatch." You try to imitate the shape and size of the bug the fish are feeding on. My friends and I had heard about the legendary "Hexagenia" hatch of Fall River in northern California, when thousands of large mayflies appear on the water just before dark. We were anxious to learn about it. The largest flies we ever used were tied on size 10 hooks. My friend Mike, wondering what kind of fly he might use, met someone who was familiar with the hatch and asked him some questions. Mike showed him a size 10 fly and asked if it matched the size of the Hexagenia. The man laughed. "These things are like hummingbirds!" the man exclaimed. It turned out that a size 6 fly—more than twice the size of my friend’s offering—matched the size of the Hexagenia. In order to effectively fish during the Hexagenia hatch, he would have to think bigger—to think outside the box, to go beyond what he was familiar with. It is also what we must do if we are to be spiritually fruitful.

What would prevent Jerusalem from breaking forth in joyful shouting and enlarging the place of her tent? One word: Fear. They would fear feelings such as shame, humiliation and disgrace. Jerusalem, in her barren condition, is already feeling shame, humiliation and disgrace. If she were to start rejoicing now and start preparing for children that could only come by a miracle, she may fear looking even more foolish. Yet the Lord promises her that she will not be put to shame. He tells her not to feel humiliated, because she will not be disgraced.

The people of Israel know what shame feels like. Israel would remember the shame of her youth. It’s not clear what period this refers to. Perhaps it is Israel’s time of bondage in Egypt or its time of wandering in the wilderness. There is plenty in Israel’s "youth" that she might be ashamed of. And she feels the reproach of widowhood, as the Lord briefly forsakes her and she goes into exile (Isaiah 54:7). Such feelings shouldn’t hold Israel back. In fact, she will forget them and remember them no more.

Why should Jerusalem forget all about the shame of her youth and the reproach of her widowhood? Because the Lord is her husband. God describes himself in six ways in verse 5: as Jerusalem’s husband, as her maker, as the Lord of Hosts, as Jerusalem’s redeemer, as the Holy One of Israel and as the God of all the earth.

When the Lord entered into a covenant relationship with Israel in the wilderness, he became her husband. When he formed Israel in the womb of Egypt, he became her maker. As the Lord of Hosts, with a vast array of heavenly and earthly armies at his disposal, he has fought for Israel. When he rescued her from Egypt, he became her redeemer. As the Holy One of Israel, he has expressed his holiness on behalf of Israel. As the God of all the earth, he has given the promised land to Israel. Israel may feel shame because of her past, but if she looks closely at it, she will see the Lord in it, loving her and blessing her all the while. Although the Lord calls Jerusalem a widow, certainly she is not. The Lord is her husband, and he has not died. But he has forsaken her for a while, as she goes into exile, and she will feel as if the relationship is dead. The point of verse 5 is not only that the Lord has been all these things for Israel, he still is all these things. He still is her husband, her maker, the Lord of Hosts, her redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth. He is still committed to her and committed to acting in her behalf.

Therefore, Jerusalem, should forget the shame of her youth and the reproach of her widowhood. Therefore, she should not fear shame, humiliation or disgrace as she shouts for joy and prepares for her children. The Lord, who has acted so powerfully for Israel in the past, is on the verge of doing so again. All the things he did before—making Israel, redeeming Israel, giving Israel the land—he will do again. He will remake her in exile, he will redeem her from exile and he will give her the land again—in this case, the whole earth. After all, he is the God of all the earth.

Perhaps in your currently barren condition, you feel shame, humiliation and disgrace. You look into your past and it doesn’t get any better. There you find some things you’re not proud of. You’re afraid that if you break forth into joyful shouting and start enlarging the place of your tent, people will think you’re crazy. You’re afraid of how you would appear, and you’re afraid that you will fail. If you take a closer look into the past, you will see something beyond shame. You will see the Lord, giving you a new birth, redeeming you from sin, leading you into new places. And that’s what you should see! The Lord’s past acts are so powerful that they fill up our past. We should remember how he loved us and forgave us and blessed us. Our remembrance of this should be so great that the shame of our youth is reduced to something we can forget about.

He has been—and still is—your husband, your maker, the Lord of Hosts, your redeemer, your Holy One and the God of all the earth. Appreciate him, relate to him and worship him on that basis. Think of him as the one who loves you so much and wants to be so close to you that he calls himself your husband. Think of him as the one who gave you spiritual birth and continually remakes you into his image. Think of him as the one who goes unleashes all his armies for you. Think of him as the one who rescued you from sin. Think of him us your Holy One—utterly holy yet intensely personal. Think of him as the God of all the earth, who is giving you all the earth (Matthew 5:5). Draw close to him. Worship him.

Trust him. Trust him as you break forth into joyful shouting and enlarge the place of your tent. Trust him as you rejoice over—and prepare for—the children yet to be born, the spiritual fruitfulness yet to be. You will not be put to shame. You will not be disgraced.

Break out of the box! Take on a new challenge. Seek to serve the Lord in a new way. O barren one, break forth into joyful shouting. Enlarge the place of your tent. Fear not.

Jabez prayed, "Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me and that you would keep me from harm, that it may not pain me" (1 Chronicles 4:10). May Jabez’ prayer be ours. May we fervently and persistently ask God to bless us indeed and to enlarge our borders

Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ("NASB"). © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Where indicated, Scripture quotations were also taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ("NIV"). © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

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