For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 54:1-3    

1 ‘Sing, barren woman,
    you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
    you who were never in labour;
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.

A. Find Out:

1. Who is encouraged to do what? v.1a-d
2. Why? v.1e,f
3. What is she also encouraged to do? v.2
4. Why? v.3a
5. How will this be seen on a larger scale? v.3b,c

B. Think:

1. Why has v.1 got to be speaking about supernatural growth?
2. How is verse 2 linked to verse 1?
3. How does verse 3 explain that?

C. Comment:

Here is Israel in a shocking devastated state, after the enemy has plundered the land (as so often happened) and men have been taken or killed. Women have been left and are childless. It was common in war-torn times, and because Israel turned away from the Lord so often, it was often like that. And then the Lord comes and says the barren woman will have more children than the (neighbouring nations) women who have husbands. Barren here, in the light of the last phrase of verse 1 must mean more a woman with no husband than one who simply can’t conceive. So the Lord takes a hopeless example and says, you don’t need to worry because I will come and make you very fruitful. Devastation and desolation is not the end of the day.

As if to emphasise what He’s just said, He then goes on, enlarge your tents, enlarge your homes because the present ones will not be big enough to cope with the inhabitants that I will bring. In fact, He goes on, your numbers will be so great that you will spread and spread, so far that you will take over the land and cities of other nations.

In each of these ways the Lord is painting a picture of amazing restoration, a restoration that will be the supernatural act of God. Don’t look at your present circumstances, is what He is saying, for I am going to come and multiply you dramatically, and it will be a supernatural working of God!

D. Application:

1. Do we believe God can change impossible circumstances?
2. Bring such circumstances to Him and ask for transformation.

Passage: Isaiah 54:4-8

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.
6 The Lord will call you back
    as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit –
a wife who married young,
    only to be rejected,’ says your God.
7 ‘For a brief moment I abandoned you,
    but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
8 In a surge of anger
    I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
    I will have compassion on you,’
    says the Lord your Redeemer.

A. Find Out:

1. What does the Lord say will not happen to them? v.4a,b
2. What will they do? v.4c,d
3. In what ways does the Lord describe Himself? v.5
4. How will the Lord call them? v.6
5. What had He done, and what was He now doing? v.7
6. How does he express that again? v.8

B. Think:

1. What had obviously happened to them (PAST)?
2. What was the Lord saying now (PRESENT)?
3. So what could they anticipate would happen (FUTURE)?

C. Comment:

The Lord has just spoken of Israel as if she were a barren women without any children, without any future, and has promised many children, a great future.   So now He enlarges on that. It’s all right, He says, you can forget the past, I’m not going to humiliate you or put you to further shame. You can forget the times of your earlier history when, as far as a relationship with me was concerned, you were like a widow.  I AM your husband, I AM your redeemer, I AM the all-powerful One.

Yes, He goes on, it was like you were a young bride who was rejected, but I WILL bring you back. Yes, you did deserve it (implied) but my feelings of compassion for you overcome the righteous anger that was there. There WILL be a restoration.

In these verses we find amazing truths. First the Lord does bring judgement and He does step away from His unrepentant people in discipline. Sin does bring with it the judgement and discipline of God. However, that is not the end of it. The Lord’s heart is a heart of compassion that reaches out again and again to seek the restoration of His people. He does not just give up on His people, but keeps on coming back to seek the next generation to see if they will respond well to Him. The Lord seeks to bring people, as many as possible, to know Him and to enter into the blessedness of knowing Him – even after failure.

D. Application:

1. The way of failure is clear – repentance and then restoration.
2. Our trust and hope must be in the love and mercy of God.    

Passage: Isaiah 54:9-12   

9 ‘To me this is like the days of Noah,
    when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
    never to rebuke you again.
10 Though the mountains be shaken
    and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
    nor my covenant of peace be removed,’
    says the Lord, who has compassion on you. 11 ‘Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
    I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
    your foundations with lapis lazuli.
12 I will make your battlements of rubies,
    your gates of sparkling jewels,
    and all your walls of precious stones.

A. Find Out:

1. To what does the Lord compare this time? v.9a,b
2. So what does He now do? v.9c,d
3. What might happen? v.10a,b
4. Yet what won’t happen? v.10c,d
5. How does He describe Jerusalem? v.11a
6. What does He say He will do? v.11b,c,12

B. Think:

1. What is the point of the Noah reference?
2. Of what can they be assured for the future?
3. What appears to be the future for Jerusalem?

C. Comment:

This is a difficult passage – and it is good to be honest and face difficulties. It is clear and easily understood as far as what it says, but it’s application or fulfilment is difficult.

So, first the content of the passage. The Lord continues on to confirm yet again what He has already said – He will restore Jerusalem and bring back future generations. He does this here by first of all saying it will be like the promise He made after the flood (Gen 9:12 -17). Even as then He promised never again to flood the earth, here he promises never again to remove His love from Jerusalem. Whatever else may happen (the hills shaken), His love and peace will not be removed, and He will go on to build it into the most beautiful of places.

Now comes the difficult part: how was this fulfilled?  It may be that as with much else we have read, it applied after the exile and after the destruction of Jerusalem then. Yet in AD 70 we know that Jerusalem was overrun by the Romans and the Jews put into exile for 2000 years. What of Jerusalem throughout that time? Perhaps the fact that Jerusalem still exists despite the ravages of the centuries says something. Yet for much of the period of church history it was largely empty. A mystery. Sometimes we have to say, “Lord, I don’t understand this, but I still trust you. This may be one of those times.

D. Application:

1. God loves even in judgement & discipline. Know His love for you.
2. We trust even when we don’t understand every little detail.

Passage: Isaiah 54:13-17    

13 All your children will be taught by the Lord,
    and great will be their peace.
14 In righteousness you will be established:
tyranny will be far from you;
    you will have nothing to fear.
Terror will be far removed;
    it will not come near you.
15 If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing;
    whoever attacks you will surrender to you.

16 ‘See, it is I who created the blacksmith
    who fans the coals into flame
    and forges a weapon fit for its work.
And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc;
17     no weapon forged against you will prevail,
    and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
    and this is their vindication from me,’
declares the Lord.

A. Find Out:

1. How will future generations be blessed? v.13
2. How will they be established? v.14a
3. What will be far from them? v.14b,c
4. What will happen if anyone attacks them? v.15
5. What does the Lord do? v.16
6. So of what can they be assured? v.17

B. Think:

1. How do these verses follow on from what has gone before?
2. Why will there be peace?
3. If anyone should come against them, what will happen?

C. Comment:

The Lord has said previously that He will redeem them and rebuild Jerusalem.  Now He goes on to bring fresh reassurances to them that they will be secure there. He does this in various ways.

First by simple declaration that the future generations will live at peace with the Lord being their teacher, so that right living (righteousness) will be the norm in the land, so that injustice (tyranny) will no longer exist there.  Indeed terror from invaders will also be unknown.

Then the Lord expands on that and says that if any enemy should have the temerity to come against them, it won’t be Him sending them and so they will not come to anything! Look, He goes on, I am the one who stirs up men to act as my tools of judgement, so if I’m not behind them, they won’t come to anything. Realise this and rest in it. They may come, because sinful men do such things, but they won’t be able to prevail against you because I won’t be behind them.

We, at this point really need to take this on board. When the Lord brings judgement, then a) it is deserved, and b) it will ‘work’ and achieve its goal. If sinful man rises against the people of God then they will be thwarted and come to nothing because God is not behind them, but He is behind us!  Be at peace.

D. Application:

1. Learn to discern the truth: judgement or the sin of man?
2. Learn to discern the need: repentance or perseverance.