Isaiah 54:1-17 A Sure Future
Isaiah shares the beauty of a sure future with God. We hear this promise BEFORE they went into exile. Before God’s wrath and judgment was poured out. God spoke hope to His people.
As I was reading the first part of this chapter, a vision of a woman accepting children that no longer had a home into her own. A “foster mother” or an “adoptive mother.” One who had no children of her own, now overflowed with those who were in need of a new beginning; a new life. This ‘mother’ wasn’t one who would only do the minimum for her children but one who would love and nurture them as if they were her very own.
I just realized that this is what the church is supposed to be. She bears no children of her own but she accepts ALL those who come to her for comfort, teaching, and belonging. She shares the words of the Father, her TRUE Husband, with all who are seeking.
God began ‘enlarging the tent’ from the moment after Jesus’ resurrection. We didn’t hear of the first ‘converts’ until the day of Pentecost but I have no doubt that those who heard and saw Him alive again became believers! Wouldn’t you? I KNOW I would have!
He is not done growing HIS church. He is still spreading His word to the ends of the earth. And He will continue to do so until the day this world ends and judgment begins. I believe He will continue doing this even when He calls His body from the times of great tribulation to come. Yes. I believe in the rapture happening and taking place before the seven years of tribulation. I won’t require you to agree with me on this point, but neither will I change my mind UNLESS God Himself shows me it isn’t so. I leave it in His hands regardless of my interpretations.
I see the time of tribulation being another brief moment God ‘deserts’ His ‘wife’. Isaiah tells us God “deserted” Israel, His people, for a time when they went into captivity for their own sin. He NEVER stopped loving her even when she was facing the consequences of her actions. God also had a time of silence after the people returned from captivity and then went back into their old ways. He NEVER forgot them but He drew away from them for their own sake.
God’s actions remind me of a husband who is SO ANGRY that he has to take a step back or he would wind up hurting his wife. NOT an abusive husband but one so distraught by the actions of his wife that he is at the end of himself. The wife would reap the natural consequences of her own actions without his protection. This is what I see happening during the tribulation period. God still loves those who are left behind but their actions brought about their circumstances. He won’t neglect or refuse those who turn to Him during that time but neither will He be active in the world before them.
To the ‘wife’ who returns, He stands with arms open wide and offers all the protection of the Husband. Those who come against her will be met by HIM. HE will take up her cause and be her protection. NO weapon formed against her will be of any good. They will fall as flat as a rubber knife in a gun fight.
His promise applies to more than the corporate church. It applies to every believer. We are each a part of that body which makes the church and loved as dearly as individuals. There is coming a day when His ‘wife’ will no longer stray into sin. A day when she will be wholly His. Until then for those who love Him and have asked Him to be Lord of their lives, “I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed” (verses 9b-10).
He WILL NOT remove His love from those whom have come to Him in truth. We may suffer consequences for our actions along the way but His grace is there for us to bring us back into alignment with Him and to strengthen our walk. And that is where the beauty He created for each of us will be on display for all to see. Not in a showy way but in a way that displays His love and His desire to give beautiful gifts to His bride.
Father God, thank You for being ‘my Husband’. Thank You that You have adopted me into Your family too. Not ‘incest’ but love so deep that there is none greater that man knows. Keep me walking in line with You. And ‘adorn’ me in ways that I can see instead of the parts of me that I hate to look at. Show me how YOU see me. Let me be taught by YOU all the days of my life.
