This morning, for our Mother’s Day message, I’m going to approach this holiday from a different angle. The normal approach is to celebrate our mothers and compliment them for their many sacrifices, which is definitely warranted; however, today, I going to share some practical help from the Scripture; words that will bring hope to both single women, and to mothers, who are struggling. Now, traditionally, when we envision a mother, we imagine a woman who has children, of course; and one who comes from a happy marriage relationship. But that’s not the reality of the world in which we live. So, I’m going to start by painting a picture of reality.
Today, many people are forgoing marriage, as they are afraid of commitment; but often, it’s the man who’s afraid of commitment, and the woman just goes along with it. They may even have a child out of wedlock; but deep down inside, the woman has always envisioned her fairy-tale wedding, and imagined spending her life and raising a child with someone she could grow old with. And though she may never voice her feelings, this woman is struggling with rejection and insecurity; and if she comes from a Christian upbringing, she’s also struggling with the morality of her choices.
On the flip side, there are single women who are not in any kind of relationship, and who desire very much to be married and have children; but they want to do things the traditional way and get married. And then, there are single mothers who made a bad choice when they were younger; and they think that no one will have them, feeling as though they are damaged goods. They too want to be married, but they have lost hope that it will ever happen for them.
And then there are widows; and let me remind you that a widow doesn’t have to be a senior citizen. There are many young mothers out there who have lost their husband to some tragic accident, such as a car wreck, a job-related fatality, or even on the battlefield serving our country. There are also older widows, who have had the ideal marriage and raised a family, who now have adult children, but have recently lost their husband. As a widow, whether young or old, these women are struggling with the pain of loss and feelings of helplessness and loneliness.
So, the reality of motherhood, in this fallen world in which we live, is that there are women who desire to get married and start a family and can’t; and then there are single mothers out there, who have either had a child out of wedlock, or who have become a widow. You might even find a married mother who’s in an abusive relation, and their marriage is nowhere near picture perfect. All of these women are struggling emotionally; but in God’s Word we find hope and encouragement. We’re going to see how the Lord comforts both the single and the widow like a loving husband.
Based on a statement found in our passage, I’ve entitled our message this morning, “Your Maker Is Your Husband.” And we’re going to get started with Isaiah 54, verses 1-4.
Comfort for the Unloved (vv. 1-4)
1 “Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. 3 For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited. 4 Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.”
Before we go any further, allow me to share the context behind this passage. The people in this chapter, to whom Isaiah was speaking, were the citizens of Judah, or southern Israel. Around 721 B.C., Judah was overtaken by Assyria. The Israelites’ land was ravaged, some of their people were carried off to Assyria, and they wondered why they had been abandoned by the Lord. Isaiah observed that Judah and its capital were “full of crimes of all sorts: rebellion, meaningless religious ritualism, outright idolatry, flagrant injustice, self-satisfied arrogance, and drunkenness.”(1) And because of these things, God abandoned His people to the Assyrians.
Here in our passage, through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord was speaking to Judah. The people of Judah had gone astray from the Lord by committing horrendous sins, and forgetting their relationship with God. In reading the book of Hosea we learn that, when the Israelites went astray from the Lord, this behavior was viewed by God as spiritual adultery; or rather, spiritual infidelity or unfaithfulness.
God’s people were, in a spiritual sense, married to Him. They had fulfillment, contentment, happiness, intimacy, and even fruitfulness while they were in a relationship with the Lord; but they went astray. They had the joy and security of a marriage relationship; but the people forsook real love for lust; the lust for worldly and immoral pleasures.
These spiritual harlots, as the Bible often refers to them, had to suffer for their disobedience. Many of them were carried off to Assyria. Israelite men (or rather, husbands) were lacking in abundance, the population was small and dwindling, and the nation cried out to the Lord to bring them fruitfulness so they wouldn’t die out as a people. Not only were individuals in distress because they couldn’t marry and have children, but Judah as a whole feared being unable to repopulate and being left barren. The people did not want to fade and perish as a nation.
When they left the Lord, they not only lost intimacy with God, but as many of the men were carried off to Assyria, the women lost the chance of human intimacy with a husband. The Lord said, “More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman” (v. 1). In other words, God was saying to them, “There are more who are un-married, then those who are married; so, please know that you are not alone in your heartache and suffering.”
In verse 2, the Lord said, “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.” According to commentator John Gill, this expression alludes “to the curtains of which tents or tabernacles were made, which used to be stretched out on poles or stakes,” which could then be expanded and added to “in order to make more room and hold more people.”(2) So, another thing the Lord was saying was that, even though there were many unmarried women, somehow the nation would still begin to multiply; somehow everything would be okay.
So, when and how would the nation multiply? The Lord said in verse 3, “You shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.” The thing we learn here is that Judah would indeed multiply, but it would be the descendants of the captives – the descendants of those few who actually had children – who would begin repopulating the nation. The captives themselves, and those left barren in Jerusalem, would have to incur the penalty of the crimes they committed. Many individuals would have to endure lives of singleness, loneliness, and barrenness; and the nation as a whole would have to experience the anxiety of wondering if they would ever grow and prosper.
However, the Lord said in verse 1 to “sing,” and then in verse 4, He said, “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.” The people had just been told that their descendants, who would be few and far between, would be the ones who have husbands and multiply; so, what possible reason did the women of Judah have to rejoice when many, themselves, could not marry and were left alone without husbands and as widows?
In Joel 1:8, we read, “Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of [your] youth.” Being single or widowed can be a painful and sorrowful experience, but the Lord told the women of Judah to rejoice. So, let’s take a look at verse 5, and see if we can find out why they should rejoice.
The Lord is Your Husband (v. 5)
5 “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.”
Take comfort, Oh Judah, for you have a husband! You are not alone! You are indeed loved! The Lord declared to His people in Hosea 2:19-20, “I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.” When God said, “You shall know the Lord,” that word “know” in Hebrew is the word yada, meaning to know someone intimately.(3) Therefore, the people of Judah were supposed to have an intimate, and marriage-like relationship with the Lord.
If you are single – maybe even a single mother – and searching for love, then look no further, because the answer is found in God. You see, “God is love,” according to 1 John 4:16, and His love is unconditional with no strings attached, and He will love you no matter where you’ve been or what you have done. If you are single, and hurting inside, then peace is found in the Lord through His Son, Jesus Christ. And if perhaps you are married, and feeling empty inside, then maybe you need to spend more time with the Lord; or perhaps, you need to know Him for the very first time.
God is the source of the most intimate love of all; and our relationship with God and His Son, Jesus Christ, should be first and foremost in our lives. We are commanded to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37); and Matthew 6:33 tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” So, the Bible is telling us that if we focus on God, then all else will fall into place. This information tells us that Judah needed to make the Lord her spiritual husband once again, and the people needed to make God first in their lives.
The Israelites who were being held captive in Assyria needed to focus on the Lord instead of the selfish desires of their heart, which is what caused them to fall in the first place. Because they didn’t focus on the Lord, He took away all the things they lusted after, and left them with only one thing; and that one thing would be all they really needed if they would choose it. If not, they would have absolutely nothing. And the one thing that God left them with was Himself.
If you are single, desiring to be married, then focus on the Lord and He will bring all to pass in His good timing. But if you spend all your time trying to find a mate and forget about God, then things might not to work out at all. Ed Young, who’s the author of Romancing the Home, says, “Horizontal relationships (the relationships between people) are crippled at the outset unless the vertical relationship (the relationship between each person and God) is in place.”(4) Therefore, nothing in life is in place, until our relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, is in place. Now, let’s look at verses 6-8.
Fall into the Arms of Love (vv. 6-8)
6 “For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused,” says your God. 7 “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. 8 With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.
Many years ago, the contemporary Christian group Point of Grace had a song entitled “Fall into the Arms of Love.” Well, verses 6-8 express God’s love in this exact same way, urging us to fall into His arms.
How sickening it can be when you’re feeling alone and refused, as you cry out “What’s wrong with me God?” “Why doesn’t anyone love me?” Or maybe as a widow you might ask, “Why have you forsaken me Lord?” and “Why am I left alone in this world?” It’s at such a time that we need to consider that we are not alone; but that perhaps, our priorities are in the wrong place. Maybe we are unable to see and experience the love of God, because we are distracted by our pain or fleshly desires.
For example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, the apostle Paul said, “But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain [single] even as I am . . . [For] he who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord – how he may please the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:8, 32). The Israelites took their eyes off the Lord and focused more on what they desired in the world than on their relationship with God; and there might be some of us who are focusing more on our desire for earthly love, or on some other earthly pleasure, than on our relationship with our Maker.
In verse 8, the Lord said, “With a little wrath I hid My face from you.” If we take our eyes off of God, then simply put, we are living in sin; and when we’re living in sin, the Lord will hide His face from us. In Isaiah 59:2, the Lord said, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” Sin separates us from God; however, keep in mind that we won’t be forsaken from His love forever if we will just make a decision to turn to the Lord. His wrath is only for a moment.
Let’s re-read verse 8: “With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.” This is a conditional statement, as we see from the word “but.” The hiding of God’s face doesn’t have to be permanent if we will just submit ourselves to Him. If we will give our lives over to Him and reenter our relationship with the Lord, then He will have mercy on us. And for those who have never had a relationship with Him, He “can” and “will” be your Redeemer, as verse 8 says.
Time of Reflection
What we have seen from this passage is that Judah’s desire for the things of the world caused the people to grow lax in their relationship with the Lord. And Judah’s relationship with God was a marriage-like relationship; however, the people committed adultery when another lover, or Satan, distracted them. You see, the devil can disguise things to appear more beautiful than they really are; but true beauty, as we know, is found within, by finding our worth in Jesus Christ. True beauty is found in real, genuine, and everlasting love, and God is love.
Our relationship with the Lord should be as close as if we’re married to Him. If we turn our lives over to the Lord then He will have mercy on us, and lavish us with His extravagant love. He knows the desires of our heart, the Scripture says (Psalm 37:4). He knows what’s truly best for us; and when we focus on Him, then He will take care of our desires and needs.
If we will turn to the Lord, we’re told in verse 8, that He will be our Redeemer. He will rescue us from our pain and suffering, and from our sin. So, how will He do this? He will do so through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Titus 2:11-14 says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people.”
If we will deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and seek after God’s face, then we will be redeemed and purified for Him. We will be rescued from our loveless life, and be purified as a bride awaiting her husband. And who’s to be our Redeemer? Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son, who gave His own life, “That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
NOTES
(1) Lasor, Hubbard, and Bush, Old Testament Survey (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1996), p. 293.
(2) John Gill, “John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible,” Bible Study Tools: www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/isaiah-54-2.html (Accessed May 6, 2014).
(3) James Strong, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson), taken from page 47 in the Hebrew dictionary.
(4) Ed Young, Romancing the Home (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman and Holman, 1993), p. 207.
