Season 6, Podcast 113, Isaiah 54:1-17, “Sing, O Barren.”

Season 6, Podcast 113, Isaiah 54:1-17, “Sing, O Barren.”

Let’s begin Isaiah 54 by comparing the triumph of the House of Israel to the downfall of Babylon as given in Isaiah 13. First consider the House of Israel to include both the direct seed of Abraham and to all others who are worthy to be called the seed of Abraham. Second, consider Babylon to represent the world.

Isaiah 54:1

1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.

Isaiah 13:6

6 Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 

Those two events happen at the same time. Isaiah is speaking about 700 BC. He is referring to the Second Coming of Christ and the beginning of the Millennium which will not happen for at least 2000 years after the birth of Christ, let’s say roughly 3000 years from the time of Isaiah, give or take a few hundred years. 

Just prior to the Second Coming of Christ all the wicked will be destroyed, and Babylon, or the world, will fall. The only ones left will be the righteous. 

In Isaiah 13, we read the following:

Isaiah 13:7-11

7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:

8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

Just the opposite occurs with the righteous.

Isaiah 54:2-7

2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

6 For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.

For the wicked the last days will be a time of war and horror.

Isaiah 13:12-16

12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.

15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.