The Day of New Beginnings

Rejoice O Barren One!

 

Isaiah 54:1-17: 
1"Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman," says the LORD.
2 "Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords And strengthen your pegs.
3 "For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations And will resettle the desolate cities.
 
Isaiah 54 contains much insight into how the true moving of God is taking place in this hour.  If you look around the realm of Christianity you could come to the conclusion that God is moving in many different areas.  Upon closer examination, however, it can be seen that many groups and movements have taken but an aspect of God’s provision and made and idol of it.  When one aspect of God is stressed to the point of ignoring His will as a whole, it no longer is glorifying to Him.  Only when that which comes forth is totally begotten of Him, and not the promotion or efforts of man, is it something that glorifies God.  It’s quite easy to take a provision or principle of God and promote it and parlay it into a great movement. It’s like the seed sown on rocky places (Mat 13:5-6), it immediately springs up because it has no depth or root to it, but in the day of judgment it cannot stand.
 
How then are the true purposes of God brought forth?  Those whom God would use to manifest his purposes, He first makes barren.  It’s interesting that the wives of the first three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were barren.  The story of Abraham is a familiar one.  Romans 4:19-20 records it this way:  “And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.”  The mark of God’s handiwork is that He first gives a promise, and then makes that promise impossible to obtain.  It’s interesting that Isaac means “he laughs”.  This could be interpreted several ways.  But one sure interpretation is that God Himself laughed when Isaac was born.  He laughed because He had brought forth a promise totally apart form the efforts of man, except for Abraham’s faith in God’s ability.
 
Not only was Sarah barren, but later we see that Isaac’s wife Rebecca, was also barren (Gen 25:21).  She was barren, but look at the prophecy that came over her in her barrenness: “May you, our sister, become thousands of ten thousands and may your seed possess the gate of those who hate them” (Gen. 24:60).
 
Rachel, Jacob’s wife, who became the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, was also barren.  This barrenness of the patriarch’s wives reveals God’s purposes.  When the true manifestation of God comes forth, it’s because He has given impossible promises, and there have been a people who have believed them in spite of the circumstances.  When God’s promises are fulfilled in the face of impossibility, this glorifies Him, not the recipient of the promise.  This is the plumb line to measure that which seems of God in the earth.  Who is really being glorified?
 
Another example of the true moving of God being preceded by barrenness is Hannah, the mother of Samuel.
 
1st Sam. 1:1-28 gives the account of the birth of Samuel. His birth is preceded by the barrenness and grief of his mother, Hannah.  Verses 4-7 describe how Peninnah, Elkanah’s other wife and Hannah’s rival, would continually provoke Hannah because she had many children, while Hannah had no child at all.  This is a type of the false or Ishmael manifestation within Christianity.  The Ishmael manifestation at the present time seems to have many “children”.  Many groups and movements exist that claim to be God’s present moving in the earth.  It’s interesting, though, that when Samuel is finally born, through much agony and travail in Hannah’s spirit, Peninnah’s many children (vs. 4) are heard of no more.  It’s also significant that it was to Hannah, the barren one, that the double portion was given (vs. 5).  So it is today.  There has been much preaching and teaching concerning the promise of a double portion that is to be given in the “end times”.  But the true double portion is given to the barren one, she who shall give birth to the true manifestation of God in the earth.
 
One more point of interest concerning Samuel is that when he is born, he is dedicated to the Lord all the days of his life (vs. 26-28).
 
Our last example of how the true ministry of the Lord is preceded by barrenness is Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-7).  Like Abraham and Sarah before her, the Scripture says Zacharias and Elizabeth were advanced in years and barren.  John the Baptist was a miracle manifestation just as Isaac was.  John came forth totally the product of the grace of God.
 
All these men of God that came forth from barrenness were men that produced something of a lasting nature in the earth.  When God fulfills His promises, they are always manifested as an enduring fruitfulness.
 
Back in our original test in Isaiah 54, verses 2-3 speak of the great fruitfulness that comes forth once she who is barren begins to bear:
 
 
2 "Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords And strengthen your pegs.
3 "For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations And will resettle the desolate cities.
 
These passages are speaking Zion, God’s chose people in the earth.  The Bible is literally full of the promises and prophecies that belong to Zion.  For a long time now we have seen the numerous children of the so-called “married woman”, but the desolate one is now beginning to bear fruit.  God is preparing a people, His body, to bring forth true sons in the earth.  The one who now seems desolate shall bring forth many sons.  Verse three says the desolate one will spread abroad to the right and to the left.  This means she will bear fruit both in the spiritual and natural realms.  
 
4 "Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; But you will forget the shame of your youth, And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
5 "For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.
6 ¶ "For the LORD has called you, Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, Even like a wife of one's youth when she is rejected," Says your God.
 
In Luke 1:24-25 Elizabeth becomes pregnant and exclaims, “This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men.”  There is a certain disgrace or reproach associated with the barren.  On a spiritual plane this is certainly true.  There is a reproach every person of God feels when he or she is proclaiming and believing great things, only to be barren when it comes to seeing the fruitfulness of it.  However, the Lord proclaims to Zion in verse four to “fear not!”  Though it is necessary that Zion initially bear a certain reproach and disgrace, there comes the time when it is all taken away and the glorious fruitfulness comes.
 
Verses 5-6 make it clear that it is the Lord Himself who is the husband of Zion, the desolate one.  Back in verse three it says, “Your seed will possess nations, and they will resettle the desolate cities.” If the Lord Himself is the husband, then verse three must be interpreted as meaning that a godly seed (on a spirit plane) will come forth to possess and resettle.  Possess and resettle what?  At the present time God is speaking much about judgment.  Revelation 17 and 18 speak of the judgment of the great whore, Babylon, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth.  This whore Babylon is not just the source of corruption in the world, but the source of corruption that exists right within Christianity as well.  That’s why the cry of Rev. 18:4 is, “Come out of her my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues.”  God has already begun to judge the false, Ishmael thing that has paraded as God’s own chosen.  As His judgments are completed, that which is true, that godly seed of Zion, shall possess and resettle that which Babylon has usurped.
 
11"O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I will set your stones in antimony, And your foundations I will lay in sapphires.
12 "Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies, And your gates of crystal, And your entire wall of precious stones.
13 "All your sons will be taught of the LORD; And the well-being of your sons will be great.
14 "In righteousness you will be established; You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; And from terror, for it will not come near you.
15 "If anyone fiercely assails you it will not be from Me. Whoever assails you will fall because of you.
16 "Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire of coals And brings out a weapon for its work; And I have created the destroyer to ruin.
17 "No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me," declares the LORD.