Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.
This call comes right after the chapter about the suffering Servant. God speaks it to a woman with no children. He tells her to build for a family she cannot see. Who are those children, and why can she build with such confidence?
The order to enlarge is an outcome, not a starting point. It rests on what the chapter before described, and this chapter opens not with "enlarge" but with "sing."
Isaiah 54 goes on to unfold what the sufferings of her Messiah bring to Israel, and the first word is "Sing." … That people was barren and unfruitful under the law, while on that basis they were outwardly married to the LORD. They will be not only joyful but greatly multiplied and blessed.
Three pictures fill out the command: widen the cloth, run the ropes further out, make the pegs firm. How firm the pegs are depends on what they go into.
Graphic figures of speech set this out. Her tent is to be enlarged, her cords lengthened, her stakes strengthened. How well stakes hold depends a great deal on the soil they are driven into. When Israel drove her stakes into the law, they gave way almost at once. Driven into the grace of God, which will find its expression in the atoning death of their Messiah, they will be made strong for ever.
Verse 2 does not stand alone. The next verse gives the reason, and it sets the size: a family that spreads out on both sides and takes in nations.
"… for you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess nations, and make desolate cities to be inhabited" (v. 3). A suited seed must fill the land, the earth; for the LORD shall be king over all the earth. … Yes, the LORD is pleased to be the husband of Zion. This is no longer a mere witness and display of man's responsibility under law. It works by the power of grace, when boasting is no more in the flesh but in the LORD.
So who fills the enlarged tent? Some of them are born while the mother is still desolate.
The truth is that Israel in the coming day will be astonished to learn what God has been doing during their long term of widowhood. They will find that countless children have been born to Abraham — true children of promise. These are reckoned, in a spiritual way, as Jerusalem's offspring. We do well to remember that the gospel started from Jerusalem and all its first preachers were of Jewish stock. While Israel is estranged God is busy, and many are being brought in to taste the sweetness of His grace.
One writer holds both horizons together: Israel's future blessing and the Church's present share in it.
The complete fulfillment of that chapter will be when Israel is brought into blessing in the Millennium, but this does not hinder the application, at least a partial fulfillment, to the Church's entrance by faith into this grace in which we stand.
A tent that keeps stretching outward has no defences of its own. Another prophet pictures the same city without walls. His next verse names what guards it.
Jerusalem will be lived in like towns without walls. Its people will increase and break out on every side, past every limit that could hold them. … Isaiah, dwelling on the same period, says, "Enlarge the place of your tent … lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes" (Isaiah 54:2-3). But the secret of it all is found in the next verse. The LORD Himself will be a wall of fire around her — a sure protection from her enemies. He will also be the glory within her. It is always so. The LORD's presence has always been the source of all blessing for His people on earth. In the same way, the Lord's presence is now among those gathered to His name.
- Cause. The order to enlarge follows chapter 53. The barren woman grows because her Messiah suffered, and her first response is song.
- Soil. Stakes hold only as well as the ground they go into. Driven into law they gave way at once. Driven into grace they stand for ever.
- Reach. The next verse sets the size: breaking out on both sides, taking in nations, refilling ruined cities.
- Surprise. The children arrive while she is still desolate. Israel will be astonished one day at the family God gathered while she was a widow.
- Shelter. A tent that never stops widening needs no wall of its own. The LORD Himself is the wall of fire around it and the glory inside it.
For thou shalt spread abroad on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall possess nations, and they shall make desolate cities to be inhabited.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.