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.
God speaks here to a city pictured as a wife: unfaithful, then set aside and left a widow. He tells her to stop being afraid, because two whole seasons of disgrace will drop out of her memory. Two questions follow. How can shame that real be forgotten, and who receives this promise?
The chapter does not begin from nothing. It follows the account of Christ's sufferings, and the commentary reads the whole picture through the image of marriage.
In chapter 53 we hear the Spirit of God foretelling the sufferings of Christ and the glories that will follow. In chapter 54 we learn what follows the exaltation of Christ: a future restoration of the Jewish nation. In days past that nation had enjoyed a place of nearness to the LORD, pictured under the figure of the marriage-tie. Sadly, they had been unfaithful to the LORD, broken His law, turned to idols, and rejected their Messiah. So Jerusalem and her cities had become desolate. The nation was like an unfaithful wife who has been refused: the LORD had forsaken them in His anger and hidden His face from them.
"Youth" points back to the nation's beginnings. One writer ties Isaiah's phrase to the day Israel entered Canaan, when God rolled away the reproach of Egypt.
All is left behind — "the reproach of Egypt," as it says here, "the shame of their youth," as Isaiah says. All is cancelled. "Today," says the LORD to Joshua, after the people were circumcised, "I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." He was beginning again with His people.
The second disgrace gets the gentler name. Isaiah elsewhere speaks of divorce, but here God says widowhood.
When the Lord has brought her to Himself in the bonds of the covenant, He does not refer to her former state as one of divorce, but as one of widowhood. That is, He calls to mind the sorrow of her former condition, not the shame. It may be divorce and shame (Isa. 50:1), yet the Lord will not remember it as such… Does this not tell us tenderly that with our God there is forgetting as well as forgiving? He takes away the sting of painful memories, and He covers a multitude of sins.
Fear ends because of who steps in, not because of what she has done.
The LORD stoops to be the husband of Zion. This is no longer a mere test and display of man's responsibility under law. It works in the power of grace, when boasting is no more in the flesh but in the LORD.
One writer sets the two chapters side by side, and reads Israel's long widowhood through Naomi and Ruth:
Compare Isaiah 53 with Isaiah 54. The prophecy first foretells how the remnant of Israel will confess their terrible guilt in rejecting their Messiah. Chapter 54 then follows at once, announcing that the LORD receives the nation into His close favour. For a long stretch of centuries Israel had languished in the widowed state of Naomi and Ruth. But now marriage with the LORD, her Redeemer, would take the place of this mourning and loss.
Commentators hold that the promise fits Israel. Reading it as a promise to the church breaks the sense. One writer presses the point with a question:
This promise is exquisite when addressed to Israel, but false and absurd if applied to the Church: "You will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband… For a brief moment I deserted you" — for what "brief moment" has Christ deserted the Church?
Others note that the principle reaches further than the earthly city. The same promises belong in principle to "the heavenly Jerusalem's children" (H. J. Vine).
- Guilt first. Chapter 53 records the confession of guilt for rejecting the Messiah. Chapter 54 announces the welcome back.
- Grace, not law. God becomes husband to Zion in the power of grace. Boasting is in Him, not in the flesh. That is why fear is ruled out.
- Forgetting, not just forgiving. He names her past as widowhood rather than divorce: sorrow remembered, shame refused.
- Cancelled at the root. The "shame of your youth" is the old reproach of Egypt, rolled away when God began again with His people.
- Israel first. The promise fits a nation abandoned for a moment. Its principle then reaches the heavenly city's children.
For thy Maker is thy husband Jehovah of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For Jehovah hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and as a wife of youth, that hath been refused, saith thy God.
Isaiah 54 turns from the suffering Servant of chapter 53 to a woman set aside — abandoned, heartbroken, refused. The striking word is called: God does not just watch her grief, He speaks to her in it.
The picture works because a real bond stood behind it. Commentators point out that Israel lived near to God in a relationship Scripture calls a marriage. So her unfaithfulness was a wife's sin, not a stranger's.
It is undeniable that the Jews, or Zion if you will, had the place of nearness to Jehovah pictured by the marriage-tie. She had been faithless and gone after many lovers — even the idols of the nations. As a result God divorced her, and she became a widow, desolate under His righteous dealing. Adultery was her sin, rather than fornication.
("Jehovah" in these quotations is the name the ESV prints as "the LORD.")
"Deserted" is not only a feeling. Writers describe the widow picture as a lost standing: she no longer belongs to one who owns, protects and provides.
In the prophecies the Holy Spirit uses the figure of widowhood — the loss of divine ownership, protection, and supporting care — to describe the religious and moral destitution of the people of Israel. It came from their public association with the false gods of the nations. So, through one of the earliest of the prophets, Jehovah renounced all relationship with His people because of their unfaithfulness to Him. He said, "She is not My wife, and I am not her Husband" (Hosea 2:2).
The chapter's place matters. The call comes straight after the account of Christ's sufferings. That order explains how God can address a refused wife at all.
In chapter 53 we hear the Spirit of God foretelling the sufferings of Christ and the glories that will follow. In chapter 54 we learn that, after the exaltation of Christ, there will be a future restoration of the Jewish nation. In days past it had enjoyed a place of nearness to Jehovah. Sadly, they had been unfaithful to Him, broken His law, turned to idols, and rejected their Messiah. So Jerusalem and her cities had become desolate. Jehovah had forsaken the nation in His wrath and hidden His face from them, as from an unfaithful wife who has been refused.
God could name her by her record. Instead He reaches back to the start of the relationship.
Israel was married to Jehovah, as the prophets remind the people (Isa. 54; Jer. 3). Yet His grace may one day deal with Israel not as a guilty widow but as a woman forsaken and a wife of youth.
One writer traces the way God speaks to a people whose past was against them.
Nothing can be more moving than the many ways in which He seeks to win their hearts for Himself. In them He expresses the place they have in His heart, and His unchangeable faithfulness to promise and purpose for them, however sad their course has been. He can even recall the love of their betrothal, "when you went after Me in the wilderness" (Jer. 2), and plead with them to return to Him.
Commentators leave these words with Israel. The verses that follow settle it: a forsaking that lasts only a moment fits Israel's history, but not the church.
It is not true that God has forsaken the church even for a small moment. Nor does He hide His face from the Christian for an instant in a little wrath. Such and so great is the power of redemption. Of the Jew this is exactly the present fact. And just as surely He will yet gather His ancient people in His mercy for ever.
The refusal has a time limit. The chapter moves from a rejected wife to a comforted one, with children gathered while she was desolate.
Jerusalem is looked at as barren and desolate, after having rejected Him who came to be her husband. But now grace has made Jehovah her righteousness. She is called to enlarge the place of her tent, and to spread out the curtains of her dwelling. That grace indeed counts all who were gathered during her desolation as her children. For a little while God has treated her as a rejected wife, but has now comforted her with everlasting mercies.
- Married. The grief here rests on a bond. Israel stood near to God in what Scripture pictures as a marriage, so her turn to idols is adultery, not a stranger's sin.
- Refused. In the prophets, widowhood means a lost owner, protector and provider. That was Israel's destitution after she joined herself to the gods of the nations.
- Called. The call comes after chapter 53. Christ's sufferings and exaltation open the way back for a nation that rejected its Messiah.
- Renamed. Grace names her not as a guilty widow but as a woman forsaken and a wife of youth. It reaches past her record to the love of her first days.
- Comforted. The forsaking lasts a small moment; the mercies are everlasting. Commentators keep this promise with Israel, since God has never forsaken the church for a moment.