Isaiah 54:5, commentary and pictures

The verse calls Israel's Maker her husband under the name Lord of hosts, and her Redeemer the Holy One of Israel who will be known as God of the whole earth, given as comfort in a promise to enlarge, spread out, inherit nations, resettle ruined places and forget past shame. It assures the forsaken, grieving, fearful and ashamed that God sees their sorrow with tender pity, calls them back, offers Himself as their Restorer and burden-bearer, and pledges unfailing mercy, kindness and hope. As husband He stays near in infinite power and wisdom to provide, counsel, guide, comfort and refine His people through trial, and He especially pledges Himself as husband, Lord, Redeemer and God to widows, fatherless children and the bereaved, sustaining them directly and through the practical compassion of His followers. It portrays the tender, sacred union Christ purchased with His own blood between Himself and His redeemed people as His church and bride, so that turning from Him to the world is unfaithfulness like a wife forsaking her husband and losing her first love and strength, though some held its marriage picture to speak of New Jerusalem's relation to God rather than the church as the Lamb's bride. It is written for God's people now as a call to leave apathy and urgently carry the last message of mercy to all lands and great cities, lifting up Christ and planting truth in many hearts in the extended saving work foretold for the last days.

God's Names and Comfort

The Maker of Israel is her husband, whose name is the LORD of hosts, and her Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, who shall be called the God of the whole earth. This naming declares His relationship to His people as husband, Lord, Redeemer, and God over all the earth. It is written for the church and the people of God now, for those who know the Lord and the truth that is to exert a reformatory action upon the world.

The declaration belongs to a promise of enlargement and renewed growth. The tent is to be enlarged, the curtains stretched out, the cords lengthened, and the stakes strengthened, with breaking forth on the right hand and on the left. Descendants shall inherit the Gentiles and inhabit desolate cities and ruined cities made habitable again, with fear put away and no shame, forgetting the shame of youth and the reproach of widowhood.

In that setting the promise comforts the forsaken and grieving, for God knows their sorrows, calls them back, and shows everlasting mercy and kindness. He looks with pitying tenderness on the contrite and makes them special objects of His care and love. The fearful and ashamed are given hope so they can look to their Savior and live. Jesus tells the distressed soul that He is her Restorer and that she may lay her burden on Him.

As husband, the Maker who is infinite in power and wisdom will provide everything that serves His people's best good and highest interest. He stays near to counsel, guide, and comfort, and His protection can be sought with confidence. Therefore even when the world entices from allegiance, and when His people are brought into difficult places, affliction, and trial, they are to put whole trust in God, cast all care upon Him, and not seek the counsel of man. Christ proves the sincerity of the faith and love of His church by trial and sorrow, and He will bring those who are faithful out of the furnace refined and purified.

The same husbandship assures widows and fatherless children that God takes special care of them and gives them grounds to trust Him. Those bereaved and left without human support have God as husband, Lord, Redeemer, and God to care for them. Jesus is the widow's God and Husband to be communed with and trusted, giving through that communion blessing and comfort and good courage, with support to lean upon and sweet communion and comfort and peace in His love. He never fails those who trust Him, so the widow is to keep trusting Him because He comforts her and is a source of support and consolation in trial through His love and abiding presence. He provides for the helpless poor through the compassion and practical help of His followers.

Bride, Mission, and Faithfulness

The marriage figure portrays a tender and sacred union between Christ and His redeemed people, whom He has bought at the price paid on Calvary. It also presents marriage itself as a relationship whose purity and beauty the gospel restores after sin has corrupted it.

God is the husband of His church and the church is the bride, the Lamb's wife, with every true believer a part of the body of Christ. Unfaithfulness toward Christ is therefore the unfaithfulness of a wife toward her husband, so believers are to remember that they are members of His body. When the church leaves her Maker and Husband and joins herself to the world, she forsakes her first love and her divine character and spiritual strength depart from her. Those who held otherwise teach that the marriage imagery here concerns the New Jerusalem's relation to God rather than identifying the church as the Lamb's bride, distinct from the longstanding union of believers with their Lord.

The verse is written for the church and the people of God now, for those who know the Lord and the truth that is to exert a reforming action upon the world. It gives the reason to leave apathy and to work for Christ at once because working time is short, doing the very work God lays out rather than doing nothing while expecting blessing to rest. That work is to take hold of the Word and wrench souls from Satan's grasp, extending God's work and not confining it to one place. The last message of mercy to a fallen world must be carried to places where it has not yet been proclaimed and into all lands, especially to people in large cities. Ministers are not to confine their labor to the churches and to those who have already heard the truth, and churches that have too long centered attention upon themselves must bestir themselves with earnest united effort to reach those who do not know the truth. Believers are not to sit in churches Sabbath after Sabbath only listening to preaching, but are to labor for friends, neighbors and families by visiting them, creating an interest in present truth, planting the Word in many hearts, and dealing out the bread of life to hungering souls so others take hold upon eternal realities. Many who never heard the message for this time will gladly receive it when they hear the trumpet giving a certain sound.

Together with Isaiah 54 and Isaiah 55, studied with Isaiah 58, the verse shows a precious and extended saving work for God's people in the last days of this earth's history, in which Christ is to be lifted up before the world and God's people must work intelligently with God for what must be done to be saved. As part of the prophecies regarding Christ's work in Isaiah 52, 53 and 54, it is to be encouraged and studied as a help and a blessing to His people in the time when the liberty of Christ's church is endangered and the church faces oppression.