Enlarge the Place of Your Tent

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 54:1-5

“Sing, barren woman,
    you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
    you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
    than of her who has a husband,”says the Lord.
² “Enlarge the place of your tent,
    stretch your tent curtains wide,
    do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
    strengthen your stakes.
³ For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
    your descendants will dispossess nations
    and settle in their desolate cities.

⁴ “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
    Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth
    and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.

⁵ For your Maker is your husband—
    the Lord Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
    he is called the God of all the earth.

THE COMMAND: ENLARGE YOUR TENTS

It is common that the Hebrew Scriptures think of Israel as God’s wife. In fact, 54:5 indicates that indeed God is the husband of Israel. The image of the husband-wife relation is a rich one, because in Ancient Near East, to be a wife to someone entails ownership, protection and provision. This is why to be a widow is to be in a very bad predicament (cf. Ruth). So to be God’s wife means that Israel is God’s own responsibility, and as the faithful husband, God repeatedly declared himself as the “compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exo 34:6; 2 Chron 30:9; Neh 9:17; Psa 86:15; 103:8; 111:4; 112:4; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2).

If God as husband declared himself righteous and faithful to Israel, God also gives Israel different designations. In Ezekiel 16, Israel is referred to as the unfaithful wife. Like in Ezekiel 23, Israel’s history is retold as the story of a girl born in poverty (16:1-6), but is chosen and loved by God, who marries her and makes her wealthy, royal and famous (16:7-14). But God’s beloved wife strays and becomes an adulterer by worshipping other gods (16:15-22). This is why Israel is called a prostitute several times in the Scriptures (Ezek 23:3; Hosea 1-2).[1]

In Isaiah 54, however, Israel is portrayed not as someone evil and perverse to be punished, but someone who deserves mercy. Israel is likened to a barren wife (54:1). To refer to Israel as a barren woman is interesting because in general, in the Ancient Near East, there is great shame in childlessness (1 Sam 2:3-5; Luke 1:25) and to be barren is to live a life of humiliation (Gen 16:4; 1 Sam 1:6). We have the story of Sarah who felt ashamed that she was not giving Abraham a child, so she sent her servant Hagar on her behalf (Gen 16:1-2). We have Hannah who faced embarrassment from Peninnah because she could not give a child to Elkanah (1 Sam 1:7).

So God addresses Israel as a barren woman, a nation who has been shamed by being conquered, by being scattered, and by being unproductive. Israel has been through many ordeals, and even though they know that they are blessed by Yahweh, they also feel as though their progress as the people of God is very slow. Now it is this sort of people that God commands to enlarge their tents.

Here is the irony of the passage: presumably, the woman is still barren when she receives the command to enlarge the tent. (Women in these times were responsible in setting up the tents.) It means that she does not have a big family yet. She is still childless. And so on the one hand, the command to enlarge the tent is impractical and just plain absurd. But on the other hand, God is actually challenging the barren woman to act in faith.[2] God challenges his people to live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). He calls us to believe in what God will do to us and through us. When we think that have been barren in our spiritual lives or when our church is not producing more than what we want, still God tells us: have faith! Enlarge the place of your tent!

For the church, to enlarge our tents requires us to possess spiritual eyes. Our “common sense” and earthly senses may disagree with the idea of expansion without feasible reasons, but redeemed and opened spiritual senses allow to see the reality that the harvest is plenty. We are very familiar with Jesus’ statement that “the harvest is plentiful” (Matt 9:36). If we think carefully, is it not proper that because the harvest is plentiful, we must not only prepare numerous workers but also enlarge the tents to gather the harvest? Are we not actually at fault because the harvest is plenty, but the barn is small? Are we not underestimating the power of the gospel to fill up his sanctuary?

The church must be prepared for what the Lord is doing. If, for instance, a revival suddenly breaks out – and prostitutes, drunkards, drug addicts, gamblers, and the isolated and condemned members of our society suddenly come to our church – are we truly ready to receive them? Enlarging our tent does not only mean expanding our building, but enlarging our vision and incorporating much more than what we are used to. The Lord beckons us: “Have faith! Enlarge your tents!”

THE TIME: NOW

Isaiah 54:2 has a very clear command: “enlarge the place of your tent.”  The whole verse is actually a repetition of the same command:  

“stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back;

lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes”

Such a repetition of the command seems very purposeful. There is a sense of urgency: a “do it now” push. In here we sense an example of God’s nagging. We can almost hear God’s words: “‘Enlarge the place of your tent’. If you have not understood that, ‘stretch your tent curtains wide’. And if you still did not understand that, “lengthen your cords’.” The Lord is adamant that what he commands is done, so he expresses it in several ways. Let us also remember that when someone nags someone to do something, it is because the something to be done is important. The nagging denotes the importance of the job. The command does now allow any room for hesitation.

Considering again that the Lord is talking to a barren wife, the question might be: “why the urgency?” The wife is still barren and there are yet no offspring in the tent, so why should the wife feel the pressing need to enlarge the tent? The same question might be asked by the church: why should we expand our ministries if evangelism or ministry is at its very peak of difficulty? It is true that people do not seem to be interested in meeting the Lord in worship. People are more and more very difficult to invite to church. People are more and more enticed by so many other commitments. People more and more, by choice, alienate themselves to the church and reject God. People are more and more becoming calloused to the voice of conscience. People are more and more becoming suspicious about the church. People are more and more exposed to and influenced by explicit and implicit anti-Christian propaganda. People are more and more deceived by competing secular idols. People are more and more finding reasons not to have God in their lives. Moral standards are very low, and preachings on holy living are scorned. These are really troubling times, and if one looks at the statistics, one may also claim that the gospel is losing its ground.

So why should we enlarge our tents? Why now?

God declared “now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2; quoting Isa 49:8). It is neither tomorrow nor somewhere in the far future. Salvation is here. God is at work. We read in the Gospels that Jesus went through all the towns and villages in his ministry of teaching, preaching, and healing. And it is reported that when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:35-37; Mark 34). This means that the readiness of people is not evidenced by a visible longing for God, but in the fact that they are living as helpless, shepherdless people. Indeed, as history teaches us, it is during the times of utter depression that revival actually happens. In the time of John Wesley, for example, the Methodist movement spread at a time when Christianity in Britain was at its worst.[3]

If it takes spiritual eyes to see that the harvest is plenty, we also need spiritual eyes to see that the harvest is ready. Enlarge your tents for the whole world is ready to be harvested and be brought into the inviting family of God. Jesus himself said:

“Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35-36)

If we believe that the world is ripe for harvest, then it is time indeed to enlarge our tents and build bigger barns.

THE FOUNDATION OF OBEDIENCE: FAITH IN GOD’S PROMISES

The command to enlarge the place of tent in 54:2 is immediately followed by a promise in 54:3-5. “Enlarge the place of your tent,” the Lord says, “for you will spread out to the right and to the left.” There is no reason to be afraid in making a step of faith, for the Lord promises that “you will not be put to shame, disgrace or humiliation” (54:4). It is true that fear of the future - particularly fear of failure, and consequently being shamed – can make us indecisive and inactive. Fear of embarrassment can paralyze the church. Fear of being scorned for failure can prevent us from taking risks, abandoning our comfort zones, and attempting to expand the ministries of the church. But this does not need to be the case. The Lord asks us not to be afraid (54:4).

The Lord challenges us to take a leap of faith and to trust that indeed the harvest is both plenty and ready, and that the Gospel will spread to the north, south, east and west (54:3). In fact the verb for “spread” used here – paras – is the same one used in Genesis 28:14, which speaks of the children of Abraham spreading out in all directions. The Lord’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 is to be fulfilled: that amidst Sarah’s old age, Abraham would have descendants that will become a great nation, blessed by the Lord himself. The Lord is saying that the days of barrenness are over (54:4), so we should enlarge our tents, leaning towards excess rather than limitation.

Let us face it: the command to barren women to enlarge their tents is quite nonsensical. The challenge to enlarge our ministries, when in fact our current ministries are not doing very well, is quite absurd. And the Lord knows that we human beings are creatures of the senses and of doubt. We must admit to ourselves that it is indeed difficult to obey something that we do not understand. This is actually why when we read the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac at Mount Moriah (Gen 22), our response is: “I wish I have the same faith as Abraham.” The fact that we wish for something implies that we do not have it yet. We must admit that we are creatures of doubt, and our doubts need to be dispelled and cleansed from us.

This is why 54:5 is central to the command. There is no need to fear or to hold back, because God has placed his own honor and name on the line. In 54:5 the Lord names himself the Maker, the husband, the Lord Almighty, the Holy One of Israel, the Redeemer, and the God of all the earth. Why should we fear if the Lord who commands us is the Maker and Sustainer of the universe? Why should we fear if the Lord is our husband, compassionate, caring and loving? Why should we fear if the Lord is the Lord Almighty who delivered a whole nation out of Egypt? Why should we fear if the Lord is the Holy One of Israel, faithful to his words and righteous in his ways? Why should we fear if the Lord is the Redeemer, who rescues us from the depths of sin, despair and death? Why should we fear if the Lord is the God of all the earth?  The Lord commands us: “Do not be afraid” (54:4). Rather, we should “Sing… burst into song, shout for joy!” (54:1).

CONCLUSIONS

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.” But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.”[4]

The Lord is commanding us to “enlarge the place of your tent,” and we may protest “Really? I don’t see any valid reason why.” And the Lord is telling us “Have faith in me, will you? I, who started the work will be faithful to complete it in you (Phil 1:6). Enlarge the place of your tents, and allow me to work in and through you.”

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[1] http://www.enterthebible.org/resourcelink.aspx?rid=766

[2] Josh N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66 (TNICOT series; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 416. The theme of barrenness of human strength and the fenundicity of the Spirit of the Lord is a favourite one in the Bible – like Sarah, Elizabeth (Luke 1:7, 25), and Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10).

[3] Robert G. Tuttle Jr. even describes the 18^th century as the period of “cesspool… if not for its filth then certainly for its morals.” He adds that “debauchery was epidemic, affecting the nobility, the middle classes, the lower classes, the members of the court, and even the members of the Parliament.” See John Wesley: His Life and Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 31-32.

[4] From http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/f/faith.htm