More Numerous are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband

[JTB.SDG]

Guys,

Preaching through Galatians, studying 4:21-31. Galatians 4:27 is a quote from Isaiah 54:1. It seems that the "barren/desolate" woman is the true church. My question: who is the one who has a husband? The true believing seed will be more numerous than...who? False professors? Unbelievers? What is Paul (cf. Isaiah) actually saying? In the end, true Christians will outnumber false Christians or unbelievers? Trying to wrap my mind around this.

 

[JTB.SDG]

Might have found an answer to my own question... John Brown says: "In plain terms, the passage is a prediction that a period was coming when the spiritual descendants of Abraham should be far more numerous than his merely natural descendants ever were—when the true children of God should be more numerous than the nominal children of God, the Ishraelitish people, had been." Rings true: IE, the true children of God will be greater than the amount of Israelites at the height of their number. Any other thoughts?

 

[Ed Walsh]

Might have found an answer to my own question... John Brown says: "In plain terms, the passage is a prediction that a period was coming when the spiritual descendants of Abraham should be far more numerous than his merely natural descendants ever were—when the true children of God should be more numerous than the nominal children of God, the Ishraelitish people, had been." Rings true: IE, the true children of God will be greater than the amount of Israelites at the height of their number.

I think you are right in what you say above. It is a picture of the Church sending the gospel and filling the whole world.

From E. J. Young on Isaiah 54:1-3

Chapter Fifty-Four

1 Sing, O barren, that did not bear; break forth into a cry and cry aloud, she that did not writhe: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman, saith the Lord.
2 Widen the place of thy tent, and the curtains of thy dwellings, let them stretch out, hinder it not; lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes.
3 For right and left shalt thou break forth; and thy seed shall possess nations, and cause to inhabit desolated cities.
4 Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, and be not abashed, for thou shalt not display shame; for the shame of thy youth thou shalt forget, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt not remember anymore.
5 For thy husband is thy Maker, the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth shall he be called.​

1 In chapter fifty-two redemption and deliverance had been promised to the people of God, addressed as Zion and Jerusalem. (Zion occurs four times; Jerusalem four; my people three; his people once). In chapter fifty-three the work of redemption is described as spiritual. In the present chapter, therefore, the prophet turns to the redeemed ones, the Church, and speaks of its glorious exaltation. From this point on through chapter fifty-seven, i.e. to the conclusion of the second part of this larger section of the prophecy (40–66), the people are no longer addressed as Zion or Jerusalem. The names of the city, which figuratively had represented the Church, are now removed; and the prophet speaks of the spiritual glory that awaits God’s people. By coming to the Church, Isaiah causes us to understand more deeply the value and efficacy of the servant’s atoning work. The sufferings of the servant were for the Church, his body, and not for himself.

The Church is addressed as the barren one1 that has not borne. Thus a double description, first positive and then negative, emphasizes Zion’s barrenness.2 She is commanded to Shout or Sing, i.e. to act as a barren person would not act. Instead of the mourning and lamentation of a childless one, the people are to exult in singing. Two further verbs strengthen the idea, to break forth into joyous cries and to neigh, which latter verb probably means that she is to utter a shrill cry of joy. Zion is addressed as she who did not writhe, the Hebrew using the third person, whereas in English we would employ the second.3 The phrase she who did not writhe forms a parallel to thou who didst not bear, but it should be noted that there is no parallel to the vocative, barren one. The people are thus designated because through their sins desolation had come to Zion. As long as the Church groaned under her wretched bondage, and as long as she was impure within, no children could be expected from her. Until the Lord redeemed her, she could not prosper.

Now, however, there has been a glorious change. The servant has overcome death, redeemed his people, and breathed new life into his body, the Church. The Church has been in desolation (cf. 2 Sam. 13:20 and Isa. 6:13), but nevertheless she will have more sons than when she was the married wife of the Lord. As the one abandoned to desolation4 she will have sons, even more than before. Throughout the long years of the theocracy the Lord visited His people, and there was a spiritual seed; but with the bondage a cessation appeared; Zion became a widow. The three imperatives (which probably represent a gradation) show that a new period of blessing has begun. The whole is strengthened by the words saith the Lord.

2 To prepare for the great increase in her sons, the Church is to enlarge the place of her habitation. Isaiah uses the figure of a tent, for Zion is conceived as a woman who dwells in her own tent (cf. Gen. 24:67; 31:34) and is responsible to enlarge that tent. The figure may be intended to suggest that the Church has no permanent abode in this world but is like a nomad, travelling from place to place until she come to her final and enduring abode, the heavenly city.

The work of the tent, as is the case in Arabia today, was largely done by the women.5 The place of the tent may either be the space within the tent or, more likely, the place upon which the tent is erected. The curtains are the cloth that is stretched from pole to pole to form the tent itself. These were generally woven from goat hair (cf. Ex. 26:7), and formed the dwellings (note the plural). The verb is masculine, and hence is perhaps to be taken impersonally: let them stretch (cf. 2 Sam. 16:22 for usage).6 The cords are the ropes that tied the tent to the stakes or pegs driven into the ground.

The imperatives are striking. First the Church is to enlarge the place where her tents were located. Those who stretch the curtains are to make the curtains longer so that the tent itself will be larger The Church is to spare no labor in obedience to these commands. She need not retrench but must make room for a great posterity. The cords she is to make longer than at present, and she is to make the pegs more firm in the soil so that they can hold the lengthened cords. Too much cannot be done to enlarge the tents, so gracious is the Lord in the promise of a large increase.

3 The prophet now gives the reason why the place of the Church’s dwelling must be enlarged, namely that she, the Church, is going to burst forth on all sides; her seed will inherit the nations and repopulate desolate cities. If right and left indicate south and north, the Church then is conceived as facing the east. This is possible but not necessary, and it would seem that the intended meaning is on all sides, on all hands. The breaking forth calls to mind Genesis 28:14 and may suggest, as Penna points out, a peaceful penetration (cf. also Ex. 1:12). Right and left possess adverbial force, and indicate that the penetration will be worldwide. The Church is outgoing, vigorous in its missionary endeavor. To refer the words to local countries, such as the lands of the Moabites and Ammonites in the east and the Philistines in the west, is to ignore the fact that Isaiah is using the figures of the Old Testament to portray or symbolize the great spiritual conquest of the nations through the worldwide preaching of the Gospel.

The seed that the servant has obtained will inherit nations (cf. Deut. 2:12; 9:1; 11:23). It will conquer these nations and possess them, so that they too become the seed, adopted into the household of faith. The subject of the third verb (a masculine plural) is unexpressed and is probably the children to be born. The figures are taken from the exile, when cities were depopulated. Now, however, these desolate cities will be repopulated by the seed of the Church. When North, in discussing this passage, uses terms such as revanchism and irredentism, one can agree only if it be understood that the conquest herein depicted is spiritual and not physical. Perhaps there is an indirect reference to the repeopling of Judah’s cities after the exile, but the thrust of the prophecy is far more glorious. At the Apostolic Council James brought out the true meaning, when he interpreted Amos 9:12 as speaking of “all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called” (Acts 15:17).



1 עקרה—the vocative without the article may signify indefiniteness.

2 Sarah’s barrenness had also been emphasized; compare too the barrenness of Hannah. Such barrenness was a reproach.

3 Following a vocative the language of address may continue in the 3rd person; cf. Num. 16:6; 1 Kings 22:28; Job 17:10; 18:4; Isa. 10:5; 22:16; 48:1.

4 Note retention of Tzere in ‘שׁוממה, which seems to be an exceptional form. The phraseology of this verse has affinities with Isa. 12:6; 14:7; 44:23; 49:13; 23:4; 56:7, 8; 26:18.

5 Cf. Jer. 10:20, where the figure has a different application.

6 The verb is used of the pitching of a tent, and there does not seem to be any instance where it simply means to extend. Nevertheless, the context demands such a usage here. Cf. North, in loc., for discussion. The usage of tent and stakes together in the description of Zion is found elsewhere only in Isa. 33:20.

 

[Ed Walsh]

Off Topic but funny...

Your avatar photo with you and your wife hugging comes dangerously close to getting a fine in days gone by, especially if on the Sabbath.
Here's an excerpt from "The Sabbath in Puritan New England," by Alice Morse Earle

Captain Kemble of Boston was in 1656 set for two hours in the public stocks for his "lewd and unseemly behavior," which, consisted in his kissing his wife "publicquely" on the Sabbath Day, upon the doorstep of his house, when he had just returned from a voyage and absence of three years. The lewd offender was a man of wealth and influence, the father of Madam Sarah Knights, the "fearfull female travailler" whose diary of a journey from Boston to New York and return, written in 1704, rivals in quality if not in quantity Judge Sewall's much-quoted diary.
​

I love this book!

 

[KeithW]

Your quotation immediately made me think of where Paul speaks of the children of the flesh vs. the children of promise. Looked it up and that is the exact context you provided. Paul is contrasting:

• law and faith
• bondwoman and freewoman
• Abraham trying to obtain God's promise through the flesh versus through faith in the promise
• "Jerusalem which is now" and "Jerusalem which is above"
• children "born after the flesh" and "children of promise"
• "children of the bondwoman" and children "of the free"

And what context does Paul put all of this into?

Gal 4:30b "the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman."​

The context is all about who will be the heirs of God; by what means will people obtain the promise of God.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

I think Brown is right. In context of Is.54, which is drawing on Gen.16, the "desolated" is Sarah, the freewoman; and "she who has the husband" is the interloper, Gen.16:4. The latter may get a son and an early advantage, being Jerusalem below; but it is Jerusalem above that ends up with the inheritance, and far more children within her walls. The other is cast out.