“Sing, O barren,
You who have not borne!
Break forth into singing and cry aloud,
You who have not labored with child!
For more are the children of the desolate
Than the children of the married women,
says the Lord.” IS 54:1

Scripture is full of paradoxes. The poor are made rich, the weak strong, the humble lifted up. In reading the Word, we are continually confronted with real life stories of situations which are downright shocking. Seas and rivers part. City Walls fall flat. Donkeys talk. Magi from distant lands travel for months following a star representing the arrival of a long awaited Lord and King, only to find him wrapped in strips of cloth, a baby bedded in an animal’s feeding trough.

Likewise, we see outcomes to stories which are phenomenal, seemingly scripted; and yet they are as real as any of the stories ever written. We see a man, a foreigner, imprisoned in a dungeon who, in the short span of a day, rose to become the Prime Minister over a powerful Kingdom. We see a man who faced hanging on a massive, 25 meter high gallows only to have the tables turn on the very man plotting his execution hung upon it instead. We see an “army” of 300 men without any weapons, each blowing a trumpet and holding a torch, defeating an entire nation’s army who were arrayed against them. We see a man stripped naked, crucified and buried only to rise again from the dead on the third day. We must be careful not to read these things as fiction—fanciful stories made for entertainment and embellished to attract more readers or forward a narrative to give people false hope.

These things really happened. They are 100% true, and trustworthy. God would not allow even the smell of a lie to be recorded in His Word. Our God did these things. He is altogether awesome, and these stories are on full display to convince us that He is incomparably wonderful, capable, and faithful. Amen.

And so we come to the words of the prophet Isaiah. A barren woman is told to sing. A lady who has unsuccessfully attempted to get pregnant for years is told she is going to have more children than a woman who has already conceived—that in fact she is going to have such a tribe of them that she better get busy adding numerous rooms and gathering a lot of furnishings to accommodate an abundance of boys and girls. If we didn’t have all these other stories to look back on, we might think he is just being a masterful poet, using hyperbole and metaphor to concoct a message to dazzle his readers. But Isaiah did not play his prophetic fiddle to make the children of Israel dance. His words so angered them that they conclusively sawed him in two! This was not about being creative or politically correct. He was stating something startlingly TRUE, yet paradoxical, that situations which appear impossibly bleak and depressing are routinely recreated to brilliantly billboard God’s redemption, power, and love. Promises long shredded and filed away in the dustbin by this desperate woman were about to be recovered, restored, and fulfilled.

Naturally speaking, the progressive realization one was barren was a most painful, disheartening and pandemic-sized diagnoses. More than a physical malady, being unable to bear children meant that Shame, Rejection, Guilt, Fear, and Dashed Dreams would be one’s lifelong companions. The flood of negative emotions that oppressed a woman in ancient times as she faced this bitter truth would reverberate condemnation like the blow of a Judge’s gavel. The woman is the mirror was bereft, stricken, cursed. Family gatherings became a cacophony of whispers from kinfolk. The shifting eyes or passer-bys, the huddled women in the markets, the ever more frequent pointing of a crooked, careless finger. The awareness that her husband was on the lookout for her replacement, someone to give him pleasure, empowering him to produce offspring and build a legacy.

And yet the Lord says, “Sing!” Lift up your song of praise. Cry aloud your hymns of thanksgiving and adoration. This simple yet profound act of of faith is the first and most crucial step in unlocking Hope’s promises. Once one is pregnant with Heaven’s implanted Word, babies are not far behind. Out of intolerable travail a holy assurance is fantastically birthed and a confession sired: my season of barrenness has been preparing me for barn-filled years of bounty. God never answers us with a period. He surrounds his delivered ones with shouts of joy!!! Whatever He touches is healed and prospers. Whatsoever He blesses multiplies. His Spirit never comes in drops; He is poured.

“More are the children of the desolate”. As the scourge of your own season of barrenness sunsets, kiss Shame and her companions good-bye. It’s time streeeetch your curtains wide and expand your tent aggressively to the right and to the left. Those who overcome desolation are the very ones God assigns to “make the desolate cities inhabited” (v.3). Such is the power of your redemption you will “forget the shame of our youth and will not remember the reproach of our widowhood anymore” (v.4) Such is beautiful stories the world witnesses whenever barren ones begin to sing.

“For a mere moment I have forsaken you,
But with great mercies I will gather you.
With a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment
But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you.
Says the Lord, your Redeemer.” IS 54:7,8