05/01/2013
Isa 54:4-5 “Do not be afraid; for you shall not be
ashamed: neither be confounded; for you shall not
be disappointed: for you shall forget the shame of
your youth; and the reproach of your widowhood
you shall remember no more. 5 For your Maker is
your husband; YHWH of hosts is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the
whole earth shall he be called. *Fear not*,.... The fulfilment of these things; however
unlikely and unpromising they might seem, yet God
was able to perform them; and therefore way should
not be given to a fearful, distrustful, and unbelieving
heart: *for thou shall not be ashamed*; as men are, when
disappointed of what they have been hoping for and
expecting; but so it should not be with the church,
she should not be ashamed of her hope, faith, and
confidence; for there would be a performance of all
that the Lord had spoken: nor should she be ashamed of her barrenness, which should cease; and
of the fewness of her children or converts, which
would be many; and of the straitness of the place of
her tent or habitation, which would now be
enlarged: *neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be
put to shame*; other words made use of to express
the same thing, and for the further confirmation of it,
that she needed not, and that she should not be put
to the blush, or to shame and confusion, on the
above accounts: *for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth*; by
which may be meant either the small number of
converts at the first preaching of the Gospel; or more
especially that there were so few of the wise and
learned, the rich and noble, that embraced it, with
which the first Christians were greatly upbraided; or those persecutions which attended them the three
first centuries, which, being now at an end, shall be
forgotten: *and shalt not remember the reproach of thy
widowhood any more*; which signifies much the
same as before, the seeming desolate estate of the
church upon the death of Christ; when she seemed to
be deprived of her husband, and forsaken by him,
and left as a widow, and without children, barren and unfruitful; which was reckoned reproachful with
the Jews, [[Luk 1:25]].
