The Barren Woman’s Children
Isaiah 54:1-8 - New International
Version (NIV)
1 “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.
6 The Lord will
call you back
as
if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
a wife who married young,
only
to be rejected,” says your God.
7 “For a brief moment I
abandoned you,
but
with deep compassion I will bring you back.
8 In a surge of anger
I
hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
I
will have compassion on you,”
says
the Lord your Redeemer.
Who is to “burst into song, shout for joy” (verse 1)?
What should this person do to the place of their tent (verse 2)?
Who will “dispossess nations” (verse 3)?
Why should they “not be afraid” (verse 4)?
Who is the husband (verse 5)?
What is “the Holy One of Israel” (verse 5)?
What will happen to the one who was “like a
wife deserted and distressed in spirit” (verse 6)?
What will be done “with deep compassion”
(verse 7)?
Who will have compassion “with everlasting
kindness” (verse 8)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, how is God’s love visible in this passage?
Matthew 23:33-39 – New International Version (NIV)
33 “You snakes! You brood of
vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore
I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill
and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from
town to town. 35 And so upon you
will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood
of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you
murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly
I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets
and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your
children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you
were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you
desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again
until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
What
does Jesus ask the teachers of the law and Pharisees who He calls snakes and “brood
of vipers” (verse 33)?
How
will they treat the “prophets and sages and teachers” (verse 34)?
What
will come upon them (verse 35)?
Which
generation will this come on (verse 36)?
How does Jesus describe Jerusalem (verse
37)?
What had Jesus “longed” to do
(verse 37)?
What is desolate (verse 38)?
When will they see Jesus again (verse
39)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In
your opinion, how is God’s love visible in this passage?
In
your opinion, what does Jesus’s condemnation of Jerusalem in Matthew 23:33-39
reveal about how the people of Jerusalem responded to the “compassion” Isaiah
54:1-8 says God had for them?
Galatians
4:21-28 - New
International Version (NIV)
21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware
of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His
son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the
free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two
covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be
slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai
in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in
slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is
above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is
written:
“Be glad, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
shout for joy and cry aloud,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband.”
28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of
promise.
Who does Paul ask “are you not aware of what the
law says” (verse 21)?
How were
the mothers of Abraham’s two sons described (verse 22)?
Which one
was “born according to the flesh” (verse 23)?
How was “his
son by the free woman” born (verse 23)?
What do the women represent (verse 24)?
Which one “bears children who are to be slaves”
(verse 24)?
How is the one who “stands for Mount Sinai in
Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem” like her children
(verse 25)?
What Jerusalem is free (verse 26)?
Why is she to “shout for joy and cry aloud”
(verse 27)?
Who are “children of promise” (verse 28)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this
passage?
In your opinion, how is
God’s love visible in this passage?
In your opinion, how does Galatians
4:21-27’s identification of the “barren woman” who was the wife that was
rejected in Isaiah 54:1-8 as Abraham’s wife Sarah enrich the reading of the
passage Isaiah gave us?
In your opinion, what does it mean when
Jesus in Matthew 23:33-39 says the house of the descendants of Abraham is “desolate”
and Galatians 4:21-28 says that Hagar is the “present city of Jerusalem”?
In your opinion, who are Galatians
4:21-28’s “children of promise”?
Hebrews 11:10-16 – New International Version (NIV)
10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose
architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah,
who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because
she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And
so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous
as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They
did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them
from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on
earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are
looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been
thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to
return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better
country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
What
was he (Abraham) “looking forward to” (verse 10)?
How
was Sarah “enabled to bear children” (verse 11)?
What came “from this one man, and he
as good as dead” (verse 12)?
How were these people living “when
they died” (verse 13)?
What did these people admit (verse 13)?
What were they “looking for” (verse
14)?
When would they “have had opportunity
to return” (verse 15)?
What kind of country were they “longing
for” (verse 16)?
What is God “not ashamed to be”
(verse 16)?
In your opinion, what is the basic
message of this passage?
In your opinion, how is God’s love visible
in this passage?
In your opinion, what
does Hebrews 11:11-12 reveal about how the “barren woman” of Isaiah
54:1-8 was able to have children?
In your opinion, what is revealed in
Hebrews 11:11-12 about how the “snakes” and “brood of vipers” in
Matthew 23:33-39 can “escape being condemned to hell”?
In your opinion, what is discovered in Hebrews
11:11-12 about the people that Galatians 4:21-28 calls the “children of
promise”?
In your opinion, what does thinking of
God as longing to gather children together as a “hen gathers her chicks
under her wings” help us understand about these passages from Isaiah, Matthew,
Galatians and Hebrews?
In your opinion, how should we respond to the “compassion”
of the Lord our Redeemer today?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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