The "Woman" Identified

Chapter 54 opens on a happy note:  "Cry out joyfully, you barren woman that did not give birth! Become cheerful with a joyful outcry and cry shrilly, you that had no childbirth pains, for the sons of the desolated one are more numerous than the sons of the woman with a husbandly owner,' Jehovah has said."  (Isaiah 54:1)  How thrilled Isaiah must be to speak these words! And what comfort  their fulfillment will bring to the Jews exiled in Babylon!  At that time Jerusalem will still be lying desolate.  From a human standpoint, there will seem  to be no hope that she will ever again be populate, just as a barren woman could not normally hope to bear children in her future-she will become fertile.  Jerusalem will be beside herself with joy. She will again teem with 'sons," or inhabitants.

Isaiah may not know it, but his prophecy will have more than one fulfillment.  The apostle Paul quotes from Isaiah chapter 54 and explains that the "woman' signifies something far more important than the earthly city of Jerusalem.  He writes:  "The Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother."  (Galatians 4:26) what is this "Jerusalem above"?  Clearly not the city of Jerusalem in the Promised Land. That city is earthly, not "above" in the heavenly realm.  "Jerusalem above" is God's heavenly  "woman," his organization of mighty spirit creatures. 

How, though, can Jehovah have two symbolic women-one heavenly and the other earthly?  Is there some inconsistency here?  Not at all. the apostle Paul shows that the answer lies in the prophetic picture provided by Abraham's family.  (Galatians 4:22-31) Sarah, "the free woman" and Abraham's wife, pictures  Jehovah's wifelike organization of spirit creatures.  Hagar, a slave girl and Abraham's secondary wife, or concubine, pictures earthly Jerusalem.

With that background, we begin to see the profound significance of Isaiah 54:1.  After decades of barrenness, Sarah bore Isaac when she was 90 years old. Similarly, Jehovah's heavenly organization went through a long period of barrenness. Way back in Eden, Jehovah promised that his "woman" would produce the "seed."  (Genesis 3:15) Over 2,000 years later, Jehovah made his covenant with Abraham regarding the Seed of promise.  But God's heavenly "woman" had to wait many, many more centuries before producing that Seed. Still, the time came when the children of this one "barren woman" were more numerous than those of fleshly Israel. The Illustration  of the barren woman helps us to see why the angels were so eager to witness the arrival of the foretold Seed. (1 Peter 1:12) When did that finally happen?

Jesus' birth as a human child was certainly an occasion for rejoicing among the angels. (Luke 2:9-14) But that was not the event foretold  at Isaiah 54:1.  Only  when Jesus was begotten with holy spirit in 29 C.E. did he become a  spiritual son of "Jerusalem above," publicly acknowledged by God himself  as his "Son, the beloved."  (Mark 1:10, 11; Hebrews 1:5; 5:4, 5) It was then that God's heavenly "woman" had cause for rejoicing, in fulfillment of Isaiah 54:1. At last she had produced the promised Seed, the Messiah!  Her centuries of barrenness were over.  That, however, was not the end of her rejoicing. 

Next time: The Family of Abraham -A Prophetic Picture

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, Volume II, 2001