Download the UBF brochure here
Weekly Message | August 17th, 2008
Passage: Isaiah 54:1-5
Key Verse(s): 2
Recently, Toledo UBF studied Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. To Jesus, prayer was not optional; it was part of his holy routine of life. He depended on God in prayer. He also had clear prayer topics, which he prayed repeatedly. Thank God for the power of prayer. Then last week’s message was about David and his mighty men. Who wants to be a mighty man of God? Then what does that mean. Mighty men of God are humble, hold on to God’s grace and have a clear sense of mission. May God help us all to be mighty men and women of God. Today, we will meditate on Isaiah 54:1-5, with the theme of enlarging the place of our tent.
Briefly, the book of Isaiah can be divided into two parts. Chapters 1-39 are mainly messages of warning and judgment to the people of Israel to repent. Chapters 40-66 are messages of God’s comfort and hope for them. Isaiah 54 is one of these chapters full of God’s hope and vision. In this chapter we can find the present situation of Israel as a barren woman and her future hope as a joyful, fruitful woman who will have many children. In this word let’s learn how we can hold on to God’s vision and maintain it in the midst of our daily routine.
I. Sing, O barren woman (1, 4, 5)
Look at verse 1a. “Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor…” Here, God commands the barren woman to sing, not merely sing but burst into song and shout for joy. How can a barren woman sing, burst into song and shout for joy? In ancient times, having no children was a serious problem and a sign of God’s curse. Even these days, children are the joy of life to their mothers. So a barren woman who cannot bear any children should be sorrowful and full of distress all the time. We remember Hannah --not Missionary Hannah Kuper-- but Hannah, the mother of Samuel, who was very sorrowful and wept much because she could not bear a son. Even though she was loved much by her husband, she could not find any real comfort. The barren woman could not sing or find any reason to be joyful. Then how could God ask her to sing?
Look at verse 1b. “…because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD.” Here, Isaiah is planting the hope of God. The barren woman who is now fruitless will eventually have more children than her who has a husband. The barren woman can sing because of God’s future blessing of many children to come. The barren woman is a symbol of Israel. God wanted them to be a kingdom of priests and a shepherd nation for all people. But instead they enjoyed God’s blessing and became corrupted and committed the sin of idolatry. Therefore, God punished them and sent them away into exile in Babylon. God disciplined them for seventy years. They lost everything, even their identity. They became completely useless and fruitless like a barren woman. However, God did not abandon them forever. God still had hope for them to be a kingdom of priests and a shepherd nation. Because of God’s hope they could now sing and burst into song, for they would be fruitful and have many children.
According to verse 4, God comforts them saying, “Do not be afraid; you will not suffer 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.” God understood the shame and humiliation that Israel went through during her exile. God was not deaf to their cries but was with them in their suffering. Now God promises his people they will not suffer any more shame nor be humiliated.
God’s love for his people is so faithful like that of a faithful and loving husband. Look at verse 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.” Even though Israel felt like a barren woman, she could sing and shout for joy because God, her Maker, is her husband. God was calling her back from her exile to be his bride. Just think! Maria Schwarzenegger is very happy because she’s first lady of California since she’s married to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. And if a woman’s husband becomes president, she becomes the first lady of the nation. But if our husband is God, that makes us the first lady of the universe. Our God is the Almighty God and the Holy God and our Redeemer. This God is our true husband.
We have all felt like a barren woman at some point in life. These are times in which we can’t bear fruit humanly or spiritually. Many students despair because of the overwhelming challenge of their school studies and because of the high expectations of teachers and parents. Anyone can become fearful or anxious about the future. Life itself contains all sorts of stress. Some of us feel barren because we cannot find any candidate for Bible student. Others are praying for a loved one without seeing any visible change. Surely, all of us have felt barrenness in our hearts due to the effects of sin. But when we remember that God is with us and that he has a wonderful plan for our life, we can sing and be joyful. The Bible says, “’No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, -- but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.’” (1 Cor. 2:9, 10) Even if our human situation doesn’t change right away, we can be joyful because we have a bright future in Christ. We have Jesus in our hearts and he never leaves us. So we can sing: “Jesus is the Joy of living; He’s the King of life to me. Unto Him my all I’m bringing; His forevermore to be. I will do what he commands me; anywhere he leads I’ll go. Jesus is the Joy of Living; he’s the dearest friend I know.” 1 Thess. 5:16-18 says: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Yes, even a barren woman can be joyful by putting her hope and future security in God.
II. Enlarge the place of your tent (2, 3)
In the first part we learned that God is calling the barren woman back and is going to give her many children. In light of this, she must make room for a bigger family. So in verse 2 he gives her a command based on God’s hope. Let’s read verse 2. “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” This verse is God’s practical direction. Then in verse 3 God gives the reason why she should obey this direction. “For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.” Israel must enlarge the place of her tent because she will spread out to the right and to the left; her descendants will be so numerous that they will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities and universities. Then what is God’s command?
First, “enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide” (2a). In the Message Bible version, verse 2a reads like this: “Clear lots of ground for your tents! Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!” Why should a barren woman make room for a larger tent? Maybe she wants to rent it out and make some extra money? Humanly speaking, she has no use for a larger tent. One tendency we have as human beings is to seek small blessings for just ourselves and our immediate family. We don’t think “big” by nature. Abram only wanted one son in order to be his heir. So when he got Ishmael, he became perfectly content and satisfied. He was so complacent that finally God got tired of waiting and appeared to him as God Almighty and rebuked him. He said to him, “Walk before me and be blameless” (Gen. 17:1). God changed his name from Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of many nations). God also changed his wife’s name from Sarai (princess) to Sarah (mother of many nations). God wanted Abraham and Sarah to enlarge their tent and be a father and mother of nations (Gen. 17:4-5, 15-16). Just as we had an altar call for those willing to out into the mission fields, God gave such a call to Abram when he gave him the sign of circumcision. Abram obeyed God and was circumcised even though it was painful. Symbolically, it meant that Abram was painfully giving up his small human dream in order to accept God’s vision for him to be a great nation. Even though God gave him only one son, Isaac, Abram believed God would make him a father of many nations. He believed that through Isaac God would raise a great nation and make him a blessing to all peoples on earth.
This principle can be applied to the nation Israel and to the disciples of Jesus. God redeemed Israel from their life in slavery and brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey. God blessed them so much so that they might carry out their glorious mission as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation and be used greatly by God. But they only enjoyed God’s blessings and became complacent and corrupt. So God’s blessing was turned into a curse because his people did not bear God’s blessing.
In the case of the 12 disciples, at first, they decided to follow Jesus with a pure motive. But as they followed Jesus, human ambition grew in their hearts like a wild thorn. They each wanted to be a cabinet member in Jesus’ messianic kingdom and see the glory of Israel restored. So even up to the time of Jesus’ ascension, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). They could only think on a small scale. But Jesus gave them the world mission command “…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). When they accepted Jesus’ world mission command, they could enlarge the place of their hearts to embrace all kinds of people, even the Gentiles. Then they could be used as pillars of the early church. God has a great hope for us and wants us to enlarge our tents so that we may be used by God in his great world mission work.
At this time God calls us to enlarge our tents and not hold back. We must not shrink back from the greater blessing God has in store for us. We must hold on to the vision we have and let God expand it and use it for his greater redemptive work. William Carey once said: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” We must not hold back from the greater things that God calls us to do. We must be history makers beginning with small steps right now. The history of Toledo UBF has been one of enlarging the tent. Toledo UBF is well known for the co-working between Korean missionary families and American shepherd families. As the tent grew bigger, many servants were sent out to other mission fields. Toledo UBF has sent more than 60 persons around the world over the years for the sake of God’s world mission purpose. For example, Christy Toh was sent to Chicago, Joan Griggs to Cincinnati, Melissa Christopher to Montreal, Paul and Anna Choi (BGSU/Georgia), M Isaac and Rebecca Kim (Akron), M. Don and Hannah (Argentina), Dr. Abraham and Sarah Nahm (Wisconsin), Dr. Mark and Esther Yoo (Virg. State), Brian and Mary Karcher (Detroit), Dr. Tom and Maria Kalapos (Cleveland/Pittsburgh). The list goes on and on. This year M. James and Angela Roh will go out to Penn State, Daniel and Maria Jeong to Kent and Jeff and Laurie Lewis to Columbus. Toledo is known as the gateway of the world. Many people come and go via Toledo UBF. The coworkers of Toledo UBF are world famous for being hospitable. Their serving makes international guests want to come back again and again. The University of Toledo is now one of the three major universities in Ohio and one of seventeen comprehensive public universities in the USA. Within the next ten years, it is expected to grow to more than 35,000 students. What does all of this mean? It means that God has a great vision for Toledo UBF as an Antioch church. It was from Antioch that the apostle Paul and Barnabas were sent by the Holy Spirit on their missionary journey. God has already used Toledo UBF as a missionary sending church but there is still much more work to be done in the world. May God enlarge the place of our tent by raising up 24 student leaders and 120 Ph.D. shepherds for the USA and for God’s world mission purpose. And may God continue to send out missionaries and silver missionaries to the ends of the earth via Toledo the gateway to the world.
Second, “lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes” (2b). Lengthening the cords might be compared to lengthening the cords of our prayers to support God’s work. In a very practical way we contribute to the work of God by extending our cords of prayer for God’s people and God’s servants. Actually God works through the cords of our prayers to accomplish his redemptive history. Wherever there has been God’s work, there have been the hidden prayers of someone. As we know, God has done great work in China through the cords of prayers of many servants of God beginning with Hudson Taylor.
Recently, we saw an amazing work of God as we prayed for the 2008 Purdue registration. Dr. John Jun gave us the prayer topic to pray for 3,000 participants, praying 3,000 times of united prayer. At first, many of us, including myself, just accepted it as another prayer topic. So we prayed with this prayer topic, thinking that it was a little too much. But amazingly, God worked through the cords of our prayers and we saw the historic registration of 3,106 conference participants. May God lengthen our cords of prayer and use us as prayer servants for the DePaul University, North America, China, North Korea, all Muslim nations and to the ends of the earth. As a whole we pray that God may send out 100,000 UBF missionaries by the year 2041. Although this seems to be an impossible prayer topic, we believe that God will work through our prayers to make it a reality.
Now let’s think about strengthening our stakes. If we enlarge a tent but do not strengthen the stakes, the tent may blow away in the wind. Therefore, we need to drive our tent pegs deeper to hold our tent in place. Here, strengthening our stakes has to do with putting down deeper roots in God’s word. We can strengthen our stakes in God’s word through deep personal Bible study. We must faithfully study the Bible passage each week and write a heartful testimony. We must accept one word each day through daily bread and put it into practice. As we keep God’s word in our hearts, we remain in Jesus and are full of God’s grace. Then we can do the work of God with greater energy. The apostle Paul also encourages us to take deeper root in the word of God. Colossians 2:6, 7 says, “…so then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Even the hymn song encourages us to take deeper root in God’s word. “O deeper yet I pray and higher everyday. And wiser blessed Lord in thy precious holy word.”
Perhaps, the best way to deepen our stakes in God’s word is by becoming a Bible teacher. Those who teach the Bible are constantly learning and deepening their roots in God’s word. May God help each of us to be an excellent Bible teacher for young college students. It is very clear that lengthening our cords of prayer and deepening our stakes in the word of God are the wisdom of God to maintain God’s vision and bear much abundant fruit.
Let me share with you my missionary testimony. At first, my life was like a little pup tent with only enough room for me. Then God led me to have a small shepherd heart for one person at a time through fishing on campus and feeding one or two sheep. Then I had to learn even how to be faithful in my work and be a steward of my family. My tent got a little bigger. Through the prayers of my wife and the spiritual support of our ministry, I grew in capacity. I slowly became a good soldier of Christ in my workplace, my home and in doing God’s work. We formed the Good Soldier’s Fellowship. Then in God’s time, God sent me as a short-term missionary to Paraguay. At that time, I did not think about staying in the mission field. But God had other plans. He used Dr. Lee to challenge me to remain in Latin America. He opened a way to pioneer Argentina. I was appointed a national director and two families joined us. During the early period, we helped our sons and daughters to write testimonies and form an orchestra. In this way, they formed a vessel of prayer and overcame the city environment. During this time, God sent many short term missionaries to our chapter. We expanded our tent by welcoming and serving several second gens from Korea and USA. God also sent several student sheep to our ministry who have become our coworkers over a seven year period. We hosted several conferences and helped both second gens and sheep. God sent us many international guests from all over the world. Toledo UBF, HanYang UBF, Chicago UBF, Akron UBF and a couple more chapters have become part of a network who supported us by sending messengers and helping us to purchase a new center. We also sent out two families to pioneer Uruguay and La Plata, Argentina. Then God sent the missionary family of Msn. Marcos and Ruth Kim. We have a vision to be a Mount Zion in South America where many students will come and study the word of God.
While in Chicago, God led me to pursue my MAT at National Louis University. This program will lead to a teaching certificate from the state of… Then with teaching certificate, I will be able to teach in a prestigious school in Buenos Aires. Although I was not exactly prepared to be a missionary, God helped me to overcome in the areas of weakness. This December I will go back to Argentina and finish my third semester doing student teaching in Buenos Aires. In this way, God enabled me to make the best use of my time in the USA by completing my master work in education and by receiving message training. When I look back over the last seven years, I cannot but thank God who enlarged my tent and raised me up as the first American missionary to Latin America. We are, in a sense, the firstfruits of 100,000 missionaries who will go out to the ends of the earth. God is my true husband who led me to be a frontline missionary. He is the God of all the earth, the Holy God and our Redeemer.
Today, we learned that God is calling us to enlarge our tents. We must expand our vision and embrace all nations with the mind of God. We also learned that we must maintain God’s vision by lengthening our cords of intercessory prayers and strengthening our stakes through deep personal Bible study. In this way, may God help us to make an environment for the work of God in us and through us. May God make America a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
August 10, 2008. Missionary Don Kuper. Toledo UBF.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
