Bible Stories for the Young
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Isaiah could see God’s amazing Plan unfolding. The Rescuer would come and even though most wouldn’t recognize Him, He would still change everything.
I’m sure after the people heard from Isaiah that they would miss God’s Rescuer, their Savior, and that He would be hurt because of them, that some may have thought, “What will we do after we’ve messed up and let our self-interests, self-pride and self-ness get in the way of Seeing our Shining Rescuer? What hope will we have after we have missed Him and turned our back on the King of Glory?”
Of course God was not going to leave them not knowing what to do next. So in the next part in your Bible, Isaiah tells them what the right response is.
Now that you know of His suffering, now that you know that He took your punishment with all its guilt and shame and pain, here’s what I want you to do now:
“Sing! Sing! Sing! Even though you’ve been empty on the inside and on the outside, even though you’ve never had any children, even though you are nothing but empty people… Sing! Sing! Sing!”
Are you wondering, “Why sing?” They’ve behaved terribly and everything seems to be going wrong. But God doesn’t say, “Cry, cry, cry,” or “pout, pout, pout.” He says, “Sing, sing, sing!” So, why does God say “Sing”?
God says “Sing” because when Jesus, God’s Shining Rescuer would come, He would offer people a New Deal. A better deal — not a deal of rules.
So God’s telling them ahead of time: “Hey, empty-feeling people, because of how My Son will take your punishment, I’m going to do something new for you. Even if you’ve never had anything good come from your life before, you will end up with more than the person who appears to have everything. Really! So shout for joy because I’m gonna fill you up (because of what My Son did for you)!”
You’ll hear in the next story that there‘s a condition to being able to do this singing God’s talking about: It’s only for people who will agree to His New Deal. So, we’ll talk more about that later.
So Isaiah said, “Sing, childless woman. Shout out a song, you who have never had a baby! You’ll end up with far more children than the others.” God says so! (When God’s talking about children here, He’s not talking about physical children or babies; it’s a shadow, a picture. See if you can tell what He’s talking about.) “Plan on having lots of children. Build a bigger house because you are going to need more room for your growing family. Those who sing, sing, sing in their emptiness, those will be the ones to have children of faith who will conquer nations and fill up the cities that have been left empty.”
Do you remember what God promised Abraham? That’s right — children! As many as the sand on the seashore. And that all nations would be blessed through him (along with a Child of his that would come later, which is Jesus).
And you might not understand this yet, but the children of Abraham are gonna be the people with the faith of Abraham. And it’s these Faith-people who come later in this story who will be the ones to say, “God in me is going to multiply, multiply, multiply.”
The Seed of God, Jesus, will come to live inside these God-believing and obeying people… and that Jesus-Life in them, will multiply until the glory of God fills the earth. The growing of His authority and peace will have no end. Those children of faith will share the joy of the Lord with others, and they will share it with others, and they will share it with others until the glory of God covers the earth. (Does that sound kinda like “having children” to you? Oh yeah.)
Isaiah said, “Don’t be afraid — you’re not going to be embarrassed. Don’t hold back — you’re gonna make it. For your Creator is your husband, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies! Your Redeemer is God of the whole earth. You were like a lady left all alone, and so sad. But God will call you saying, ‘Come on back to Me, honey.’
“As far as I’m concerned, this is like that time with Noah and the rainbow when I promised I wouldn’t destroy the earth with water again. Because of what My Son just did, I promise to never get angry at His Family again.
“Because of how My Son will make Himself self-less; because of how My Son will agree to My way and to being rejected; because of how My Son will totally trust Me in that terrible hard moment, not demanding anything from Me; because of all that, the children of faith who believe in Him will be like the sand on the seashore, and you empty, shriveled-up people can come on back to Me and Sing, Sing, Sing.”
Once we see that we can’t do anything good or right and that nothing good can come from us, all that empty space inside of us leaves room for God to come in and fill us up, which is the best thing in the world.
So when you look into your own heart and see that you are weak, or empty and dried up, or a total flop on your own — then SING! Or even if you look like you have everything going right for you on the outside, but you realize that you are still empty and broken on the inside — then Sing!
Because God’s Shining Rescuer, His Son, took the shame, guilt, and punishment of death that we deserved.
Now you can go on to the next story to hear what God said people will have to do to be part of all this Singing.