One of my granddaughters (this is not my actual granddaughter), who is unbelievably flexible, spends a great deal of time in this exact position. The other day we were talking about the tedium of long car rides, and she said, "You can't just sit there. Sometimes you gotta get out and do the splits or something!" On road trips, other people may need food, gas, bathroom, or walking-around breaks, but she takes "get out and stretch my legs" to a whole other level.
I've been kind of stuck in Isaiah 54:2 lately, and just today (as I write this) I saw references to the verse in two other places. I always find this an exciting sign that God is trying to get my attention. So here's what the verse says in the NIV: "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes."
Often, I've heard this verse within the context of spiritual growth, accompanied by teachings that urge us to make room in our lives for all God is calling us to, become pliable to the Holy Spirit, step out in faith by "lengthening our cords" in anticipation of God giving new and bigger assignments, or be alert to any breaches in character that could allow the enemy to access us. And all of this is good. But let's look at the biblical context of the verse.
Using the Amplified version will help with this. Here are verses 1-3:
"Shout for joy, O barren one, she who has not given birth; break forth into joyful shouting and rejoice, she who has not gone into labor [with child]! For the [spiritual] sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman," says the Lord. "Enlarge the site of your tent [to make room for more children]; stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not spare them; lengthen your tent ropes and make your pegs (stakes) firm [in the ground]. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; and your descendants will take possession of nations and will inhabit deserted cities."
The subtitle in my Bible for this section reads "The Fertility of Zion." This is prophecy about literal expansion of the nation itself, due not as much to natural births as to the Jews' return from exile in Babylon (prophesied by Isaiah and fulfilled some time later when Cyrus conquered Babylon and freed them). It's good to keep in mind that many if not all OT prophecies and practices have later and greater fulfillment in Christ, as well as the meanings contemporary to their day, so this is also speaking of the numerical increase in God's people that would and should follow the death and resurrection of the Messiah. Specifically, it's urging His people to make room for these who will come (new converts, "old" converts that we just hadn't met yet) and rejoice over them even more exceedingly than we might over natural children, because this is the family with whom we'll spend eternity with Christ.
We in western culture have gotten to a place where we think about the individual to a degree unprecedented in human history. We read this verse and apply it to my destiny, my assignment, my relationship with Christ. But the Amplified gives us the denotations and connotations of the original language, and we see how community-minded, how big-picture, the viewpoint here really is. Let's not stretch ourselves just because God has more and better things for our singular lives. Let's stretch ourselves to invite more and more people into His tent--the shelter of His Fatherhood--for His glory, our joy, and their eternity.
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