THE REPROACH OF THY WIDOWHOOD
Elder Philip Conley
Isaiah 54:4: “Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.”
We visit again the scene of what our Redeemer has done for us. The story (as glorious as the grace is, and as terrible as the suffering and death was) does not end with our being forsaken in Christ when He purged our sins by His shed blood on the cross. When He bore all our guilt and redeemed us from all our iniquity, the story is only seen as being complete in what transpired three days and three nights thereafter. He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification (Rom. 4:25). So, while the resurrection of our Saviour did not atone for our sins, it bore witness that we have been redeemed and declares us manifestly to be righteous. This ending of this story also points to the end of all time when we awake with His likeness and are satisfied.
The Lord speaks in this verse of our living in a state of not being ashamed or afraid. This is key to understanding the teaching of the verse, because if there be no resurrection of the dead, then we have much to fear and be ashamed of. However, be assured of this, beloved, that we are not still in our sins and of all men most miserable. Our Lord arose, and because of that blessed event, we have nothing to fear in this life. Had our Lord not arisen from the grave, then we could have no consolation in this present trying world, and our fears and shame would abound.
When the women came to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, the angels that met them told them not to be affrighted (afraid). The reason that they should not be afraid then, nor we now, is because the living is not among the dead. This is the implication of the final phrase of the verse: “And shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.” Our Maker is our Husband (as mentioned in verse five), and we, as the bride of Christ, are not a widow. However, there was a time (according to this verse) when she was a widow. It must be understood that when the body of Jesus Christ was laid in the tomb, His spirit was alive in heaven. He commended it to the Father at His death, and the body ONLY went into the grave; but, when the body lay in the grave for three days and three nights, the Lord’s bride was a widow in a timely sense. While our Lord declares the end from the beginning and sees the end as already done and accomplished, in a timely, manifest sense, she was a widow for three days and three nights. However, we are told that our widowhood is remembered no more.
Not only are we not a widow in an eternal sense, but even at this very moment, we can declare with much assurance that our Husband lives! We have a sign of our justified state that the tomb that housed His body is now empty! Only the graveclothes remained there, and the glorified state of that body that left this earth at His advent is never going to set foot upon it again. Therefore, knowing these things, what have we on earth to fear and dread? Knowing of our victorious Captain and Bridegroom, what have we to be ashamed of?
Indeed, we are ashamed of our daily shortcomings, but what is there in this life that can separate us from Him? Yea, nothing can keep us from the grasp of His love; and our reproach that was laid upon Him, borne in His body and fulfilled in his death, is gone. Then, the manifestation that our reproach has been taken away is in His resurrection. Therefore, let us declare boldly what He had done; and whatever we encounter in this life, may we look to Him from whence cometh our help. May we be found faithful until that blessed day when we partake manifestly in that resurrection and see Him as He is. Ever speed that blessed day, Lord Jesus.