Isaiah 54:2-3 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords… The tent is the simplest and most primitive form of the human habitation. Wherever a pole can be found, with cords or strips of leather, a little bark or cloth or canvas or skin, a tent can be set up — as easily struck as pitched, and almost as easily enlarged; for when the growing necessities of a family demand larger shelter and room, all you have to do is to get a little longer pole, a little thicker cords, a little more bark or skin or canvas, and you can stretch forth the curtains of your habitation to accommodate the needs of the growing family. And so this is made the type of the enlargement of the canopy of the Church over her growing family of children. "Thou shalt burst forth," as the Hebrew is — the grand old Hebrew — "Thou shalt burst forth on the right and on the left." A symmetrical growth in this direction and that direction alike; not like a family that has a one-sided development — she is going to gather her children from east and west and north and south, and every clime and every tongue and every people; and because her family is to come from all quarters of the earth, her canopy must stretch to every quarter of the earth to cover her increasing family. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; |
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