The Heart of A Woman Bible study, based off of the promises found in Isaiah 54, is for every woman who has a place of barrenness, emptiness, lack of faith, or fear keeping her from experiencing fruitfulness in her life. If this is you, won’t you join us as we journey to a deeper more abundant life of faith together? The Heart of a Woman is all about finding the heart of the Father towards the daughters He lovingly calls His own.
©dawnboyer 2014 Journeys In Grace www.journeysingrace.com
Originally published on Soli Deo Gloria Sisterhood www.solideogloriasisterhood.com.
Welcome to the 3rd Week of SDG’s Summer Bible Study, The Heart of a Woman. Each week I pray I can bring something of value and worth to you, but I am reminded over and over that it is nothing in me that I can bring but that which the Lord has already appointed for you to receive. Isaiah 55:11 says that not one Word of the Lord will return to Him void. My prayer this week is that only His Words would resonate deeply into your hearts and transform your lives in ways that reflect the glorious way He is rescuing you from the barrenness in your lives.
Let’s review some of the images that Isaiah 54 presents to us:
1. The Image of Hope through Song.
There is command to sing into the barren places of our lives because we can believe in a better and more consistent truth than the issues that face us. God is more than able to save us from all the distresses in our lives and his deliverance is not restricted or withheld based on our merit.
2. The Image of Redemption through Faith.
In the 2nd and 3rd verse of this 54th Chapter of Isaiah we are stepping out in faith by actively building a place of habitation and willfully preparing for expansion by visibly declaring we believe that God is doing something on our behalf. Remember that exponential growth is something we can expect from God. Our dreams, our hopes, our goals are all safe with the Heavenly Father who longs for us to be rescued from the pit of despair and discouragement that we, as women, can sometimes find ourselves living in.
One of the things I love about the way the Lord meets us is the way he appeals to our hearts through various methods of communication. It doesn’t matter what your ‘language’ is, He can speak it. He communicates to each of us in the most effective way we can understand. First, obviously, through the written Word,(2 Timothy 3:16-17) , but also through creation which ultimately points to God,(Romans 1:20), and through his Holy Spirit who is our Teacher. (1 Corinthians 2:10)
This last method is one we can easily miss because we are not listening close enough, or perhaps, there is too much noise from other sources. His Spirit speaks to our spirit; His heart communicates with our heart. The last image of these 4 verses that I want to bring attention to is the Image of the Heart of a Woman.
The Heart of a Woman is created to be receptive to the heart of the Father.
The first 4 verses of Isaiah reveal the theme for the entire chapter. He is leading us to see that the Heart of a Woman was created to intimately communicate with the Heart of the Father. Isn’t that exciting? Our Holy God loves us so uniquely that He continually reveals himself to us in ways that communicate His heart in all the ways our hearts are created to receive with joy.
Let’s look at His Word together from the Amplified Translation:
Fear not, for you shall not be ashamed; neither be confounded and depressed for you shall not be put to shame. For you shall forget the shame of your youth, and you shall not [seriously] remember the reproach of your widowhood any more. – Isaiah 54:4
Looking at the chapter through the lens of the prophet:
Interestingly, both Isaiah chapter 54 and 55 are lyrical poetry written for the purpose of rejoicing. One way to envision the attitude of the author of this book is to realize that Isaiah sees what, at that time, was not yet realized. As a New Testament believer, we have the privilege to look back with the knowledge that Jesus is the sole subject of hope and redemption the earlier chapters (49-53) are referring to. Isaiah is using profound imagery to excite and encourage us to know how to relate to this gracious God who longs to restore and redeem creation to Himself. Not only does this 54th chapter focus on hope and redemption but significantly on the restoration of the heart of a woman through all the seasons of her life.
Learning through the History of Isaiah:
Verse 4: There is a command to Fear Not, because you won’t have to be ashamed of your past. You don’t have to feel displaced, depressed, or worthless because God’s love can remove any memory of those things that separated you from Him in the past. The essence of this scripture is this: His love and restoration is so full that it completely takes away the tendency to be fearful.
- Isaiah is addressing 2 situations with this verse:
- The bondage of Israel in Egypt, which is likened to the shame of youth or the shame they felt because of their unfaithfulness to God. (This had already happened)
- The exile of Israel in Babylon, which is likened to the reproach of widowhood.(This has yet to happen)
o To Isaiah, who had just shared the hope of the coming Messiah in the previous chapters, he is declaring something that is requiring great faith on the part of the people to believe. He is telling them that not only will God rescue them, through the Messianic Covenant, but the very promise and hope of His coming will completely wipe out any memory of this burden and shame they felt, or will feel, over these 2 specific periods of Israel’s history.
Quick Word Study:
- Fear – The word used for fear in this verse is the Hebrew word, yare, which is translated as a psychological fear, rather than a physical fear.
- Shame – There are 2 forms of the word translated shame used in this verse. The first mentioned comes from the Hebrew word, Bos (bosh), a noun, which means to be disappointed or worthless. The second comes from the Hebrew word, Boset (boshet), a verb, which is conditional and relates to a cause. So it basically means, a feeling of worthlessness that results from an action(or sin) of some sort.
- Reproach – This word comes from the Hebrew word, harap, which means to be exposed or disgraced. It is very closely associated with the term ancient Israelites would assign to an unmarried or childless woman, charpah. In this ancient culture it meant a state of disgrace, especially of societal rank.
Lyrical Poetry gives us vivid Imagery.
The poetic device used in this verse is comparison. Again, the author uses imagery to reveal the depth of feeling that a woman, who had been humiliated by barrenness and loss, may have felt. He purposely used the example of the reproached barren childless woman who was the epitome of what Israel had been reduced to through both the Egyptian bondage and the Babylonian exile. Humility had a whole new meaning in the light of this experience.
This Hebrew word for shame(bos, boset) also represents the synonyms of shame, disgrace and humiliation by tying them to disappointed hopes or goals. We can easily apply this to our lives by replacing the example which was so poignant to Ancient Israel with one that is revelational to us today.
Exercise: Take 5 minutes right now and jot down anything that comes to mind that would be equal to this shameful or humiliating experience in your life. What is one thing that you would not want to have to reveal about your heart, your character, or your past? (I am not asking you to reveal it to me, personally.) Write it down on one of your note cards to put in your prayer box. Give that issue to the Lord, and let him take it from your shoulders because that is weight you are not called to bear sister!
Are you being held back by fear in your life?
I want you to challenge you with an idea. Do a word study on the word fear to see how many times it is listed in the concordance of your Bible. Define it and reference it to the original Hebrew and Greek forms. For this study, I shared that the Hebrew word for fear above is, yare. This root is used over 140 times in the Old Testament, and in at least 51 of those examples, it is used as a command with the adverb, not, like the verse above. “FEAR NOT”
Fear is a lack of trust in God.
Perfect love casts out all fear. -1 John 4:18
When we know we are loved in abundance, and unconditionally, then we should be able to trust God. If we know this, then what do we have to fear?
Fear is a worry, and therefore it is also sin in our lives which separates us from the blessings that God has for us. It creates barrenness in our daily living because rather than trusting God, we give in to the situation and believe there is no hope.
A Woman’s Heart is the Garden of God.
The beauty of this verse is almost so simple that we can overlook it. The barren woman is being promised something of supernatural proportions: a life without disgrace. The Lord is revealing through Isaiah that we, like the barren woman who isn’t productive, may also find ourselves in seasons of no productivity or growth. As a result, we often feel like we have failed and experience some of the same feelings she may have felt: shame, disgrace, confusion and depression. The irony is where we are looking when we consider our lack. Rather than look to our Heavenly Father to meet that very important need of productivity, we rely fully upon ourselves. Isaiah is reminding us that to be rescued by God releases us from the limitations that barrenness provides in the life of the woman of God.
Sometimes we are dry and cracked, sometimes we are flooded and soaked, and other times we are moist and fertile. The first two descriptions are easily viewed as useless or undesirable situations, perhaps even hopeless, much like the barren widow’s shame and reproach.
Yet it is when we have been dry like a desert, that we appreciate the cleansing rain. It is when we have experienced the flooded river that we long for the light and heat of summer to soak up the abundant moisture. All together, the stripping, the flooding, and the sifting produce a fertile soil which is prepared to produce a harvest. The ground is finally prepared to receive the seed, because it is being cultivated and prepared to be productive.
Our heart goes through seasons, like a garden.
We are like the garden as our hearts grow and change with the seasons, but I want you to catch what is being put before you with God’s Word. There are precious promises here to hold onto. We need to remember to trust God, fear not, and listen to his promises with a receptive (cultivated) heart so that we can expect the blessing He has already prepared.
{Have you ever felt lonely, neglected, or misunderstood?}
{Have you ever experienced disappointment or even questioned God’s faithfulness?}
I hope you are finding yourself on a journey of intentional prayer and focused study of His Word, which will root out all those inoperable thought patterns and belief systems that are creating barren places in your life. Take this time to fully invest in yourself so that you can be refreshed, lifted up, filled, and ready for the next phase in your destiny.
I want you to know that you are prayed for, you are loved, and you are appreciated. Take some time this week to do a bit of deep study on the words I mentioned above and pray, pray, pray. Write out those words and areas of disappointment, discouragement, and fear onto your note cards and put them in your prayer box. Give them all to the Lord, thanking Him for taking that burden and giving you his yoke of peace.
Activity: Plant a flower and go for a Prayer Walk.
- Do something positive and encouraging after you remove those note cards from your prayer box and rip them up. Perhaps plant a flower to watch grow through the rest of your study. Take time to tend it and make sure it has everything it needs to prosper and be healthy. ( 3 John 2)
- Visit an arboretum in your area, a local garden, or even a garden center, to take in all the varied color, texture, and beauty of the plants. Beauty is something that God created so we can appreciate His creativity. He sees that beauty reflected in you, as well.
- Get out and walk in the sunshine. We all need that vitamin D, ladies. It is really important to let the peace of just being in creation melt away the burdens in your heart this week and give it all to God. Let him take those areas that are holding you back and keeping you bound up in fear and shame.
Remember God is Faithful!
There is one thing I can tell you assuredly, God is faithful! In all my years of walking with God he hasn’t ever been the one to fail. Failure most often came as a result of my own doing. So don’t give up hope.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calls you, who also will do it. -1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.
Below are a few questions to prompt your faith-filled testimony. Please share any answers in the comment box or write them in your journal.
Don’t forget to download the worksheet for this week. It has additional study suggestions, questions, and journal prompts for you to work through. If you have missed a worksheet, you can find it linked up to each previous lesson or on my website in the download section.
- How has God been faithful in your life?
- Are there areas where you have allowed disappointed hope and embarrassment cause you to feel shame, disgrace or humiliation in your life?
- How did you get past it?
- What was your favorite scripture through that time?
Download the Worksheet for Week 3: God rescues us in the Valley of Fear Worksheet.
Next week we will finish this first section of the chapter with a look at one of our Biblical models of a barren woman who was rescued and restored, Hannah. I hope you will join us.
Blessings!
The Heart of a Woman Bible Study Previous Lessons:
See the download section at www.journeysingrace.com for the Introduction to the Study Guide and additional Worksheets or activities.
Author, writer and speaker, Dawn is passionate about many things: God, Family, Prayer, Food, and the Word. You can find her writing about those hard questions, reasoning and rejoicing in God’s grace and mercy for those who are walking this journey to grace on her website, Journeys In Grace.(www.journeysingrace.com)
Originally published on Soli Deo Gloria Sisterhood