“Enlarge the place of your tent” means “widen
your heart.” God does not want his people to sit around feeling sorry for
themselves. He does not want us to be selfish. Sometimes we feel sorry for
ourselves for good reasons: we have health problems, marriage problems,
financial problems, relationship problems. We find ourselves thinking about
ourselves and worrying a lot. Jesus summed up God’s commands by saying, “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself.” God’s
people cannot be self-centred or even family-centred. We must open our hearts
to the people around us who need Jesus
Stretch your tent curtains wide.
This means, “See God’s vision. A near-sighted person wears thick lenses in his
glasses. He can only see what is right in front of his nose. He only looks for
things that are for his own benefit. He asks, “What’s in it for me? But God is
not near-sighted. He has a vision for the whole world. A barren woman has no
need for a bigger tent. But God’s command is to „Enlarge the place of your
tent, stretch your tent curtains wide.“ This tells her that she does need a
bigger tent. God’s command–„Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch your tent
curtains wide“–tells this sorrowful woman, Israel, to have God’s vision.
Lengthen your cords, strengthen
your stakes. If one makes the place of his tent larger, he must have longer
tent ropes and he must hammer the tent stakes deeper into the ground. Firstly,
we can lengthen our cords by believing the promises of God and acting on those
promises. Abraham began his life of faith when he believed God’s promise, „I
will make your name great; I will make you into a great nation; I will bless
you and you will be a blessing. “ Abraham caught God’s vision. He believed
God’s promise and obeyed God’s word. He left his home country and his family
and friends and went to the land God showed him. He lengthened his cords. This
was the first step in becoming a father of many nations–the first step in
becoming a man with God’s vision. Secondly, we must strengthen our stakes by
deep Bible study and much prayer. We cannot do God’s work with human zeal. Even
if we catch a glimpse of God’s vision for the world, we cannot do anything
unless we learn to depend on God in prayer and learn to listen to and obey his
word. God’s word has life giving power and life-changing power. God gave us his
word and taught us its power. We have received this legacy. We pray that we may
be used to share the word of God, the word of truth with a confused and hungry
world.
Prayer lengthens our cords and
strengthens our stakes. During the study of Acts, I was moved by Peter’s
dependence on the Bible. He based every message on the word of God. In Luke
24:45, Jesus opened the minds of his disciples to understand the Scriptures.
Jesus was a Bible teacher. He wants his disciples to also be Bible teachers.
When we seek to obey Jesus’ world mission command, God blesses us. Isaiah 54: 3
says, For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants
will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.“ This reminds us
of God’s promise to Abraham, „…Your descendants will take possession of the
cities of their enemies and through your offspring all nations on earth will be
blessed.“ (Genesis 22:17-18) To be conquered by men is a curse, but to be
conquered by God is the way of blessing. Also, God’s people were empty,
fruitless and without hope. But God had hope for them and for the world. So
they must take hold of God’s hope and not give up. God had and still has hope
to evangelize the whole world through his people. Isaiah 54: 5 says, for your
Maker is your Husband–the Lord Almighty is his name–the Holy One of Israel is
your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.” We are weak and
helpless. But our God is great. He loves us like a husband loves his
defenceless wife. Israel was once unfaithful to God, he punished them by
sending them into Babylonian captivity. But he didn’t stop loving them. He
would bring them back. “With everlasting kindness I will have compassion on
you, says the Lord your Redeemer.” Our God is the Father of the Prodigal Son.
He longs for his people to return to him.
We love God because he first
loved us. But sometimes we sin. We love ourselves and the world more, so we are
unfaithful to our Husband, God. God is very sorry. We suffer for our sins, but
God does not abandon us. He welcomes us. He doesn’t stop loving us. Our lives
can be fruitful only by the grace of our true Husband and Redeemer, God. When
we are united with him through a vine and branch relationship with Jesus, our
lives can bear fruit to God. His Holy Spirit indwells us. When his word is in
us and we are in the word, we bear fruit. Let us renew our love relationship
with Jesus. Let us rejoice in our true Husband, the almighty redeemer and Lord
of all the earth. Let us enlarge the place of our tents and stretch our tent
curtains wide. Let us strengthen our stakes and lengthen our cords and be a
blessing to the world.
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