Gathering the Outcasts – Isa 56
Few things hurt worse than rejection and exclusion. Israel felt special because God chose to use them to give His knowledge to the world.
Instead of using that privilege to bless all people, they often pridefully consumed God’s blessed and excluded others.
In Isaiah 56, we read that that God’s blessing and salvation is open to all, even those who Israel might have felt were naturally exclused – Gentiles and eunuchs.
God promised to give an everlasting inheritance to the eunuchs who genuinely believed on Him (evidenced under the law of Moses by their commitment to obedience and Sabbath-keeping).
He also promised to gather to Him the strangers and outcasts (non-Jewish people) that loved Him (v.6-8). And actually, His ‘own’ people (Jews) who were spiritually blind, ignorant, and self-indulgent, He would judge (v.9-12).
Several questions for us to consider:
- Do we base our relationship with God on culture, family, privilege or on true faith expressed in obedience to the Lord?
- Do we have the inclusive mindset of the Lord, that desires for people who are normally outcast and exclused to be brought into the people of God? Or, do we show opposite attitudes – prejudice, pride, entitlement, and bigotry?
- How sensitive are we to the things of God? Do we show a real desire to obey God’s Word and honour Him or do we ignorantly and pridefully live life our own, on own terms?