ISAIAH 56: 1-8
THE OPPORTUNITY OF GODLY LIVING
Chapters 56-66 are the third section of Isaiah’s book. The section opens with promises of a grand salvation yet to come. God saves people so that they might know Him and the only way they can truly know Him is to become like Him. Those who have received the forgiveness and deliverance of God also receive grace to live as God lives or righteously (Isa. 55). If they do, all stratus of people and all the nations will come to know the Lord.
As people chose to live in obedience to God, He empowers them that they might become the servants of God. The grace of God is free but those who receive it are expected to take hold of it in their lives and live it out. God informs those who chose grace empowered obedience that there will be rewards in their eternal salvation.
I. FUTURE BLESSINGS, 1-2.
II. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY GRACE, 3-5.
III. PROMISES TO THE FAITHFUL, 6-8.
Verse 1 is a command to be righteous. Thus says the Lord, "Preserve justice and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come and My righteousness to be revealed.
When some hear the words of acceptance that chapter 55 proclaim they could believe that covenant grace carries no obligations. That is not so. People are urged to do what is right (1:17) because God’s salvation will come soon. Again Isaiah links present behavior with future salvation and blessings. Because the Lord will bring salvation to those who believe, they should act justly in the present. Salvation on earth is spiritual deliverance and physical protection, but there remains a future salvation for God’s people also.
In 750 BC God called the people He had delivered to be fair and just and live for the coming kingdom. He calls us to the same hope. John says this hope of living with Jesus causes one to purify himself (1 Jn. 3:3).
We acknowledge receiving the blessings of God by keeping covenant with God. Verse 2 states how that was expressed under the Old Covenant. "How blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who takes hold of it; Who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil."
"In Isaiah’s day a righteous person (a believer who does what is right, v.1) lived according to God’s Law, an expression of His righteous standards. Keeping the Sabbath was important under the Law (Ex. 20:8-11), for a person by not engaging in agricultural or business pursuits on that day thereby acknowledged that he believed God would take care of him and bless him. Since the Sabbath was a sign of Israel’s covenant with God, keeping the Sabbath signified that a person believed in the covenant and the Lord." [Bible Knowledge Com., 1111] Their belief was also demonstrated by turned from doing . . . evil in their daily activities. People who so honor God in their daily life will be blessed.
For new covenant people who are no longer under the law (Acts 15:20), we acknowledge Sunday, the day Jesus rose from the dead, as a day of worship and rest. We take rest from our labors as a way of acknowledging that it is the Lord who provides for us. It states that the world will go on without me, but I will not go on without the Lord. Untold Future blessings are promised to those who so authentic their faith.
II. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY GRACE, 3-5.
Verse 3 reverses the common thought that foreigners and the impaired had no business in God’s house. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, "The Lord will surely separate me from His people." Nor let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree."
Even foreigners (14:1) and eunuchs are not only welcome to join themselves to the Lord, but will participate in the eternal blessings of salvation. This contrasts with the exclusion of eunuchs under the Mosaic Law (Deut. 23:1).
God’s new covenant of grace offers one and all the opportunity for dignity and worth, for life and fruitfulness. Whatever your race, social position, work, or financial situation, God’s blessings are as much for you as for anyone else. No one is excluded from the opportunity to respond to God’s grace.
The Lord explains in verse 4 why those accustomed to thinking themselves outcasts can now hope. For thus says the Lord, "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant,
Keeping the Sabbaths and obeying God’s covenant stipulations ( Isa. 56:6) would demonstrate their loyalty to the Lord (1-2). Holding fast My covenant means keeping the agreement of faith in the promises and obedience to the principles of God.
Notice the personal pronouns: My Sabbaths, please Me, My covenant. Their life and behavior results because of their personal relationship with God. He is their focus.
Who is pleasing to God? Those who carry the pedigree of Abraham or the heritage of religion? No! It is those who have entered into covenant with God and have a living relationship with Him. Those who are becoming like Him are truly children of God. It is not genealogy but character that marks the servants of God.
Verse 5 is another promise of future blessing to those who live life out or their personal relationship with God. To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial. And a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.
They may think they have no legacy in the Lord since they have no sons and daughters which indicate earthly productivity. Shockingly though they will be memorialized forever. Those faithful to the Lord will be given a name which will not be cut off. Their legacy of faith rests with the Lord, not in their bloodline.
III. PROMISES TO THE FAITHFUL, 6-8.
Verse 6 proclaims those not out of Israel would become part of the Lord. "Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the Sabbaths and holds fast My covenant;
The people God memorializes are given three characteristics. First, they joined themselves to the Lord. The reason they have joined themselves to the Lord is: to minister to Him, to love His name and to be His servants. They join themselves to the Lord first and foremost to bless Him (which opens the way for God to eternally bless them). [To love the name of the Lord is to love His character and respond to His Word and work.] All these actions come from relationship (joined themselves to the Lord) and become the means of developing intimate relationship.
The second reason is because they demonstrate the closeness of their relationship with the Lord by giving a day of their weekly life to gather themselves before the Lord remember His blessings. One day a week they reset their life compass to make sure God is at the center of their lives and not themselves. [Oswalt, Isaiah NIC, 460].
The third characteristic of those God will memorialize is that they take hold of His covenant. The first covenant has been broken so God will send His Servant to establish an everlasting covenant in His shed blood. This covenant is one that can be kept by life in the Spirit which God makes available to all who daily will lay hold of it.
God promises such faithful folk the benefits of verse 7. Even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar. For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples."
Three things are promised those so joined to God. The first is assistance: I will bring them to my holy mountain. God not only bids them welcome to journey with Him, but He incline them to journey, shows them the way to Himself, and leads them in it ( Ps. 43:3). God’s offer of guidance is certainly needed in the confusing wayward world in which we live. Second, God promises joy and comfort in prayer. I will make them joyful in My house of prayer. Though they come mourning to the house of prayer, they will go away rejoicing, for they will there find such ease by casting their cares and burdens upon God, that, like Hannah, they will go away and their countenance will be lifted up. Many a sorrowful spirit has been made joyful in the house of prayer.
The third promise is acceptance: "Their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar." The prayers and praises (those spiritual sacrifices) of the devout are more pleasing to God today than those sacrifices of the pious Jews where under the old covenant. [Henry, Matthew: Matthew Henry’s Commentary : On the Whole Bible. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991, S. Is 56:3]
Verse 7 closes call God’s House a house of prayer. The religious meetings of God’s people are to be meetings for prayer, in which we join together in united faith and mutual love. It is to be a house of prayer, not for us only and our concerns only but for all people.
Verse 8 declares God is not finished gathering His people. "The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, "Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered."
God is not finished gathering Israel nor others outside of the people of Israel. God is the Gather. He create humanity. He redeemed humanity. He created the church and is working to bring people into it. The church is a growing body. Though many have been gathered into it, there will be more gathered until the Lord takes us home to heaven.
CONCLUSION / TIME OF RESPONSE
When a person is saved by the grace of God they are no longer doomed to live out life as they once did. There is power in God’s grace to live out life in faithfulness. It is not a power that one has or gains, but a power that flows from God as we become rightly related to Him. Those who surrender to live as servants of God find God’s empowering to live a life faithfulness to God.
