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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Let no foreigner who is bound to
the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no
eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”
For this is what the Lord says: “To
the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who choose what pleases Me and hold fast to My
covenant—to them I will give within My temple and its walls a memorial and a
name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that
will endure forever. And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister
to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants, all who keep the
Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to My covenant—these I will
bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer. Their burnt
offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be
called a house of prayer for all nations.”
The Sovereign Lord declares—He who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”
Isaiah 56:3-8
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Who would you consider to be a
foreigner?
Would it be someone from a nation
outside of your own? Would it be someone who is from outside of the area you
live in? Perhaps, you may see someone new in your neighborhood as a foreigner,
someone who you haven’t recognized before and may be suspicious of because they
are unknown to you.
The concept of foreigners seems to
be in the headlines these days, particularly in the way of immigration reform
in America. We are wrangling with how we should handle people who enter the
country illegally, people who have been labeled with the tag “aliens” which
overwhelmingly suggests that they don’t belong here, that they are foreigners
from places outside of our nation as we act like our land is really ours and
not God’s.
The fact of the matter is that
foreigners are not typically welcomed with open arms in places outside of their
home and this was also the case in biblical times, particularly in the Old
Testament. There, you had the Jewish religious inner circle operating like they
were the only ones with the right to a relationship with God. If you were
Jewish, you were on God’s team and were in His favor. If you weren’t, then you
were pushed to the fringes of Jewish society, looked down upon, and excluded
from the Jewish life.
In other words, you were a
foreigner or another term that was used in those times, a Gentile which
essentially meant that you were a non-Jew.
Yes, the society then was very
exclusionary and this is important to note as we look at our passage for today
from Isaiah 56 for God has a way of turning the status quo upside down to
create a better world to live in and as we will see, He was about to do that
for those who were considered foreigners, offering them hope for life in the
present and future. Look at these words again:
Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely
exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry
tree.”
For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who
choose what pleases Me and hold fast to My covenant—to them I will give within
My temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I
will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. And foreigners who
bind themselves to the Lord to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and
to be His servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who
hold fast to My covenant—these I will bring to My holy mountain and give them
joy in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be
accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all
nations.”
The Sovereign Lord declares—He who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.” Isaiah 56:3-8
A time was coming and coming soon
when the gates of heaven, accessible through the salvation promise of God,
would swing wide open for all people, whether Jew or Gentile. This was at the
heart of the New Testament (also referred to as the New Covenant) that would be
sealed through the shed blood of Jesus, God’s only Son who was sent to live
with and die for all people, offering everyone a chance for resurrection after
He conquered death and the grave Himself three days after the cross.
Through Jesus, God made good on His
promise to not exclude anyone from His kingdom and there was no reason for any
person to be a foreigner unless they chose to be, passing on their opportunity
to have a relationship with their Savior. For anyone who would place their
faith, hope, and trust in Jesus would be saved and in living like Jesus
afterwards, the saved would be living in a way that would always garner God’s favor.
They would worship Him in spirit and truth, provide themselves as willing
servants who were ready to sacrifice their will for His, hold fast in obedience
to His word and way, and see Him as their only source of help and sustenance, a
very present help in times of trouble.
In return for their servitude, compliance,
and submission, God would honor them with a memorial and an everlasting name
better than sons and daughters for He would write their names in His Book of
Life and this would ensure they would not only live with Him in the here and
now but forever. That wasn’t just temporary hope but hope that would endure for
all eternity.
Friends, when Jesus said that He
had come to set the captives free, it was an extension of God, His Father,
setting His people free from the bondage of captivity and exile from Babylon.
The only difference was that Jesus was setting all people free from the bondage
and captivity of sin, not incarceration in some foreign land. Through Him, all
people come to God the same way, no matter where they live for the kingdom of
God is one nation of people joined together by a common Savior. No one is
better than another and everyone is a member of the same family of God with no
one considered a foreigner.
So what are we to glean from this
today? What is the Lord trying to communicate to us?
I believe He is trying to shape our
definition of a foreigner to match His own. For the only foreigners to Him are
those who have yet to profess Him as their Savior and it’s those people that
Jesus sent us to in order to make them His disciples. In other words, the
delineation line that is drawn by the Lord isn’t by earthly territorial borders
but rather by Jesus and whether or not someone has accepted His salvation
offer. He is the narrow gate that one must pass through to get to God the
Father (Matthew 7:13-14).
If you haven’t done so already,
stop being a foreigner today and enter through the gate Jesus has opened for
you, joining myself and others in the family of faith who have placed their hope
in Him, now and forever.
We would love to have you join us.
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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