56 Thus says the Lord,
“Preserve justice and do righteousness,
For My salvation is about to come
And My righteousness to be revealed.
2 “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.”
3 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.”4 For thus says the Lord,
“To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,
5 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 [a]them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.6 “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 sabbath
And holds fast My covenant;
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.”
8 The Lord [b]God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares,
“Yet others I will gather to [c]them, to those already gathered.”9 All you beasts of the field,
All you beasts in the forest,
Come to eat.
10 His watchmen are blind,
All of them know nothing.
All of them are mute dogs unable to bark,
[d]Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber;
11 And the dogs are [e]greedy, they [f]are not satisfied.
And they are shepherds who have no understanding;
They have all turned to their own way,
Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.
12 “Come,” they say, “let [g]us get wine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink;
And tomorrow will be like today, only more so.”
If one thinks Jesus flipped things on their heads, we probably haven’t paid much attention to this chapter. And who would, talking about eunuchs and foreigners and mute dogs? God starts with a pretty simple command, to remember the sabbath and stay away from evil. Easy, right?
Well, if it was easy, we wouldn’t have this chapter now, would we? No, the answer is no, just in case there was any confusion there. Throughout Isaiah, we’ve been focused on God’s people, or judgment on foreign nations, and then we had several chapters speaking of a coming redeemer. But now God turns His attention to “the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord” and the eunuchs who cannot have children anymore.
God had always made provision for foreigners who wanted to “join themselves” to Israel, but you don’t see a lot of cases where this actually happened. Perhaps it did, but Ruth is the only example I can think of, where someone says, “I know I’m not part of your people, but I want to serve your God.” In any case, by Jesus day, we clearly see all gentiles are labeled as “unclean” and Jews wouldn’t dare touch a gentile, thus they might rightly fear, “The Lord will surely separate me from His people.”
The eunuch might seems a strange association with the foreigner, but anyone who couldn’t have children was considered less than others, and may have even been an outcast. After all, land was passed down to the children, and if you had none? Someone else would buy it up, and your name would be practically erased from memory.
We see examples like Hannah, Samuel’s mother, who was barren for years. Finally, she had a son, but before that, her rival Penninah would harass her constantly about it. When the Israelites were carried into captivity, many of the men were made into eunuchs to serve the king, queen, or other royal figures. Likewise, they were probably scorned, maybe even more so because they “served the enemy”.
Yet in this passage (v. 4-8), God tells them flat out, if they will “keep My sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant…” then they will be rewarded. Further, as God gathers “the dispersed of Israel” He states clearly that He will gather “yet others” who are not Jews (which includes you and I if we also follow His commands).
That’s a complete about face from what was expected, but God goes one step further, with a rebuke of the “watchmen”. That is, these represent those who should have known God best, like the priests and the levites. They have turned to their own way, and are like greedy dogs, as we see in v. 12. There is never enough to satisfy their lusts, for though they “drink heavily” today, tomorrow they will need more to quench their cravings.
This is the paradox, that if we choose our own way, we will crave that which cannot satisfy. We will always need more, and it will drive us to what we would have said was unthinkable previously. Yet if we choose what pleases God, and hold onto His promises, we will get what this world cannot offer. More and better is our hope than anything on this world–and to be fair, there are some amazing things in this world. After all, God created it, and it was good.
Well, it was… and much still is, if untainted by wicked hands. What do we learn then? Do not be consumed with the desires of this world, or the desires of your own flesh. It isn’t worth it, it won’t quench your thirst, nor fill your belly. What will? Doing what pleases God, and chasing after Him. That’s a life well spent, and one that will only get better with time.