Isaiah 56 & 57 -- God's Promise Of Spiritual Healing And Peace

These words had to be shocking to the Jewish people of that time.  God would actually allow foreigners and eunuchs to be found acceptable in His sight!  They had never been allowed in the Temple area.  Eunuchs were seen as “defective”.  Now, God says through Isaiah that their names would be remembered within the Temple!  Ashamed of not being able to have children, they instead hear God saying that He will give them names that will last forever, never to be forgotten, and that honor would be better than fatherhood to them!

Rather than being excluded as non-Jews, “foreigners will join the Lord to worship him and love Him, to serve Him …”  God promises to bring them to His holy mountain and to give them joy IN His house of prayer.  He will accept their offerings, and the Temple once accessible only to male Jews, will become “a house of prayer for people from all nations.”

God then takes on the task of informing His own people that they are living godless lives, lying and turning against Him.  They somehow believe that God will not see what they do in secret, and they’ve lost all sense of shame about it.  “Whom were you so afraid of that you lied to Me?”  He asks.  We should fear no one more than God when we sin.

God’s tender mercy is revealed again.  “I have seen what they have done, but I will HEAL them.  I will guide them and comfort them and those who felt sad for them.  They will all praise Me.  I will give peace, REAL peace, to those far and near, and I will HEAL them,” says the Lord.

Even in our sin, He wants us back!  Even at our most unloveliness, He desires us.  We will never find peace in our sin – only in His arms.  How amazing is His promise to heal us when we are His enemies in our sin!

Father, why do You love me so?  I am so unworthy of Your love and Your watchcare over me.  I sin, yet You bless.  You promise new life and You promise not to accuse forever.  I treasure Your healing and crave it, Father.  I want the blackness of sin surgically removed from my heart by the Great Physician.  Do all You say here, Father!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford