Isaiah 56:6-8

2. DOERS ARE DISCIPLES

TEXT: Isaiah 56:6-8

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Also the foreigners that join themselves to Jehovah, to minister unto him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be his servants, everyone that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast my covenant;

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even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

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The Lord Jehovah, who gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith, Yet will I gather others to him, besides his own that are gathered.

QUERIES

a.

How can these foreigners be brought to God's holy mountain?

b.

Who are the others of verse eight Jehovah will gather to Himself?

PARAPHRASE

When My new covenant is established by the Servant, many Gentiles will love the Lord and join themselves to Him and serve Him through obedience to the terms of the Servant's covenant. I, the Lord, will bring them to Zion and cause them to partake of all My blessings there; I will also allow them to minister to Me in Zion. Indeed, My new house shall be the the house of worship for all nations. The same Lord who gathers the believing scattered ones of Israel will gather others from all the Gentile nations to join the gathered of Israel.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 56:6 GODLY: Already there has been an abundance of predictions from Isaiah that Jehovah will join foreigners (Gentiles) to Zion in the coming messianic age. There are also a number of predictions that these New covenant citizens will become ministers in the New dispensation (cf. Isaiah 60:3; Isaiah 60:7; Isaiah 60:10; Isaiah 66:18-23; Zechariah 14:16-19, etc.). These ungodly foreigners will love the name of Jehovah and keep His covenant ordinances (the new covenant). The foreigners, excluded from the covenant of Israel because of ceremonial and moral uncleanness, will be accepted because they love the name of Jehovah and choose to become His, taking His name as theirs (cf. Isaiah 43:1-5). Every member of the new covenant is a priest (minister) (cf. 1 Peter 1:5; 1 Peter 1:9;Hebrews 13:15-16).

Isaiah 56:7-8 GATHERED: Jehovah will not necessarily bring foreigners to the literal hill of Moriah where the Jewish temple stood. He will bring them to Zion (Hebrews 12:22 ff), the N.T. church (cf. Isaiah 2:1-4). The following descriptive phrases, ... prayer. joyful. sacrifices accepted., point to full covenant membership for foreigners. Gentiles will be restored to loving fellowship with the Creator through the Messiah and His new covenant. The Messiah's sacrifice (once for all, cf. Hebrews 10:1-18) will atone for all men's sins. God's new house, Zion, will be for men of all nations (Ephesians 2:11-22) a house of prayer (cf. Mark 11:17) because the Messiah will cleanse God's house of those who profane it.

That Jehovah would someday give full covenant membership to Gentiles should not have been such an unlikely thing to the Jews. Verse seven is quoted by Jesus in Mark 11:17. Verse eight is quoted by Jesus in John 10:16. Yet, when Jesus stood and read Isaiah 61:1-2 and applied it to God's mercy extended to Gentiles, even in O.T. times, they wanted to kill Jesus for it. The following excerpts illustrate the incorrigible obstinacy of the Jewish theologians to accept the predictions of their prophets that Jehovah would accept the Gentiles into full covenant relationship:

THE JEWISH VIEW OF GENTILES

(Everyman's Talmud, p. 66 & 371)

-Kill the best of the Gentiles! Crush the head of the best of snakes!-' (Mech. to xiv, 7; 27a).

-Gentiles are addicted to licentiousness-' (Jeb. 98a). The Rabbis were revolted by the low standards of conduct they saw practised around them and were thankful for the finer ideals which their religion offered them. A prayer, composed to be said on leaving the House of Study, reads: -I give thanks before Thee, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, that Thou has set my lot among those who sit in the House of Study and the Synagogue, and hast not set my lot with those who frequent the theatres and circuses; for while I labour to inherit Paradise, they labour for the pit of destruction-' (p. Ber. 7d).
The Holy One, blessed be He, clears Himself with respect to the gentile nations by giving them their reward for the minor precepts which they observed in this world so as to judge and sentence them in the World to Come, that they may have no plea to make and no merit can be found on their behalf (Tanchurna Kedoshim I).

-R. Eliezer declared, No Gentiles will have a share in the World to Come; as it is said, -The wicked shall return to the nether-world, even all the nations that forget God-' (Psalms 9:17); -the wicked-' refers to the evil among Israel. R. Joshua said to him, If the verse had stated -The wicked shall return to the nether-world and all the nations,-' and had stopped there, I should have agreed with you. Since, however, the text adds, -that forget God,-' behold, there must be righteous men among the nations who will have a share in the World to Come-' (Tosifta Sanh. xiii. 2). That the righteous of all peoples will inherit the bliss of the Hereafter is the accepted doctrine of Rabbinic Judaism.

The daughter of an Israelite may not assist a gentile woman in childbirth, since she would be assisting to bring to birth a child for idolatry. (Mishnah, A. Zechariah 2:1)

Isaiah is not the only prophet to predict Gentile acceptance; see also Amos 9:11-12 (Acts 15:12-21); Micah 4:2; Micah 7:15-17; Zechariah 8:20-23; Zechariah 9:9-10; Zechariah 14:16-21. The point of Isaiah's remarks here seems to be that anyone who loves the name of Jehovah and keeps His covenant terms will be acceptable (cf. Acts 10:34-35). Doers are disciples!

QUIZ

1.

How could Gentiles become ministers (priests)?

2.

What do the words prayer, joyful, sacrifices point to for Gentiles?

3.

Where does Jesus quote the verse about house of prayer?

4.

Where does Jesus quote verse eight?

5.

How adamant were Jews that Gentiles should not be allowed standing before God?