March 19, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people.’ And let the eunuch not say, ‘I am but a dry tree.’” (Isaiah 56.3)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

His people. Yes, God’s people were not intended to be a race of Hebrews solely. To claim a blood relationship status as the singular marker as those who were “God’s people” was something even Jesus addressed to the Pharisees and Sadducees as a misnomer when it came to the inclusion of righteousness. As Jesus embraced their claim to Abraham (Matthew 3.9f), He reminded them that it was “by faith” that God rewarded Abraham with the promise of prosperity of nations. Paul embraced this as well in his litany of those who were recognized “by faith” in Hebrews, chapter 11. God’s call to be “His people” was extended to all nations and tribes. What was the differentiation between them was only in their “call to serve.” The apostle Paul reiterated that truth throughout his letters to the early communities of faith in Jesus Christ highlighting gifts, talents and abilities. The image of “the body has many parts but still of one body; such is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12.12) brings this to our mind as the varied services offered within the Church serving its own members as it would serve Christ as well as serving those in the world to whom service was commissioned by Christ first to the witnesses of His resurrection and then through the generations of believers to come by the investiture of the Holy Spirit. We are to see this train of thought as the locomotion of the nation and people of Israel. Their purpose was with a singular intention: a light to the nations (chapter 42, 49, 52 and 60). How that purpose was manifested and dispensed came in a variety of ministries all under the umbrella of God’s call to “love the neighbor” which Jesus further delineated as “love the enemy and one another.” The idea that all believers had to succumb to the “law of God to the Israelites” certainly led to a sense of entitlement. Paul had to battle this himself as he, too, was called to minister to the Gentiles as called by the Resurrected Christ so to do. There are certainly a number of things within the Law of God for the Israelites that serve well every person and every nation. We would do well to seek them out and remember the foundation upon which they were built. The “laws” of righteousness, i.e. The Ten Commandments, would be such a starting place. Just because the mighty ones of God follow the teachings of Jesus do not exclude them from living in and fulfilling those very commands. Jesus said, “I have come not to condemn the Law but to fulfill it.” (Matthew 5.17) It is in His “fulfilling” the demands of the Law that we see the demonstration of our own discipleship, the bearing of our own cross, that we might be aligned with the very call to righteousness. They are not a means of gaining salvation. The Law cannot save us except to convict us of where we have fallen short. It is by following Christ alone and believing on Him that we have life and have it abundantly according to the “ways and thoughts” of the Kingdom of God.

It is in Isaiah 56.3 that we see the inclusion of others by the grace of God and by their faith to be aligned with God though they were not of the nation of Israel. Their identity was in God alone. Their service would be to God alone. This was true for those of the nation of Israel as well. It is the same for us as members of the body of Christ, the Church of which He alone is the head. It is by “His ways and thoughts” that the Church has its being just as it was by “God’s ways and thoughts” that Israel had its being. Did those “foreigners and eunuchs” have connection then with Israel? Were they then as “Israelites,” those called by God, even though they were not “Hebrews” as descendants of Abraham? Of course, for it has always been by faith that we are called the people of God from the beginning. Our daily walk and our future is defined by faith and our attentiveness to “walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5.7)

[There is a word of wisdom in Isaiah 56.3 which has a tremendous impact on the culture and climate of sexual identity and faithfulness. I am praying on this before I reflect further on it tomorrow.] Shalom, y’all.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.