Tag: bible

A House of Prayer for All People

Our current series is titled “Gathering the Outcasts.” It is a collection of scriptures that push us to look at God’s promises to outcasts and examine our (and our communities’) treatment of them.

Today’s post takes a close look at the words God offers to Eunuchs and Foreigners through the prophet Isaiah. We will look closely at who these Eunuchs and foreigners were before we read the text. After reading, we will hear commentary as usual before our questions and blessing.

May these words reveal a bit of God’s heart for the Misfits and Outcasts.

Preliminary Commentary

This passage focuses on a promise God makes to eunuchs and foreigners. I’d venture a guess that not all of us know what a eunuch is, nor what constituted being a foreigner in ancient Israel, so we’ll start with an explanation of those things before digging into the scripture and commentary.

A Eunuch is a castrated human male, that is a person born as a man who had their ability to produce children taken away, through surgery or other means. This may have occurred as punishment, or as a result of being sold by poor parents, or because it was chosen voluntarily in order for the individual to fulfill a distinct cultural role.

Their castration left them in a role outside that of men or women in their society. They were trusted with more sensitive tasks and information than the average man and seen as more capable than the average woman, thus eunuchs were typically entrusted with being the bodyguards of royal women and concubines for kings.

In antiquity, eunuchs often rose to positions of great political power as trusted advisors, but they did not experience such power in Israel. According to the Book of Deuteronomy, eunuchs were not allowed into the ‘assembly of God,’ meaning they were not permitted to be part of God’s people nor worship with other Israelites (Deut. 23:1).

A foreigner, for the ancient Israelites, might have referred to someone from a different land, but it also referred to anyone of a different race. Someone who lived in the same area, but came from a different people would have been considered a foreigner. The most prolific group of foreigners in the Old Testament is the Philistines. Israel wars with them multiple times, and it’s suffice to say that they were not welcome in the Assembly of God either, because they were not part of God’s chosen people.

Effectively, in these two examples of eunuchs and foreigners, Isaiah lifts up the two main paths to being an outcast: You either do something or experience something that causes your community to shun you, or you are born unable to be part of the community you wish to join.

Out of this understanding, we hear Isaiah’s words with fresh ears.

My House Shall be Called a House of Prayer for All Peoples

Thus says the Lord:

Maintain justice, and do what is right,

for soon my salvation will come

and my deliverance be revealed.

Happy is the mortal who does this,

the one who holds it fast,

who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,

and refrains from doing any evil.

Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,

“The Lord will surely separate me from his people,”

and do not let the eunuch say,

“I am just a dry tree.”

For thus says the Lord:

To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,

who choose the things that please me

and hold fast my covenant,

I will give, in my house and within my walls,

a place and a name

better than sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name

that shall not be cut off.

And the foreigners who join 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 and do not profane it

and hold fast my covenant—

these I will bring to my holy mountain

and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

will be accepted on my altar,

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

for all peoples.

Thus says the Lord God,

who gathers the outcasts of Israel:

I will gather others to them

besides those already gathered.

Isaiah 56:1-8

Commentary

This passage comes from what scholars refer to as Third Isaiah; in fact, it is the very beginning of this third section of Isaiah. Isaiah – the book, not the person – can be divided up into three sections. The first (chapters 1-39) is believed to have been written by Isaiah, himself (or spoken and then recorded) in the later half of the 8th century BCE. The second (40-55) is believed to have been written and recorded by an anonymous prophet or a group of prophets during the Babylonian exile, following in the tradition of the original Isaiah. The third section is believed to have been written after the Israelites have returned from exile.

Our passage begins this final, post-exile section.

In this passage, Isaiah writes a message from God for all the people. God specifies that any mortal – not any man, nor any Israelite, but any mortal – who holds fast to the covenant God has made with his people, will be brought to God’s holy mountain and made joyful in God’s house of prayer.

Various ways of keeping the covenant are lifted up: maintaining justice, refraining from evil, and keeping the Sabbath, to name a few. But the interest of this passage is in the way God addresses and calls in folks once intentionally exiled by the Israelite community.

Eunuchs, who have never been allowed into God’s Temple, are called in and told they will receive a place in God’s house and a name better than “son” or “daughter” when they are gathered in God’s House. And God offers them a legacy.

Foreigners, those of marginalized race and ethnicity, are called in and told they will be brought to the Holy Mountain, made joyful in the House of Prayer, with their faith validated and their worship accepted by God. They will have a place to call home.

Those whose actions caused their community to shun them and those who were never welcome in the community they sought to join – they shall be welcomed – and their presence celebrated – in the House of the Lord.

God’s house shall be a House of Prayer for All Peoples as God gathers all the outcasts together: those of Israel and others.

Questions

What similarities do you see between the presence and experience of Eunuchs in antiquity and the presence and experience of some people today? What specific hope might this scripture provide to a modern day human who feels they fall outside the gender binary or who feels unworthy because they are unable to have children?

What similarities do you see between the presence and experience of foreigners in ancient Israel and the presence and experience of some people today? What specific hope might this scripture provide to a modern day immigrant or cultural outsider?

In what ways does your faith compel you to welcome outcasts? How does your church seek to embody this call to be ‘a House of Prayer for All Peoples’? What simple change(s) could you make to offer an even greater welcome to foreigners, eunuchs, and other outcasts?

A Blessing for Your Week

Child of God,

For whatever secret shame you bear,

For whatever public contempt scorns you,

For whatever causes you,

From time to time,

To hang your head

and be brought low,

May you hear in this blessing a rebuke

Of every voice that has ever dared

To call you, God’s beloved child, unworthy.

In their place, may you feel the warmth

Of the bounteous welcome God extends

And may you know,

Whether son, daughter, or simply child,

Whether native, homegrown, or newcomer,

That you are welcome in God’s house,

That you have a place at God’s table,

That you are loved.

Amen.