Isaiah 56:3

Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. NEITHER LET THE SON OF THE STRANGER ... SPEAK, SAYING, THE LORD HATH UTTERLY SEPARATED ME FROM HIS PEOPLE. God welcomes all believers, without distinction of persons, under the new economy (Acts 10:34). THAT HATH JOINED HIMSELF TO THE LORD - (; .) 'Proselytes.' SEPARATED. Proselytes from the Gentiles were not admitted to the same privileges as native Israelites. This harrier between Jews and Gentiles was to be broken down ...

3._And let not the son who is a foreigner _(96) _say. _The Prophet shows that this grace of God shall be such that even they who formerly were estranged from him, and against whom the door might be said to have been shut, may obtain a new condition, or may be perfectly restored. And he meets their complaint, that they may not say that they are rejected, or unworthy, or “foreigners,” or excluded by any mark; for the Lord will remove every obstacle. This may refer both to Jews, who had been brought into a condition similar to that of foreign nations by a temporary rejection, and to the heathen nations themselves. For my own part, I willingly extend it to both, that it may agree with the prediction of Hosea, “I will call them my people who were not my people.” (Hosea 1:10) _Joined to Jehovah. _When he says that they are “joined to

3-8 Unbelief often suggests things to discourage believers, against which God has expressly guarded. Spiritual blessings are unspeakably better than having sons and daughters; for children are a care, and may prove a grief and shame, but the blessings we partake of in God's house, are comforts which cannot be made bitter. Those who love the Lord truly, will serve him faithfully, and then his commandments are not grievous. Three things are promised. Assistance: I will not only bid them welcome, but incline them to come. Acceptance, and comfort: though they came mourning to the house of prayer, they shall go away rejoicing. They shall find ease by casting their cares and burdens upon God. Many a sorrowful spirit has been made joyful in the house of prayer. The Gentiles shall be one body with the Jews, that, as Christ says, John 10:16, there may be one fold and one Shepherd. Thanks be to G...

NEITHER LET THE SON OF THE STRANGER - The foreigner who shall become a proselyte to the true religion. THAT HATH JOINED HIMSELF - That has embraced the true faith, and become a worshipper of the true God. It is evidently implied here that there would be such proselytes, and that the true religion would be extended so as to include and embrace them. The idea is, that they should be admitted to the same privileges with those who had been long recognized as the people of God. THE LORD HATH UTTERLY SEPARATED - Let him not esteem himself to be an outcast, or cut off from the privileges of the people of God. This language is used with reference to the opinion which prevailed among the Jews, that the Gentiles were excluded from the privileges of the people of God, and it is designed to intimate that hereafter all such barriers would be broken down. They who entered t

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 56:1 AN EXHORTATION TO OBSERVE THE LAW, ESPECIALLY THE LAW OF THE SABBATH, COMBINED WITH PROMISES. There was much of the Law which it was impossible to observe during the Captivity. Sacrifice had ceased, the temple was destroyed, almost all the ceremonial law must have been suspended; even the command to do no work on the sabbath day cannot have been kept by a nation of slaves, whose masters would certainly not have permitted them to be idle one day in seven. Still, the spirit of the ordinance might be kept by devoting the day, so far as was possible, to religious observance, as to pra

NEITHER LET THE SON OF THE STRANGER,.... A Gentile, that is so by birth, the son of one that is an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, a stranger from the covenants of promise, and so had no right to come into the congregation of the Lord under the former dispensation; but now the middle wall of partition being broken down, in the times to which this prophecy belongs, such are encouraged to expect admission: THAT HATH JOINED HIMSELF TO THE LORD; who, having a spiritual knowledge of him in Christ, loves him, believes in him, gives up himself to him, to walk in his ways and ordinances, and cleaves unto him with full purpose of heart; see Isaiah 44:5 such an one should not speak, SAYING, THE LORD HATH UTTERLY SEPARATED ME FROM HIS PEOPLE; by a law of his, Deuteronomy 2

CHAPTER 56 Salvation Enjoyed by the Strangers and Eunuchs 1. _Strangers and servants joined unto the Lord to serve Him and to love the Name of the Lord (Isaiah 56:1) _ The first eight verses of this chapter stand by themselves. Strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and eunuchs are gathered in. It is the result of the gracious invitation of the preceding chapter and that again is the result of the work of the Servant of Jehovah and His vicarious suffering. While these verses look forward to the kingdom we have in them a hint of what God does now in gathering strangers. The gathering of the others in verse eight can only take place when the outcasts of Israel are brought in....

ISAIAH 56:1_._ A GRACIOUS PROMISE TO PROSELYTES AND EUNUCHS. We find ourselves conscious in this oracle of a change of atmosphere and setting. The Temple is built, and the centre of an elaborate ritual. Refraining from evil and sabbath-keeping are equally yoked. We pass now to the oracles of Trito-Isaiah. An exhortation to hold fast the ordinances of religion (judgement), based upon the imminence of Yahweh's vindicating intervention (my righteousness), is followed by a beatitude upon the man who obeys it. Let not the foreigner fear exclusion from the chosen people (separate is a technical term meaning to excommunicate), nor the eunuch, because he can have no posterity, refrain from joining them. For the eunuch who follows Yahweh's precepts (note again the emphasis on sabbath-keeping) a monument shall be erected in the Temple-precincts, indestructible and thus better than ...

STRANGER. foreigner. Hebrew. _nakar._ See Proverbs 5:3. SPEAK. think. BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos._...

_the son of the stranger_means simply the individual foreigner (R.V. THE STRANGER), not one whose father was a foreigner. _The Lord hath utterly separated_ Render with R.V., WILL SURELY SEPARATE. The case supposed is that of a foreigner who has _joined himself to the Lord_, i.e. has become a proselyte by accepting the symbols of Jewish nationality (circumcision, &c.), but now has reason to fear that his qualifications will be disallowed. This anxiety is hardly to be explained by the law of Deuteronomy 23:3-8; for the regulations there laid down apply only to Moabites, Ammonites, Egyptians and Edomites; and the general tendency of the legislation is in favour of the religious rights of proselytes. (See the exhaustive monograph of Bertholet, _Die Stellung der Israeliten und der Juden zu den Fremden_, 1896.) It is more likely that the immediate c