Isaiah 56:4

For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; FOR THUS SAITH THE LORD UNTO THE EUNUCHS THAT ... PLEASE ME - that sacrifice their own pleasure to mine. AND TAKE HOLD OF MY COVENANT - so "layeth hold" (note, )....

4._For thus saith Jehovah. _Now follows a confirmation; for the sincere worshippers of God, who keep the sabbaths and follow the righteousness of the Law, though they be “eunuchs,” (97) or labor under any other obstruction, shall nevertheless have a place in the Church. He appears to annihilate in this manner all the external marks (98) in which alone the Jews gloried; for the high rank of the Church is not external, but spiritual; and although believers have no emblems of distinction in the eyes of the world, and are even despised and reproached, yet they rank high in the sight of God. _And choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant. _With the “keeping of the Sabbath,” he connects obedience and adherence to “the covenant;” and hence we may readily infer that, when he spoke hitherto about the Sabbath, he had in view not an idle ceremony but per

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...

FOR THUS SAITH THE LORD UNTO THE EUNUCHS - Even the eunuchs, who have hitherto been excluded from the privileges of the people of God, and who have been regarded as a separated and degraded people, shall be admitted to the same privileges as others. THAT KEEP MY SABBATHS - The word is used here in the plural, though the weekly Sabbath is probably particularly intended. It may be, however, that the word is used to represent religious observances in general (see the notes at Isaiah 56:2). AND CHOOSE THE THINGS THAT PLEASE ME - Who will be willing to sacrifice their own pleasure and preferences to those things which I choose, and in which I delight. AND TAKE HOLD OF MY COVENANT - Hold fast, or steadily maintain my covenant. On the meaning

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

FOR THUS SAITH THE LORD UNTO THE EUNUCHS THAT KEEP MY SABBATHS,.... That fear and serve the Lord; religiously observe all times of divine worship, and walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord; show regard to all the institutions of the Gospel, and perform all religious exercises, private and public, on Lord's days, and at other times: AND CHOOSE THE THINGS THAT PLEASE ME; who do that which is wellpleasing unto God, which he has declared in his word to be acceptable to him; and do that from right principles, with right views, and of choice; not forced to it by those who have authority over them, or led to it merely by example and custom: AND TAKE HOLD OF MY COVENANT; not the covenant of circumcision, as Kimchi; for what had eunuchs to do with that? but the covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant, the covenant of peace before spoken of...

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 ...

CHOOSE. See note on Isaiah 1:29....

In spite of his disability the God-fearing eunuch shall be recognised as a worthy member of the congregation of Jehovah, and his name shall be had in everlasting honour in the new Israel. _that keep my sabbaths_ For the expression, cf. Leviticus 19:3; Leviticus 19:30; Leviticus 26:2, &c. HOLD FAST (as Isaiah 56:2) _my covenant_ by conscientious obedience....