Watch Latest Message
Be part of our gatherings no matter where you are! We're also streaming every Sunday at 11am on Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to subscribe and share! Coming soon to Instagram.
Download this week's message notes below.
Browse
Whether you missed a Sunday, need a recap, or just want to hear an inspiring podcast while you power through your morning commute, we've got you covered.
Today's reading
December 23, 2024
Picture: God's Goals
Isaiah 56:3-8; Isaiah 66:18,20; I John 4:19
Something to remember as we read the scriptures is that they are written in a different language to a people with a different culture. This is very evident as we arrive in a new season for Israel, a season of potential. Isaiah's prophecies over the last ten chapters of the book address Israel as they have come out of captivity and are rebuilding a life in the land they were driven out of. But there were questions hanging in the air.
​
"What kind of people will they be?"
"What will they do with this opportunity?"
"What are God's expectations?"
​
Over the course of the ten chapters in this section, Isaiah speaks to the goal of this season, the problem Israel has brought into this new land, the solution that is before them, and the purpose for God's people in a poetic form called a Chiastic structure.
In this poetry form, each section has a parallel passage starting from the outside, and working its way to the middle. Writers would arrive at the middle section which would be the primary point of the entire work. Isaiah emphasizes begins by emphasizing God's goal in bringing Israel back into the land of their inheritance. For Israel the goal was to simply reclaim what they had lost but God's goal was to claim the peoples of the nations that were lost.
"Let not the foreigner who
has joined himself to
the LORD say,
'The LORD will surely
separate me from his
people';
and let not the eunuch say,
'Behold, I am 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 monument 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,
everyone who keeps the
Sabbath and does not
profane it,
and holds 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.'
The Lord GOD,
who gathers the outcasts of
Israel, declares,
'I will gather yet others to
him
besides those already
gathered.'"
​
Isaiah 56:3-8 (ESV)
In antiquity a Eunuch was considered the ultimate other. They were an outsider in every community they tried to enter. Yet God through Isaiah welcomes all who have been victimized and othered into His community through faith and repentance. In God's economy your origin story, or the moments in life that defined you to others were a pittance compared to the spiritual wealth that came with trust, obedience, faith and righteousness. This invitation extended to those from far off places that Israel viewed as their enemies. They were interested in supplanting nearby nations and empires but God was interested in lifting them up through the knowledge of Him. The picture gets even clearer in the parallel passage. In this picture Isaiah peers into the future to reveal the truth of the final judgement. On one hand these words are a foreboding reality for those who trust in themselves rather than Christ. But to those who trust God, these words reveal a tapestry of grace as they describe a procession of people from all nations arriving for the first time in the city of God to enjoy the millennial reign of Christ.
"For I know their
works and their thoughts,
and the time is coming to
gather all nations and
tongues. And they shall
come and shall see my
glory...
And
they shall bring all your
brothers from all the
nations as an offering to
the LORD, on horses and in
chariots and in litters and
on mules and on
dromedaries, to my holy
mountain Jerusalem, says
the LORD, just as the
Israelites bring their grain
offering in a clean vessel to
the house of the LORD."
​
Isaiah 66:18,20 (ESV)
​
​
God's goal is that all people would experience His love, and that His love would lead them to trust in Him. John makes this very clear when he says,
"We
love because he first loved
us."
​
I John 4:19 (ESV)
These beautiful words can't be understated. While we were obstinate, rebellious, selfish, and unyielding, God loved us first. The enormous love of God, collects those that the world has rejected by covering shame with sacrificial love. There is no greater proof of that truth than the fact that the son of God took on flesh and entered a world that rejected Him, all because Go so loved the world.
This is Christmas to you.