Isaiah
56:7-8 (ESV)
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 is a chapter of promise and warning. To those whom the people of God would
call unacceptable, God says, “You are welcome and I will bless you.” His “house
will be called a house of prayer for
all peoples.” The unacceptable, the poor, the maimed, the
undesirable, are all welcome. By contrast, he says of the spiritual and
political leaders of God’s people, “But they are shepherds who have no
understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one
and all” (Is 56:11 ESV).
This
chapter raises so many questions that we need to put to ourselves regularly.
Let me pose two. First, how do we treat the unacceptable people of our day? How
do we view those of another color, another profession, another generation,
another culture? How do we view those with different priorities than ours? How
do we view the drunks, the crooks, the angry, the hopeless, and the unemployed?
Do we understand that God’s invitation is to them as much as to anyone? Do we
understand that God does not expect people to become like us in order to be
acceptable?
That
brings me to the second question. What do we value? Over thirty years ago
Francis Schaeffer warned that we would give up everything for the illusion of
personal peace and affluence. Have we made personal peace and affluence the
test of God’s blessing? If so, we have missed the point of what God is doing in
this world. Nowhere did Jesus promise personal peace and affluence if we would
follow him. He promised opposition. He promised persecution. He promised
rejection. Yet Western believers have somehow concluded that personal peace and
affluence are the test of God’s blessing.
What
do you value? It is our own search for personal peace that causes us to reject
the very people God is calling to his house of prayer? It is our own search for
personal peace that causes us to be okay with injustice in our land? As long as
it doesn’t touch me, or infringe on my rights I don’t say anything. But is that
really what God has called us to? In Luke 9:23-25 Jesus challenged his
disciples with these words:
If
anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily
and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses
his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains
the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
Just
a few verses later, when someone said, “I will follow you!” Jesus warned him, “Foxes
have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay his head” (Lk 9:58 ESV). Following Jesus is not about being comfortable and
safe.
Jesus
came for the unlovely. When we settle for personal peace and affluence over
mission we are like the Jewish leaders in Isaiah, “‘Come,’ they say, ‘let me
get wine; let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like
this day, great beyond measure.’” We might not be saying, “Let us fill
ourselves with strong drink,” but we do say, “Let us enjoy the day, and “tomorrow
will be like this day, great beyond measure.” We are more interested in our own
personal peace and affluence than in the work that God is about. What do you
value today, unacceptable people, or your own personal peace, the mission of
God or our own comfort and safety?
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