Isaiah 56:1-8 Full House
God tells Israel/Judah that there will be others who join them as His people outside of the Israelite line. God’s house will be a FULL house of all who bind themselves to Him.
WE ARE NOT AN AFTER THOUGHT OR A REPLACEMENT! God planned from the beginning to be the Lord of ALL men. He did not intend for His love to be exclusive to Israel. But He had to start somewhere with establishing His standards and proving Himself faithful to man.
In the days of Noah, God said that he was the only one who still feared the Lord. The rest of the world had become corrupt. It was so bad that God made a fresh start with man. God proved Himself faithful to Noah and his family but there was no one left to compare the blessings of God against a sinful life. The population of the world had to regrow and the differences would become obvious.
By the time Abram was called by God, there were still those who probably still held fast to the stories of creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, and even the tower of Babel. Those few still searched for the True God of the universe. Abram was one such man. God chose him from all men and began working in his life.
Abram was man with an empty heart. Not empty of love, but empty from the point of fatherhood. He had no children. He had relatives, servants, slaves, and a wife. But no heir. No bone of his bone or flesh of his flesh. God began to build Abram’s faith that he would one day become a father. He didn’t come right out in the beginning of their relationship with this promise but hinted at it. God told Abram that He would give his offspring the land he traveled in. I don’t know exactly what Abram thought of God’s use of the words “your offspring” (Genesis 12:7) in this promise. But in the 25 years that followed that promise, Abraham faith grew to understand his portion of God’s promise.
Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, would be the official father of the nation of Israel. God would establish the tribes of Israel through Jacob’s/Israel’s sons. God focused on that family and developed it into a nation that carried HIS promise with them. Even in slavery in Egypt, they KNEW of their special relationship with God. They didn’t observe the same customs that their father’s did but they held God’s promise of a future with both hands and feet!
Fast forward to the time of Isaiah where the nation of Israel had been given God’s own commandments and Laws. Where they had lived by them off and on for hundreds of years. More off than on I’m afraid. That is what got God angry with them. He NEVER stopped loving them, even when severe discipline was called for. He NEVER abandoned them either.
Isaiah’s prophecy tells them that there will be others joining the ranks of the “outcasts of Israel” and add them to those He “already gathered.” ANY who come to Him and bind themselves to Him will be gathered to Him and given a promise with the children He already called. We will not be separate in Heaven or in His heart. We are ALL His children and heir to His promise.
Isaiah’s prophecy is certainly speaking of when Jesus comes and brings salvation to both Jews and Gentiles. It took the Jews rejecting Him before He could ‘officially’ open up the offer to the Gentiles. But the Gentiles are NOT a replacement for the Jews. We are in addition. We fill out the Father’s heart in the place He had reserved for us from the beginning.
As I’m thinking about this melding of the two parts of God’s heart, I’m reminded of my husband’s heart. He rejects the term ‘step’ in any relationship. He has two full biological brothers, three half-siblings, and four step-siblings. To him, there is no difference in the relationship. They are ALL his brothers and sisters. We have six children between us. Four are mind and two are his. He LOVES them all! When it comes to our grandchildren, they ALL belong equally to him. There is no division.
For myself, I feel a distance between his children and me that I try with everything in me to close. I know they love me, but I’m not their mother and will never be. My children didn’t have their father in their lives so there is no one to push out of that place. I don’t think they are as close as a biological father and child would be but they love him, faults and all. I try and strengthen the bond between all the family members with a yearly fun day together. They all laugh and play together but there are still some who refuse to be brought in. I wonder what will happen to the group after he passes. Will his children and their children still want me in their lives? I pray so! For I love them with all my heart too.
Father God, thank You for making me a FULL child. Not a step-child or a foster-child but a blood bought child of the Living God. One that is loved as deeply as any other child. One that loves You as deeply as possible too. With ALL MY HEART, I call you Father. Thank You for loving me, faults and all.
