Isaiah: Foreigners and Eunuchs

Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,

“The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”

And let no eunuch complain,

“I am only a dry tree.”

For this is what the Lord says:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant— to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever” Isaiah 56:3-8

Eunuchs, of course, were males who had all or part of their genitals removed. If you want to be shocked do a google search on the methods used to create a Eunuch… fascinating and shocking.

In Deuteronomy 23:1 we find that Eunuchs had limitations on their spiritual service…

“No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord”

After the conversions on Pentecost and after Simon the sorcerer and other Samaritans were converted an un-named Ethiopian was baptized and he was a Eunuch. That was no accident.

The Jews did not like Samaritans (foreigners) and Eunuchs carried a social and spiritual stigma among the Jews. And what does God do? He brings them into his fold of beloved sheep to demonstrate that there is a new Law in town.

And on that day and in that moment Isaiah’s prophecy came true.

Thank God that Jews weren’t the decision makers for who God would save… because it wouldn’t be foreigners or Eunuchs.