Foreigners who have joined the Lord should not say, “The
Lord will not accept me” (NCV, Isaiah 56:3).
When Jesus cleared the Temple of the money changers and Grade-A lamb salesmen (okay, the lambs were
Grade-A, not the shysters selling them), he was thinking of today’s expanded
passage. Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for
all nations”? But you have made it “a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17) [4].
The Bazaar of Annas (the flea market of the moneychangers and those selling
sacrificial animals at inflated prices) was in the Temple area set aside for
foreigners. The Sadducees’ entrepreneurial scheming erected a barrier between
God and the very people coming to worship him. It made Jesus angry for the
alien and the poor to be exploited in the name of God.
Isaiah made it clear that the blessing of Abraham was not
reserved for the Hebrews, but was for people of all nations. Here, he lets the
foreign-born know that whether one is born a Jew or a Gentile has no bearing on
being accepted by God; all are accepted the same. Foreigners are accepted the
same as nationals. Outsiders are accepted the same as insiders. Damaged are
accepted the same as whole.
We may be tempted to think there is some reason God would
not accept us, but that is absolutely false. Neither do people have to be just
like us in order to be accepted. As Bill Hybels says: You’ve never locked
eyes with anyone who doesn’t matter to the Father [5].
TODAY’S MEDITATION
What does it mean that God
accepts you for who you are? What are the implications posed by the fact that
he accepts those you might deem unacceptable?
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