Isaiah 56-57

What’s Happening?

The prophet Isaiah tells Israel that God’s heart always reaches toward the outcast. Back at Israel’s beginning when they were the smallest and least qualified nation, God brought them to a land where they could draw near to him in his temple (Deuteronomy 12:4-7). By drawing in this unlikely nation, God would bring all nations to himself. But Israel rebelled and pulled away from God. Instead of bringing the nations into God’s temple, Israel embraced the nations’ idols. So God exiled Israel to the nations they were meant to bring in. Isaiah reminds his now-outcast people that God’s heart for the outcasts hasn’t changed (Isaiah 56:1). In love, he pursues foreigners, eunuchs, those who die in exile, and even rebellious Israel to bring them to himself.

First, Isaiah says that God will welcome those who seem the most outcast and unqualified. Foreigners and eunuchs who were excluded from worship and community life would be welcomed in. Isaiah says that foreigners who obey God will worship alongside native citizens in God’s temple (Isaiah 56:3, 6-7). Likewise, eunuchs who love God will receive a name better than sons or daughters. Even though they cannot pass on their name to children, God will give them an everlasting name (Isaiah 56:3-5). 

Moreover, God’s outcast-loving heart extends to those who are cast out by death itself. While foreigners and eunuchs were marginalized in life, no one was more outcast than the buried dead. But God uses death in exile to protect those faithful to him from future evil. Their deaths are not God casting them out forever, but God laying his beloved in a bed of peace (Isaiah 57:1-2). Not even death can separate God from the outcasts he loves. 

Finally, Isaiah shows how Israel herself is an outcast. He shows how their rebellion has disqualified them from God’s presence (Isaiah 56:9-12). While foreigners turned to God leaving their gods behind, Israel rejected God and embraced idols (Isaiah 57:8). They didn’t worship God in his temple but worshiped foreign gods at foreign altars (Isaiah 57:4-6). While eunuchs humbly admitted they were like barren trees unable to bear fruit, the Israelites sacrificed their fruit – their own children – to false gods (Isaiah 57:5). For these heinous sins God has sent Israel into exile. The outcasts have come in, and the natives have been cast out (Isaiah 57:11-12). 

But even rebellious Israel is not beyond the reach of God’s outcast-loving heart. Isaiah shows that God pursues his disqualified people even in exile. Despite their evil and rebellion, he promises to heal and restore them (Isaiah 57:13-14, 18-19). For Israel to return they must come as outcasts. They must come like foreigners, humble themselves like eunuchs, and place their lives in God’s hands like the faithful (Isaiah 57:15-16). For God whose love reaches even to the farthest gravesite will be able to bring home even those who have rebelled against him.

Where is the Gospel?

Jesus is the ultimate embodiment of God’s outcast-loving heart. During his earthly ministry, he didn’t just live among the outcasts—he sought them out. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and ate with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 4:40-41; 5:30-32). Just as Isaiah prophesied that God would gather the outcasts, Jesus welcomed those who thought they had no place in God’s family.

Jesus also confronted those who had turned God’s house into a place of exclusion rather than welcome. When he entered the temple, he drove out those who were keeping outsiders at a distance. And quoting Isaiah, he revealed his mission to restore the temple to its true purpose – to be a place where foreigners were welcomed by God (Mark 11:17). And immediately, the blind, the lame, and the children came to him in the temple, making it a house filled with the worship of those once excluded (Matthew 21:14-16).

But Jesus’ love didn’t stop at welcoming the outcast, he became the ultimate outcast himself. Betrayed, falsely accused, and abandoned by his friends, Jesus was condemned as a criminal, cast out of the city, and crucified on a barren tree (Mark 14:44-50, 64; 15:22-24). Like the faithful dead Isaiah described, Jesus was laid in a grave, seemingly forgotten (Mark 15:47). But even in death, he was not abandoned. Just as Isaiah prophesied that God promised to lift the outcast from death, Jesus rose from the grave (Luke 24:6-7, 26). His resurrection defeated sin, death, and every barrier that separated humanity from God.

Jesus offers new life, a new name, and a permanent place in God’s family to all who have been cast out. His love reaches across the world to lift the lowly and bring near the outcast (Ephesians 2:13-14). No matter how far we feel from God, his love is always reaching toward us. So come to Jesus like an outcast. Come to him who receives you when you are humble, lowly, and needy (James 4:9-10).

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God who lovingly pursues the outcast. And may you see Jesus as the one who brings lowly, outcast people into God’s eternal family.