August 30 - Isaiah 66:19-21

August 30 – Isaiah 66:19-21

“I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD.

It is pretty incredible to witness the future transformation of God’s people. 

The remnant, the remaining Israelites who were true to God were to go out among the nations and everyone back to Jerusalem as a gift, an offering, to Him.

I love the specificity of this passage.  He told them where to go to find the people and He told them that by any means possible, they were to bring the world to His temple. 

The Israelites had become practically incestuous … holding God all to themselves.  As they fell further and further into sin and idolatry, they fell further and further away from their purpose, which was to proclaim God to the nations and draw even the Gentiles to Him. Their focus became solely themselves – their laws, their rules, their needs, the purity of their race, their families – it was all about them.

God never intended for them to become so separate from the world that they forgot they were to be redemption for the world.  It was long since past time for them to move out into the world and begin drawing it back to Him.

Then, there was the promise. A promise that even we as Gentiles can hold on to, a promise that Peter relayed to us in his first letter.

Isaiah says that God will select some of those that come before Him as an offering to be priests and Levites.  1 Peter 2:9 reminds us that we “are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we] may declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

It took Jesus to make this transformation begin, to turn the Jews from their inward seeking ways to being ‘fishers of men.’  That was several hundred years after Isaiah wrote these words.

We have been given stronger commandments than this – to go into the world and make disciples of all men.  How long will it take us to listen and obey?