Dan Herold | Isaiah 56:1, 6-8 | 9/3/2017
Have you ever wondered what it must have been like to live in the times of the Old Testament. Growing up I came from a fairly small family. We had family reunions from time to time, but for most major holidays it was just me, my parents, and my sister. So since I never had really experienced a big family get together I was always amazed at Bible stories where tons of people from the same family were together.
For example; in some of those lists in the Old Testament that go through the members of the different tribes of Israel, or in Sunday school when I heard that Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken so everybody had to go to their family’s hometown and then because of that—because one family essentially had to go back to Bethlehem—Mary and Joseph couldn’t even find a place to stay, and then when Jesus was 12 years old and they had been at the temple—they started to head home and Mary and Joseph didn’t know where Jesus was, but they assumed that he was with a family member! Their group of family members was so big that at first when they couldn’t find their 12 year old son it didn’t even seem like a big deal because he must be with them somewhere! Stories like that both amazed me and made me wish that I had a big family.
But, truthfully, through that little family I grew up with here on earth God did bless me with a big family—he blessed me with a family bigger than I can count and bigger than I will ever even know in this lifetime. Through my little earthly family who taught me who God is and who my Savior is, through parents who brought me as a child to be baptized and encouraged me to grow in faith as I grew physically as well, God blessed me by making me a part of his family.
And now, I’m thankful that I am part of a big family—a family that all of you are a part of as well! Each of you has a different story than mine; maybe you came from big families growing up or maybe God brought you into his family later in life, but how and when you joined the family doesn’t matter because as soon as God makes you part of his family you’re a full-fledged member with the full rights of an heir to his heavenly kingdom. No matter what is in the past, no matter what kind of family you come from, no matter what kind of reputation you may have had or not had before—by the blood of Jesus, his Son, God has graciously grafted you into his family tree and he continues to add others to that tree as well.
In this morning’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah 56 God talked about his family. His family is a little different than an earthly family though. Earthly families are primarily defined by names. A last name or a family name, or an ancestor’s name, is one of the most common things we think of when we try to define an earthly family. God doesn’t define his family by name—his family tree isn’t a list of names—but God’s family is known by what they do. So, in Isaiah 56:6 God describes his family. He says,
“And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—“
Now it might seem strange that God begins describing his family as foreigners, but by nature that’s what we all are. By nature we are foreigners to God; we are sinful by birth and therefore not a part of God’s family. Also, we are foreigners in that we come from all places. God’s family isn’t made up of one single group of people—not one family, or one nation, but it is made up of people from every country and place on earth. But, even though God’s family is vast and diverse it has traits that are common among all it’s members.
Maybe some of your earthly families are like that too. Maybe someone has told you you have your dad’s eyes, or your grandma’s nose, or maybe you and all you siblings have the same hair color. Maybe just by looking at you a stranger who knows your family can tell that you’re a part of that family. The same goes for God’s family the only difference is that the things that set us apart as members of God’s family don’t have to do with how we look, but with how we act.
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“bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, to worship him, and to keep the Sabbath.”
That’s what marks you as a member of God’s family and sets you apart from those who aren’t in this great big family. And you can tell that you truly are a member of the family because these things God lists are meaningful—there’s no way to fake it. There’s no way to fake binding yourself to the Lord to serve him and love his name. There’s no way to fake it because those things can only be done through faith—through genuine faith that only the Holy Spirit can create and sustain.
You can’t fake being part of God’s family because when it comes down to it it’s not up to you to join it. There were times when my sister and I didn’t always get along and when those times came my mom would tell me I had to be nice to my sister. And if I was feeling particularly unhappy with my sister that day I would ask, “Why should I be nice to her?” and my mom would answer, “because she’s the sister God gave you.” And it’s true. I didn’t choose my family, but God put me there with them. In the same way, none of us can choose to join God’s family because by nature we are foreigners. But God grafts us into his family tree—we don’t deserve it and we can’t make it happen on our own, but God can make us part of his family.
And there are a whole bunch of blessing that go along with being a member of God’s family—blessings that we could never get on our own, but are only given to members of God’s family. In verse 7 God tells us what some of those blessings are. He says,
“These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
God promises that he will bring his family, those bound to serve and love the Lord, to his holy mountain. All throughout the Old Testament mountains play a big role. Moses went up Mount Sinai to speak with God and receive the 10 commandments. Elijah had his showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Abraham climbed up Mount Moriah to the place where God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac, and it was on that same mountain many years later that Solomon would build the temple. Isaiah uses the image of a mountain quite often and he uses the Mountain of the Lord to refer to heaven. To God’s home where he will gather his family.
And God says that when he gathers his family home to his mountain he will give them joy, he will accept their offerings, and his house will be a house of prayer for all nations. God wants his home to be the home of all nations. And just like he has gathered us into his family he is continually adding to his family and grafting in more members every day.
So, after all we really are a part of a big family. We are part of a bigger family than any family that’s common attribute is a name or a physical characteristic. We are part of a family of those who have been saved by Jesus—who have been grafted into God’s family of believers and who share in the marvelous blessings of that family. God wants us still to be thankful for our earthly families and to recognize the blessings that they are to each of us—and really God wants all of our earthly families to be part of this bigger spiritual family as well. God wants all people from all places and all times to be able to enjoy the blessings that only he can offer.
But, just like we don’t get to choose our earthly family, we can’t choose to make ourselves part of God’s family. But that shouldn’t get us down, in fact even that is a blessing. It’s a blessing because we never have to wonder if we’ve done enough or if we’ve been good enough to make the cut. We know that we are part of God’s family because Jesus died to take away our sins and to give us the full rights of sons in God’s kingdom. You never have to wonder, you never have to doubt—you can rest assured of your place in God’s family because Jesus your Savior won that place for you.
Amen