Isaiah 56:7, commentary and pictures

God promises that foreigners from outside Israel who join themselves to Him to serve and love Him will be fully received with His people and not separated from them. Those He receives are those who keep the Sabbath holy without polluting it, choose what pleases Him, do justice, keep from evil, and hold fast to His covenant. He will bring them to His holy mountain, make them joyful in fellowship with Him in His house of prayer, and accept their offerings on His altar. His house is dedicated to be a house of prayer for all peoples and nations, a place of worship for every nation made sacred by His presence, which Jesus defended when He drove buyers and sellers and money-changers from the temple courts and restored it for prayer, healing and teaching. That welcome and Sabbath blessing continue in the Christian age, when the gospel gathers the Gentiles, so keeping the fourth commandment remains binding and brings joyful worship.

Strangers Who Are Welcomed

The promise is spoken to the sons of the stranger, to foreigners and people from outside Israel and from among the nations. They are those who join themselves to the Lord, who come to serve Him and to love His name as His servants. No joined stranger is to say he is separated from the people, for those who so join are given full place with Israel and counted among His people.

Those welcomed are everyone who keeps the Sabbath from polluting or profaning it and who keeps it holy. Sabbath keeping belongs with joining the Lord, serving Him, and loving His name. Obedience is set against following the course of the world, calling for following His requirements rather than the world's.

Those welcomed take hold of His covenant and hold fast to it. They choose the things that please Him, do justice, and keep from evil. In this joining and faithful obedience they receive acceptance and a lasting place in His house.

Taking hold of the covenant holds more than first appears. It means entering the obedience pledged when the law was given at Mount Sinai, to do and to be obedient to all the Lord said. God met that pledge with promise to send His Angel to keep and to bring into the prepared place, to be an enemy to enemies, to bless bread and water, and to take sickness away. That covenant continued true through the wilderness wandering for the obedient, remains in force, and brings heaven's richest blessings through obedience, requiring truthful earnest obedience in the last days.

Promised Acceptance and Joy

Even them God will bring to His holy mountain, those from outside Israel and from among the nations and foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love His name as His servants, who keep the Sabbath from polluting it and hold fast to His covenant. This bringing is a welcoming among His people with full place with Israel, with no joined stranger separated from His people, and it presents obedience as following His requirements rather than the world's course. It applies in the Christian age when the gospel gathers Gentiles to God, so that Sabbath keepers receive a blessing.

He will make them joyful in His house of prayer, giving joy and fellowship with God and the joy of true religion in a place of worship for all people. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon His altar, their offerings accepted at His altar when they serve and love Him, keep the Sabbath, and hold to His covenant. This acceptance belongs to foreigners who hold fast to His covenant and choose the things that please Him.

For His house shall be called a house of prayer for all people, for all peoples and nations, a place of worship and of prayer for every place on earth. It expresses His unlimited invitation of mercy to every place on earth and His open welcome to outsiders who keep His Sabbaths. The obligation of the fourth commandment continues beyond Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and ascension through the preaching of glad tidings to all nations.

God gathers these outsiders alongside the outcasts of Israel and others besides those already gathered, gathering still others to Him besides those already gathered. They are counted as part of spiritual Israel, His church on earth, and are welcomed among His people with joy and accepted worship with Israel. This includes many who are not Abraham's descendants by birth in the spiritual blessings promised to Abraham and in shared worship, giving light to those in darkness from a God who never fails and holds the source of highest education.

Continuing Sabbath Obligation

The welcome is for people from other nations and from outside Israel who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love His name, who keep the Sabbath from polluting and profaning it and keep it holy, and who take hold of His covenant. They are brought to His holy mountain and made joyful in His house of prayer, their worship is accepted, and His house is for all peoples and nations. This promise belongs to the Christian age, when the gospel gathers the Gentiles to God through the preaching of glad tidings to all nations, so that Sabbath keepers receive a blessing. It shows that the obligation of the fourth commandment continues beyond Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.

The Sabbath is thus a blessing that brings those who keep it from polluting it into joyful worship and fellowship with God in His house of prayer, where their worship is accepted.

Temple Cleansed for Prayer

God dedicated the temple in Jerusalem to be a sacred house of prayer for worshipers of every nation, made holy by His own presence there. Israel was set to preserve the knowledge of God and to reveal Him among the nations, so that all families of the earth might be blessed through that house. Its courts were instead desecrated and turned into busy traffic for buying and selling oxen, sheep and doves with money-changing. That trade was driven by love of money and power, by greed and avarice, turning prayer into robbery and the house of prayer into a den of thieves and a place of merchandise and exploitation for personal and worldly gain.

Jesus claimed the temple as His own and applied the verse when He cleansed it, even in a second cleansing just after His triumphal entry. He entered the enclosure, surveyed the buyers and sellers, commanded the desecration to end and the goods to be removed, drove out all who sold and bought, overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of dove-sellers, stopped the traffic, and restored the place for worship. His action showed His authority to defend the sacred purpose of the temple and His capacity to execute stern justice. Divinity flashed through humanity with divine dignity and light and stern majesty, with a voice like the voice at Mount Sinai and like the Judge at the last day reading inmost thoughts and hidden motives, so that traffickers, priests and rulers were overawed into silence and submission and fled before Him as before an offended God, with no trafficker or priest daring to remain.

When the house is kept for prayer, Christ taught in the outer court so Gentiles could hear the Scriptures and the gospel. The blind and the lame came and were healed, and true praise rose even from children crying Hosanna to the Son of David, though chief priests and scribes were displeased. The defilement exposed the nation as separating from God until in pride and apostasy it lost discernment and did not know its Redeemer, calling forth righteous anger in the destruction of Jerusalem set forth under the blighted fig tree. That cleansing also foreshadows His judgment in solemn declarations of sins against those who reject His messages. The temple remained to all appearance the same as when the shekinah had glorified it, except for additional embellishment glittering with gold and precious stones in grandeur and beauty to all beholders, yet God was no longer to be found in that palace of loveliness.

Worldwide Mission and Invitation

God's house is a house of prayer for all people, and that name expresses the church's calling to welcome people from every nation into worship. It is His unlimited invitation of mercy to every place on earth and to every nation. It proclaims that He is on His throne, that the living God rules from His throne and gives audience to the world and receives the world's approach to Him. The temple's inscription was meant to proclaim that same rule and audience.

The promise of welcome in God's house belongs with carrying God's glad tidings of salvation to those who have not yet heard them. Isaiah 56 is part of a field of encouragement showing an open door to meet with God, to seek Him earnestly and to find Him.

The verse belongs with Isaiah 55 and Isaiah 58, and with Isaiah 50-58, as a message that applies to present experience now, when time is passing rapidly. It is to be studied by leaders in the cause and by those connected with institutions. It brings the Lord's reproof for disregarding great light, for partial acceptance without thorough consecration to God, and for neglecting the duty to warn the people what is truth. It calls for stopping all complaining and every evil work, and for heeding the word with faith and following on to know the Lord, so that the Lord manifests His power in the conviction and conversion of souls, at a time when many do not understand what needs to be done in right lines.

That great work is to be done by the institutions established by His direction through the cooperation of His people. It is hindered when human principles, self, and pride of opinion rule and give the enemy room to hinder the work. Satan's deceptions and the defects of God's people can hinder the carrying of that message to all people.

Worship in Daily Life

The promise to bring outsiders to the holy mountain and make them joyful in the house of prayer calls for worship marked by praise and thanksgiving rather than complaint. That joy is to come from humble, lowly hearts, with sanctified tongues and minds, and to be expressed in songs of thanksgiving and joyful praise from happy hearts in every congregation. It includes bringing in the poor who are cast out and welcoming the poor and outcast to the house, laying no yokes or burdens upon the people. When worship is of this kind, others will come to know the joy of the true religion of Jesus Christ.

What is said of God's house as a house of prayer and joy for all people extends to every Christian home and every household. Each household is to be a place where God is worshiped and prayer is offered, with the family gathering in worship and offering praise to God. Families are to pray and praise God morning and evening, with parents seeking His help for themselves and their children. Where God is so worshiped and love is shown in daily kindness, the home becomes a place where Jesus is welcome and God's blessings are sought.

The same principle makes a place devoted to work into a house of prayer, where God is present in both religious exercises and daily work. By contrast, an institution devoted to God's work, such as the publishing house, is profaned when it is used for purposes that betray that work, just as the temple was defiled and misused when moneychangers and animals filled it until Christ drove them out. The setting on God's holy mountain also warns the watchmen on Zion's walls to sound an alarm against misusing the Lord's consecrated means. Church leaders are therefore to practice self-denial and support the ministry rather than divert tithe money to ordinary expenses.

Being brought to the holy mountain and receiving a place and acceptance in His house belongs to those who join His covenant and faithfully obey Him rather than follow the world's course. That covenant is God's agreement with Israel at Sinai, requiring truthful, earnest obedience, and it includes all who obey; His people in the last days are to pledge themselves to its terms. The promise of acceptance and a lasting place is thus for those who do justice and keep from evil.

The passage through Isaiah holds marrow and fatness as the words of the Lord, giving light to those in darkness and holding the source of highest education from a God who never fails. It calls for a clear, ringing testimony lifted up in faith and hope and courage and assurance. Individual church members who seek the Lord with all their heart are assured that they will find Him.