Day 207: Isaiah 56-59 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Hey, Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny Arango. Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. Family, welcome to day 207. We are in Isaiah chapter 56 to 59 today. Not only is it a brand new day, brand new episode, but this is a brand new section of the book of Isaiah. If you've been tracking with us for any length of time, you know that Isaiah is split into three parts, chapters one to 39, chapters 40 to 55, and then last but not least, chapters 56 to 66. And so we're in the final stretch. And so that means we've got new context and I'll get into context clues in just a bit. First, I just wanna say if you've read the chapters for today, good job, I'm proud of you. Everything I'm gonna say is gonna make perfect sense. But if you haven't done the reading for the day and you wanna stop the video, pause the audio, and go read Isaiah chapter 56, 57, 58, and 59. Incredible chapters of the Bible. You know, all the chapters of the Bible are incredible, but these are particularly great. And so don't miss out. For those of you who have done the reading, let's dive in. We got context. Not only am I gonna give you context clues for today, but I'll give you context clues for this entire section.

Chapters 56 to 66, the people are back in Jerusalem. All right? So the exiles have come home. And imagine being home after 70, almost 100 years of captivity, of being in Babylon. Okay, so the people are finally home. And the theme of these chapters is gonna focus on how are the people going to actually live in the land and worship Yahweh correctly now that they are back? Because guess what we don't want? We don't want God to have to send them back into exile again, right? So there's a big focus on keeping the Sabbath, fasting, idolatry, injustice. These chapters, they don't sound quite like the first section of the book. The first section of the book is pretty harsh. Like, I mean, God is clearly upset. Tons of very, very like emotive language, provocative language. You know, the language that I'll always go back to is, you know, sword soaked in blood. He's gonna kill everybody. And then the tone of the middle section of the book, chapters 40 to 55, are hopeful, comforting, loving, warm, affectionate. The tone is gonna change again. Right at chapter 56, if we just start reading in chapter 56 verse one, you can immediately see that the tone is different.

Remember when we got to chapter 40, it was comfort, comfort, right? The tone was immediately different. You're gonna see a tone change again. Chapter 56 verse one starts out with these words. This is what the Lord says. Maintain justice and do what is right. That word right there, maintain. Hey, you've re-entered the land. You've obtained a level of freedom. But how many people know what's harder than obtaining something is maintaining it. And so God is saying, hey, maintain justice. Hey, let the lessons that you learned in exile, like stick, like don't go back, okay? Maintain justice. So you can see in verse two, okay? Blessed is the one who does this, the person who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it and keeps their hand from doing any evil. So this tone, the tone for the rest of the book is gonna be a pastoral tone. Still loving, right? Like God's not angry, but he's definitely giving strong warning to the people. Hey, don't mess up, man. Like here are the things that you need to do in order to stay in good favor, in good relationship with me. So that's the context, honestly, for today's reading,

but that's the context for the next couple of days until we get to chapter 66. And there may be slight variations, but for the main part, like for the majority of the tone, that's gonna be the tone, that's gonna be the context. I've got four, maybe five nerdy nuggets for you, and we're gonna try to go through them rapid fire, okay? As soon as we get to chapter 56, okay? Verse three says this, let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, the Lord will surely exclude me from his people. And then, Then, a second group of people, and let no eunuch complain, I'm only a dry tree, for this is what the Lord says. To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me, and hold fast to my covenant, to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. So, we immediately get what I'm gonna call an amendment to the law when it regards foreigners and eunuchs. Now, this is, I mean, of course there has to be an amendment because the people have gone into exile, and what's happened? Foreigners are now living in the land of Israel, okay? So, there's more foreigners than ever before. Second, there are more eunuchs than ever before because both the Babylonians and the Persians

castrated men who were gonna live in the king's quarters or in any palace areas. So, there's more foreigners than ever before and more eunuchs than ever before. And so, if you read through, let's say, Deuteronomy or Leviticus, then they're gonna be pretty strict prohibitions when it comes to eunuchs and foreigners being in the tabernacle, around the tabernacle. However, God is making an amendment. He's saying, you know what? Don't keep foreigners and eunuchs away. They can approach. And actually, this is a promise specifically related to the temple, okay? Verse five, to them, I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. Well, eunuchs can't have children. They can't have sons and daughters. They are physically unable to do that. And so, God is saying, yeah, but you experiencing the presence of God in the temple is gonna be better than sons and daughters, okay? So, I understand that here's an area of pain. You're not gonna be able to have children, but I'm gonna give you an everlasting name. Your name may not live forever in your children, but your name will live on because of our relationship, okay? And so, foreigners and eunuchs are now allowed

to worship Yahweh in the temple. Now, remember, the people are coming back from exile, which means they have to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and they have to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. And so, this temple is gonna be called Zerubbabel's Temple. There are three temples that you need to remember, okay? There's the original temple, which is Solomon's Temple. David designed it, but Solomon built it. We know it as Solomon's Temple. And then here, this is gonna start what we affectionately know in academic circles as Second Temple Judaism. Second Temple Judaism is a Judaism that Jesus lived in, and that is Zerubbabel's Temple, Second Temple Judaism. Obviously, the first temple being Solomon's Temple, but Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians burned it to the ground. They didn't leave one stone unturned. They completely demolished it. So now, we're entering into Second Temple Judaism. Now, there's a little caveat with Second Temple Judaism is that around Jesus' time, Herod is going to come and he's gonna make all these additions to Zerubbabel's Temple. So, Zerubbabel is the man who's going back to Jerusalem from Babylon to rebuild a broken and destroyed temple, and Herod, right around the time of Jesus, is going to make all these additions. And for those of you who may be wondering why, it's because Herod is actually not Jewish, okay?

Herod is Edomian, but he marries a Jewish princess and becomes the king of the Jews, and he needs to win favor with Jewish people, and so he does what any foreigner would do who wants to win favor with Jews, builds them a big, huge temple. So, Second Temple Judaism is same design as David's Temple, same design as Solomon's Temple, but now, it's rebuilt by a man by the name of Zerubbabel, and then Herod is gonna come and make all these additions to it, and in a second, you're gonna realize why that is so important. So, amendment to the law. Foreigners and eunuchs, you're in, okay? This is actually gonna tie into my timeless truth a little bit later. Let's go to Isaiah 56, verse seven, because I love this verse. It says these, that we're still in the category of foreigners and eunuchs. It 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. So, we're talking about foreigners and eunuchs, okay? Isaiah is saying that the offerings, the burnt offerings and the sacrifices of foreigners and eunuchs are going to be accepted on God's altar.

Here we go, and here's how the verse is gonna end. For my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. A house of prayer for all nations. Now, if you've studied the Bible at length, you're gonna recognize that Jesus says these exact words. And Jesus says these exact words where? He says them in the temple courtyard. Yeah, this is when he gets a whip of cords and he overturns the tables of the money changers and he says, my father's house is supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations, but you've turned it into a den of robbers. So, let's actually break down the context because Jesus is quoting Isaiah. So in order to understand what Jesus meant in the Gospels, we need to understand what Isaiah meant here. Now, when Zerubbabel and Herod rebuilt the temple, obviously they are reading the book of Isaiah. And so they build what's called the court of the Gentiles. They literally create a space within the temple for foreigners. Why? Because Isaiah chapter 56 says that the foreigners are welcome in the temple. So, there's a line in Herod's temple or in Zerubbabel's temple, the temple that Jesus would have walked into, there's a wall, there's a line, there's a boundary where Gentiles cannot cross. And beyond that, only Jews can go into that section. Okay, now that's not what God meant, but that is what humans did. That is how humans implemented what God is saying here in the book of Isaiah. So, the money changers that were actually necessary didn't get put in the Jewish portion of the temple. Those money changers got put in the Gentile portion of the temple. And so the reason Jesus is mad is not because there's selling and trading happening in the temple. Actually, selling and trading is necessary, and I'll tell you why in a second. What Jesus is mad at is that of all the people to put a roadblock in front of, why would you put a roadblock in front of the Gentiles? Okay, this is only child syndrome rearing its head again, okay? Jews want to be the only people who have access to God. And so you need money changers. It's actually a good thing to have at the temple. It's a good thing to have because if you were bringing a sacrifice from far away, let's say you

were coming from any direction, but let's say you traveled far to get to the temple. Well, if you traveled with your animals, your animals could get sick, and you can't offer a sick animal as a sacrifice. Your animal has to be blemish-free. It's got to be perfect. And there's a high risk, if you're traveling with animals, that they're gonna break a bone, or that they are gonna get a blemish, or that they are gonna get sick, or they're gonna contract some disease, so traveling large distances with lambs and cows and burnt offerings is actually a liability. So what most people would do is they wouldn't travel with animals. They would come to the temple, and they would come to the temple with money. So you needed a money changer. You needed someone to take all that foreign currency and put it into the temple shekel. And with that temple shekel, you could buy pigeons, lambs, cows, and you could buy cows that you knew didn't have a blemish. Lambs that you knew were perfect. They raised them right there in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is six miles away from Jerusalem. So the fact that there are money changers is not a problem. The problem that Jesus has is that they place the money changers in the only place where Gentiles can even be. So Jesus is upset because the temple is supposed to be a house of prayer, not just for Jews, but for all the nations. And Jesus does not like when people put roadblocks in front of people who are far from God. Jesus is actually pro removing any impediment, remove any roadblock. Do not put roadblocks in the way of people experiencing and encountering God. It's funny because when I was in my early 20s, I had dreadlocks down to the middle of my back. And you know what? I loved my hair. I liked having locks. I genuinely loved my hair. And I remember my pastor saying this to me, and he said, yeah man, but there just may be one person in the congregation who your hair is a distraction for them. And that was it. The next day, cut off all my hair. Because as a minister of the gospel, I'm not going to put any roadblock in front of people to receiving the Word of God and encountering God. I care more about people encountering God than I care about my hair or my preferences or my likes or my dislikes, because that's our job. Our job is to connect people with God. And if there's a roadblock, then the

roadblock gets demolished, because we keep the main thing the main thing. I think that this is reflected in the book of Acts, when they're trying to figure out, should we make Gentiles get circumcised? Paul stands up and he's like, we shouldn't put any roadblock. We shouldn't make it any harder for people to encounter God, for people to know God. So this is God's heart. And this is why Jesus stands up and says, why would you crowd the only place that Gentiles have to encounter God? Why would you crowd that space with money changers? You could have put money changers anywhere, but you put them here? And it takes context to know that that's actually what Jesus means. Because there's often a gap between what the Bible says and what the Bible means by what it says. And what we're doing on this podcast is actually bridging the gap between what the Bible says and what the Bible means by what it says. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble, or you can go to a Books A Million, or Amazon,

or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. I got a couple more nerdy nuggets for you. There's gonna be a massive theme of idolatry and injustice. So if you look at Isaiah chapter 57, the big, big, big, big, big focal point is gonna be idolatry, okay? Verse nine of 57, you went to Molech with olive oil and increased your perfumes. You sent ambassadors far away. You descended to the very realm of the dead, okay? So idolatry is gonna get talked about. And then when you get to chapter 58, verse three, it's gonna say, why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed? So the people are fasting and it's not making any difference, okay?

The people are fasting and they're not experiencing the presence of God. So they're disappointed, maybe confused. And so God makes it really, really clear. Says, yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. So now we move from idolatry into injustice. You exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife. So you're fasting, but you're not at peace with one another and in striking each other with wicked fists. So now there's violence. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. So God is saying, hey, fasting is not a magic trick. It's not a magic pill. I don't just want you to go through the actions of fasting. I want you to fast with your heart, not just fast with your body. I want fasting to actually have an impact on you. It's funny, I was giving a young adult some advice a couple of years ago, and they were like, they were in such a bad mood. They were just like hangry. And I asked them like, dude, what is your problem? And they're like, well, I'm fasting. And they kind of snapped at me. And I said, nah, brother, you need to go eat. Like, if this is how you fast, you shouldn't be fasting.

Like Jesus actually says, when you fast, you should choose that I'm gonna act in joy. Choose that, you know what? Ooh, you got two decisions to make. You're either gonna fix your attitude or you're gonna go eat some food because you can't fast and have a bad attitude. It doesn't work that way, okay? So you exploit your workers, you're quarreling, you're full of strife, okay? You're striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Verse five, is this the kind of fast I have chosen? Only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed or for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Verse six, is not this the kind of fasting I've chosen? So now he corrects it. He says, actually, this is how you should fast, to loose the chains of injustice, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke. Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter? When you see the naked, to clothe them and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood. The point of fasting is to actually live

in righteous and just relationships with the people that are around you. segues into the next nerdy nugget, which is to talk about the right hand and the left hand of the prophets, okay, which is idolatry and injustice, idolatry and injustice. All the prophets, not just Isaiah, but all the prophets are going to focus on idolatry and injustice, idolatry and injustice. And Jesus is going to pick up on this theme. Let's go to Matthew chapter 22 verse 37 to 40. It's going to say this. He said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and the first command. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commands depend all of the law and the prophets. Well, guess what? Idolatry is not loving Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind. Idolatry is literally failing to love Yahweh with all of yourself. And what is injustice? Injustice is failing to love your neighbor as yourself. So the reason that the prophets are giving this right hand, left hand message of, hey, idolatry and injustice is because Jesus, this is actually the, this is the Torah. This is love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is the Ten Commandments. If you realize the first couple of commandments are all about how to love God. And then the remaining commandments are all about how to love your neighbor. And so, and also when we hear the word injustice, I just always want to help us because when we hear the word injustice, I think in our modern American world, we immediately go to social justice or social injustice. But God's justice is way more comprehensive than that. So when I'm counseling a young guy and he's having sex with his girlfriend and they're not married, I'm saying to that young man, that's unjust. That's not just, okay. You are sinning against her parents and her. You're taking something that doesn't belong to you. It's a theft. And the Bible says, thou shall not steal. Biblically, and the reason I make that delineation is because biblically adultery would be having sex with another person's spouse. But this is theft. You're stealing something that doesn't belong to you. You're stealing a sexual experience that is not yours. And if we go into the future and this young girl belongs in a marital relationship to someone else, then it is adultery if we think about the span of time. So in our modern world, we don't see sex before marriage as injustice, but in the biblical world, it is injustice. It's just as unjust to not share with the hungry as it is to have sex before marriage. And so I want us to get

out of the modern American way that we see things and step back into the biblical world, because for the Bible, righteousness and injustice are the same, okay? Living a just life is living a righteous life in relationship with the people that are around you. All right, so what's our timeless truth? The thing that stuck out to me today more than anything is that we are in the business of removing roadblocks that hinder people from encountering God. That is true forever. We started off by talking about foreigners and eunuchs. Well, you want to know what Jesus is going to do all throughout His ministry? Is He's not just going to heal at random. What's actually quite interesting is He heals people whose ailments mean that they can't worship God in the temple. So like the one with the issue of blood, one of the reasons that she's healed is not just because God's compassionate, but it's because God sees that she's not able to enjoy the full life that God has in terms of the religious life of His people. So she wouldn't be able to go to the synagogue. And so Jesus heals because her ailment is a roadblock for her to encounter God. And I know I've wrestled with this a lot, and I say this like with a lot of caution, that there may be some person who, let's say they get healed of cancer, and another person doesn't get healed of cancer. And I've wrestled with, God, why would you heal one person of cancer and not the other person? And there are times where I genuinely believe that the reason that one person may get healed and the other person may not is because God in His sovereignty knows that cancer for one person is going to be a roadblock that's going to hinder them from encountering God. But there's going to be another person that cancer is actually not going to take anything away from their relationship with God. They're not going to walk away from God. They're not going to be angry with God. And so Jesus in the Gospels, He's healing leprosy because a leprosy meant that you couldn't go to the temple. So the healings of Jesus are actually doing something far greater than I think we even realize. They're giving people access to the full. presence of God. They're giving people access so they can encounter all of who God is. And so we, we're in the business of removing roadblocks, especially if you're in ministry. That's what we do. If there's an older couple who says the music is too loud,

man, we give them earbuds and we provide them freely. Why? Because we want to remove roadblocks. It's not about building churches that are just designed for our preferences. It's about removing roadblocks. What are the roadblocks? What are real roadblocks that, now some roadblock people have to, some things are hurdles that they have to overcome and some things are roadblocks. And that takes wisdom to know what's a actual roadblock and what's just a hurdle that you're going to have to learn how to jump over. But if you are someone who loves God, then we are in the business of removing roadblocks so that people can actually encounter God. Sometimes that roadblock is bitterness. Sometimes that roadblock is unforgiveness. Sometimes that roadblock is resentment. But sometimes that roadblock is an addiction. Sometimes that roadblock is a physical area of their life where they need healing. Whatever the roadblock is, we are in the business of removing roadblocks so that people can experience what we've experienced, the transforming power of God's love in His presence in our life. And that's our timeless truth for the day. Hey, good work going through these chapters of Isaiah

with me. If you're on a streak, I'm so, so proud of you. Tomorrow, we've got day 208. We're in Isaiah chapter 60 to 62. It's going to be incredible. I'll meet you right here to continue our trek through the book of Isaiah. I love you. So proud of you. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department Podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.