NOTES for Isa 56:1-12

The call to keep the Sabbath—that is, to dedicate part of one's life to standing before God in prayer—is addressed here to those who until now had not been considered worthy of equality. Many prophetic calls had already been heard to show mercy to foreigners, those alien by birth, but now we also hear that God does not reject eunuchs, those whom people were accustomed to regard as deficient not only physically but in every respect. Now the Lord proclaims that in His eyes no one is deficient; all whom people reject for absurd reasons, however serious those reasons may appear, are dear to Him, and He is ready to receive them all.

Several centuries will pass, and on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, Philip will meet an Ethiopian dignitary, both a foreigner and a eunuch in one person (Acts 8:26-39), and he will be among the first foreigners to enter the Church. Before meeting Philip, the Ethiopian will be reading the Book of Isaiah, the passage that, a few turns of the parchment scroll later, is followed by these very lines.