Tuesday, March 23
What is the meaning of survivors bringing people from the nations as an offering to the Lord? Isaiah 66:19, 20.
God sends survivors of His destruction out to the ends of the earth, to people who do not know about God, “And they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 66:19). This is one of the clearest Old Testament statements of the theme of missionary outreach. In other words, not only are people to be drawn to the Hebrew nation, but some of the Hebrew people will go to other nations and teach them about the true God—a paradigm that is explicit in the New Testament. Though there was Jewish missionary outreach between the time of return from exile and the time of Christ (Matthew 23:15), the early Christians spread the gospel rapidly and on a massive scale (Colossians 1:23).
Just as the Israelites brought grain offerings to the Lord at His temple, so the missionaries would bring an offering to Him. But their offering would be “all your brethren [...] out of all nations” (Isaiah 66:20). Just as grain offerings were gifts to God that were not slaughtered, the converts brought to the Lord would be presented to Him as “living sacrifices” (compare Romans 12:1). For the idea that people could be presented as a kind of offering to God, note the much earlier dedication of Levites “for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord” (Numbers 8:11).
What is the significance of God’s promise to “take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 66:21)?
The “them” in verse 21 refers to “all your brethren [...] out of all nations” in the previous verse. These are Gentiles, some of whom God would choose as worship leaders, along with the priests and Levites. This is a revolutionary change. God previously had authorized only descendants of Aaron to serve as priests and only other members of the tribe of Levi to assist them. Gentiles could not literally become descendants of Aaron or Levi, but God would authorize some to serve in these capacities, which had previously been forbidden even to most Jews.
Read 1 Peter 2:9, 10. To whom is Peter writing? What is he saying? What message does he have for each of us, as members of a “holy nation” today? Are we doing any better than the original people (Exodus 19:6)?
