In Isaiah 56 God’s concern was not only for foreigners (who were often oppressed and mistreated) but also for the eunuchs. Isaiah 56:3-5 says,

³ Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from His people.” Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” ⁴ For thus says the Lord, “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, ⁵ to them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial [yad, “hand”], and a name [shem] better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off [karath].”

Eunuchs were normally an educated class of servants and advisors to the ancient kings. Because they had access to the palaces and royal houses and had access to the king’s wives, they were emasculated to prevent the proliferation of illegitimate children. Eunuchs were the bureaucrats of the day and often were the real power behind the throne. Daniel was probably a eunuch in the royal house of Babylon, and in the story of Esther eunuchs are prominent in the Persian palace.

Eunuchs were incapable of begetting children, and so a eunuch was said to be “a dry tree.” In other words, he was as a man who was dead and unable to carry on his branch of the family tree. He was destined to remain single throughout his life. Upon his death, his name would not be carried on to the next generation, and so he would soon be forgotten. No one remembers a king’s eunuchs.

God’s Blessing for the Faithful Eunuchs

God gives eunuchs who serve within the walls of God’s house the hope of “a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and daughters.” Although their male parts were cut off, God promises to give them “an everlasting name which will not be cut off.”

The idea of a “name,” of course, is more than what men might call them. It carries the idea of fame or making a name for oneself that will not be forgotten in the dustbins of history.

God sets forth both foreigners and eunuchs in the same passage, recognizing the importance of their faith and service within His walls. In this way God reaches down to those who are despised on account of their status or condition in life. Their faith has value, and God loves them, no matter how others may feel about them. Men tend to attribute their own feelings to God, thinking that God despises those that they themselves despise.

But men’s love is not like God’s love. Recall what God said earlier in Isaiah 55:8,

⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

This should give hope to the least of humanity, those whose lives are despised and have little or no value in the sight of men.

The Covenants

When the glory of God was revealed to a foreigner, and he immigrated to the land of Israel in order to better worship God and to live under the laws of the Kingdom, the law gave him equal rights. In other words, he became an Israelite by national citizenship, though not by genealogy. It was thus presumed that by faith he had taken hold of God’s covenant.

However, the question immediately arose: Which covenant? If the foreigner had taken hold of the Old Covenant (in Exodus 19:8), then he took upon himself the obligation to be obedient, as if he had been present at Mount Sinai to take the same oath as those Israelites. But if the nature of the New Covenant had been revealed to him, and if his faith was in God’s ability to keep His oath, then one could say that he was a New Covenant believer.

On the surface of Isaiah’s prophecy, the question of which covenant remains unanswered. Yet the overall context shows God’s intent. As we have already shown, Isaiah 1-39 brought judgment upon Israel for their failure to keep the Old Covenant, while Isaiah 40-66 set forth the promises of God through the New Covenant. These blessings to foreigners and eunuchs are assured because they are New Covenant promises set forth in the last half of Isaiah.

Hence, their faith can be defined as Abrahamic faith, where men believe that God is able to fulfill His promises (Rom. 4:21). More than that, these come under the universal Noahic covenant, where God promised to save every living creature on the face of the earth. Isaiah suggests that the Noahic covenant included foreigners and eunuchs, and, by extension, the smallest and least esteemed among the people.

Surely, this is what was meant in Jeremiah’s description of the New Covenant. Jer. 31:34 says, “they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.” In the first century, the Samaritans were the most despised people, yet we find that they were the first to be evangelized outside of Jerusalem (Acts 8:5).

The Sabbaths

Foreigners and eunuchs who took hold of God’s covenant were expected to keep Israel’s Sabbaths, not only the weekly Sabbath, but also the feast days, the Sabbath years, and the Jubilees.

In Isaiah’s time, these Sabbaths were seldom enforced by law. Few actually kept the seventh-year Sabbath, and even fewer attempted to keep the Year of Jubilee. We know that God brought judgment upon Judah for failing to keep a single Sabbath year or Jubilee. 2 Chron. 36:21 tells us that their 70-year captivity to Babylon was decreed for failing to keep 70 Sabbaths and Jubilees. (See Secrets of Time.)

Yet again, there are two ways to keep a Sabbath, depending on which covenant one is under and where one’s faith lies. Under the Old Covenant, one kept the Sabbath by resting on a particular day, by letting the land rest every seventh year, and by releasing all debts every 50^th year. Under the New Covenant, one kept the Sabbath by refraining “from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word” (Isaiah 58:13). Believers were to rest from their own works and words.

Heb. 4:10 defines New Covenant Sabbath-rest, saying,

¹⁰ For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

As usual, there are two ways to view this. Through Old Covenant eyes, men should cease from their normal labor in making a living. But Isaiah 58:13 takes this to a deeper level, where keeping the Sabbath is to cease from speaking one’s own words and doing one’s own pleasure. Hence, Jesus did nothing on His own initiative, but spoke only what He heard His Father speak and did only what He saw His Father do (John 8:28).

Jesus’ example sets forth the righteousness of God as an example for all “Amen” people. Those who rest on a Sabbath do not necessarily enter God’s rest. It is only by following Jesus’ example that we—like Him—can become the “Amen” of God (Rev. 3:14). As long as a man does what he thinks is right, he has failed to cease from his works. As long as he speaks his own words, he has failed to keep the Sabbath in a way that is acceptable to God under the New Covenant.

So when we read of the Sabbaths in Isaiah 56:4, we should define the term as the prophet does in Isaiah 58:13 and as the author of the book of Hebrews defines God’s rest. The eunuch is blessed when he exhibits Abrahamic faith in the promises of God, for this is the first step toward entering God’s rest. He does not have faith in himself or in his own ability to keep his vow of obedience.

Secondly, he is blessed by keeping the New Covenant Sabbath, ceasing from his own works and from speaking his own words. We should consider this to be an introduction to Isaiah 58:13, 14, where Sabbaths are more clearly defined.

Sons of God

In Isaiah 56:5 God promises to give faithful eunuchs “an everlasting name which will not be cut off.” By seeing this as a direct contrast to the physical cutting off of one’s flesh, it is apparent that this is the promise of Sonship. Though somewhat obscure here, the lack of clarity is overcome in the gospels and epistles, where the idea of bringing forth the sons of God is of utmost importance.

In the broader sense, sin made all of us barren. Sarah, the prophetic type, was barren as well while Hagar, the type of the Old Covenant bore a child of the flesh. Yet at the appointed time, God visited Sarah and gave her a son, the promised heir. “And you, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise” (Gal. 4:28).

In other words, we have all been eunuchs in our flesh, being unable to bring forth sons of God and “children of promise.” But when the Old Covenant finally came to an end and became “obsolete” (Heb. 8:13), Christ came, begotten by the Spirit and born of a virgin, to show how we all may become sons of God.

To put it in Isaiah’s terms, we are given “a name better than that of [fleshly] sons and daughters” and “an everlasting name which will not be cut off.” That holy seed that has been begotten by the Spirit is as immortal and incorruptible as his heavenly Father. It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27); that is, it is a holy seed, anointed by the Spirit, and destined to rule as part of the body of Christ.

We see, then, that in the flow of Isaiah’s message, it is important that we understand Isaiah 54 and connect it to the story of Hagar and Sarah, especially in terms of their children. The promise to the eunuchs in Isaiah 56 is directly connected to Sarah, the barren one, prior to the fulfillment of the promise of God.

The Return of Hagar

But yet we cannot forget Hagar. Though she represents the Old Covenant, which must be “cast out” (Gal. 4:30), as a person, she is included in the universal covenant revealed to Noah. God has provided the answer to her dilemma as well. It requires her to submit to Sarah, as the angel told her to do in Gen. 16:9. She must submit to the New Covenant. This is how she and her fleshly children can become part of the household of faith, ceasing from fleshly works, and thus coming into true Sonship.

Hagar, the foreigner (Egyptian), was cast out and separated from God’s people (Gen. 21:10), because she was unable to submit to Sarah and to recognize that Isaac was the true heir. Hence, the son of Hagar persecuted the child of promise (Gal. 4:29). But this was not to last forever, because the promise of God made all opposition temporary.

The Apostle Paul provides us with the great example of how one can change mothers from Hagar to Sarah. Paul too persecuted the Church while he was yet a child of the flesh, the son of Hagar-Jerusalem (Gal. 1:13). But his conversion on the Damascus road gave him a new mother, and he became part of the Isaac company. So also can all foreigners repent and have faith in the promises of God.

No longer will they say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people” (Isaiah 56:3). No, they too will receive the blessings of God, for the law commands equality and unity for all in His Kingdom. The separation that Hagar and her fleshly children have felt during their Old Covenant time will be swallowed up in unity through the New Covenant.

So is it with all of us, for we were all born of fleshly parents. We were all children of the flesh until we were begotten by God and changed our identity to the new creation man within our hearts.

Hence, we are no longer “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers [foreigners] to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). We have joined the household of God by faith in Christ and are no longer separated from His people.

Eph. 2:19 says,

¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household.

All New Covenant believers are living stones in the temple of God. All are chosen according to their New Covenant faith, and each has a divine purpose, calling, and function in God’s temple.