Isaiah’s Message of Hope for the Eunuchs (and Broken People Everywhere)

Regretting transgenders, victims of abuse, PTDS sufferers, anyone feeling damaged in mind and body—this passage of scripture is for you.

It’s Isaiah’s message of hope to the eunuchs of the captivity (Isaiah 56:4-5).

The practice of the Babylonians was to take the best and brightest from the countries they conquered and use their talents and skills in the Babylonian courts. It was a brilliant but cruel strategy.

Why would a king have his slaves castrated? Castration was often performed to ensure a king’s advisers did not have children or romantic interests that might tempt them towards betrayal. This procedure was intended to make the subject asexual, disinterested in sex, lacking sexual urges, and unable to produce children. (https://www.gotquestions.org/Daniel-eunuch.html)

In reality, the Babylonian kings forcefully produced a new gender—a “neutral-gendered” workforce.

It is highly likely that Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were victims of this abuse. Some point to the fact that they were not identified specifically as eunuchs in scripture, but there is a very good explanation for this. Eunuchs were outcasts from the worshiping community. Deuteronomy 23:1, in very graphic language, clearly communicates that eunuchs were not allowed to enter into the congregation of the LORD.

Amid the promises of a return to the land of promise, God did not forget those who felt they had no hope of enjoying the blessings of a return. Not only would the eunuchs be rejected from the congregation of the LORD, but they were also cut off from the tribal inheritance that was due them. They could not marry or have children to whom they could pass on the heritage from the LORD.

There are many today who fit in this same category. They are broken physically, emotionally, or mentally—either by their own choice or unwillingly at the hands of others. There is no going back. What has been done cannot be undone. Those who have undergone sex-change operations can have a reversal performed, but irreversible damage will always remain. It would be easy, in this case, to feel permanently dispossessed and permanently out of place—to have no hope of being normal or accepted into the family of God. Victims of abuse, PTSD sufferers, and those who have been damaged by addictions could also fall into this category.

God did not forget these people but gave them hope.

The conditions for acceptance.

For thus says the Lord:

“To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, . . . (Isaiah 56:4)

There are three characteristics of the blessed eunuch.

They are Sabbath keepers. The idea here is not the legalistic idea of keeping the Sabbath that the Pharisees developed later. These had maintained their identity Jehovah-worshipers. Jehovah-worshipers were identified by the day in which they worshiped. They had not succumbed to the worship of the Babylonian or Persian deities. They had not abandoned their God even though they had no hope of restoration to the congregation or an inheritance in the Land.

They were God-pleasers in their hearts. There was a personal relationship with and devotion to Jehovah. They sought in every area of life to do the things that please God.

They were covenant-holders. But which covenant? The Mosaic Covenant? I do not think so. Although this passage was written in 700 BC, the intended audience in the captivity would read these words around 500 BC. In between (around 600 BC) the Prophet Jeremiah introduced a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:1-4).

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, [a]though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.

It is only living by faith in the expectation of this covenant that the Old Testament eunuch could have hope. In Matthew 26:28, Jesus seals the New Covenant with His own life’s blood.

So, what hope could Isaiah offer the eunuch? He did not promise a miraculous reversal of the physical loss. In this life, God rarely reverses such damage.  He promises something much better.

Even to them I will give in My house, and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off (Isaiah 56:5).

They will be accepted into God’s eternal house.

God will accept them “within His house and within his walls”. There are no second-rate guests in God’s house. No matter how hurt, no matter how damaged, they are received as full partners in the blessings of salvation. This ought to occur in this life, but it is guaranteed to be a reality in the real (eternal) house of God.

They will be given something better than sons and daughters.

Having children was often considered the ultimate blessing of God in the Old Testament, but here Isaiah says there is something even better. They will be given an everlasting memorial—a name in God’s house forever. They will never be rejected. They will never be cut off. They will always enjoy the smile of their Lord.

As Isaiah finishes His message of comfort for the broken and strangers, he offers these wonderful words.

For mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. The Lord God, which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him. (Isaiah 56:7b-8)

To the broken, there is hope, forgiveness, healing, and eternal acceptance in the only true Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us help you come to know Him.

You can go here for a message explaining Isaiah 56:1-8 in more detail.