Isaiah 56:6-7

Similarly, God would bless foreigners (non-Israelites) who came to believe in Yahweh, and sought to love and follow Him for His sake rather than for personal benefit (cf. Ruth 1:16). They could serve the Lord by ministering to Him. The Hebrew word translated "minister," sharet, usually describes priestly service (cf. Isaiah 60:7; Isaiah 60:10; Isaiah 61:6). Foreigners might even serve the Lord in ways that would be as significant as serving as priests in Israel, though that particular ministry was not open to them under the Law.

"The six marks of the foreigner (Isaiah 56:6) provide a beautiful description of true godliness, with love as its great dynamic, the very antithesis of Pharisaic legalism." [Note: Grogan, p. 316.]

The Lord Himself would conduct such Gentiles to the future Jerusalem, as He would bring the Israelites back from exile. There they would have the same blessings as the redeemed Israelites: sins atoned for and access to God in prayer (cf. 1 Kings 8:41-43; Malachi 1:11).

"All of Israel’s separation from the world was in order to keep Israel from being absorbed into the world and thus losing the ability to call the world out of itself into the blessings of God. But should Israel ever come to believe that its separation was so that Israel could keep her God and his blessings to herself, then all was lost." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 461.]

It was this latter attitude that so infuriated Jesus Christ when He saw how hard the Jews had made it for Gentiles to come to God and worship Him in the temple (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; cf. John 2:16).

". . . here the temple is called ’the house of prayer,’ from the prayer which is the soul of all worship." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:363.]