I’ve noticed in the Old Testament that often God calls out to people who are lonely and rejected. He knows how they feel, enters into their thoughts and tells them he can fill the emptiness inside them.
eunuch (noun) · eunuchs (plural noun)
1. a man who has been castrated, especially (in the past) one employed to guard the women's living areas at an oriental court.
He tells the eunuchs of ancient times:
Let not the eunuch say,
For this is what the LORD says:
“To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases Me
I will give them, in My house and within My walls,
a memorial and a name
better than that of sons and daughters.
I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. Isaiah 56:3-5
He speaks to women who cannot bear children, to the widow and to the woman who is divorced. (These events were considered disastrous and shameful in ancient times.)
“Shout for joy, O barren woman,
who bears no children;
break forth in song and cry aloud,
you who have never travailed;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,” says the Lord. (I’m not sure what God means by this. Perhaps in heaven these women will be given children to raise.)
“Enlarge the site of your tent,
stretch out the curtains of your dwellings,
do not hold back.
Lengthen your ropes
and drive your stakes in deep.
For you will spread out to the right and left;
your descendants will dispossess the nations
and inhabit the desolate cities.
Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame;
do not be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated.
For you will forget the shame of your youth
and will remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
For your husband is your Maker—
the LORD of Hosts is His name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
He is called the God of all the earth.
For the LORD has called you back,
like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit,
like the rejected wife of one’s youth,” says your God.
Isaiah 54:1-6
And for those who long for the deep love of a man/woman, the Lord even compares himself to someone who is full of longing to be with his love:
Listen! My beloved approaches.
Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look, he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
My beloved calls to me,
“Arise, my darling.
Come away with me, my beautiful one.
For the winter is past;
The flowers have appeared in the countryside;
the season of singing has come,
and the cooing of turtledoves
The fig tree ripens its figs;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come away, my darling;
come away with me, my beautiful one.” Song of Solomon 2:8-13
I love picturing Jesus running to my house and looking through the window to see if I am home. He sees me and asks me to run away with him! Wow. God’s love is exciting!
These verses have always made me smile and give us an insight into God and how he feels about those who need him, which is everyone. God doesn’t seem far away when we meditate on words like this.
