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Trajectory of Scripture – Exclusion to Inclusion

TLDR – Too Long Didn’t Read Summary
During Israel’s early history Foreigners and Eunuch’s (LGBT people) were excluded from worship. As time goes on the trajectory of scripture leads to more and more inclusion.

Deuteronomy 23:1-8 – Exclusion from worship for foreigners, eunuchs and others and their descendants. 

1 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD.  2 No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation.  3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation.

Isaiah 56 1-6 – Inclusion for those who have been Othered is Coming!

1 This is what the LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. 2 Blessed is the one who does this— the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hands from doing any evil.” 3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” 4 For this is what the LORD says: “ To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant— 5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. 6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant.

Acts 8:26-39 – First Foreign Eunuch Accepted.

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”  (Isaiah 53) 34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptised?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

The Eunuch began reading at Isaiah 53. He would have been used to being excluded and othered but as they started reading at Isaiah 53 which talks of the coming Messiah they realise that the promises have come to pass. They read Isaiah 54 where God says, ‘Enlarge the place of your tent‘ and the Redeemer is called ‘the God of all the earth‘. Isaiah 55 starts with an invitation to ‘Come, all you who are thirsty‘ and then Isaiah 56’s specific promise to foreigners and Eunuch’s. What can stand in the way of me being baptised?  NOTHING

Acts 10 – Nothing is unclean Nobody is unclean
In Acts 10  Peter has a vision about clean and unclean animals, where God tells him nothing he has made is unclean. Then some foreigners turn up and want to know about God. Peter realises that God is telling him they are not unclean as he has been taught.

Acts 10:47 Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptised with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.

Galatians 3:26-28 – All are equal

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.