The Bible in Conversation with Itself

People have leveraged passages like Exodus 12:43 in order to exclude those of different nationalities from the family of God:

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal: “No foreigner may eat it.” - Exodus 12:43

And yet, the passage we looked at Sunday upended the traditional approach to how religious people have understood their proper way of relating to foreigners - and this is the case now as much as then. We read this together:

Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” - Isaiah 56:3

God’s heart, apparently, was NOT to exclude but to welcome. In fact, just a couple of verses later Isaiah goes on to say: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7).

Jesus made that line remarkably famous (and sealed his own fate by how his more welcoming approach pushed against the culture): And as Jesus taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? (Mark 11:17).

What strikes you about how the Bible is in conversation with itself here? Do you sense a need to sort it all out and make sure all the dots connect? Are you comfortable with the tension? What approach do you bring to your interpretation of Scripture? Let these and other questions sift through your mind for a moment and as the Spirit to guide you in your relationship to scripture.