SCRIPTURE
Romans 10:20-21
Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
“I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
COMMENT
This is an interesting passage to me. What does Isaiah mean when he says that "I have been found by those who did not seek me." What does Paul hope to show by quoting it? I think the answer to the second question is Paul is seeking to validate his words from the previous chapter about the gentiles, "who did not pursue righteousness have attained it." They were not looking for it, did not seek it, but God has shown it to them. Whereas Israel, those who had the law of righteousness, who pursued it not through faith but on their own merits, failed.
I often wonder, are we the now new Israel? Have we deserted faith and are again seeking to obtain grace through our own merits. I think back to a church we attended. Every sermon was about doing better and trying harder. Every activity sought to lift up the church itself. Go, pick up trash at the river on community clean up day, and before you go, be sure to get your church shirt with the church logo and a cute saying about service on it. Not that this is a bad thing, but if done to obtain God's favor, it is just another filthy rag on the pile. Not quite an acceptable offering. Jesus told us, "Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing," but if some there happen to see those shirts, they will know where you came from. And if the media picks up on this, all the better. Soon, we will have a group of good people doing good things. But if that is the gospel we preach, I fear we have missed the mark. It's not that we do good things to merit God's favor, it's that because we have God's favor we do good things. To some, it seems like splitting hairs. Others might not even see the difference. But God know. After all, He has to keep cleaning those rags off the altar.
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