Isaiah 65:1

1 The LORD says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name.

Isaiah 65:1 Meaning and Commentary

Ver. 1. I am sought of them that asked not for me
That this is aIsaiah 65:2

I have spread out mine hands all the day unto a rebellious
people
Meaning Israel, as the apostle explains it, ( Romans 10:21 ) , whom he calls a "disobedient and gainsaying people"; who believed not in Christ, obeyed not his Gospel, but contradicted and blasphemed it; and were rebellious against him, would not have him to reign over them, nor submit to his ordinances; though he most affectionately invited them, earnestly pressed and urged them, and that daily and frequently, to attend his ministry; and used all human methods to gain audience of them, and acceptance with them, but all to no purpose; see ( Matthew 23:37 ) , they remained obstinate and inflexible, and so they did under the ministry of his apostles; for, notwithstanding their ill usage of him, he ordered the Gospel to be first preached to them, as it was, till they treated it with such indignity and contempt, that the apostles turned away from them to the Gentiles, as they were bid; see ( Acts 13:46 Acts 13:47 ) . The Targum is,

``I sent my prophets every day''

which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
in their own way, of their own devising, choosing, and approving, and which was a wicked one; and after their own imaginations and inventions; after the traditions of the elders the doctrines and commandments of men; and after a righteousness of their own, which they sought by the works of the law, and so submitted not to, but rejected the righteousness of Christ.

Isaiah 65:1 In-Context

1 The LORD says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name.

2 All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes.

3 All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens. They burn incense on pagan altars.

4 At night they go out among the graves, worshiping the dead. They eat the flesh of pigs and make stews with other forbidden foods.

5 Yet they say to each other, ‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!’ These people are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or to a nation that did not bear my name.