Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,
“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”
And Isaiah boldly says,
“I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”
But concerning Israel he says,
“All day long I have held out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
Let’s look at each of these contexts.
1) “I will make you envious…” text. It comes from Deuteronomy 32:21:
The Lord saw this and rejected them
because he was angered by his sons and daughters.
“I will hide my face from them,” he said,
“and see what their end will be;
for they are a perverse generation,
children who are unfaithful.
They made me jealous by what is no god
and angered me with their worthless idols.
I will make them envious by those who are not a people;
I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding (Deut 32:19-21).
The Lord is saying they have angered him by their gods and their perversity. He will bring judgment on them for their sin. But he says he is going to bring blessing to the Gentiles, causing Israel to be jealous. The purpose is to wake Israel up and ask why God is blessing others.
He did this in Christ. Many Gentiles came to faith and not the Israelites. The Gentiles did not have the Law of God, but they found God through faith. The Israelites who did have the Law, missed God, because they did not understand the purpose and role of faith.
2) “I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.” This is from Isaiah 65:1
“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’
God made a special effort to reveal himself to the Israelites. They were content with their false gods and powerless idols. They weren’t seeking Yahweh, even though they desperately needed Him.
But God showed his glory to them. This is likely in reference to his glory going out through the mighty deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. They came to know and the true God and His power.
Many became followers of Him by faith. And God gladly revealed Himself to them.
The irony is that it was the role of Israel to go to the Gentile nations and reveal the glory of God to them. But they didn’t. They didn’t understand faith. The only understood Law and external worship, not internal transformation through faith in God.
It wasn’t that they historically didn’t go ever. They did. But they did with a message of Law and legalism.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are” (Mt 23:15).
Wow. Strong words.
But God was revealing himself to the Gentiles. And their blessing was to be the jealousy point for Israel.
3) “ But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
This is actually the continuation of the context of Isaiah 65.
“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’
All day long I have held out my hands
to an obstinate people,
who walk in ways not good,
pursuing their own imaginations—
a people who continually provoke me
to my very face,
offering sacrifices in gardens
and burning incense on altars of brick;
who sit among the graves
and spend their nights keeping secret vigil;
who eat the flesh of pigs,
and whose pots hold broth of impure meat;
who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me,
for I am too sacred for you!’
Such people are smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that keeps burning all day.
“See, it stands written before me:
I will not keep silent but will pay back in full;
I will pay it back into their laps—
both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,”
says the Lord.
“Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains
and defied me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
the full payment for their former deeds” (vs. 1-7).
“But as for you who forsake the Lord
and forget my holy mountain,
who spread a table for Fortune
and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,
I will destine you for the sword,
and all of you will fall in the slaughter;
for I called but you did not answer,
I spoke but you did not listen.
You did evil in my sight
and chose what displeases me” (v. 11-12).
Israel chose to do evil. How? They were disobedience and persisted in that disobedience (stubborness).
When we persist in disobedience, our hearts become hard and our eyes become blinded. This is sobering. For us.
So what was the appeal of the gods and their disobedience? We’ll look at that next.