Isaiah 65:1-9 (ESV)

I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. 

I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name. 

²I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, 

who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; 

³a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; 

⁴who sit in tombs,  and spend the night in secret places; 

who eat pig's flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; 

⁵who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” 

These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. 

⁶Behold, it is written before me: “I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their bosom 

⁷both your iniquities and your fathers' iniquities together, says the Lord; 

because they made offerings on the mountains and insulted me on the hills, 

I will measure into their bosom payment for their former deeds.”

⁸Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, 

for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants' sake, and not destroy them all. 

⁹I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; 

my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there.

Speaking through His prophet Isaiah, God calls us to consider what it means to live as God’s people on the way of life.  The message is simple: God has blessed us and by His grace we live as His people in humble repentance and faith on the way of life. However, that does not mean that we will not continue to fail, falter, and fall.  In Isaiah 64 God’s people confessed they were not walking the Lord’s way: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (6).  As God’s people, we can identify with this ongoing battle between our sinful flesh, the way of this world, and the way of the cross.  

Yet, despite ourselves, God graciously and mercifully continues with us on the way.  He makes Himself able to be found even by people who do not seek Him.  He says in verse one: “I was ready to be found by those who did not ask for Me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek Me.  I said, “Here am I, here am I,” to a nation that was not called by My name.”  More often than not, God gets in our way so that He can be found.  The God we have is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Psalm 86:15). Though we may not be looking for Him, in fact we may be running away from Him, yet He finds us.  That is the way it is in the life of His people. 

This is God’s wisdom for the way of life.  God comes to us. He finds us, so we can live the way He intended life to be. Though we fail in our stubborn sinfulness, God comes to us and reminds us of His way of life in Christ the Lord. In Holy Baptism God incorporated us into the life, death, and resurrection of the Servant, our Savior.  Jesus is our way, our truth, and our life.  Yes, Jesus is the one who enables us to live as God’s people every day on the way to eternal life.    

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