{"id":7594,"date":"2016-05-18T00:05:11","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T07:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7594"},"modified":"2016-05-17T10:54:03","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T17:54:03","slug":"serendipity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/05\/18\/serendipity\/","title":{"rendered":"Serendipity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
\nI was found by those who did not seek me.
\nTo a nation that did not call on my name,
\nI said, \u2018Here am I, here am I.\u2019
\nAll day long I have held out my hands
\nto an obstinate people,
\nwho walk in ways not good,
\npursuing their own imaginations\u2014
\na people who continually provoke me
\nto my very face,
\noffering sacrifices in gardens
\nand burning incense on altars of brick;
\nwho sit among the graves
\nand spend their nights keeping secret vigil;
\nwho eat the flesh of pigs,
\nand whose pots hold broth of unclean meat;
\nwho say, \u2018Keep away; don\u2019t come near me,
\nfor I am too sacred for you!\u2019
\nSuch people are smoke in my nostrils,
\na fire that keeps burning all day.
\n\u201cSee, it stands written before me:
\nI will not keep silent but will pay back in full;
\nI will pay it back into their laps\u2014
\nboth your sins and the sins of your fathers,\u201d
\nsays the LORD.
\n\u201cBecause they burned sacrifices on the mountains
\nand defied me on the hills,
\nI will measure into their laps
\nthe full payment for their former deeds.\u201d (Isaiah 65:1-7)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God doesn\u2019t like self-righteousness, human righteousness is never really righteous (Isaiah 64:6). Nevertheless, Isaiah offers hope to these hopeless, deluded people. Paul will quote Isaiah\u2019s words in Romans 10:20 as he points out that although the Israelites have consistently been slow to accept God\u2019s words, whether it was Moses or the prophets, and although God has offered the Gentiles the gospel message, God will not, and cannot reject his people. <\/p>\n

Though God turned to the Gentiles, though God judged the people of Israel and sent them into captivity, though many of them rejected Jesus and wouldn\u2019t accept Paul\u2019s preaching, nevertheless, the Israelites remain forever God\u2019s people. In fact, as the author of Proverbs pointed out, \u201cthe Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.\u201d (Proverbs 3:12; cf. Hebrews 12:5-6).<\/p>\n

The Israelites had involved themselves in various pagan practices, ranging from how, what and to whom they offered sacrifices, to their consumption of forbidden, non-kosher food. God assured them that they would be punished according to their misdeeds, but at the same time, he offered them mercy and the chance for restoration\u2014and not only to them, but to all people everywhere.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI 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, \u2018Here am I, here am I.\u2019 All … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7596,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594\/revisions\/7596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}