Raymond Ortlund on God Begging

The Pleading God Offended

I spread out my hands all the day

to a rebellious people,

who walk in a way that is not good,

following their own devices. (Isaiah 65:2)

God "spread[ing] out his hands" is God pleading, even begging. He's patient. He gives ample opportunity. But with some people it's a wasted effort. Why? The problem is the human mind. The ESV translates this, "following their own devices." The NASB translates it, "following their own thoughts." That's what Isaiah means by "devices"--the structures we assemble in our thoughts to manage God and keep him at a distance, because seeing him clearly, in his grace and humility, is counterintuitive and threatening.

Raymond C. Ortlund, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, ed. R. Kent Hughes (Wheaton, Ill: Good News Publishers, 2005), 439.