Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Romans 10:21

"But as to Israel he saith, All the day long did I spread out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." — Romans 10:21 (ASV)

The quotation from Isa 65:1 clearly supports what has been declared in the previous passage . Paul sees in the OT an anticipation of what has come to pass in his day. The pagan world, occupied with its own pursuits, was in the main not seeking after God (cf. 9:30), but now they were. Paradoxically, God had been continually seeking and reaching out to his people Israel with a plea that they return to him in loving obedience, only to be rebuffed. Consequently, the spiritual condition of Israel did not come from a lack of opportunity to hear the Gospel or a lack of understanding of its content, but must be traced to a continuous pattern of a stubborn and rebellious spirit.