John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 55:6

"Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near:" — Isaiah 55:6 (ASV)

Seek you Jehovah. After speaking of the good success of the gospel among the Gentiles, who were formerly strangers to the kingdom of God, he urges the Jews to be ashamed of loitering while others run. For since they were the first who were called, it is shameful that they should be last. This exhortation, therefore, relates strictly to the Jews, to whom the example of the Gentiles is presented to arouse their jealousy, in the same manner as the Lord has foretold that he would provoke the Jews to jealousy by a foolish nation (Deuteronomy 32:21).

While he is found. "The time of finding" is used here not exactly in the same sense as in Psalm 32:6, but as the time when God offers himself to us, as in other passages he has limited a fixed day for his good pleasure and our salvation (Isaiah 49:8).

Yet I readily admit that it also denotes the time when necessity prompts us to seek God’s assistance. However, we should primarily remember that God is sought at a seasonable time, when he voluntarily advances to meet us, for indolent and sluggish persons will lament in vain that they were deprived of that grace which they rejected.

The Lord sometimes endures our sluggishness and bears with us; but if ultimately he does not succeed, he will withdraw and will bestow his grace on others.

For this reason Christ exhorts us to walk while it is day, for the night comes when the means of pursuing our journey will be taken from us (John 12:35).

We should draw great comfort from being assured that it is not in vain for us to seek God. Seek, says Christ, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened; ask, and it shall be given to you (Matthew 7:7).

Call upon him while he is near. The word “call” can be taken here in a general sense, but I think that it denotes one type of “seeking” God which is more important than all the others, as if he commanded us to turn to him with prayers and supplications.

He says that he is “near” when he opens the door and gently invites us to come to him, or when he appears publicly, so that we do not need to seek him through long and winding paths.

But we must pay attention to Paul’s definition, who tells us that it denotes the preaching of the gospel (Romans 10:8).

The Lord is nigh, (Philippians 4:5) and reveals himself to us when the voice of the gospel cries aloud.

We do not need to seek far, or to make long detours, as unbelievers do, for he reveals himself to us in his word, so that we, for our part, may draw near to him.