God Reply Is That He Will Act Sovereignly To Call A People To Himself And Will Form A New Nation (Isaiah 65:1).
“I am enquired of by those who did not ask for me,
I am found by those who sought me not,
I said, Behold me, behold me to a nation,
Which was not called by my name.”
This is Yahweh's reply to the question as to whether He will save the undeserving. He will create a new nation. Those who had no intention of asking things of Him, or of seeking Him, will find Him and enquire of Him, because He, Yahweh, will cause it to be so. He will say, ‘Behold me, behold me' to a nation which was ‘not called by His name', that is a new nation which He will form but which up to this point has not borne His name. It will be composed of those who in the past were not seen as His or responsive to Him, and had not claimed membership of the covenant, but to Whom He will sovereignly say, ‘Look to Me', and they will look.
So by His own powerful call He will bring to His feet some who have constantly had nothing to do with Him. This is probably to be seen as including some of those referred to in chapter 64. 5-8. The Potter will mould the clay (Isaiah 64:8). But it probably also has in mind the future call of the Gentiles. They too will come.
‘A nation'. This may possibly refer to a nation within the nation, a minority from whom He will form a new nation. But it is probably, in the light of His words, intended to include the fact that Gentiles also will come, for they especially were not called by His name. Thus He is declaring that hope has not gone because, although He must judge His people, He will form for Himself a new nation to replace the old, which will include all Whom He brings to Himself, a nation composed of the least expected. He will produce an Israel which is truly of God.