The "Discovery" Channel

“But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.” (Romans 10:20)

Tuesday of this week was “Columbus Day”, although we now observe it on the Monday nearest to October 12th instead of the exact day. I guess it is nice to give certain people an extra day to make a nice long weekend rather than random days off in the middle of weeks. We all know that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred and ninety two, and landed on the North American Continent on October 12th of that year. When he did, he “discovered” America, right?

No he did not. The Viking Leif Erickson landed on this continent centuries earlier – and he still plays quarterback for them today. There were already people here when Columbus landed. If Christopher Columbus “discovered” this continent, why aren’t we called Columbia? Mankind is so incredibly conceited and arrogant. He continues to claim “discoveries” of things that God put in place long before he was even on this planet. God asked Job, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” (Job 38:4) That is a rather penetrating question. Man cannot discover anything. Every time we unlock another “secret” of the Universe or find another species or chart another land mass or tap into a new technology, we only find something that was already there from Genesis chapter one. Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravity, right? Did it not exist before the apple bonked him on the head?

Paul quoted a prophecy of Isaiah related to New Testament salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said that Jesus is “found” (discovered) by those who did not seek him. How can that be? How can you find something you are not looking for? Columbus did not “discover” America by sitting in his Lazy-Boy watching Brett “Leif Erickson” Favre throw touchdown passes. Thomas Edison did not invent the phonograph and the light bulb by shopping for them at WalMart. They diligently searched for those things and invested their lives in pursuit of their discoveries. But Jesus is found by those who are not looking for him.

Romans 3:10-11 says, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” We have the “seeker” movement now in our churches, when the Bible says there are none that seek after God. Man in his natural state wants nothing to do with God. That is why God has to seek us out first.

Jesus said, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) No man has ever discovered anything on this earth or in this Universe that God did not have there already waiting for him to find it. No man ever “found God” until Jesus had already searched him out before. Jesus also said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” (John 6:44) Now don’t go all Hyper-Calvinist on me. If you don’t know what I am talking about, good. God draws ALL men to his Son and the cross. Anyone who is not “found of God” has rejected the draw of the Spirit of the Father. But we have to understand that everything begins and ends with God. He is the “author and finisher” (Hebrews 12:2). He created the world and placed the continents where it pleased him. He set the laws of physics and science in place, and left them there for us to find them and use them for his purposes. He chose his Son “from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) to be the only sacrifice for sin and the only way to the Father (John 14:6). He sent him to the cross for your sins, and he is on a “seek and save” rescue mission for the souls of lost men and women. He has every one of those souls in his “crosshairs” including yours if you are not saved. Those who respond to his call can say they have “found God” just like Columbus could say he discovered a land mass that was already there. But you will not find him until you trust the Son of God to save you. Have you? If not, will you?