Acts 17:27

"Having appointed the times." He says, "Having appointed to seek God"; but he did not appoint this for all time, rather for appointed times, showing that they did not find him when they did not seek him now. For since when they sought, they did …

Few indeed are those who know that they attain those reasons: indeed, what is more, few are those who are willing to believe this, because it seems difficult to an intellect not yet elevated to contemplate eternal things that it should have God so present …

Paul shows that, even without having found the Lord, they obtained Him. And since, in seeking Him, they did not find Him, he also shows that the Lord is as evident as some object examined in a conspicuous place, because it is impossible for heaven …

If haply - The way is open; God is ready to be found. But he will lay no force upon man; they might feel after him - This is in the midst between seeking and finding.

That they should seek the Lord,....

That they should seek the Lord - Greek: to seek the Lord. The design of thus placing them on the earth - of gang them their habitation among his works - was, that they should contemplate his wisdom in his works, and thus come to a knowledge of his existence and character. All nations, though living in different regions and climates, have thus the opportunity of becoming acquainted with God, Rom 1:19-20. The fact that the nations did not thus learn the character of the true God shows their great stupidity and wickedness.

WHEN man disobeyed his God he died spiritually and that death consisted in the separation of his soul from God. From that moment man began to think that God was far away and this has since been his religion in all ages. Either he has said, "There is no God," or he has believed the visible creation to be God, which is much the same as having no God. Or else he has thought God to be some far-away, mysterious Being who takes no notice of man.

WHEN man disobeyed his God he died spiritually and that death consisted in the separation of his soul from God. From that moment man began to think that God was far away and this has since been his religion in all ages. Either he has said, "There is no God," or he has believed the visible creation to be God, which is much the same as having no God. Or else he has thought God to be some far-away, mysterious Being who takes no notice of man. Even after obtaining a better conception of God, he has thought Him hard to find and hard to be entreated of. Because his own heart is far from God, he imagines that God's heart is far from him. But it is not so. The living God is not far from any one of us, for, "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." The nearness of God to man is a teaching of Revelation. Look back to the record of the Garden of Eden and see an early evidence of God's nearness to man. Adam, having transgressed, hid himself among the trees of the garden, but in his hiding place God sought him and the Voice of the Lord God was heard, walking among the trees of the garden and saying, "Adam, where are you?" Man will not seek God, but God seeks man! Though man's voice is not, "Where is my God?" yet God's voice is, "Adam, where are you?" All through history God has been familiar with man. He has spoken to him in divers ways, but principally through chosen men. One after another He has raised up Prophets and by their warning voices He has pleaded with men and invited them to seek His face. His own voice might have caused dismay and distance and so He has used human voices, that He might come nearer to the heart. All the history of the chosen nation, as we read it in the Old Testament, reveals the nearness of Jehovah. Whatever we read upon the page, we know that within, above, or behind it, the Lord is near, even when He seems to have hidden Himself.

That they should seek the Lord - This is a conclusion drawn from the preceding statement. God, who is infinitely great and self-sufficient, has manifested himself as the maker of the world, the creator, preserver, and governor of men. He has assigned them their portion, and dispensed to them their habitations, and the various blessings of his providence, to the end that they should seek him in all his works. Feel after him - Ψηλαφησειαν αυτον, That they might grope after him, as a person does his way who is blind or blindfolded. The Gentiles, who had not a revelation, must grope after God, as the principle of spiritual life, that they might find him to be a Spirit, and the source of all intellectual happiness; and the apostle seems to state that none need despair of finding this fountain of goodness, because he is not far from every one of us.

Mythology is a search; it is something that combines a recurrent desire with a recurrent doubt, mixing a most hungry sincerity in the idea of seeking for a place with a most dark and deep and mysterious levity about all the places found. So far …