27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; 28 for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.” 29 And just as Isaiah foretold, “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, we would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.”
Continuing the theme of Israel being vessels of mercy, there were many times when God could have rightfully snuffed them out of existence. In fact, it is a wonder He didn’t. Of all the people God could have chosen, these descendants of Abraham turned out to be a “stiff-necked” people (Acts 7:51). Through Isaiah the prophet, God had warned Israel about the coming judgment through the instrumentality of Assyria. Their wickedness was so bad that God had promised that He would send a wicked nation to war against them and carry them away into captivity. As the history unfolded, this in fact happened, in successive waves involving the Babylonians also. Israel was devastated. They did not deserve God’s mercy.
But God spoke to them about a remnant that will be saved from that destruction. The vast multitude (“like the sand of the sea”) would be destroyed and lose out on the Abrahamic blessings, but there would be a few who would be saved. The salvation of the few, the remnant, in no way diminishes God’s judgment on the many. And how can anyone charge God with being unfair for saving the few and not all, who deserved nothing but judgment?
As Abraham himself said, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” (Gen 18:25). God spared Lot, his wife and daughters from His “scorched earth” policy of destruction for Sodom and its wickedness, and did so justly. Hardly could we say that God’s saving Lot and his family means God was unjust in continuing with His destruction of Sodom. So neither can we charge God with injustice when He saves some of Israel (the remnant) from the destruction they deserve. Nor can we rightfully charge God with injustice when He saves some from fallen humanity, deserving of judgment, but does not save all of humanity. It seems the only thing that would satisfy the self-centered, humanistic mind is either total judgment and destruction of all equally with no mercy extended at all, or mercy extended to all equally.
As for Israel, the vessel of mercy, God has saved a remnant that was not destroyed. But notice the tense of the verb “will be saved” is future. There still remains a place for the remnant of Israel in God’s plan. While the mercy they experience is shared with Gentiles, they are still distinct from the Gentiles.
Lord, again, I can’t thank You enough for Your mercy in my life.
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