And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob shall no more again rely upon him that smote them; but they shall rely upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
Assyria had struck Israel, and God had used that blow to discipline His own people. So why did leaning on a foreign power fail, and what makes the new reliance on the LORD last "in truth"?
The one who "struck them" is Assyria. King Ahaz turned to Assyria for safety instead of to God.
Two enemy kings frightened Ahaz. But God sends the very one he tried to rest on as a chastening on him. There is what one should fear — that God should take the rod. God would be our strength; the heart of man never wishes it. The fear of evil coming on us makes us seek support in what looks like a safe road. And these are the very things God uses to chastise us. Ahaz and his people would lean on the king of Assyria; and God makes the Assyrian come against them in the end.
Isaiah calls them the remnant of Israel and those who escaped. Scripture has a settled name for this small company that God raises up to witness to Him.
They are a little company. Scripture speaks of them by a term which, once you grasp it, will help you understand the Old Testament Scriptures much better... God never left Himself without a witness on earth, and He never will. In that day He raises up a company who testify to Jehovah. Countless passages of the Old Testament Scriptures speak of them, often by this term, "the remnant."
"In that day" is not limited to Isaiah's own time. The promise of a preserved remnant reaches two separate periods.
The double application of the latter part of Isaiah 10 is, we think, quite clear. In verses 20-23, God pledges Himself to preserve a remnant. He would still allow a great consuming in the land, according to His holy government. This promise covers the whole "house of Jacob," because God must have given it some years before the ten tribes went into captivity. He did preserve a remnant in those far-off days, when He gave the prophecy. And He will do so again in the coming days at the end of this age.
The verse does not say they will drop Assyria and find a better ally. It closes the door on that whole way of living.
Then Israel's unbelief will pass away for ever. Israel will trust no more in human strength, whether Egyptian, Assyrian, or any other.
The words "in truth" set this remnant apart from the rest of the nation.
This is the remnant of Israel. They no longer lean on the one who struck them, as the proud and godless mass do. They lean on Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and they do it in truth.
Some read this verse as a promise that God rescues an unbelieving nation. Faith, they say, comes afterwards. One writer answers that the verse says nothing of the kind.
It does say this: in that day the saved remnant will not go back. They will not repeat the sad story of decline that has happened so often in the past... It does not mean that He delivers them in an unbelieving condition, and then they believe. That is certainly not God's ordinary way of delivering, but to wake up a soul to faith and then answer it.
The small number is not a loss of God's promise. In Scripture, a representative group carries the name and the blessing of the whole.
Of the coming day Scripture says, "And in this way all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:26). But look at the prophecies that deal with that time. We find that only a very small "remnant" of Israel will be blessed, and that the great majority of the nation will be cut off in judgment. (See Isa. 6:9-13, Isa. 10:20-23... Jer. 23:3; Ezek. 6:8, 14:22...) This remnant, however, gets the place and blessings of Israel, and is thus the representative of the nation.
- Lean — Ahaz leaned on Assyria for safety, and God sent that same Assyria as the rod that struck him. The prop we choose out of fear often becomes the discipline we receive.
- Lean no more — the promise is not a better ally. It is the end of trusting human strength of any kind, Egyptian, Assyrian, or other.
- Lean on the LORD — the new reliance is on the Holy One of Israel, and "in truth" marks it off from the leaning of the proud mass.
- Lean and last — this remnant does not relapse. God's way is to wake a soul to faith and then answer it, not to deliver people while they are still in unbelief.
- Lean and inherit — only a few survive. That few receives the place and blessings of the whole nation, and stands as its representative.
The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
Long before Isaiah wrote this chapter, he gave one of his sons a name that carried this same promise. The verse raises two questions. Who is this remnant? And who is "the mighty God" they return to?
Commentators point to what that name meant and what the boy stood for.
It is very interesting and instructive to see the name given to one of Isaiah's sons, Shear-jashub. It means "the remnant shall return." He was a pledge that the enemies of Judah would oppress them, but would not in the end prevail against them.
The word can sound like leftovers — the scraps nobody wanted. One writer explains the word with a picture from everyday life.
A remnant is smaller than the whole it comes from, and it keeps the features of the original. Think of a carpet. But this does not imply inferiority in value. God values the minority who maintain the character of God's people.
"Return" could mean simply coming home from exile. But the verse names God Himself as the destination. Writers also see a fulfilment still ahead.
This was partly fulfilled when the Assyrian took the ten tribes captive. But it will have its complete fulfilment in the time of the end. God had a faithful remnant, and these are always under His eye. They do not only return to the land after the captivity. They also return to God: "A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God." The mass of the ungodly nation perish.
The title here is the Hebrew El Gibbor. One chapter earlier, Isaiah gives the same title to the Child who is born. Writers treat that overlap as an argument in itself.
In Isaiah 9 we have the description of the Messiah, clearly the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the names given Him there is "the mighty God" (v. 6). Now turn over to chapter 10. You will find the same name given to Jehovah, "the mighty God" (v. 21). So here in the Old Testament itself is conclusive proof that the Messiah, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is God, the mighty God.
Commentators differ on how much weight the title carries by itself. One writer reads the use in Isaiah 9 as a statement about Christ's place, not a proof drawn from the word alone:
In Isaiah 9, the title El Gibbor (the Mighty God) does not, in its direct force, speak of the essential deity of Christ. Yet, being in righteousness, it must be divine. He must be God. But the words assert His position, not His nature.
The verse before this one says they will stop leaning on the power that struck them. One writer sees that change as final.
Then indeed Israel's unbelief will for ever pass away: Israel will trust no more in an arm of flesh, be it Egyptian, Assyrian, or whatever else.
The New Testament picks up these verses. One writer traces the same pattern through every age.
The apostle in Romans 9:27-28 quotes this prophecy to prove from the Old Testament what the New Testament assumes all through: that only a remnant of the people had saving relations with God. So it is now under the gospel, as it was after Babylon. And so it will be when the last crisis comes, with the struggles of the Antichrist and the Assyrian, until the Messiah settles everything and displays His kingdom in power here below.
Does the remnant get delivered while still unbelieving, and only afterwards turn? One writer answers from the order set out here.
There is nothing about their only returning after God has accomplished His work. It does not mean that He delivers them in an unbelieving condition, and then they believe. That is certainly not God's ordinary way of delivering, but to wake up a soul to faith and then answer it.
- Named. God put the promise in a boy's name: Shear-jashub, "the remnant shall return." Judah's enemies would oppress the people, but never defeat them.
- Small. A remnant is not the scraps; it is the smaller part that still carries the character of the whole, and God values it.
- Homeward. The return is not just to a country but to God Himself — "the mighty God" — and no past homecoming has finished it.
- Mighty. Isaiah 9 gives the same title to the Child who is born. Some read this as proof of Christ's deity; others hear it first as a statement of His position.
- Finished leaning. They will never again trade Him for human strength. God wakes a soul to faith first, then answers it with deliverance.
For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of them shall return the consumption determined shall overflow in righteousness.
Isaiah names a huge number and a small outcome in the same breath: a people like the sand of the sea, and only a remnant returning. Two questions follow. Who are these survivors? And how can a decreed destruction overflow with righteousness?
The prophet grants the nation its greatness and then removes any comfort from it. Sheer size guarantees nothing. Isaiah admits the vast crowd, then limits the number who come back.
Isaiah had prophesied salvation only for a remnant of the children of Israel, in contrast to the mass. This is in fact the uniform testimony of all the prophets, so plain that no Jew could deny it unless he refused to believe. There can be no mistaking Isaiah's meaning. He accepts that Israel's children may be as the sand of the sea, yet insists that "a remnant shall return" to the Lord.
This return did not take place in any past homecoming. One writer sets the verse beside Isaiah 1:9, quoted here in an older wording, and places the return in days still to come.
"If the Lord of hosts had not left us a very small remnant, we would have been like Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah" (Isaiah 1:9). That is the prophet's admission. Even in his own day, countless disasters had come on the nation because of their sins. Still "the Lord of hosts had left a very small remnant."… Here it is clearly of "the remnant" in days still future that the prophet speaks.
What marks that remnant is not survival but a change of trust. William Kelly names what Israel will stop leaning on.
Then Israel's unbelief will pass away for ever. Israel will no longer trust in human strength, whether Egyptian, Assyrian, or any other.
Where the ESV says "destruction," older translations say "consumption." The word does not mean a partial correction. It means judgment carried right through to the end.
Elsewhere Scripture uses the word rendered consumption, or consummation, for the carrying out of God's judgments to the full. In Jeremiah translators give the same word as "full end" in several passages. The prophecy means this: the avenging judgments carried out by the destroyer will be the climax of God's judgment in His government of the earth.
The prophets often describe invading armies as rising water. That is the picture behind "overflowing."
A flood, an overflow, will come with the end. The prophets use this picture often. It stands for the crushing destruction that invading armies bring. See, for example, Isaiah 8:7-8; Isaiah 28:2; Jeremiah 47:2; Daniel 11:22. It may also point back to the flood of Noah's day. Those waters swept away the corrupt and the godless, and so purified the world of that time.
The flood is not blind. God measures it, and its very speed is part of His mercy. (The quotation below uses an older wording of Romans 9:28.)
There will be chosen souls on earth during the tribulation, and for their sake it will be cut short… As Romans 9:28 says, the Lord will make "a short work… upon the earth," so that a remnant may be saved. Today God is giving out mercy through the Gospel, and He has made a very long work of it, stretching over nineteen centuries. When He gives out wrath He will make swift work of it, cutting it short in righteousness… So God will show His goodness both in mercy and in wrath.
In Romans 9 this line becomes the answer to a hard question: has God's word to Israel failed? The answer is that God never promised to save the mass.
While grace goes out to the Gentiles, mercy is also in store for Israel. In the end a remnant will be saved — not the whole nation, but a remnant… When this age closes, they will pass through a time of judgment. In that period God will call a remnant of His people, in sovereign power and mercy. It is the remnant seen so often in the prophetic Word and in the Book of Revelation. God will save that remnant, and it will become the core of the coming Kingdom.
- Sand — God does not deny Israel's vast numbers. But size never saved anyone, and only a remnant returns.
- Return — the return is a change of trust. Israel will lean on the Lord, not on human strength.
- Decreed — the word behind "destruction" means judgment carried to a full end. It is a climax, not a passing correction.
- Overflowing — the prophets picture invading armies as rising water. The image recalls the flood that swept the world clean in Noah's day.
- Righteousness — God has made mercy a long work. He will make wrath a short one, so that a remnant lives to form the core of the coming kingdom.