But Esaias cries concerning Israel, Should the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved
God is calling people to Himself from among Jews and Gentiles alike. To show that this is nothing new, Paul turns to Israel's own prophet. Isaiah's cry raises the hardest question in the chapter. Israel's children are as many as the sand of the sea, so why will God save only a remnant?
Paul is not inventing a harsh new teaching. He is repeating to his own people what Isaiah had already said.
The prophets did not lack the assurance of mercy for the Gentiles. They spoke even more of warnings of judgment on Israel. So this was not the new testimony of grace that the Jews resented as interfering with their ancient privileges. Let them beware of fighting against God. He had taught both these truths in the living words He entrusted to them. Those words were their boast, though they understood them so little. So if they quarrelled with such a sentence, their quarrel was not so much with Paul as with Isaiah and the Holy Spirit who inspired him.
Isaiah looks past Israel's vast numbers to the close of their story.
The prophet looks on to the close of the sorrowful history of the chosen people... It is the great crisis of prophecy, the end of the Lord with His people. They prove Him to be very compassionate and tender in mercy, whatever the rough roads and stormy skies along the way. Israel's numbers may have been ever so great; yet not the mass but the remnant shall be saved.
Isaiah's words show two very different vessels made from one lump of clay.
Now Isaiah 10:22-23 and Isaiah 1:9 show the two kinds of vessels formed from the same lump of sinful, disobedient Israel. On one side is a remnant that submits to grace. On the other is a vast body of them resisting grace, and cut off in judgment.
The remnant did not survive because it was better than the rest.
The Lord spared this remnant only because of His sovereign grace... But for grace they would have been wiped out.
Commentators differ over where the weight of this prophecy falls. Some read it as the pattern God is following in the present day, as He gathers believers out of both nations.
Does anyone object to what God is doing today, calling out by the gospel a chosen people from both Jews and Gentiles? The answer is that God is only doing again in our days what He has done in the past. What is more, the prophets had expected that He would act like this. Both Moses and Isaiah had foretold that only a remnant of Israel should be saved. They also foretold that God would call into favour a people He once did not love.
Others point the verse forward. They see a crisis still ahead for the whole nation.
It is a prediction concerning the future. When this age closes, they will pass through a time of judgment. In that period God in sovereign power and mercy will call a remnant of His people. It is the remnant so often seen in the prophetic Word and in the book of Revelation. That remnant will be saved and will become the nucleus of the coming Kingdom.
If only a remnant is saved, what happens to Paul's later promise that all Israel will be saved? The answer lies in how the remnant relates to the nation.
In the day that is coming it is said, "all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:26). But when we examine the prophecies that deal with that time, we find that only a very small "remnant" of Israel will be blessed. The great majority of the nation is cut off in judgment... This remnant, however, gets the place and blessings of Israel, and so it represents the nation.
A shrinking number can feel like a defeat. God sees them differently.
A remnant is smaller than the whole it comes from, and it carries the features of the original. Think of a carpet, for instance. But this does not mean it is of less value. God values the minority who keep the character of God's people.
- Cry — Paul's hardest word about Israel is a quotation. The quarrel is with Isaiah and the Spirit who inspired him, not with Paul.
- Count — Numbers like the sand of the sea prove nothing. Not the mass but the remnant is saved.
- Clay — One lump, two vessels: a remnant that bows to grace, and a vast body that resists it and is cut off.
- Grace — The remnant survives for one reason: the sovereign grace of the Lord. But for grace, they would have been wiped out.
- All — The remnant receives the place and blessings of the whole nation. So it stands for the "all Israel" of the promise.
for [he] is bringing the matter to an end, and [cutting [it] short in righteousness; because] a cutting short of the matter will [the] Lord accomplish upon the earth.
Here Paul quotes Isaiah: God will settle His account with Israel fully, and fast. Two questions follow — what does it mean to cut a matter short, and when does God do it?
The phrase behind "carry out his sentence" means bringing a matter to an end. One writer places it at the close of Israel's long, sad history:
The prophet looks forward to the close of the sorrowful history of the chosen people... However many Israel may have been, it is not the mass but the remnant that will be saved. For He is finishing and cutting the matter short in righteousness. Then it will be no question of patient mercy; the Lord will cut the matter short on the earth, or land.
Another writer puts it in the language of accounting:
He will have the last word in the affairs of men. He has said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." When He does step in, He will finish the work — that is, He will settle the account — and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.
The cutting short happens in righteousness. One writer draws out what that means for God's patience:
God would finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness. His patience reaches its limit, even though most of Israel are still unrepentant. He will make short work of their proud independence. Righteousness must be done, and even patience will not push it aside. A solemn lesson for men who think of patience as passing over sin altogether!
One writer weighs the length of God's mercy against the speed of His wrath:
There will be chosen souls on earth during the tribulation, and for their sake it will be cut short... 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 work fast, cutting it short in righteousness. A short three and a half years will cover it, as other Scriptures show. So the goodness of God will be shown both in mercy and in wrath.
Cutting the work short leaves survivors, and they carry Israel's future:
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 in sovereign power and mercy will call out a remnant of His people, the remnant seen so often in the prophetic Word and in the Book of Revelation. God will save that remnant and make it the core of the coming Kingdom. Unbelieving Israel, having turned away from Him, will be swept away in judgment.
Commentators differ on the timing. Some place the short work in a future time of trouble. Another answers objectors by pointing to what God is doing today:
If any object to what God is doing today, calling out by the Gospel a chosen people from both Jews and Gentiles, the answer is simple. God is only doing again in our days what He has done in the past.
Paul is not inventing this. He is reading it back to Israel out of their own Scriptures:
This was not the new testimony of grace that the Jews resented so strongly as interfering with their ancient privileges. Let them beware of fighting against God, who had taught both these truths in the living words entrusted to them... So if they argued with such a sentence, they were arguing not so much with Paul as with Isaiah and the Holy Spirit who had inspired him.
- Finished — God brings the matter to an end and cuts it short. One writer calls it settling the account.
- In righteousness — the cutting short is justice, not haste. God's patience has a limit, and it never quietly cancels sin.
- Short — mercy through the gospel has run for centuries. Wrath, when it comes, will be brief: three and a half years.
- For a remnant — God cuts the work short to save some. That remnant becomes the core of the coming kingdom, not just the leftovers of judgment.
- From Isaiah — the teaching is Israel's own Scripture. Arguing with it means arguing with the prophet and the Spirit who inspired him.