The little one shall become a thousand, and the smallest a mighty nation I, Jehovah, will hasten it in its time.
Isaiah 60 paints Jerusalem filled with light, wealth and honour after a long ruin. The last verse answers the obvious problem: the people left to receive it all are very few. God's reply promises two things. The few will become many, and He Himself sets the timing.
Who the promise belongs to
Commentators read the chapter as a description of Israel restored on earth, not of the church. The blessings named are earthly ones. A whole people counted righteous. Power and prosperity. That points to God's ancient people, not to those called to share Christ's sufferings.
This is overwhelming evidence, if more were needed. The church is not pictured here, whether on earth or in heaven. This is God's ancient people, blessed just as He promised. Righteousness here is measured by an earthly standard. This is not the day of a chosen few who bear witness. It is the day when "your people shall all be righteous," and they hold that place in power and prosperity. They are not sharing Christ's sufferings or being shaped by His death.
The remnant behind the promise
The small number is nothing new. The true Israel has always been a minority inside the larger nation.
We call the elect people of the last days "the remnant," because that is how the Scriptures speak of them. The true Israel, the Israel of God, has always been only a remnant inside a nation under judgment... And this last remnant will become the seed of the future nation, the "all Israel," which is to be saved.
Weakness as the starting point
One writer sets two servants side by side. The first is the Servant Himself, who says He has spent His strength for nothing. The second is Israel, drained of both power and numbers. God makes His promise into that emptiness.
The first said, I have spent My strength for nothing. The second became utterly weak both politically and numerically. How then shall glory and blessing come to the nations of the earth? The answer is in Him who owns all strength and wisdom. The Servant says, My God has become My strength. God answers, I will keep You to establish the land (49:5, 8). And to drained Israel He says, the smallest one shall become a mighty nation (60:22).
Growth after new birth
God makes the people righteous first, and only then does the increase come. One writer stresses how fast it will be.
So the children of Israel will be born again and made righteous before their God, through the grace of their Redeemer. Then they will be multiplied, as the last verse of our chapter tells us. At last God is able to make of them "a strong nation." When the time arrives God will do it speedily. It will not be a long, drawn-out process, the slow development that people love to imagine. It will be a swift act, plainly the work of God.
God's chosen moment
The promised speed arrives at the point where the situation looks finished. One writer sets it at the worst point for the Jews, when a poor and afflicted remnant is all that is left.
When things are at their worst for the Jews... one greater than Moses will appear. He will destroy His enemies and rescue a poor and afflicted remnant. Small as that remnant is, it will become a strong nation, for He will hasten it in His time.
The phrase "I will hasten it" has also been taken as a window into God's character. He is unhurried in creation, yet He moves fast where mercy is concerned.
God moves through creation slowly and grandly, in a way that suits who He is. But when it comes to saving sinful people, the Son cannot rest until the work is done. The coming of the Holy Spirit is like a "mighty rushing wind," and the action of the Father is expressed in type by that which reveals so strongly that "the Lord will hasten it in His time!"
Living under God's clock
Because the timing is God's, waiting is safe. The verse has been used as an anchor for anyone whose deliverance seems overdue.
If our times were in our own hand, deliverance would come too soon. If they were in our enemy's hand, it would come too late. But my times are in Your hand, and God's time is always best... When His people are low enough, and the enemy high enough, then the Church's morning star appears... "I the Lord will hasten it in His time." Deliverance may be later than our time; but it will not be later than God's time.
Summary
- Small — God speaks to a remnant, the minority who have always been the true Israel. That remnant is the seed of the whole future nation.
- Righteous — increase follows new birth. God makes them a strong nation only after He makes them righteous.
- Swift — the growth is not slow development but a sudden act, plainly God's own work.
- Timed — He hastens it in His time, at the point when His people are lowest and the enemy highest.
- Trustworthy — deliverance may run past our schedule; it never runs past God's, so waiting is not wasted.