The Effect of the Remnant

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 1:9

9 Unless the LORD of hosts
   Had left to us a very small remnant,
   We would have become like Sodom,
   We would have been made like Gomorrah.

Except … - It is owing entirely to the mercy of God, that we are not like Sodom. The prophet traces this not to the goodness of the nation, not to any power or merit of theirs, but solely to the mercy of God. This passage the apostle Paul has used in an argument to establish the doctrine of divine sovereignty in the salvation of people; (see Rom. 9:29).

The Lord - Hebrew YAHWEH. Note Isa. 1:2.

Of hosts - The word used here is sometimes translated “Sabaoth”; (Rom. 9:29; James 5:4). It means literally armies or military hosts. It is applied, however, to the angels which surround the throne of God; (1 Kings 22:19; 2 Chr. 18:18; Ps. 103:21); and to the stars or constellations that appear to be marshaled in the sky; (Jer. 33:22; Isa. 40:26). This host, or the “host of heaven,” was frequently an object of idolatrous worship; (Deut. 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kings 17:16). God is called YAHWEH of hosts because he is at the head of all these armies, as their leader and commander; he marshals and directs them - as a general does the army under his command. ‘This,’ one writer says, ‘is the most common name of God in Isaiah, and in Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Malachi. It represents him as the ruler of the hosts of heaven, that is, the angels and the stars. Sometimes, but less frequently, we meet with the appellation YAHWEH, God of hosts. Hence, some suppose the expression YAHWEH of hosts to be elliptical. But it is not a correct assertion that YAHWEH, as a proper name, admits of no genitive. The name is given here, because to save any portion of a nation so wicked implied the exercise of the same power as that by which he controlled the hosts of heaven. This means it is entirely sufficient to accomplish the task.  If it is withheld, then, it is not be He COULD NOT accomplish the task, but because He DID NOT accomplish it.  It is this that Israel is asked to consider here.

Remnant - A small part - that which is left. It means here, that God had spared a portion of the nation, so that they were not entirely overthrown. This implies a couple things…first that there were far less than there ought to have been.  It also speaks of the willingness of God to allow even His people to suffer the ravages of judgment because of sin.  They had been greatly discomfited because of the judgment of God on the sin of the nation.

We should have been as Sodom … - This does not refer to the character of the people, but to their destiny. If God had not interposed to save them they would have been overwhelmed entirely as Sodom was; (compare Gen. 19:24-25).  

The emphasis here is two-fold; first, it is the hand of God that has preserved them, and not any other power or thing.  They are, the point that Isaiah is addressing, still a nation because God has kept them a nation.  They did not persist because of any ability of their own.  The implication is that they would not “desist” as a nation for the same reasons.  David knew this, as did many of the other writers of Scripture when they proclaimed that it was not by might, or by the sword that God’s plan is accomplished and His enemies vanquished; but by the Spirit of God!

Secondly, we see the nations is preserved by means of and for the sake of the remnant of believers in that nation.  God does not preserve a nation because of the nation itself, but because of the believers in that nation.  The remnant was, in a very real way, all that stood between the nation and the full experience of the wrath of God.  This is a sobering idea.  How a nation views the “remnant” and how it treats them is highly significant and has a great effect on when and if judgment comes!  God preserves nations because He has a People within that nation that He wishes to bless and/or preserve.  We ought to note that this principle is not absolute, that is, it is not something that will do forever.  there comes a time when God judges ins spite of the presence of His people.  Any nation owes its continuance to the believers within it, but the presence of believers in an ungodly nation is no guarantee of its continued existence.