Isaiah 10:20-34 offers a hopeful promise for God’s people as they face an otherwise hopeless future.
If He Delivered this Message to Us
Imagine Isaiah making a surprise visit to Dulin’s Grove and delivering this message: “God is going to use the government and society to purify the church. They will label the gospel ‘hate speech’, remove your tax-exempt status, and take your property. They will outlaw your message and ban your social media posts. During this process, many church folks will abandon Christ. Many Christians will go into hiding, go to jail, or even be killed.”
As we listened to this message from the Lord, we would be shocked and terrified. But imagine Isaiah continued, “God is going to put a stop to this eventually. He is going to humble the persecutors, remove them from office, and put them in jail. When this happens, a small group of faithful Christians will emerge from the shadows to follow me in truth.”
This second part of Isaiah’s message would make the difference between hopelessness and hope, despair and resolve, surrender and endurance, fear and faith.
This is essentially what God says through Isaiah to Israel in our passage.
In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth. (Isaiah 10:20-23)
God Does Not Always Grow His People
God does not always grow his people. Sometimes he prunes them, like an arborist cutting back an unwieldy tree. Sometimes he designs his people the way Dieter Rams designed his products, “Less but better.”
Israel had leaned on another source for strength but would soon transfer their weight back to God. A remnant would return to lean on “the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.” All the pain they were about to experience would not result in annihilation, but a faithful remnant.
This promise was meant reassure God’s people.
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.
For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”
Why did God choose to show Israel this glimpse of their remnant future? So that they might “be not afraid.”
To further reassure them, he evoked episodes from their past in which he brought them through seemingly impossible situations. He swallowed the vast Egyptian army with the Red Sea. He told Gideon to trim his forces so that he could display his power in defeating the numerically superior Midians.
Israel faced a truly fearsome future, but God would spare them and wanted them to know it.
God is Still Preserving His People
It seems like the American church is being pruned. Numbers of churches and professing Christians are shrinking. Statistics indicate it. Experience agrees. It’s getting harder to get people to come to church and even harder to get them to be the church.
It is helpful to look back and see that God does not always grow his people. Sometimes he prunes them.
Why should we expect widespread acceptance? Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14:
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Why should we expect continual, uninterrupted church growth? Jesus said in John 15:1-2:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Why should we be surprised when many turn away? Jesus said in Matthew 24:9-11:
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
Make Sure You’re in the Remnant
Are you leaning on “the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth?”
Are you trusting in Jesus for salvation?
Are you following Jesus as Lord?
If not, repent. Trust and follow Jesus right now. Then get in touch with a nearby pastor who would love to help you begin your new life as a Christian.
If so…
Be Not Afraid
The command to “Fear not” is in the Bible hundreds of times.
How can God command us not to feel fear? If you’ve been in fear’s grip, you know it’s impossible to simply stop feeling it. But he does make the command. He expects us to be able to obey it. So we have to figure it out.
It’s helpful to notice that, in Isaiah 10, God does not toss the command out like an absent-minded parent telling his kid to clean his room. He nestles it in the middle of nine promises.
- A remnant will lean on the LORD
- The remnant will return
- His fury will come to an end
- His anger will be directed toward their enemy’s destruction
- He will wield a whip against them
- He will lift his staff against them as he did in Egypt
- The burden will depart from their shoulder
- The yoke will depart from their neck
- The yoke will be broken
All these things will happen. Therefore, “be not afraid.”
To be not afraid is to trust in God’s promises. To trust in God’s promises is to be not afraid.
Imagine Christians unafraid. Imagine amidst the terrified chatter online, Christians posting peacefully based on God’s promises. Imagine instead a pillowcase stuffed with jagged anxieties, you rest your head at night upon good promises.
Fear is a pandemic and we have the vaccine. It isn’t a new medication, a new app, a new political movement, or a new law—it’s old promises.
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matthew 7:24)
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. (2 Corinthians 1:20)
