Look To The Rock

The people of Jerusalem were in a sorry state. Most had forsaken and abandoned the LORD, the God of the Covenant. Successive foreign powers had attacked the city, and exile was a very real threat. Already many of the people had been carried away. The remnant was small, who held to faith in the LORD, who sought to serve him.

God's word to them through Isaiah is one of comfort, hope and encouragement. The remnant may be small, but God is not small!

Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. (Isaiah 51: 1-3)

You think things are bad now? Abraham was on his own when God called him, and look at what God did with him! God is never in for the numbers game, but always works through his faithful remnant to gain the glory.

Look back to your roots, and see the fruit which the LORD has produced. If he can do that for Abraham, what will he achieve through the Jerusalem remnant? And further forward, through the servant of the LORD, Jesus Christ, the remnant of his people, the only true, faithful and law-keeping Jew that ever existed!