“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.” – Isaiah 10:20
Throughout biblical history and down to the present day, God has proven faithful over and over again to “the remnant” who loves and follows Him. Not all who have claimed or thought they were “God’s People” were actually faithful to Him. Therefore, times of testing, times of suffering, and times of judgment have come to reveal those who are faithful to God and those who are not.
God always restores the faithful remnant! He’s always there for those who turn back to Him and seek Him with determination. In our own age, we’ve seen a rapid diminishing and fracturing of Christ’s church, particularly in the Western world. While there is much to lament about this, we should also recognize that it’s the continuation of an age-old pattern. We are in a time of winnowing when casual Christians, nominal Christians, ethnic Christians, and worldly Christians likely find no social or economic advantage in calling themselves Christians (indeed, quite the opposite!). What will remain is the faithful remnant who leans on Christ rather than man.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and may well be the necessary step prior to another Great Awakening, a glorious movement of the Holy Spirit that bring many more to genuine faith and enlarges “the remnant”. Let us pray diligently that it would be so and that a spirit of awakening would soon sweep across all the nations of the world!