"A REMNANT SHALL RETURN" (SUMMARY OF AN ADDRESS)
“A REMNANT SHALL RETURN” (SUMMARY OF AN ADDRESS)
2 Kings 18: 1 - 37; 2 Kings 19: 1 - 37
Ahaz, when pressed by Pekah and Rezin, had sent to the king of Assyria to say, “I am thy servant and thy son: come up and, save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel”, 2 Kings 16: 7. This was after Jehovah had sent a special message to him by Isaiah and Shear-jashub, as we learn from Isaiah 7. Jehovah was still waiting on the house of David with a view to a remnant being recovered. Shear-jashub means ‘A remnant shall return’, and this is the key to Hezekiah’s history, and also to the ways of God with His people today. God is working that there may be a remnant that shall return to full confidence in Him.
Ahaz had been specially favoured of God, for God would have given him any sign that he liked to ask for to establish his confidence. The message was delivered to him “at the end of the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field”, Isaiah 7: 3. The place was selected to intimate that Jehovah was waiting to bring about cleansing and restoration, for the aqueduct, the pool and the fuller’s field all suggest places of purifying influences. But they were only available to faith, and Ahaz had no faith, though no man ever had a more wonderful opportunity to trust God. He was so unbelieving that he would not take advantage of God’s offer to give him a sign, and it [p. 204] was because of this unbelief that God said that He would bring the king of Assyria upon Ahaz and his father’s house. Ahaz did not value the prophetic word; he preferred to give his confidence and his treasure to the king of Assyria.
It is very interesting to see that just at this juncture God brought in most wonderful prophecies concerning Christ. The prophecies found in Isaiah 7 to 11 are among the most precious of any in the Old Testament. They were brought in to encourage the faith of the remnant. Christ, and all that God brings in by Christ, is the measure of what He will do for His people, so that the remnant need not be afraid whatever pressure may come upon them.
It would appear that Hezekiah had judged the unbelief that came out in his father; his ear had been open to the word of Jehovah, for “he trusted in Jehovah the God of Israel ... and he clave to Jehovah, and did not turn aside from following him, but kept his commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses”. And we are told that he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. But he did not maintain this confidence, and we all have to learn that we cannot always maintain the faith that we began with. The testings that come upon us bring out our weaknesses. Fourteen years of prosperity seem to have weakened in his soul the power of the prophetic word. Isaiah 10: 20 had, no doubt, been spoken at this time.
God always speaks to comfort and encourage faith, but if the purifying power of the pool and the fuller’s field is not kept up faith loses its vigour, and then the king of Assyria seems to be more formidable than he did previously.
I wonder how many of us here tonight are at the highest point of our spiritual history? Hezekiah had been the best king of Judah, but he did not keep in the freshness of the prophetic word, or in the purifying influence of the pool and the fuller’s field. We cannot maintain confidence in [p. 205] God if purifying influences are not going on in activity in our souls. After fourteen years Hezekiah was not so bright as we might have expected. It is sorrowful to see that at this point we do not read that he prayed, or that he sent to Isaiah, or that he went into the house of Jehovah. He fell back upon plans of his own, and gave all the silver in the house, and the gold of the doors and posts to the king of Assyria. When we lose confidence in God, and use means to deliver ourselves, it always implies some surrender of what is really due to God. God will always see to it that schemes of unbelief fail, even when adopted by such a man as Hezekiah.
The Assyrians came on, and they took up their place just where Isaiah had stood in Ahaz’s day. As though God would remind Hezekiah, and all Jerusalem, of the prophetic word spoken there, and of the thought of a remnant returning (Isaiah 10: 21). The pressure was, indeed, used by God to cause that a remnant did return, and we see this beautifully set out in chapter 19. Hezekiah had for the time lost true remnant character, but this history shows how he was recovered to it. God’s great thought is that “the remnant shall return”. If we understood the counsels of heaven we should see that the remnant has the first place in the thoughts of God, and all that He permits to happen in the world has in view the return of the remnant to its normal confidence in Him, and in His precious words concerning Christ. God will see to it today that a remnant shall return. All that is happening in Europe has this in view. Our relations with God and with Christ are the great things. May it be a holy desire with each one of us to be of the remnant that returns!
The features of the virgin daughter of Zion came out beautifully in the two men Hezekiah and Isaiah. They had both gone through deep exercises, and had had to learn to judge themselves in the presence of God. The fuller’s field [p. 206] is where our garments are made white. God is working with us to get rid of all elements of laxity and unfaithfulness; He would have us to shine like stars amid the darkness of this world.
When Hezekiah heard the words of Rab-shakeh “he rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah”. He sent to request Isaiah to “lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left”. All self-confidence has now gone. Afterwards when Rabshakeh’s letter came he “went up into the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah”. God had said, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob shall no more again rely upon him that smote them; but they shall rely upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God”, Isaiah 10: 20, 21. Our spiritual value is measured by how much we rely on the blessed God. Prayer is more powerful than the strength that the world possesses. The enemy sometimes thinks when he has observed our decline over a period of years that he can easily prevail against us, but God can quickly restore His people, and uses the pressure of the enemy to bring this about.
One of the worst things about decline is that the heart is so slow to admit to itself that it has declined. Scripture speaks of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. But purifying influences are found amongst the brethren. Hezekiah turned to the most spiritual man that he knew in turning to Isaiah, and it is good to cleave to the holy brethren. We then get out of the atmosphere of the world, and under purifying influences. It is a dreadful thing to get away from the company of the saints; it is getting away from all that which is cleansing and restoring. It is, indeed, the road to destruction. If we find that we get [p. 207] nothing amongst the brethren, or in the meetings, it is a most alarming symptom. For in the poorest meeting of saints there ever was there was something of God and of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, and these are holy and restoring influences. If there is decline with us let us not neglect the meeting for prayer; there is encouragement and help in being with those who have faith in God. In some sense we all need to return to more full confidence in God. In the conditions of the last days nothing but faith will go through in triumph. There is hardly anywhere in Scripture such a note of triumph as we get in 2 Kings 19: 21. God used the pressure of the Assyrian to cause the remnant to return in true virgin character and in overcoming power. When God had secured the return of the remnant He soon dealt with the Assyrian. The sackcloth showed that Hezekiah had not passed lightly over the period of his decline; he had had it all out with God. Then God could righteously accredit him with the features of the virgin daughter of Zion. If the saints are faithful God will see to it that there is something about them which even the world has to respect. It is a great mercy and favour from God when the world recognises that the convictions of His people deserve respect.
God is weighing all things, and He comes in for His people just at the right time. If an immediate answer is needed we get it, but if the development of His ways requires it the pressure may continue, but its duration is always divinely measured.