"Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 1:4-9)

After generations (the reigns of four kings and over 70 years) of rebellion against God, one might think the next thing we would find in Scripture is God wiping Judah off the face of the earth. But we don’t. Instead, we once again find the indescribable mercy of God.

The only reason there was a remnant left in Judah was not because the remnant did something special. No. The remnant was there because God left it unto them.

And so it is in the life of God’s people. Our eternal salvation is based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. God owns us because Jesus redeemed us. Moreover, He owns us as children that He redeemed from sin.

However, we often act like Judah and get ourselves into the horrible consequences of our own sin. God patiently chastises us time and again as a Father Who loves His children. And when we finally push too far?

God spare us once again in love and mercy.