REST (From Israel)
This term, or its synonym “remnant,” appears constantly in the OT in the sense of “the residue of the people.” In every crisis in Israel’s history there has been a remnant.
This is seen in the time of Ahab (1 Kings 19:18), and also in the time of the first coming of the Messiah (Lk. 2:38); That this will be the case in the future is abundantly clear from the testimony of the prophets (e.g., Mich. 2:12; 5:3; Zech. 14:2).
There will be great prosperity in the land, and God will cause the remnant of his people to possess it (Zech. 8:12; cf. Rev. 12:17). As God’s people have fallen into unfaithfulness to his call, he makes his own purposes firm in a remnant.
The prophetic language found in the Psalms is not an expression of the mass of Israel, but of the remnant, in whose hearts the Spirit of Christ speaks; and it is in the Psalms that the distinguished remnant of the wicked nation is first seen.
There is also a correspondence with this with regard to the Church. In the words addressed to the church in Thyatira we find this term: “to you and to the rest (or ‘rest’)… I say to you: …whatever you have, hold on to it until I come” (Rev. 2: 24, 25).
They represent the faithful in a context of apostasy and idolatry within the professing church.
A remainder, or residue, morally represents the original whole, and does not imply an inferior residual portion.
It is by the grace of God that the remnant of each age is given the ability to stand firm in the truth and calling given during a general apostasy.