1:10 sand of the sea. A clear reference to the ancient patriarchal promise of innumerable descendants (Gen. 22:17; 32:12; cf. Gen. 13:16; 15:5; 26:24; 28:14).

You are not my people. The promise of restoration to these people was fulfilled at least in part when remnants of the north were joined with the south during the reign of Hezekiah (2 Chr. 30:11, 18) and after the Exile (1 Chr. 9:3; Ezra 8:35). The New Testament applies this promise to the church, the true Israel, composed of both Jews and Gentiles (Rom. 9:24–26; 1 Pet. 2:9, 10). For the apostles, the remnant of ethnic Israel was evidently a model for the remnant of the nations: what applied to the former applied to the latter.

Children of the living God. This unique expression suggests the kind of intimate relationship God desires with Israel, in which God gives life (as opposed to the lifeless relationship Israel had with Baal). In Is. 40:18–20; 44:9–20; 46:5–11, dead idols are contrasted with the living God. The living relationship is now provided in Jesus Christ (Matt. 16:16; Rom. 9:26).