During a crucial time of Judah’s history, the evil counselor Rabshakeh was sent by the King of Assyria to intimidate the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jerusalem at this time was the only city in Canaan unconquered by the Assyrians. Rabshakeh declared to the Judean leaders that the Assyrians would overthrow the city of Jerusalem and scatter the inhabitants to its other conquered lands. When Hezekiah the king of Judah received this disturbing news, he sent word to Isaiah the prophet: “This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth” (Isa. 37:3).
What a day this was—a day of trouble, rebuke, and of blasphemy by the evil counselor Rabshakeh against God and His remnant. “The children had come to the birth” was a proverbial phrase expressing a time of extreme difficulty. Judah was in sore trouble and was expecting deliverance. It seems now as if she would not have strength to go through the crisis, that she would perish through weakness. King Hezekiah had hope that the Lord had heard the confrontational words of Rabshakeh.
The king pled with Isaiah to lift up his prayer for the remnant that was left, or the remnant that was found. Out of all Israel at this time, this remnant was only Judah. Although the northern tribes had been carried away captive, the kingdom of Judah still survived, the only tribe left of the nation of Jacob.
Although Jerusalem still was unconquered, there were numerous Judean captives conveyed to Assyria by Sennacherib when he took the other fenced cities.
The Concept of the Remnant
A number of months ago we presented a brief history of the remnant. It is important in this issue of Straightway to review it and to deepen our understanding of what is the remnant. This will enable us to discern its importance in the End Time of the last days.
Although the concept of the remnant was used earlier in the Bible, the prophet Isaiah developed it in detail. He stands mid-ground in history between Moses and the coming of Messiah. In the very first chapter of his writing, Isaiah saw the remnant as “very small”; it was because of this very small remnant that Jerusalem had not been destroyed by God as Sodom and Gomorrah had. As the book unfolds in the early part, Isaiah saw the remnant as the small group of Israelites who would survive the invasion of the Assyrian army under Tiglath-pileser III. This remnant is promised salvation, in that those who compose the remnant will one day be brought back to the Promised Land by the Lord.
Isaiah again uses such terminology during Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem. “Remnant” has a special significance in the prophecies of Isaiah as denoting “a holy seed,” or a spiritual kernel of the nation which should survive the impending judgment and become the germ of the people of God, being blessed of God and made a blessing.
Though it may appear to be a rare subject, the idea of a remnant is found 540 times in the Bible. The concept of the remnant was taken up by several other prophets including Micah, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah. The post-exilic biblical writings of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah consistently refer to the Jews who have returned from the Babylonian captivity as the remnant.
Most of the time, the remnant concept is disguised by the way the words are translated into English. In the Old Testament, remnant is translated by six Hebrew root words, each of which has the underlying meaning of “what is left” or “what remains”; “survivors,” “escapees,” or “the rest.” The one Greek root used in the New Testament and in the Septuagint has the same meaning. The concept of a remnant represented that part of the nation that was faithful in living before God even though most people rejected the ways of God.
A most important fact to be understood about the remnant is that its existence is said to be due to God Himself. Isaiah 1:9 states that the Lord left unto Jerusalem “a very small remnant.” Zephaniah 3:12, 13 further declares the following:
I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
The remnant, then, are the true people of God, amidst the professing people of God. This concept we also find in the New Testament: “the remnant according to the election of grace” as Paul dealt with the remnant of Israel at the end (Rom. 11:5).
A Biblical History of the Remnant
Following this brief overview of the remnant in the Old Testament, it is in the Book of Genesis where the concept of true remnants before the Lord begins. For some 1656 years the world population before the Flood grew rapidly as the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve spread over the earth enjoying lifespans of nearly a thousand years in length. The Gospel was proclaimed to these people but increasingly ignored as time progressed. At the end of the Antediluvian Age, Noah and his family suffered 120 years of scorn and ridicule while constructing the ark. That age came to an end with a very small believing (eschatological) remnant of only eight persons. Among possibly billions of persons of an entire ancient civilization utterly destroyed, there were only eight believers left in the world at the time of the Flood. One hundred years of preaching by Noah had not resulted in even one convert by the time of the Flood.
Abraham interceded for the city of Sodom where his nephew and family had taken up residence. God assured Abraham in Genesis 18 that He would spare the city from judgment if there were but ten righteous citizens in that city of thousands of inhabitants. In the end only Lot was saved (according to the words of 1 Pet. 2:7, 8). The righteous remnant in this case appears to have been only one individual, though Lot’s two unmarried daughters fled Sodom with him. Lot’s wife was encrusted by salt, and Lot’s other children perished in Sodom.
There is also the remnant of Caleb and Joshua who, out of twelve spies, believed in the promises of God. In the days of Gideon there were three hundred out of thirty-two thousand. Elijah in the days of Ahab and Jezebel complained that all had left loyalty to Jehovah except himself (1 Kings 19:14). To this God replied, “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” A remnant existed unknown and unseen (I Kings 19:18).
Jeremiah was pessimistic about the historical remnant which he said would become insignificant if not totally destroyed. All of the Jews who fled to Egypt were not to be the carriers of the divine promise. Nevertheless, it is Jeremiah who eloquently speaks of the New Covenant and the final regathering of the Jews. Ezekiel pled with God to add mercy in the midst of punishment; he understood that a historical remnant would survive and be scattered among the nations. Ezekiel also knew that God would bring a future generation back into the land under the new covenant involving “a new heart” and “a new spirit.” Daniel in his prophetic writings in Babylon emphasized the importance of the remnant that were to be found in various times of prophetic history. Seventy years later a goodly remnant (about 50,000 Jews) returned to Jerusalem to rebuild first the temple, and later the walls and the city. This took place under the leadership of outstanding godly individuals: Zerubbabel, Joshua the high priest, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah, and Ezra. Most of the Jews stayed behind, comfortably living in Babylon after the time of the return. Only a fraction returned. This returning group is considered “only a remnant.”
The Old Testament closes with the Book of Malachi which addresses God’s final redemption of Israel. Malachi’s admonition resulted in a remnant’s responding and God’s writing their names in a book of remembrance. When it comes to the last days and the regathering of Israel, it is clear that there will be a remnant to represent the nation to come in the acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. Their believing will be the coming of Israel back to the Lord.
The Last Day Remnant
In the New Testament, it is evident that the Gospel is only accepted by a remnant of people. When Christ came into the world only a remnant was looking for Him; only a few came to an acknowledgment of Him. Throughout His ministry only a remnant truly trusted in Him. At the time of His ascension only 120 were found in the Upper Room. As the Gospel spread throughout the inhabited world in the time of the New Testament, it was evident that two churches were forming: a true Church (wheat, with its head being Jesus Christ), and a false church (tares, with its head being Satan). Of the soil upon which the Gospel fell, only twenty-five percent was good soil; and even of that soil only one-third received one hundredfold.
As the New Testament continued to be written, it was evident that a false Gospel was rising within the ranks of the church, a false faith, a false teaching of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Rising up within the visible Church was an apostasy, a defection, a falling away from the truth of Christ. The apostle Paul would first declare to Timothy that “some . . . have turned aside” (1 Tim. 1:6); “some . . . have made shipwreck” (1:19); “some are already turned aside after Satan” (5:15); “some . . . have erred from the faith” (been led astray; 6:10); and “some professing have erred concerning the faith” (6:21). But in the second epistle to Timothy the “some” has become “all.” “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me” (2 Tim. 1:15). “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me” (2 Tim. 4:16). A crisis point was coming into the institutional Church at the end of the first century and church history will prove the wholesale falling away in the public church in contrast to the continuing biblical remnant.
Peter and Jude warn God’s people of the apostasy and defectors taking over the church during their times. Paul warned the Ephesian elders of this falling away at the Ephesus church (Acts 20); by Revelation 2, they had left their first love. Christ warned in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24) that “many” false prophets shall rise (v. 11); many shall be deceived (vv. 5, 11); the love of many shall wax cold (v. 12). But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (v. 13). Yes, many are called, but few will be chosen. As the Old Testament declared that only a remnant of the Jewish nation would come through, so the New Testament indicates that only a remnant of the visible Church would come through; all else would be lost.
In the final book of the Revelation, the Greek adjective the “rest” or “the remnant” is used eight times. That which “remains,” “a few names” in Sardis (3:2, 4) is part of that faithful, that remnant. Each of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 contains a special message to the remnant of each of those churches—the true ones who had the ear to hear. They are viewed as overcomers. Each of these groups is given a special challenge appropriate to its circumstances and its generation.
Church history reveals that, individually, great local churches tend not to last more than two or three generations; by the fourth generation they tend to fall into the apostasy. Denominations seem to have a season of strength, but all too soon they become mediocre at best. All of the original seven churches of Revelation quickly faded into obscurity in spite of their strong foundations.
From even a brief study of the Bible, it seems that in any age the number of true believers among either religious Jews of the Old Testament or professing Christians of the New Testament is always very small. We read of many coming to Christ at the beginning of the Book of Acts, with the Word of God increasing among them, but from the latter part of the book we do not read of such overwhelming numbers. It is evident that the Gospel was spread through much tribulation. More and more there was a falling away rather than a coming unto. Everywhere the Gospel goes, apostasy will be right on its heels. There can be no apostasy without the Gospel, for it is the rejection of the Gospel that produces apostasy.
Often movements and denominations were born in the womb of revival sweeping a community. Churches were built and people were brought into the kingdom of God. The power of prayer was prevalent. In such revivals there is a surge of the movings of God at the beginning, but then a falling away takes place. Time has proved that in the second and third and fourth generations, the fervency for God of the founding years is no longer evident within the movement or the denomination. With the passing of time the believing minority tends to become a smaller and smaller fraction. The tendency towards backsliding, compromise, and spiritual decline seems to be the norm throughout history; only a remnant continues to walk and live in the noble life of Christ. How often a wrong view of sovereignty and a wrong view of eternal security deny the need of communion with God and perseverance in abiding in Christ.
Conclusion
The End Time will be marked not by simply a defection from the Truth, but by a global defection covering every compartment of truth in life. We must remember that while the whole world lieth in the Wicked One, there is the tendency for Christians to sleep (Matt. 25). This is why we pray for revival among the remnant and the longing for the second coming of Christ for His own. There have been times when God granted repentance and revival (Acts 3:19), and it became the deliverer of the hour. But there were times when no revival came and the remnant had to escape in order to be saved, such as in the days of Noah and Lot.
It is our prayer that through this issue of Straightway, God will speak to us as a people about this matter of praying for the remnant. They are out there, but not many. They are in the severest conflicts of any time in history. They are not the norm of Christianity or by no means the majority. But they are a unique seed, a remnant within whom is the power of God. The power of Election drives them on while all others are cast to the wind and deceived. Remember, many are called, but few are chosen.
While others compromise, the remnant remain separated; while others are polluting themselves with the world, the remnant remain unstained by the world; while others give lip service to God, the remnant have their lives bathed in prayer and in God’s Word, and are anointed by the Holy Spirit. While others are clamoring for change and a new direction, the remnant cry for the unchanging God, the unchanging truth, and the unchanging way of the biblical Christ. While others are trying to conform to the world in order to alleviate persecution and defamation, the remnant still believe they are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. They know that persecution awaits them.
Dear reader, do not expect bigness now in this postmodernity of the mega churches. You will have to fight for every soul now won into the Kingdom of Heaven; spiritual warfare will be a life-long reality. May God help us to be part of the remnant at this time in history. We must see this truth about the remnant or we will get discouraged. God will always keep to Himself His remnant.