The remnant

A remnant shall be saved (Romans 9:27-29) Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth”, and as Isaiah said before “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

Paul quotes directly from Isaiah 10:22 when he writes, “And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob-for though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return-with righteousness.”

It’s obvious that the remnant is Jewish, although some in the church say that it represents the church. They base this on the false belief that God is a God of love, and He wouldn’t send anyone to an eternal hell. Then why does the Bible state “Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14). The Scriptural history of the word remnant reveals: In Deuteronomy 3, there is a description of a battle between the Israelites, who were passing through the wilderness after leaving Mount Horeb, and the Amorites, under the command of King Og of Bashan. King Og was the only one remaining of the Rephaim, who had been defeated earlier. Here in Deuteronomy we read, “Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites.” In 2 Kings 19, when King Hezekiah was besieged and mocked by Sennacherib and the Assyrians, he sent to Isaiah to ask him to pray for the Jewish remnant that is left. Isaiah answered Hezekiah saying that God promised a remnant would be spared from the Assyrians and would flourish for a time like a fruitful tree.

“Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. (2 Kings 19:30-31) Based on Biblical text we have a basis for saying that the remnant is a band of survivors. What greater group of survivors on planet Earth today than the Jewish people, who survived Hitler’s Holocaust and have a thriving economy in the Middle East even though they are surrounded on every side by their sworn enemies.

The Jews also survived Titus and the Romans, Hadrian and the Romans, the Roman Catholic Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition in addition to the Holocaust.

God promises that by His sovereign grace a remnant would be saved by the grace of God, a group of survivors who have the opportunity to receive the Messiah, who is a Jewish rabbi known to the world as Jesus of Nazareth. 700 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah predicted that He would be born of a virgin. (Isaiah 7:14). We are told the time of His birth in Daniel 9, the place of His birth in Micah 5, the details of His life and death are recorded in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, the fact of His resurrection is stated in Psalm 16. The only person in human history who meets all of these qualifications is Jesus of Nazareth.