Who Are The Remnant That Are Talked About In The Bible?

What is the remnant that is often mentioned in the Bible? Does this mean only a few Israelites are saved? What about Christians?

A Remnant

A remnant is something that’s left over from what was at one time a much larger portion or number of things or people. It could be carpet remnants, remnants left over from a sale or something that is deemed to have little value to others since it is typically small in size. Remnants are not usually something that people desire except for those who can’t afford much. When a people or nation is referred to as a remnant, for the most part, it is a very small number of people and hardly worth much attention but in the Bible, God is clearly concerned with a remnant and this includes a remnant in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament. God first speaks about a remnant of people left from Israel or Judah where most of the nation has been either killed or taken into captivity but God never gives up on a remnant and we’ll see why.

A Remnant of People

When Joseph was unfairly treated by his brothers and sold into slavery, he later became second in power next to Pharaoh and said “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors” (Gen 45:7). Also, “When Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished striking [an enemy nation] with a great blow until they were wiped out, and when the remnant that remained of them had entered into the fortified cities” (Joshua 10:20) this was not good. Joshua told the nation of Israel “Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you” (Joshua 23:11-13) so here, a remnant of a foreign nation left in the land would come back to haunt them and in fact, it did.

A Remnant of Israel

As I wrote earlier, sometimes God in His discipline of His people sent enemies against them in the hopes that they’d repent and turn back to Him. If they didn’t, He allowed them to be taken captive and a vast majority of them were killed and only a remnant would remain in the land but God always leaves at least a remnant as with “the surviving remnant of the house of Judah [which] shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward” (2nd Kings 19:30) “For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord will do this” (2nd Kings 19:31). From this discipline of the Lord Ezra says, “And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this” (Ezra 9:13) so God always leaves for Himself a remnant so that the nation of Israel will never disappear from the face of the earth. This ensures that “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God” (Isaiah 10:21) “For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return” (Isaiah 10:22). Someday, after Christ’s return, “there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt” (Isaiah 11:16). Once again, “the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward” (Isaiah 37:31).

A Remnant in the New Testament

God has never washed His hands of Israel as we read in the New Testament as in Acts 15:16-18 where James says about the Gentiles, “After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.” So a remnant here speaks about a remnant of Gentiles that will seek the Lord and that means believers who have professed faith in Christ after repentance. Paul writes a lot about the remnants in Romans chapter eleven but this is specifically about the remnants of Israel where Paul asks a rhetorical question, “has God rejected his people? By no means” (Rom 11:1). Just as the “Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace” (Rom 11:2b-5).

Conclusion

If you have had a time in your life where you’ve repented and trusted in Christ, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, you will be among that remnant that God saves to Himself. That remnant will survive into the kingdom and of the increase of Christ’s government and peace there will be no end (Isaiah 9:7). Will you be a part of that kingdom or are you already a part of the remnant?

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon.