Remnant

Trending

Certain words become popular for certain periods of time. When I was a young kid everything was “awesome” and I’m not talking about the theme song of the Lego movie. The word awesome was applied to everything and, of course, many things that were not actually awesome. In our contemporary social media age, this is called trending. When I was in college, the word authentic became the buzz word. Every ministry or program promised to help you take off the mask and become the real “authentic” you. Among the words that have been used (or maybe hijacked) this way is the word remnant. It is sort of ironic that a word that means a small remaining quantity of something has been so popularly adopted among many leaders and church growth gurus. These people are not truly interested in leading a remnant but rather are hoping that a majority of people will resonate with feeling like they are a remnant. Everyone wants to be the heroic underdog that actually prevails in the end. But what if we truly considered the possibility that we are in the minority position? That we Bible believing, God fearing, gospel obeying Christians are actually a remnant.

How Few

How many is a few? The question is a bit relative. We are all prone to understand size and numerical values according to the size of the pond that we swim in on a daily basis. What is a small church? If you grew up in a small town where most churches ran 30 or 40 people and the one big church a town over had 100 people you probably think that is a big church. However, if you have lived in a mid to large population area where many churches had several hundred or several thousand people then 100 people would seem very small. If we are to understand what remnant means then we probably need to think in ratios. One million is a lot of anything unless that million is a part of a discussion of billions or even trillions. 

In Genesis 18: 22-33, Abraham is pleading with God to spare the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah on behalf of the relatively few righteous persons living there. Abraham does not know how many righteous people are there but he does know that God is a just judge and on that basis he advocates for the deliverance of the wicked cities. As Abraham haggles with the LORD, we see our gracious God going along with the series of lower bids as a demonstration of His amazing grace and compassion. Abraham begins with the proposal of 50 righteous persons and moves down 5 and 10 person increments until the LORD agrees to spare both cities if only 10 righteous persons were found there. In the end, only 3 make out and survive the disastrous judgment of God on those wicked cities.

So how small a remnant were Lot and his daughters? This is not really that easy to assess. Estimations anywhere from a few hundred to fifty thousand have been considered as possible. However, three is a pretty small company out of two cities of any size. The point for us to ponder is are we such a remnant? The reason I am asking this question is to spur us to consider both our prayer and proclamation. If we are a small remnant among the larger population then the need for each of us to be devoted to passionate prayer and poignant preaching is now! We must be the little flock (Luke 12:32-34) who know that we are putting our treasure, time, and talents where our hearts already are with the Lord.

The Few

The Marines used to have a slogan, “the few, the proud, the Marines.” The meaning is clear that being a Marine makes a person a part of an elite group. However, in Christendom to be part of the few or the remnant is a humbling admission that we have received the underserved grace of God. The way to the kind of destruction suffered by those wicked cities in Abraham’s day is broad and easy and many have gone that way and even now continue the well worn path. But Jesu also told us that there is a narrow and hard path which leads to life and few find it. Beloved, let us find that path and point it out to as many as possible! (Matthew 7:13-14)

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