The Remnant
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Examples of a Remnant
Noah and his Family
Assyrian Exile
Babylonian Exile
REMNANT (שְׁאָר, she'ar). A portion of people left after a disaster, especially a disaster identified with divine judgment. Especially in the Prophets, this term describes those who remain faithful to God despite suffering and who ultimately experience restoration.
Introduction
The Bible refers to a remnant of God’s people who are faithful to God and will receive His salvation.
The prophetic notion of a remnant builds a bridge between the outworking of divine judgment and the possibility of salvation. At times, Israel as a whole seems to represent the faithful remnant; however, the faithful will also include people from outside Israel (Isa 49:3–6). Jesus Christ fulfills the role of the true and faithful remnant.
Remnant in the Old Testament: The idea of a remnant surfaces in Genesis and appears throughout the Old Testament, developing more fully in the Prophets. In Genesis, Yahweh chooses
Noah and his family as a remnant who will secure a future existence for humanity after the flood (Gen 7:23).
The idea of a remnant appears again in the narratives of Joseph, when he tells his brothers that Yahweh sent him “to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors” (Gen 45:7 ESV).
In First Kings, Elijah complains that he alone is left among Yahweh’s people and that all Israel has forsaken Him; Elijah considers himself the final remnant (1 Kgs 18:22; 19:14). Yahweh tells Elijah that He has reserved “seven thousand, all of the knees that have not bowed down to Baal,” who will be spared a final judgment on Israel (1 Kgs 19:18).
Remnant in the Major Prophets:
The idea of a remnant surfaces throughout the Major Prophets.
Amid his prophecies of judgment (Isa 6:11–13), Isaiah offers hope by declaring that a “beautiful and glorious” remnant will remain and that they will be called holy (Isa 4:2).
Reflecting this hope of a future remnant, Isaiah names his son She’ar-jashub (שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב, she'ar yashuv), meaning “remnant will return” (Isa 7:3). The return of this “remnant of Jacob” (Isa 10:21; see also Isa 10:22), who will lean on Yahweh in truth, will occur after the defeat of Judah’s enemies.
The idea of the remnant is as present in Isaiah’s early ministry as it is in his later ministry. Isaiah’s purification sets him apart from those with unclean lips, so he becomes a remnant (Isa 6:5–7). This implies that a remnant will emerge as a result of Yahweh’s gracious cleansing.
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Additional references to a remnant in the Major Prophets include:
• Jeremiah promises that Yahweh will “glean the remnant of Israel as a vine” (Jer 6:9) and that He will “gather together the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have driven them” (Jer 23:3; see also Jer 31:7–9; 50:20).
• Ezekiel identifies the remnant as a purified Israel who has survived judgment (Ezek 9:8). Although they have gone into exile, Yahweh is a sanctuary to them and will restore their land (Ezek 11:13–21).
• Daniel designates the Son of Man as a future, faithful remnant of God’s people (Dan 7:13). The Son of Man is shown as a figure who is to suffer and expect a future vindication (Dan 11:35).
Remnant in the Minor Prophets
The Minor Prophets also communicate the idea of a faithful remnant:
• Amos indicates that a very small remnant of Israel will escape the coming judgment (Amos 3:12; 5:3). He expresses hope that Yahweh may still be gracious in His selection (Amos 5:15), and at the end of the book confirms that there will indeed be a restoration (Amos 9:11–15).
• Micah indicates that after the exile, the remnant will be a blessing “in the midst of many peoples” (Mic 5:7), and that God will forgive them (Mic 7:18). They will also be lifted up over their adversaries and will cut off their enemies (Mic 5:8). Micah also depicts the remnant as a flock (Mic 2:12–13).
• Zephaniah depicts the remnant as a flock (Zeph 2:7) and a purified community after the exile (Zeph 3:12–13) who will no longer do evil and will plunder Israel’s enemies (Zeph 2:9).
• Haggai says that after the Babylonian captivity, the returning exiles were a faithful remnant in that they “obeyed the voice of the Lord their God” (Hag 1:12 ESV). He declares that Yahweh stirred the spirit of the remnant, and they “worked on the house of Yahweh” (Hag 1:14).
• Zechariah speaks of a future time when Jerusalem will be called a “faithful city” (Zech 8:3) that is “marvelous in the sight of the remnant” (Zech 8:6 ESV). He then applies the covenant formula to them: “They will be my people and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness” (Zech 8:8). Zechariah declares that God will change His way of dealing with the people and will give them an inheritance (Zech 8:11–12); He will cut off most of the people but will refine those who remain (Zech 13:7–9).
Remnant in the Intertestamental Period
After the Babylonian exile, those who returned to Jerusalem saw themselves as a remnant. Ezra used this term to warn the returnees that God would not spare them if they returned to their sin (Ezra 9:8, 13–15). However, the return from exile did not appear to bring about the restoration that had been promised to the remnant in the Prophets. This gave rise to the belief among some Jews that not all those who were living in the land were the true remnant.
This understanding of the remnant was central to the beliefs of the Qumran community, which gave rise to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Many passages from the Dead Sea Scrolls reflect the community’s understanding of themselves as the faithful remnant. For example:
• A passage from the War Scroll states, “None of their heroes will remain standing. But we are the rem[nant of your people. Bles]sed be your name, God of mercies, who guards the covenant with our fathers, and during all our generations you have wondrously bestowed your mercies to the rem[nant of your inheritance] during the empire of Belial. With all the mysteries of his enmity, they have not separated us from your covenant” (1QM 14:8–10).
• A passage from the Damascus Document states, “When he remembered the covenant with the forefathers, he saved a remnant for Israel and did not deliver them up to destruction. And at the period of wrath, three hundred and ninety years after having delivered them up into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, he visited them.… And God appraised their deeds, because they sought him with an undivided heart, and raised up for them a Teacher of Righteousness, in order to direct them in the path of his heart” (CD 1:4–7, 10–11).
Remnant in the New Testament
The concept of a remnant is present throughout the Gospels, though the word “remnant” is not. For example, in Luke 12:32 Jesus uses the term “little flock” in reference to gathering those who will believe and faithfully follow Him, reflecting Jer 23:3: “I myself will gather together the remnant of my flock … and I will bring them back to their grazing place” (LEB). Jesus also speaks of a minority who will respond to His call to repentance (Matt 7:14; 22:14; Luke 13:23–30). Willitts suggests that Matthew’s Gospel sees Jesus calling the northern kingdom of Israel when He calls the lost sheep of Israel (e.g., Matt 10:6; 15:24). He argues further that Jesus’ call in Matthew is toward a restoration of Israel as a nation-state within the ideal land (Willitts, Messianic Shepherd-King).
In Romans 9:27–29, the Apostle Paul quotes from Isa 10:22–23 and 1:9 when speaking about the remnant: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved” (ESV). The remnant will include Israelites who are children of the promise (Rom 9:8; see Rom 11:1, 3–5) as well as people from outside Israel who believe (Rom 9:24; 10:12; Gal 6:16).
The concept of a remnant is also evident in a few places in Revelation. In Thyatira, a minority of people—“the rest (λοιπός, loipos) of you”—do not accept the teaching of Jezebel (Rev 2:24). Using the same word (λοιπός, loipos), the church in Sardis is urged to “strengthen what remains” (Rev 3:2 ESV). In Revelation 11, a remnant is not killed by a great earthquake (Rev 11:13). God’s judgment is delayed to allow those who will be part of the remnant time to repent.