Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Remnant

Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people.  And I will love those whom I did not love before.”  And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”  And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved.  For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.”  And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:  “If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.”  Romans 9:25-29(NLT)
In teaching the Roman believers (who were non-Jewish) about God’s choice to include them in His Kingdom, Paul quoted Hosea, who went so far as to name one of his kids Not My People.  (Wouldn’t that be a hard answer when your name is called at school?)  This was God’s way of showing everybody that man’s opinions only go so far. 
Israel had a conventional set of nationalistic wisdom which included an arrogant view that JHWH’s plans only included Jews.  Gentiles might become Jews by ritual and obedience…but unless you did it their way your soul was only more fuel for the fires of Hell.  To that God said (to put it theologically) fooey!
And, to boot, God then instructed everyone to look at the vastness of the Jewish population; there were as many Jews as the grains of sand on a beach, but only a remnant…just a small percentage would be saved.

So what’s the point?

I’m glad you asked.  The point is for we, who are not of the chosen nation Israel, late-arrivers in God’s plan, Gentiles, grafted-into God’s vineyard, to not get uppity!   For the last two thousand years the church has proclaimed the Kingdom of God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ; we preach His death and resurrection and coming again as God’s truth and way for all to be saved. 
The church began as a Jewish sect (remember Peter, James and John were not born in Indiana), and over time the rift between Synagogue and Sanctuary grew wider, each clinging to the belief that they held the only way to God.
The reminder here against uppity-ness is that exclusivism is dangerous.  Man may propose, but it is God who disposes[2]!  We may think we have it all right, but the final disposition of what is actually right rests in the hands of Almighty God.
The Jews imagined it was God and them against the world.
The church can fall into that same trap, thinking it is the elect, the sanctified ones of God against all those evil people.
In reality God is for the world!  Hear it from the words of Peter the fisherman, one who knew Christ on a closer personal level than most:
He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.  2 Peter 3:9b(NLT)
While most of the world scurries around figuring out their theology and their place in the kingdom, on the left or right of God’s throne, and how many others besides them might be in the remnant, God is probably shaking his head at why we can’t love each other enough to concentrate on sharing the Father’s desire for everyone to come home.

For You Today

It would be a good thing to spend this day ignoring the differences between us and the people we meet today…and concentrate on the eternal soul of each person you encounter.  See that person as one for whom Christ died!
Speak accordingly, love unselfishly, and hear God call that person, my people!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!



[1] Title Image:  Courtesy Pixabay.com
[2] The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis

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