a remnant

My familiarity with remnants begins in JoAnn Fabrics. The remnant bin is an opportunity to get a small piece of fabric, probably the end of the bolt or a wrong cut or something, for a discounted price. It's being sold for less than its true value, but it's perfect for small projects where you need something a little 'different'.

I'm bringing this up because last night in church we read about the 'remnant'. But I'll get to that in a second.

I'll start with Nehemiah 9, which was Bro. Erik's first reading. In this chapter, the  Levites essentially review all that God has done for them. As I was reading through this a second time this morning, the verbs really jumped out at me:

"Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous: And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea; And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as it is this day. And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant: And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them." (Nehemiah 9:5 - 15)

In these verses, the Levites acknowledge their own humanity and need for God. I am convicted by this because I know that I could write a paragraph just like the one above, detailing everything that God has done for me, and yet sometimes it is still hard for me to remember all of those things when life is hard. The verse that follows these, though, is a direct contrast to the provision described above. The response to God's giving is, "But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments, And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage [...]" (verses 16 and half of 17) How often am I like that? How often do I say, "No, Lord, this isn't really fair. I really want to do things my way."? It's painful to realize how much I'm like that. Bro. Erik talked a little bit about rebellion. We are rebellious. I am rebellious.


But then we read the end of verse 17: " [...] but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not." What a merciful God we serve! I am humbled by this verse. I am so unbelievably undeserving of His mercies. The chapter goes on to describe how God continued to provide for the Israelites, despite their self-sufficiency and refusal to serve Him - verses 19 - 25 describe God's provision and the Israelites' success. But then in verse 26, the whole thing essentially starts over again! They rebel... only this time, God gives in. What a terrifying thought - to hear/feel God saying... "Ok, fine... go." Do I weary God like that? Do I weary others (my husband, my friends) like that? Do I push for my own way too much - so much that I get a reluctant "blessing"? Is that really what I'm looking for?


Then we read in Romans 9. 

"Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth."

A remnant. The end of the bolt. Not even a full yard. Not very big. Only a remnant of a people group whose members are as numerous as the sands of the sea. This is a scary thought, especially considering the cycle described in Nehemiah 9. I am rebellious! I need the Lord, but I'm not always very good at admitting that I need Him.

But the beautiful thing is... there is mercy. A little further on in Romans, we read, "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." (Romans 9:15-16)


So a remnant might be a small piece. It might be a wrong cut. It might be discounted... not living up to its full potential. But God can redeem all that, and, in His mercy, provide a "project", a calling, where the remnant will be made useful. Reading about the 'remnant' can make the group of people who are saved sound discouragingly small, and Satan can use it to convince us that we are not nearly good enough and that we are not one of that remnant. But the remnant, and the believers who compose that remnant, can do marvelous things by the mercy and grace of God. (Is this making sense?) For me personally, its sometimes discouraging to realize how rebellious I am and how rebellious we are as a people, as described in Nehemiah 9. It's also discouraging to realize how quickly I forget the goodness of God, as also described in Nehemiah 9. And it's also discouraging, as we read in Romans 9, to think about how small the remnant who are saved is. And Satan will convince me that with a remnant that small, there's no way I'm making the cut. But then I have to be like the Levites in Nehemiah 9. And I have to review what God has done for me... how gracious He has been... all the ways He has worked in my life and His hand is evident in my walk. Without God's mercy, there would be no remnant. We would be useless, thrown away, cast off, and worthless - the end of the bolt, not a full yard, and not measuring up. But by His mercy, there is a remnant, and you and I can be a part of it.