Theme · narrative
Remnant
Noah and his family are the first remnant — preserved through judgment to begin again. Elijah despairs that he alone is left, but God has reserved seven thousand who have not bowed to Baal. Isaiah names his son Shear-Jashub — 'a remnant shall return.' Through every cycle of judgment, God preserves a faithful few as the seed of restoration. After the exile, the returnees are called the remnant. Paul applies the concept to the Jewish believers of his day: 'At the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.' The remnant is God's guarantee that his promises will never entirely fail.
Related doctrines
Passages expressing this theme
- 1Kgs 19:18 — Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
- 1Sam 7:12 — Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.
- 2Kgs 19:31 — For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
- 2Pet 2:5 — And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
- Amos 5:15 — Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
- Deut 4:9 — Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons,
- Deut 32:36 — For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
- Ezek 5:10 — Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the win
- Ezek 6:8 — Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
- Ezek 9:4 — And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done
- Ezek 14:14 — Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.
- Ezek 16:61 — Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
- Ezek 36:37 — Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.
- Ezek 37:11 — Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
- Ezek 37:25 — And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children fo
- Gen 25:8 — Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
- Gen 45:7 — And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
- Isa 1:9 — Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
- Isa 4:3 — And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
- Isa 6:13 — But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance
- Isa 10:20 — And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the H
- Isa 10:21 — The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
- Isa 10:22 — For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
- Isa 11:11 — And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros,
- Isa 14:1 — For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
The Church Fathers on Remnant
The "remnant" refers to the Jews who have believed in Christ. Many of them did believe in the days of the apostles, and even today there are some converts, though very few.
Having said that the remnant will be saved, he now explains what this means, and says that God left us a chosen seed and bread, for the word "left" he used instead of "chose," so that if God had not preserved it, we would have been subjected to destruction, like the Sodomites and Gomorrahites, as those condemned for…
A remnant from Israel has been preserved. Since the judgment does not go entirely to the priest, he adds, "They eat, but they are not satisfied." This means either emigration and captivity for those leaders of Israel or, because of Christ, desolation of Judea by the hands of Romans.… For among those Israelites…
This may also be taken to refer to certain heretics or schismatics, or even to a bad Catholic, from whom at the time of his baptism the evil spirit had gone out. And he wanders about in dry places, that is, his crafty device is to try the hearts of the faithful, which have been purged of all unstable and transient…
Or it may reseek its own home, i. e. return to Paradise, for that is its true home, which first received man, and was lost not fairly, but by treachery. Rightly then is the soul restored thither, since He has come Who will undo the treacherous knot, and reestablish righteousness.
"Guard innocence, and see equity." Here he exhorts to the justice that is toward one's neighbor; and regarding this he does three things. First, he sets forth the exhortation; second, the reward, at "For there are"; third, he expounds what he said, at "Salvation." A person should do two things for his neighbor:…