THE REMNANT THAT IS LEFT
[p. 464] THE REMNANT THAT IS LEFT
Isaiah 37:4; Isaiah 37:22; Isaiah 37:30 - 32; Leviticus 10: 8 - 11; 2 Chronicles 35:17, 18
These scriptures treat of the remnant, concerning which I hope to speak; a subject familiar to us and which has often been spoken of in ministry, but the importance of which stands out specially now, in view of the end so that the quality of it may improve, for the principle is that what there may be of God is to increase more and more, so that as the scripture says, we may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent. As we do, they will give character to us, for what the heart and mind are engaged with gives colour and character to us. Hence we are enjoined; “have your mind on the things that are above”, Colossians 3:2. Things above are excellent in quality; they are where Christ sits, at the right hand of God. What a suggestion for us, dear brethren, to be engaged with the things above — things “where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”!
Now the leading or initial thought of the remnant is that it is God’s own reservation on the ground of moral worth; it is something that He reserves sovereignly for Himself; and as applying to the saints now, it enters into the greatest thoughts of the assembly, thoughts that are included in the first prayer of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1; thoughts which referring to the Ephesian Christians then, apply equally to ourselves now: “so that ye should know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. For “Jehovah’s portion is his people; Jacob the lot of his inheritance” — as the Old Testament tells us (Deuteronomy 32: 9), and these great pristine thoughts apply to the assembly as well as to the remnant. It is God’s reservation for Himself.
[p. 465] I refer to the passage in 1 Kings 19, known to us and cited by the apostle Paul in Romans 11. Elijah’s life was threatened by Jezebel, and this has a present application, for her threats have always been present in the church period since she acquired the ascendancy, since she was suffered to teach: as the Lord says to the church at Thyatira, “thou permittest the woman Jezebel, she who calls herself prophetess, and she teaches”. She has been given space to repent, but she will not do so, but will persecute the saints and servants of the Lord as she has opportunity, and as she has often done in the history of the church. Her opportunities are greatly curbed; her power is broken, but nevertheless the opposition to, and hatred of, the saints of God and His servants, is there — a very solemn fact. Time was when I could not have spoken thus without being arrested, but thank God, she is curbed, her power is broken, but the venom is there and ready to show itself at every opportunity.
Jezebel sends word to Elijah that his life should be like one of the prophets of Baal whom he had slain, and he fled. Then he tells the Lord later that Israel had killed the prophets, digged down the altars, and that he was left alone and they sought his life to destroy it. His speech at Horeb seemed clear and decisive, but it was wanting. He was not in the position to which his commission referred, for it did not relate to Horeb, nor to the wilderness, but to the inhabited land of Canaan, whence he had fled. But the Lord has an answer for him. He pleaded with God against Israel, which is a sorrowful feature in such a great servant, but is a reminder to us that we should be on our guard in ministering to the people of God, for even with servants like Elijah and Moses, the one pleads against the people and the other calls them rebels — and the Lord is not pleased with that. So the word is in Romans 11, “What says the divine answer to him?” The divine answer was glorious and grand as over against the feeble complaint of the servant: “Yet I have left myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal”, 1 Kings 19: 18. God had reserved them to Himself, a very precious thought, and every one truly of the remnant today will so regard his position that God has reserved him for Himself. But then there is another side and that is, that there was a remnant left, as Isaiah 37 says, “the remnant that is left”. Now that is a word to be noted, referring equally to the remnant of the priesthood in Leviticus 10 and to the people in Isaiah. It is perfectly evident that those who are left are spared; and so I say to myself, Why am I not like the average worldling, or like the infidel? Why am I spared? Because God has seen fit to save me, and to spare me from His general judicial dealings with christendom. It is in a state of revolt and opposition to God, and this is evidence of His judicial dealings; He allows them to go thus far, even today. But there will be worse dealings when He sends strong delusion upon them when they shall believe the lie. So that the word comes to us with power that there are those “left”there are the spared ones of God. We can little take in the disaster that marks the profession, but God sees it and marks it all perfectly; He knows what it means. The Lord Jesus sees it and knows what it means. He feels it, just as He felt the apostasy of Jerusalem, when He saw the city, and wept over it. So too, the Spirit of God is perfectly conversant with the conditions abroad in the profession, and He feels them. He is quenched by current religious conditions; He is spoken against, according to the Lord’s words; He is sinned against, and He feels it. God would bring us into accord with His own mind as to the general conditions, so that we might be sympathetic with the Lord and feel with Him as to these things.
[p. 467] If we are to have part with Him in His glorious place before the Father, shall we not also have part with Him in regard to these matters?
So beloved, the expressions “the remnant that is left” — and the sons of Aaron “that were left”point to God’s gracious sovereign consideration for us, in that we are not amongst those who have come under His judicial dealings. The sons of Aaron that were left were only two out of four; the other two had been destroyed by fire that issued from God; reminding us that “our God is a consuming fire”and that not only the God of the Old Testament, but “our God”. Indeed we find that fire is not incompatible with love; it is the expression of love; for what is more useful than fire if we have to deal with corruption? What would have become of the priesthood, or of Israel, had these two men been allowed to pursue their lawless way in presenting strange fire to Jehovah? So God meets the evil effectively, but then, half the sons of Aaron were gone, there were only two left. How feelingly Eleazar and Ithamar would say in after years, We are among the spared ones of the priests! Can we not join in that — that we are among the spared ones whether of priests or people? If we are spared as priests, it means that we have part in the greatest privileges possible. How dreadful if any one of us should come under the judicial dealings of God as offering strange fire to Him; presuming in the sanctuary to do the will of the flesh. So we have the sons of Aaron that were left. We may thank God that we too, are left; that we belong to those that are spared. How sobering is the thought! How salutary to be reminded that we are the subjects of the sovereign preservation of God, when others have been dealt with summarily by God, because of their presumption in His things; for the action of man’s will in the holy things of God is more serious than any other form of sin. If it is [p. 468] our privilege to have part in the holy service of God, how sobering and solemn to be reminded that we may presume even there, in the very sanctuary, by the exercise of our wills, and that is offering strange fire in what we present before Him. How heart-searching it is, beloved!
Now to prevent all this danger, we have specific instructions which always attach to the priesthood I refer to Leviticus 10. The chapter commences “And the sons of Aaron” — not first stating their names, “Nadab and Abihu”, but emphasising that it was such people, the sons of Aaron, the priests of God, who presented the strange fire. How solemn a thing it is! So what follows in the chapter is the injunction that no wine or strong drink was to be used by the priests when they entered the sanctuary. Elsewhere we find that no woollen garments were to be worn, meaning that all natural excitement or stimulation is abhorrent in the sanctuary of God; that there should be sobriety and holy calculation in what we say or do; five words with the understanding, five words with the Spirit, knowing what we are saying. We would challenge ourselves lest we should offend against God and present strange fire before Him. Then again, no natural affection or natural consideration for relatives after the flesh was to be allowed; that also is abhorrent to the atmosphere of the sanctuary. Even death itself is not to call forth expressions of sorrow there, for the priests were not to uncover their heads, nor to rend their garments, even in such a calamity as had occurred here. The remnant that is left, those left of the priesthood, are comparatively few today, but still the injunctions remain, but then, all the holy privileges of the priesthood also remain to those who are left. All that they had at Pentecost is ours! All that they had at Ephesus and at Antioch! How great are these things! — and in the sense of this it becomes incumbent [p. 469] upon us rigidly to refuse all that is of the natural in the sanctuary of God.
Now we come to Isaiah, and there the remnant comes into view as attacked. Sennacherib has sent his general to the attack of Jerusalem, and would carry away the people that were left, the remnant, into a foreign land, a land which Rabshakeh said was like their own land. But there is no land like our land! No land like Canaan! We belong to the heavenly land. God has prepared a city and a country, we are told; it is ours, and there is no land like it. The enemy would carry us away from it. Let us never forget that the enemy would carry away the “remnant that is left”. So Hezekiah here, with true priestly instincts and humility of mind, sends a message to the prophet Isaiah, and asks him to “lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left”. I am increasingly impressed with the value of prayer, as most of us are; it is the secret of our preservation. God is pleased with us as found in the places where prayer is wont to be made. He makes us joyful in His house of prayer. It is no doleful place, unattractive to the young, but a place of holy joy, as we spread out before God the needs of His people, as we see them and gauge them by the intelligence He gives us; as our hearts are moved for them — for it is a question of the heart, a question of feeling for the remnant that is left. We cannot afford to lose one, and so Isaiah is requested to lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left, and he responded. Then after all this, a letter came to Hezekiah from Rabshakeh, but this time he himself spreads it out before Jehovah. He is advancing in priestly power, he himself goes to Jehovah. How God would induce confidence and boldness in the youngest of us! Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord and spread out the letter before Jehovah. What a moment for the eye of God as He read that letter! Hezekiah felt what it [p. 470] meant as he read it; it spelt nothing but disaster apart from the intervention of God, and he brings it to Him. God took account of it; and with what divine eloquence, in what glorious language does He give His reply! “The virgin-daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at thee”. How stimulating in the house of prayer it is to be made to feel that God is intervening in His great regard for the remnant that is left! He views the position on the same level as at the outset under David and Solomon. The language here could not be more pregnant with significance had it been spoken in the days of David! “The virgin-daughter of Zion despiseth thee”. Dear brethren, God would challenge us as to this — as to whether we are derived from the idea of Zion. It is a great thought with God. “The virgin-daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn”. What words are these! It is a soul matter with the daughter of Zion; her feelings were aroused, as it were; whereas the daughter of Jerusalem shook her head at him; it is a matter of intelligence with her; the two things go together. The deep feelings of the daughter of Zion are aroused, as affected by the sovereign mercy of God, for a daughter is one begotten of it, a result of it; it is not merely a child, but a daughter — a development of the principle of sovereign mercy. She is sensible of the mercy of God, and as it sinks into our hearts, how it softens and produces feeling in us, as we say, “according to his mercy he saved us”. How Paul felt it! “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ”, Ephesians 2:4,5. What language is this! One who can say that is a daughter of Zion, despising the wicked opposition of a Sennacherib, laughing him to scorn. I would link the laughter in that sense, with Psalm 2, for God will have men in derision: “He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision”. The daughter of Zion laughs to scorn the opposition, and God would set us up on that ground in our souls. She is called properly the virgin-daughter, the unconquerable! There is no possibility of circumventing what God has set up on those lines: “hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. Then with the daughter of Jerusalem there is the additional thought, the idea of a city, involving intelligence as to the mind of God. She “shaketh her head”; the reference to the head involving, I apprehend, the intelligence. That is what she will use against the enemy. What can he do against those who have “the mind of Christ”, the mind of God? What will all his books and his wisdom and his acquirements avail, or his scientific mind, as pitted against those conversant with the holy thoughts of God as known in Jerusalem? That is what God is doing in meetings such as these, and in all meetings of spiritual instruction; He is building up daughters of Jerusalem, against whom all the wisdom of the world is powerless. It will all come down, and come to nought, and be proved as foolishness.
Now we are to see how the thing progresses, and Isaiah 37:31 reads, “And the remnant that is escaped ... shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward”. These great thoughts are not to be treated lightly; God values them, they are of first importance in heaven. Are they so with us? Are we to continue in them? There can be no continuance apart from taking root downward; they cannot be supported by any shallow growth of the flesh assuming the garb of spirituality; it is only by taking root downward. The Lord Jesus has led the way downward; He has been into the depths. The depth may be spoken of as the fourth dimension; we can take account of three dimensions, breadth and length and [p. 472] height, but there is also depth, and the Lord has led the way into the depths as we read in Psalm 22, and in the book of Jonah, and in many another scripture. We are affected by the descent: “He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens”; He went into “the lower parts of the earth”. We have to be spiritual to understand that. There is spiritual geology as well as spiritual geography, and it is a question of spiritual geology when Scripture states that “He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”; and again, “But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?” What geologist has ever descended there? It is beyond his reach; but Jesus went down there; He was “in the heart of the earth” for three days and three nights. It is spiritual; it is no mere theory; it is a spiritual thought that He went into infinite depths in suffering for us. Are we then to remain on the crust of the earth — on the mere surface of things? No, there is to be taking root downwards in the apprehension of the infinite depths to which He has gone, for we are baptised to His death: “We, as many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death ... . For if we are become identified with him in the likeness of his death, so also we shall be of his resurrection”, Romans 6: 3, 5. It is identification with Him in the likeness of His death, and if that is so, “so also we shall be of his resurrection”, bearing fruit upward is the point. What am I doing in secret in the presence of God? How am I regarding my baptism, and circumcision? Where there are secret dealings with God as to the death of Christ, there is correspondence with it in life. He was “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father” — am I to be out of view of that wonderful operation of God? We need to be identified with [p. 473] Him there, for we do not want to miss that. It is those who take root downward, who take on the likeness of His resurrection, that call forth the expression of the Father’s love, corresponding with Christ in His death; so that as taking root downward, they bear fruit upward.
Some of us were remarking on the Father’s desire for fruit. The Lord in John 14 says, “Arise, let us go hence”, and then He immediately speaks of fruit “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit”,
John 15: 2. There can be no fruit for God apart from taking root downward. Ephesians 3 speaks of our being “rooted and grounded in love”, as do Romans 11 and Colossians 2:7, and other like scriptures. Let us look into these scriptures and see where our roots are planted — whether they are rooted and founded in love as learning in love what the death of Christ means; so that as I am identified in the likeness of His death, I shall be also of His resurrection.
Now in conclusion I want to say a word as to 2 Chronicles 35, to show that it is a question of the position of the remnant of Israel “that were present”. Many were not present, but it is a question of those who were present. We ought to feel how many are not present in our comings together in assembly. It may be that there are some within the sound of my voice who know nothing of the assembly. It is a comfort if you have a regard for the Lord and for His people, but His thought is that you belong to the assembly; and that you should never be absent from it when it is convened, but that you should be present in all its functions. You know how Thomas missed that first day of the week in John 20, but on the other hand what Anna gained by being present in Luke 2, when they brought the Lord Jesus into [p. 474] the temple. She was there present, but though there were those in Jerusalem who waited for redemption in Israel at that time, it does not say that they were present. But Anna was there, and she had the greatest possible advantage in that she met there the Lord of glory! How she exulted in it as she praised the Lord! She came into the temple that same hour, and we are told her age, God taking account of her history, as He does of each one of those in the assembly. Heaven delights to go over their history, and will mention all that is commendable and notable, as it does of Anna the prophetess. Is it nothing to you that you are absent from these great occasions of the assembly? It is something to heaven if you are there, so that the Spirit of God stresses, in these verses in 2 Chronicles, those who were present. And what did they get in for? For the greatest possible passover, the like of which there had not been since the days of Samuel. So you see, beloved, what great things there are in store for those who are present and who take up their privileges. I am pressing this, for we are apt to be so light and trivial in regard to the assembly, whereas the Lord is aiming at what is more excellent; He is aiming at bringing us into the assembly in its true spiritual, heavenly character; that we may be fitted for that glorious time when our employ will be to minister in it to the glory of God. So this chapter stresses, as I said, the superior character of this celebration of the passover, and David is brought into it, and Solomon also; and the most exalted principles and truth relative to the holy service of God are brought into it. There is that unique expression, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built”; and all the Levites were to serve “according to the writing of David king of Israel”. It says also, “Ye have not to carry it”, for it is here a question of privilege, of what goes on inside; of what it is to be before God in holy service “according to the writing of David king of Israel”, who prescribed the twenty-four courses of the priests, the Levites, and instituted the service of song in the house of the Lord. That is the kind of thing for the remnant in the last days. Is it not significant that He brings to those of the assembly then present, all the transcending pristine thoughts attaching to it — showing us what it will be presently, when it comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God; all that is presented as an incentive for us to go in for, as it is what is within our reach today. These things belong to ‘those present’, not to absentees, but to those who taking root downward, bear fruit upward, who would serve God according to the holy ark, and according to the temple that Solomon built, and according to the writing of David, king of Israel. These are the thoughts that God would impress upon us, so that there should be something “more excellent” in the assembly, for God and for Christ, at the end before its translation.