THE REMNANT THAT IS LEFT
[p. 12] THE REMNANT THAT IS LEFT
Isaiah 37:4; Isaiah 37:22; Isaiah 37:31,32; Leviticus 10: 12 - 15; John 6: 66 - 69
The words “that are left” are in my mind. We are living in remnant times, and it is well to have an understanding of the times so as to know what is to be done, what Israel is to do. An understanding of the times implies that one is conversant with the assembly’s history, I do not refer to the histories that have been written since apostolic times, but the history written during apostolic times, that is, the inspired prophetic history of the assembly in Revelation 2 and 3. One has to be conversant with that in order to have an understanding of the times; and it speaks of a period of great departure from the truth, only a few being left. That period of “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2: 3), continues, having varied features.
I wish to speak of what is regarded by the Spirit of God as “left” of the original as contemplated in the history, and Isaiah serves in a special way to bring this out. He is by no means a doleful prophet: he is a triumphant, buoyant prophet, and he deals with what is left showing how it becomes in due course a complete whole; for if we are to be with God, beloved friends, in our service and testimony, we are to have completeness in our minds. We could not have the Lord’s supper rightly today, were we to confine ourselves in our thoughts to a part of the whole: to regard ourselves thus would indeed be sectarian. The Lord’s supper is of no force save in the light of the whole assembly. The Lord said, “Take, eat: this is my body”, and added to that in 1 Corinthians 10 is, “We, being many, are ... one body”, not a part of a body, “for we are all partakers of that one bread”. I wish to work out my subject on those lines, that, as beginning with what [p. 13] is left, we end with a whole or complete thought, There is no other thought in the mind of God, nor is there any other in the mind of the intelligent Christian; and this expands him and maintains him here for God according to His mind. One could illustrate that from numerous passages in the Old and New Testaments, showing the whole thought is always in mind. I dwell upon it at the beginning, lest young people should be partaking of the Lord’s supper with any less thought than that, and so become sectarian in mind and practice. You may look at what is left, and say, Well, there is very little. But the nearer you get to God, the greater what is left becomes in your mind. It becomes enlarged and expanded, until it is seen as “coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. It is a great city, corresponding in every way with the administrative requirements of God. It comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God, and its light is most precious.
Isaiah helps us as to this. If we consider ourselves as here tonight, what is left in numbers in our localities is small, and sometimes we become very discouraged because of this, and the enemy of our souls would press it in upon us. We see this in Rabshakeh intimating that Hezekiah could not put riders on two thousand horses. The enemy would say to you, Look at the little meeting you have over the grocery store, and contrast it with that great cathedral with its fine music, etc., or look at those people that get up at five o’clock in the morning and attend mass; look at the numbers of them! Rabshakeh represents this side of Satan’s efforts. He would press the greatness of current religious organizations upon you and discourage you, until you will perhaps even join some of them. Hezekiah had no such thoughts; nor did the men on the wall.
[p. 14] They were enjoined to answer nothing. Believers belong to greater things than cathedrals or the most renowned organizations of men. Hezekiah was led into the knowledge of this by the messages sent him by Jehovah. In the meantime he rent his garments, and sent a beautiful, feeling message to Isaiah, the servant of God. He says to him, “Lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left”. That is the word, dear brethren. The remnant that is left, small as it may be, is to be prayed for. Will not God hear? There is great encouragement in one’s heart tonight (this being the usual night for prayer) as one thinks of the hundreds of places where prayer has been raised for the remnant that is left. God hears, as Isaiah’s message to Hezekiah shows.
Then Rabshakeh writes a letter to Hezekiah, and Hezekiah spreads it out before the Lord, in the house of the Lord. That would show that a young believer, as pressed by the enemy on account of the smallness of things in his locality, might rightly send a message to someone whom he knows is in relation to God. It is of great importance for young believers to maintain acquaintance with those who are in prayerful relations with God. Hezekiah regarded Isaiah in this way. He says, “thy God”. It is very important to know the man to whom to send if you are in soul need. Be sure he is the right man or you will be misled. Hezekiah sent to a known “man of God” and obtained a divine answer. But then in asking aid from another the thought comes to you, Why not go myself to God? That is an important matter especially for young people. Why not go to God yourself? The enemy is pressing on you — it may be that the fellow-workers in the office are taunting you about the miserableness of your little meeting, or about your teachers, or preachers: they are not college men, etc. Why not go to God yourself about these things? You will get encouragement as you [p. 15] do so. The second time Hezekiah went himself to the house of God. That is how priestly ability is promoted, and he spread the letter he had received from Rabshakeh before God. He told Jehovah the whole matter. I may not be able to speak eloquently to men, but God will listen to the most broken or ungrammatical words, for He reads the heart. “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit”, and He makes intercession for the saints according to God. The whole case is in your heart and God understands it as there. To this prayer of Hezekiah a second answer from Jehovah is sent through Isaiah. It is much fuller than the first and promises complete triumph over the Assyrian, as we shall see.
God does not say anything at all at the first about the remnant that was left. If you get into your closet with God, you see with Him the things that be not as though they were: you get the sense that “all things are possible” with Him. And so a triumphant word is sent back to the enemy. The once feeble christian, cowering at his taunts, now says, “The daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee”. That is not merely the remnant that is left. “Zion” is a great spiritual principle, involving a complete or whole thought. Scripture abounds with it. Think of being a daughter of Zion! And what kind of a daughter? A virgin daughter. That is to say, a daughter that is “unconquered”, see note on 2 Kings 19: 21 (New Trans.). She has never come under the power of Assyria or the world. Can an enemy stand against that? No. Behind that is all that God is. God dwells in those who as keeping His commandments, love Him. Who can overcome Him, or them in whom He dwells? “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”. 1 John 4: 4. Then there is “the daughter of Jerusalem”. Zion is a great principle. It is the ground upon which God took us up when we were unconverted. “According to his mercy he saved us”, The idea of Zion comes to a christian as he listens to the gospel and believes in Christ. The God who took you up and saved you then saves you now. He is the defender of Zion. I want you young people to hold this thought in your minds when people talk to you about your little meeting (I am not saying that the little meeting might not be larger!) — but what God has saved out of the wreck, as it were, however small, is not to be despised: God clothes it with all His thoughts. It is the whole idea that is there in that little “upper room” as intelligent christians come together to partake of the Lord’s supper. As spiritually intelligent they are full of a whole thought, and God takes note of it, and brings them into the fulness and blessedness of the assembly.
So we have the daughter of Zion and the daughter of Jerusalem. The last is one that understands government; government in, and going out from, the assembly. We have what we call ‘care meetings’, which are very important meetings, They imply that there are those who care for the saints. We have been speaking in these meetings about the Gershonites. The Gershonites looked after the curtains of the tabernacle; that suggests principles. These would come out more in Bible readings and in ministry generally, but at care meetings what comes into evidence, is the persons of the saints — although the former necessarily at times combines with the latter. Every one of the saints is precious. Were we only to know how valuable each saint is to God, he would be an object of care to us. Even a weak brother is precious; Romans 14: 15. The weak brother for whom Christ died, as precious, is to be cared for. So in these care meetings we talk over these matters, and the Lord [p. 17] helps us. They are not administrative meetings: they are deliberative meetings. They are meetings into which wisdom enters, a wisdom greater than enters into any of the councils of this world, a wisdom that is “from above”. That is the idea of them. All young brothers are developed there, as sons of Jerusalem. But what about the daughters? Some say the sisters do not know of what transpires at care meetings. If a sister is truly a daughter of Jerusalem, she will know. She will know if she inquires, and she will inquire as having the Lord’s interests at heart, see 1 Corinthians 14: 35. Do you think Anna would not know of things that were current in the temple in her day? She would know. She represents what I am speaking of. She was a daughter of Jerusalem. She was a daughter of Zion also, as every true believer is, as I have said; but a daughter of Jerusalem is one that is concerned about Jerusalem and what it represents. Anna was marked by this; she spoke of Christ to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem, Luke 2: 38. And so all the sisters may be conversant with matters relative to the assembly. As daughters of Zion and of Jerusalem thus, the saints prove the power of God as with His people, and they despise the Assyrian enemy and laugh him to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem knows that the wisdom of God is operative, the wisdom of which Proverbs 8 speaks. That wisdom is the same that is with the brothers as in some obscure room they converse together about the saints and their welfare, and it eventuates in the defeat of the gates of hades, Matthew 16: 18; therefore the daughter of Jerusalem laughs to scorn the opposition, instead of cowering before it in the office or in the workshop. She is superior to the attack.
Another thing comes out in our chapter in Isaiah; “The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward”, verse 31. There is no gainsaying that what is in this continent, what “is left”, is very small. To ignore that fact is to be at a disadvantage. It is not only small in quantity, pardon me for saying this, but it is poor in quality, relatively speaking, but that is no reason why I should turn my back upon it: it is for me to make it better. For if I speak of the poverty of things, I have to begin with myself, what I have, and what I am contributing, and that applies to every one of us. So the word is, “take root downward” — that is another great point with Isaiah. It means that one gets down into the soil in which he is set, that one is not ambitious, nor living in the sense of his own importance. There will be no growth for God in that state. The growth is in getting down into the earth where the power of life is: being “rooted and grounded in love”. That means that one renounces one’s self, so that one becomes planted of the Father. How beautiful that is! “Every plant”, says the Lord, “which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up”. One comes under the gracious agricultural skill of the Father; and He plants me in the best possible soil so that root is taken, but to “take root downward” is more than being planted. You can see the point of it, how the roots of the tree spread out and strike downwards because of the energy of life in the tree and in the soil. Aside from life in the plant there can be no growth, and aside from life in the soil there can be no growth. There must be both ideas, and then fruit for God is borne upward.
In the second scripture, we have the priesthood — those which “were left” of the priests, Aaron and his two sons; they are few; if two thousand riders cannot be put on two thousand horses, we may be sure there are not many priests. We may be sure that the fewness of warriors is because of the fewness of priests. But then you see from the first scriptures I read, how the priesthood comes into evidence. As I was saying, I am oppressed by the opposition and I send to a [p. 19] priest, a man that I know can pray. I send to the right man. There are such; and I advise every young person here to get to know them, the men who pray to God. But then, in doing that I think of praying to God myself, and that is how the priesthood becomes enlarged. There is a sense of need as one is pressed by circumstances of various kinds, and he says, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth”. There is a man developing in the priesthood. He has been looking elsewhere, and rightly asking a brother to pray for him; now he prays for himself: and I ask you young people here, How much of this marks you? What you see in this chapter is that there were four sons of Aaron, but two of them die — and not an ordinary death. What comes out in these types shows extraordinary things happening. Some people think that none of these things are happening now, that since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. It is not so. Every true christian is a miracle. There are current occurrences in the sense of blessing that are greater than physical cures, and they are constant. The same may be said of God’s judicial dealings. In Numbers 16 you get the earth opening and swallowing men down, men dying thus under the judgment of God. The present period is not a time of wrath — it is a time of grace, but still the government of God is inevitable: it is against rebellion, and the Lord says of Jezebel, “I will kill her children with death”, Revelation 2: 23. Is not that serious? It is a greater thing, in a sense, than was the death of Korah and his company! Perhaps you never thought of that. Why should the Lord kill with death? We have to understand it spiritually. Here are two men, priests. They have that position in Israel. They are the two elder sons of Aaron, Nadab and [p. 20] Abihu, and each takes his censer and offers strange fire — a most serious matter, Possibly amongst ourselves, dear brethren, strange fire in a modified sense is sometimes offered to God, and one has to challenge one’s self when one is taking part in the assembly. What is one’s motive? A man may use excellent language in speaking to God, but what is his motive, what is behind it? The “fire” is what gives effect to it. If it is “strange”, the spiritual feel it, and God feels it. But what is before us in Leviticus 10, is a more extended and serious matter. It typifies a great happening in the assembly; the unrestrained human mind become active in the worship of God. This solemn occurrence corresponds with the rebellion of the Levites as recorded in Numbers 16.
That is the setting in this chapter, and the word is to the priests that are left. What is to happen to them? Are they not to be on their guard, are they not to be careful? It is a most solemn chapter. I cannot go into it fully now, but I want to call attention to the fact that Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar were not to uncover their heads (Leviticus 10: 6), they were not to go out of the sanctuary. The priesthood, however reduced, must continue. No matter how terrible the happenings, there must be no relinquishment of priestly service in the assembly. The enemy would bring in troubles amongst us and seek to prevent the saints turning to God, but there must be no relinquishing, whatever happens. I want to show you, further, that if those that are left of the priests are to continue priests, they must eat, and they must eat priests’ food, not ordinary food. And then, a certain feature of it must be eaten in a holy place, and other features in a “clean place”: the former is typified in the oblation that is left of Jehovah’s offerings by fire; the latter is the breast of the wave-offering and the shoulder of the heave-offering.
[p. 21] I would appeal to young christians as to where they eat. There is a great deal of eating going on professedly in relation to God, but is it in suitable places? That is a matter for everybody to consider. It is not only the food but where I eat it. I would not like to say anything against our brethren who are in the so-called systems around us, but it is obligatory to call attention to conditions, that there are places, so-called christian organizations, that are not clean places: they are not holy places. They are unholy because of the very fact that they are sectarian. No one who reads the types (and they are written for us) will fail to note the great stress laid on holiness both as to persons and place. The types refer to God’s requirements in the assembly, which New Testament teaching shows. Thus the Spirit of God would challenge us as to what and where we are eating as christians. It is well to face this, dear brethren, Are you to continue, are you to go on in active service? If you are, you must eat the food that is provided for the priest and you must eat it in a holy place. This passage says: “Take the meat offering that remaineth of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar: for it is most holy: and ye shall eat it in the holy place, because it is thy due, and thy sons’ due, of the sacrifices of the Lord made by fire: for so I am commanded, And the wave breast and heave shoulder shall ye eat in a clean place; thou and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee: for they be thy due, and thy sons’ due, which are given out of the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children of Israel. The heave shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the Lord; and it shall be thine, and thy sons’ with thee, by a statute for ever; as the Lord hath commanded”, Leviticus 10: 12 - 15.
[p. 22] It is a question of the most excellent of the offerings presented to God by His people. It is Christ in the most excellent features in which He is presented in the saints: the oblation, the breast of the wave-offering, and the shoulder of the heave-offering — all these precious parts are “thy due, and thy sons’ due”, as Moses says to Aaron. It is your right to have them. Are any here depriving themselves of what is their right, in linking themselves with systems where the altar of the Lord is not, where the clean place is not, and where the holy place is not? May I urge you to inquire into this and to take up your priestly food, and priestly functions in the place where the altar of the Lord is, where the clean place is, and where the holy place is. These belong to the assembly. You may be uncertain as to the assembly — what it is and where it is, but if you are sincerely desirous to know the Lord will not leave you in uncertainty; He will give you understanding in all things, 2 Timothy 2: 7. It is for you to find where the assembly, in the principle of it, is, and see that you are there and that you enjoy your portion in it; in that way you appropriate your priestly food and have part in the priestly functions of the saints of God.
In the last scripture, John 6: 66, we have again the thought of some left. You will observe that “from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him”. This was a testing time; here we must be prepared for such times. Many went back. Why did they go back? Because the Lord Jesus was speaking of the most spiritual things, speaking of Himself as the bread of God that came down from heaven. What He was saying was spirit and life. Unbelievers cannot stand such ministry. As the apostle Paul says, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; ... they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears”, 2 Timothy 4: 3.
The apostle speaks elsewhere of “ten thousand instructors”, but here they heap them to themselves. Is there any spiritual order in a heap of teachers? There is no spiritual order, balance or discrimination in it at all. The instruction of Scripture governing levitical service conveys no idea of a heap of teachers. That can apply only to the fitful, irresponsible, natural religious mind, contemplated in the second epistle to Timothy. Think of the disorderly condition of the mind that heaps to itself teachers! It is because of “itching ears” that cannot endure sound doctrine. John 6 is a very long chapter. It is full of details, but every word in it is excellent, for it is about Jesus who is the precious food that came down from God out of heaven. Many of His disciples had been murmuring, now they ceased to walk with Him. Is there any Christian here who is not walking with Jesus? What companionship have you? It may be that someone here is in this class — one who has turned away and is walking no more with Him. Sometimes murmuring is heard as spiritual thoughts are ministered; one says, “I do not understand what they are talking about”. Why do you not understand? Others do. It is because of your state; you murmur, as they did at Capernaum, according to our chapter, and that will soon be replaced, unless you judge yourself, by your turning away from the Lord and those who seek to do His will, and you cast about among the different sects to find a preacher suitable to your ear. According to your present state of mind, it is not a question of what is said: it is how it is said. But that is not the 6th of John. The Lord says, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”. It is what the words are.
They did not all turn away back at Capernaum: thank God in all drifts from the truth some are left. The Lord says to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?”
[p. 24] And He would ask this of every one here tonight. Peter replies, “To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life”. You see how that which is left, dear brethren, is to continue, and to continue in the greatest conception of things, and that the Lord Jesus alone is the centre. He never fails. Who else is there to go to? Cast about and tell me to whom you could go? This is how Peter puts it. It is a negative, but we are often guided negatively. If there is no one, then we must not move at all. There is no one but Christ for the true believer. It is not only that the Lord spoke things about life but He had the words of eternal life. He is the one to stand by, dear brethren. It is an appeal to our hearts, a question of what the Lord has, and Peter as “being one of the twelve”. Twelve represents what the Lord can use. After all, what is left is sufficient for the Lord to carry on with. As we were saying, there were two priests left. We can go on with two: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven”. These are priests owned of God. But now we have not only two but twelve priests of God, and through the twelve God approaches men in grace. The Lord spoke to the twelve here, the full administrative number. It is not exactly a question of apostleship here, but the great principle conveyed in the number, which always applies. The Lord goes on in relation to it.
He challenges the twelve. Peter says, “We have believed and known”, He is a leader in what he says, There are brethren here, dear young people, who have believed and known. All that can be said of some of you is that you “have believed”, but there are those around you who have believed and known. That is the way it should read. And what have they believed and known? That Christ is the Holy One [p. 25] of God. He is the true Aaron of God. Peter and the other disciples, although as I said, representing administration, are, so to speak, His sons. They belong to the true Aaron. They prove themselves to be that. “We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. It is a question here of holiness, and Peter shows that he belongs to the true priesthood. But then the Lord’s answer is most serious. Even these twelve have to be challenged, searched inwardly. “One of you”, He says, “is a devil”. Thank God it is not two of you, as with the priests of old; it is just one, but how solemn the indictment. The Lord was not concerned about the external number: He is concerned about quality, and He exposes what is unreal. No one need think he can pass the scrutinizing eye of the Lord. It is not here the word “demon” but “devil”, and not that he has one but that he is one. It is to put us on our guard. In the twelve we are reminded that the Lord’s administration has a universal bearing. If there is a book of spiritual ministry published, it is for the whole assembly. That is the position. The Lord is administering in relation to the whole; but if there is a devil, He will not let him pass. He is concerned about quality — reality, holiness. He will carry on to the end, but He will carry on with those who, like Peter, say, “We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”.
May the Lord grant us help to understand what “is left”, and to see how it comes in for the whole thought and appears presently as the result of the mighty workmanship of God as the holy city whose light is most precious, coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God.