Let me guess. You chose survivor, right? So did I, initially. Why? Perhaps it’s in part the media hype about what it means to be a survivor. Or maybe it has something to do with that rugged American we can survive anything attitude.
The title of this post might well be “The Survivors
Among Us…”, and there are, indeed, many of us who have survived a tough
battles, relationships, family situations, medical diseases or traumas,
military battles, freak accidents, financial calamities, and the list goes on,
and on, and… However, I believe there are some rather distinct differences
between survivors and remnants worth exploring - especially from the important
and ubiquitous spiritual angle - that we don’t hear much about nowadays.
Survivors are generally only known to us after
they have come through some experience – typically a traumatic one. Also, the
concept of survivor, at least in our culture, seems to suggest a fair degree of
personal grit and guts (personal glory, if you will) having played some
role in getting through the mess. A remnant is simply that small part which
remains from a larger section, piece or number. Typically, a remnant may have
had no great role to play, no personal glory in being part of the
remnant. This suggests a much more passive role than is inferred in
being a survivor.
Can a survivor be a remnant, and vice versa?
Perhaps a remnant survives… somewhat passively. Depending on the
context, a survivor may not necessarily be a remnant.
The presence and importance of God's remnant echoes
across every book of The Bible, as if to signal ‘here is something
critically important not to be missed’. Across all the stories, there are
both survivors and a remnant. There will even be survivors of the Tribulation
period - the worst times earth and mankind will have ever experienced as God
punishes nations that will have continually rejected Him. Across the books and
stories of The Bible, His keen and loving attention, however, is always
directed to the remnant. Curious?
In His scheme of things, the concept of a remnant
appears to have two associated root words: remainder and remembrance.
Not only is the remnant that part which remains, but that element which remains
connected to something that is critically important to Him, something He
remembers and promised never to forget, namely FAITH - the
Abrahamic faith, i.e., the kind and nature of faith Abraham had and
displayed. From every generation, even before Abraham, there have apparently been
people who qualified with like-minded faith toward God, whom God
designates ‘remnant’ status. This does not include every person born of
Abraham’s physical seed (Jew, Arab or otherwise), nor does it include every
person who calls him/herself Christian. It is not our progeny nor our church
affiliation that determine this status. It’s God’s reading of the true
contents, decision and lifestyle of our heart toward His promise of a salvation
opportunity, in the person of Jesus as Christ/Savior, and the promise of
eternal life with Him in a new land. That’s it. This remnant remains
and remembers, i.e., remains faithful to the Abraham kind
of faith towards God, and proactively lives as if to remember and
continually hope in God’s promise. From every tongue, tribe and nation, God
has/will have His remnant people - past, present and future!
We, God’s present remnant, are hidden in plain
sight, right here in your midst. We may or
may not physically survive the craziness and messiness of life – the wars,
heartaches and all of our strife. We live so as to remain faith-full
toward God, and to remember with hope His immutable promise. Remaining faithful
and hopeful is what we do. *
It’s who we are.
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http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-remnant.html
