Yahweh's Righteous Remnant

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https://comparet.christogenea.org/sermons/yahwehs-righteous-remnant

Submitted by wmfinck on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 18:38

YAHWEH’S RIGHTEOUS REMNANT

by Bertrand L. Comparet

Taken From Your Heritage

Prepared into a PDF file by:

Clifton A. Emahiser’s Teaching Ministries

Plus Critical Notes

What constitutes a righteous nation? Surely, a nation is a sum total of its people, what they are, what they do. Then what makes them sufficiently righteous to influence their nation’s character, how many does it take for this purpose? Where do we, in the United States, stand as measured on this scale?

Never at any time, has there been a nation composed entirely of righteous people, not even Yahweh’s own people Israel. Even during the exodus, when the people had witnessed many miracles by the hand of Yahweh, and they saw His presence in the pillar of cloud and fire every day, the great mass of the people were either actively or passively unrighteous. While Moses was on Mt. Sinai, receiving the laws of Yahweh, part of the nation of Israel was actively wicked, demanding that Aaron make them an idol god, the golden calf. Most of the nation passively followed them into wickedness, only Moses and the tribe of Levi remained faithful to Yahweh.

So it is and always has been, the people are divided into three classes. The few good people, who are Yahweh’s righteous remnant, the somewhat larger group who are especially evil, and the huge middle group, neither very good nor especially evil. The especially evil group would completely and permanently ruin and destroy the whole nation, if they were allowed to live very long. Therefore Yahweh has had to wipe them out many times, in order to save anything of the nation. Remember the heavy loss of life on many occasions.

There were many lives lost on the exodus, the repeated wars with the Philistines, the Assyrian conquest of Israel and the Babylonian conquest of Judah etc. There was no point in trying to save them by conversion, they weren’t capable of it. Preaching to a scorpion never accomplishes anything.

The large middle group, never able to be actively good only followers of evil, not originators of it, has always constituted the great bulk of the nation. Since they never rise to the greatness of true goodness, and periodically lapse into all kinds of evil, why has Yahweh kept them in existence? Only because without them there would not be a nation.

Remember, all of Yahweh’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David were that Israel would be a nation before Him forever. The promise never was that there would be only a few righteous people among their descendants. The promise was that there would be a great nation and a company of nations. Although incapable of good in itself, the nation could be Yahweh’s servant under the leadership of Yahweh’s righteous remnant. In Isaiah 1:9 we are told, “Except Yahweh had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah.” In Genesis 18:26-32 Yahweh revealed to Abraham that even a small righteous remnant in Sodom, even as few as ten persons, could have saved it.

In Old Testament times, this righteous remnant was singled out for special service to Yahweh. In the Hebrew language, they were called the qahal. This word means those selected and called out from among the mass of the nation. They included the priests, both Aaronic and Levitical, and the heads of the tribes. It was their job to see that the whole nation was guided into the paths of righteousness, so clearly marked out by the prophets. When they would and could do this, the nation reached the heights of civilization and prosperity.

About this time, some are wondering how could the remnant save the nation, when the remnant was also so imperfect? Psalm 14:2-3 says, “Yahweh looked down from heaven upon the children of men (Awdawn), to see if there were any that did understand and seek Yahweh. They are all gone aside, they are all together to become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Paul quotes this in Romans 3:10-12.

Yet Yahweh has always found a way to use His remnant for His own purposes. Eve wasn’t sinless, yet in Genesis 3:15 Yahweh declared that the Redeemer would be one of her descendants. Abel was presumably as sinful as other men, yet we are told in Hebrews 11:4, “By faith Abel offered unto Yahweh a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, Yahweh testifying of his gifts; and by it, being dead, he yet speaketh.”

While he was comparatively good, as men go, Noah must have had his share of human faults. We are told in Hebrews 11:7, “By faith, Noah, being warned of Yahweh of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”Romans 4:3 says, “For what saith the scriptures: Abraham believed Yahweh, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Abraham also had his sins, but

This was Yahweh’s plan from the beginning. He knew that even the best of His people would not be able to achieve righteousness by man’s own goodness. So, Yahweh prepared to give them His own righteousness. In Isaiah 54:17every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Yahweh, and their righteousness is of Me, saith Yahweh.” Yahweh promises, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper;

This is the very essence of Christianity! All men have sinned, even the remnant, and have justly earned the penalty of death. However, Yahweh has paid that penalty for us in the death of Yahshua upon the cross. If we believe Yahweh in this, He imputes to us the perfect righteousness of Yahshua. “Their righteousness is of Me.” The great mass of people never attain even this, only a remnant ever did or ever will.

Isaiah 10:20-23 records, “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 Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For Yahweh shall make a destruction, even determined, in the midst of all the land.”

During most of the Old Testament times, the nation of Israel was nominally faithful to Yahweh. Yet at all times there were some apostates among them. Several times almost the entire nation lapsed into idolatry.

In New Testament times, the Christian nations have been nominally Christian. However, at all times there were relatively few who truly understood their religion and were more than nominal Christians. Today the churches are becoming only social service organizations. They are forgetting Yahweh and His laws while they concentrate all their attention and efforts on social agendas, such as slums and integration of the races. There is not much left of Christianity but only the name, empty of all that it originally contained, as shown in the Bible. This “churchianity” can never save even its own followers.

However, there has always been Yahweh’s righteous remnant in the nation. For the sake of the remnant, Yahweh has spared the nation. So it has always been, and so it always will be.

Romans 11:7 tells us, “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.”

As always before, there exists in the nation the group of actively evil people, like a cancer, which must be cut out and destroyed. The greater mass of the people, who have been led astray by the evil ones, must be severely disciplined. Therefore the days that are coming soon, will bring terrific destruction and loss of life. There is also the righteous remnant, for whose sake Yahweh has always spared His people Israel, from complete destruction. For whose sake Yahweh will spare it now.

Critical note by Clifton A. Emahsier: In his Be Comforted, Warren W. Wiersbe said in part on Isaiah 2:1–4:6:

“How will God judge His people? By taking away from them everything they were trusting, including food and water, leaders and soldiers, and judges and prophets (3:1–15) The entire support system of the nation would disintegrate, and there would be no remedy. Nobody would want to hold office except women and children. (In Judah’s male-dominated society, this would be a humiliating calamity.) The national leaders in Isaiah’s day were charting a course that was out of the will of God and would ultimately bring disaster, but the righteous remnant would be protected by God (vv. 10–12).

“After denouncing the men in leadership, the prophet zeroed in on the proud women who profited from their husbands’ crimes (3:16–4:1). The Prophet Amos had a similar message for the women in the Northern Kingdom (Amos 4:1–3). Everything would be different for these women when the judgment of God came to the land! In that day, nobody would notice their expensive clothes, their jewelry and perfumes, and their elaborate coiffures. They would be prisoners of war, led by a rope, like cattle going to the slaughter. So many men will be killed there won’t be enough husbands to go around! (4:1)”

If the righteous remnant of Judahites were protected in Isaiah’s day, so too, will the righteous remnant be in America during such a similar coming disaster!