bb-TBC-25 "The Remnant"

The Better Covenant: Chapter 10 "A New Start" - The Better Covenant

• Introduction:

  • The End of Israel and Judah?

    So the Northern Kingdom of Israel tumbled into chaos and the final days and the Southern Kingdom of Judah wasn't too far behind; about 130 years to be precise. As the Northern Kingdom tottered to the brink of disaster there was a final flurry of messages from God; Amos and Hosea in the north and Isaiah and Micah in the south. The prophecies all have a similar feature, they predict utter disaster and final loss and yet... there is an irrepressible bubble of hope that keeps rising from the depths of the woes. It makes the prophecies sound almost schizophrenic; is it the end or isn't it? The answer to both questions is 'yes'.

    So the house of Israel, as we knew it in the north, has come to its end. The house of Judah, in the south, as we have known it is also coming to its end but from the ashes of both nation-states something quite different will arise. God's judgements will come, but beyond the judgements there is the dawning of another day. This is where the theme of a remnant finds its place. A remnant is just what is left with the larger portion has gone. We saw earlier that the word was first introduced in the account of the Flood.

• The Remnant

  Noah, covenant-mediator, promise bearer, last-man-standing

  • Genesis 6:14

    Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. (Genesis 6:14 ASV)

  • Genesis 6:18–21

    But I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. (Genesis 6:18–21 ASV)

    The Covenant, first use of the word in the Bible, was between two parties... Jehovah and Noah. "I will establish my covenant with thee". It was an "I-thou" relationship.

    • Genesis 7:1s

      ¶ And Jehovah said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. (Genesis 7:1 ASV)

  • Genesis 7:23–24 NKJV

    So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. (Genesis 7:23–24 NKJV)

    • digging deeper:

      remained H7604 שָׁאַר shaʾar

      remain; N to be left, remain; H to leave, spare. → left; remain; survive.

  The 'remnant' came into existence because they 'were with him in the ark'. At that time Jehovah had made no covenant with anyone other than Noah. Later others were added into that covenant; those who had shared his 'baptism'. From that 'remnant' God rebuilt a whole new race.

  If Moses had accepted God's offer, he would have been the last man standing, a remnant, and from him God would have rebuilt a whole race from the 'remnant' of one man. The people of the Israel were 'baptised into Moses'; an unexpected phrase. Noah's family were 'baptised' too in their. They became united with the 'last man standing' through an experience of baptism. Interestingly, no-one got wet in either baptism. This is not the 'water baptism' of a later day.

  Noah and Moses were the types of a coming one. The fulfilment of that type was Jesus Christ, the last man standing, a remnant from which a whole new race would be built. He is the only man of our race to have fulfilled our destiny and from this one man God will rebuild people for himself.

• A New Creation

  In the Bible baptism always signifies a new beginning that follows the ending of the old. All things must pass away, all things must become new. There is a word that is frequently used by the prophet Isaiah; It is the word 'create', in Hebrew "bara". It is a Hebrew word that usually only has God as its subject; The word is found in the first sentence of the Bible;

  • Genesis 1:1

    • ¶ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 ASV)

      • digging deeper:

        created H1254 בָּרָא baraʾ - used 46 times... 17 times in Isaiah

        The English verb “create” captures well the meaning of the Hebrew term in this context. The verb בָּרָא (baraʾ) always describes the divine activity of fashioning something new, fresh, and perfect.

        Gen 1:1, 21, 27; 2:3–4; 5:1–2; 6:7; Exod 34:10; Num 16:30; Deut 4:32; Josh 17:15, 18; 1 Sam 2:29; Ps 51:10; 89:12, 47; 102:18; 104:30; 148:5; Eccl 12:1; Isa 4:5; 40:26, 28; 41:20; 42:5; 43:1, 7, 15; 45:7–8, 12, 18; 48:7; 54:16; 57:19; 65:17–18; Jer 31:22; Ezek 21:19, 30; 23:47; 28:13, 15; Amos 4:13; Mal 2:10

        'bara' is a word which is a high profile in the book of Genesis as we might expect then for the greater part it goes underground only to burst out again and profusion in the prophecies of Isaiah;

  • Isaiah 4:4

    when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning. (Isaiah 4:4 ASV)

  • Isaiah 4:5–6

    And Jehovah will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be spread a covering. And there shall be a pavilion for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain. (Isaiah 4:5–6 ASV)

    But if we read the preceding verses we find that this creative activity is it going to be preceded by a time of great distress and judgement. After the judgement comes a new creation. The pictures are coming thick and fast now; exiles, remnant, a new Exodus, a new creation. Isaiah is pointing beyond the pain of the judgements to a brand new beginning. This theme too will create words and ideas which will be become part of the nation's vocabulary, words that God will be able to use in a later context to convey powerful ideas and truths.

    The imagery is of a cleansing, purging judgment that brings the old to an end and makes way for the new. It links with various Bible scenes where fire marks an end the old and a beginning of the new

    • Send the fire today! William Booth

      1 Thou Christ of burning, cleansing flame, Send the fire! Thy blood-bought gift today we claim, Send the fire today! Look down and see this waiting host, Give us the promised Holy Ghost, We want another Pentecost, Send the fire today! Send the fire today!

      2 God of Elijah, hear our cry: Send the fire! To make us fit to live or die, Send the fire today! To burn up every trace of sin, To bring the light and glory in, The revolution now begin, Send the fire today! Send the fire today!

      3 ‘Tis fire we want, for fire we plead, Send the fire! The fire will meet our every need, Send the fire today! For strength to ever do the right, For grace to conquer in the fight, For power to walk the world in white, Send the fire today! Send the fire today!

      4 To make our weak hearts strong and brave, Send the fire! To live a dying world to save, Send the fire today! O see us on thy altar lay Our lives, our all, this very day, To crown the offering now we pray, Send the fire today! Send the fire today!

      Thou Christ of Burning Cleansing Flame, Send The Fire!

      The Salvation Army Song Book #326 used with permission

      https://youtu.be/lXTz7quV4lI

      

• The Storyline of Redemption

  We are back to my familiar theme, Bible words don't have definitions they have histories. Bible words often function like this, 77% of the Bible is Old Testament and 40% of the Old Testament is a storyline. These ideas and words became embedded in the minds and emotions of generations of Israelites and later God would only need to speak the word to establish a torrent of emotion and memory. We know how certain smells can powerfully evoke memories of events, so can words. Or to use our earlier illustration, these are the colours that God is adding to the artist's palette so that they are ready for instant use as the artist requires.

  The Bible storyline is not incidental, it is also part of the revelation of God and his character. The covenant people were going to go into exile, and their life and culture would come to an end, but God's purposes for them would not. The route is not the one anyone could have expected but the destination is unchanged.

  Throughout the prophecies of these dark days we have references to the two nations; the house of Israel and the house of Judah. They have been pursuing different courses for over 400 years and now, after the greatest calamity is over, their paths are going to rejoin.

• The Three Prophets

  The three prophets who have most to say about this are

  • Isaiah (c 740-701BC),

  • Jeremiah (640-587BC)

  • Ezekiel (593-571BC).

  and another... Daniel (607-534BC). From Isaiah to Ezekiel is about 170 years of prophecy to the aimed towards the nations of Israel, in the North and Judah, in the South

  • It might help to put them into a timeline.

    

  • The Cast

    Isaiah's prophetic ministry began as the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the house of Israel, was about to be taken into captivity by Syria. He lived in the Southern Kingdom of Judah and, as we have seen, his prophecies stretched through the reigns of four kings of the house of Judah.

    In 722 BC the Northern Kingdom of Israel finally came to an end and the people were taken into exile in the Assyrian empire. A trickle of people from the Northern tribes relocated in Judah and their land, known as Samaria, was then re-populated with other captive nations.

    In the next super-power struggle, Babylon rose to be top-dog, and in around the 600s BC, Babylon began a series of incursions into the remaining Southern Kingdom of Judah, the house of Judah. Initially, somewhere around about 597BC the Babylonian army attacked Jerusalem and took hostage all the sons of the nobility and important players in the national scene. A young man named Daniel was taken at this time and we shall consider his contract contributions separately. And another young man from a priestly family company named Ezekiel. Ezekiel spent the rest of his life in Babylon and his prophetic activity takes place in the Babylonian empire. Jeremiah was from a priestly family too but was not taken captive by the Babylonians so most of his prophetic activity takes place in and around Jerusalem.

    There was another deportation of the people from the Kingdom of Judah in 587BC and a third in 582 BC. During the 587 deportation, Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed and the priests and their ceremonies ended.

• Context, context, context

  The time has come to look at the prophecies of these three men in their different contexts...

  • its immediate context

    The fulfilment of the promised judgments came to pass and the exiles remained under foreign control and their land under foreign control of one kind and another 2500 years for with a brief respite under the Maccabees.

  • its short-term fulfilment

    The Exile and the Return. However, ever the Return of the Remnant fell far short of its promises as seen in these three prophets. The second Temple had not been 'greater' than Solomon's Temple. The Exiles had not returned. Only a small proportion had returned to their holy land, the rest were scattered throughout the Roman Empire and eastwards around Babylon.

  • its long-term implications

    When most of the New Testament was written the Roman Province of Syria and the ancient land of Israel was on the verge of another catastrophe. History was repeating itself and Jesus of Nazareth was repeating the dire warnings of Jeremiah. Jerusalem was about to be destroyed a second time and its Temple razed to the ground.

    And yet, that was not the end of the story because the epistles take up the metaphors and colours of the Old Covenant to declare that God's promises have been fulfilled in a New Covenant that is second, better, more-glorious, and New, in contrast to the Old.

    That journey lies ahead of us...