Taking a look at leftovers: God’s remnant

Recently the Verses of the Day on Biblegateway.com have focused on what the people of God should and should not be doing. Revised and re-posted, the Verse of the Day for January 8, 2018 comes from Amos 5:14-15 (NLT):

Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed. Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.

This passage from the Old Testament is part of a dirge, a song expressing sorrow or distress over a great loss, such as the death of a loved one. If the people of God will adhere to the commands of God, “perhaps” or “peradventure,” God will be merciful to “the remnant of His people.”  Maurer goes on to explain “the remnant of Israel that shall have been left after the wicked have been destroyed.” On the Logos Research System this concept is further described as a

. . . group of people who survive a catastrophe brought about by God, ordinarily in judgment for sin. This group becomes the nucleus for the continuation of mankind or the people of God; the future existence of the larger group focuses in this purified, holy remnant that has undergone and survived the judgment of God.

Our discussion of “the remnant” also brings to mind a recent article spotlighting a number of popular London restaurants, such as WastED (the ED stands for education), and other venues who have been taking kitchen leftovers and turning them into ­spectacular meals. In an attempt to highlight Britain’s staggering food waste problem, some of Britain’s top chefs explain how we can all love our leftovers at home and reduce the millions of tons of food thrown away each year. Certainly God, our gracious Heavenly Father, is far greater than any master chef, and He can take what has been rejected and discarded and transform it into a glorious masterpiece.

Throughout the Bible we find accounts referring to a remnant people who will ultimately fulfill the purposes of God. The passage from Amos brings to mind this portrait:

God’s Remnant

God is never left without a remnant.

Apostle Eric L. Warren

And the remnant that is escaped of

the house of Judah shall yet again take

root downward, and bear fruit upward.

2 Kings 19:30

 

God is looking for a remnant; what is left over

Will suffice in the strong hands of a master craftsman.

Those who seek to know the mind of God will discover

That He keeps a remnant, set apart to stand alone,

A residue, an intricate part of His grand plan.

What the builders rejected is the chief cornerstone.

God uses what is left to fulfill His purposes in the earth.

As God’s remnant, to be hidden is our destiny.

We take root downward and bear fruit upward to give birth

To the glory that God intended our lives to be,

For remnant people maintain the same integrity

As the original: pure in essence—whole, complete,

As leaven remains hidden in three measures of wheat.

In closing, Worship Central reminds believers that we are “Set Apart”:

 

 

Tags: 2 Kings 19:30, Amos 5:14-15, God's remnant