It Is a Remnant Testimony

The first reason why the “saints gathered together” are relatively few in number is that today is the day of small things. Zechariah 4:9-10 says: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it, so that you may know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me to you. For who despises the day of small things?” The times in which Zechariah was called to live were days of a remnant testimony. At that time the Lord had allowed His people to be carried away to Assyria (2 Kings 17:6) and to Babylon (2 Kings 24-25), and only a remnant of them was left in the divine center in Jerusalem. One of the characteristics of a remnant testimony is that it is of “small things,” since the majority of God's people were not there to share the privilege of being in the divine center. We live in days of a remnant testimony in the history of the church, and we cannot expect there to be great numbers of people gathered to the name of the Lord in the way God wanted to do at the beginning.

I believe it is of the utmost importance to understand what a “remnant testimony” means -- so let me explain in more detail. A great principle by which God acts, when what was entrusted to men as a testimony fails, is that He reduces its size, power, glory and number, and from then on He carries it on in the form of a remnant. He does not identify Himself with that testimony in power and glory as at the beginning, when it was established. If He did so, it would appear in the eyes of the world that He was approving its fallen and ruined state. Instead, He withdraws in His sovereign power and grace to maintain His testimony -- but in a remnant way. The word “remnant” means a small part of the whole. Therefore the very nature of such a testimony is its small size. If all the people of God were there participating in it, it would not be a remnant. God acted on this principle with Israel in the past; He will do the same again with the Jewish remnant in a day to come; and He is doing so with the Christian testimony today.

To see this principle more clearly in the Word of God, let us open to Deuteronomy 12:5-7: “But the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put His name there, you shall seek, for His habitation, and there you shall come. And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your cows and of your sheep. And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.” This clearly shows that God's original desire was that all His people be gathered for worship in that single place of His choosing, which was Jerusalem.

Now let us open to 1 Kings 11:9-13: “Therefore the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. And concerning this matter He had given him a command that he should not follow other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded him. So the LORD said to Solomon: Because this has been in you, that you have not kept My covenant and My statutes which I commanded you, I will surely tear this kingdom from you, and give it to your servant. Nevertheless in your days I will not do it, for the sake of David your father; I will tear it out of the hand of your son; However I will not tear away all the kingdom; one tribe I will give to your son, for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen”.

Then, in verses 29-36, it says: “And it came to pass at that time that, as Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the way, and he was wearing a new garment, and the two were alone in the field. And Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam: Take ten pieces for yourself, for thus says the LORD God of Israel: Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give you the ten tribes. However he shall have one tribe, for the sake of David My servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. Because they have forsaken Me, and have bowed down to Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and to Milcom, the god of the children of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways, to do what is right in My eyes, namely, My statutes and My judgments, as David his father did. However I will not take anything of this kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him prince all the days of his life, for the sake of David My servant, whom I chose, who kept My commandments and My statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of the hand of his son, and give to you the ten tribes of it. And to his son I will give one tribe; so that David My servant may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen to put My name there”.

Then, in chapter 12:22-24, it says: “But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying: Speak to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah, and to Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying: Thus says the LORD: You shall not go up nor fight against your brothers, the children of Israel; let each one return to his house, for I have done this thing”.

We see that, although it was God's desire to have all His people gathered in Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices (Deut. 12), once ruin had taken place, He no longer wanted to continue His testimony in His divine center in the same power and glory that it had at the beginning. Solomon and the children of Israel had failed and turned away from the Lord to idolatry (1 Kings 11:10-11, 33), and this caused the Lord to change the way He dealt with them. He would reduce the size, power and glory of His testimony in Israel and from then on carry it on as a "Remnant". This is the first time in the Scriptures that the word is used in connection with the public testimony of God's people. It is important to observe the rule of the "first mention" in the Bible, that is, when something is first used in the Scriptures it usually gives the sense of how it will be used from then on in other passages. Therefore, we will do well to pay attention to what is said here. The principle of a remnant testimony is developed in more detail in Ezra and Nehemiah, and in the writings of the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. However, I used the passage in 1 Kings because it establishes the principle clearly and simply.

What is important to notice here is that an evident change took place in the way God acts amid failure. He removed ten of the tribes from the divine center and kept only "one tribe" there -- a remnant. This is not a contradiction of God's principles, but a change in His way of acting when the ruin is widespread.

Now, you might say: "I can see this principle in the way God acted with Israel in the Old Testament, but could this be applied to those who live in the New Testament era? Is there really such a thing as a remnant testimony in the church?". Without any doubt the answer is yes. You find this in the passage we saw in 2 Timothy 2:19-22. There God encourages exercised believers to separate themselves from the mixture existing in the house of God and to gather to a remnant position "with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart".

But to see this more clearly, open now to Revelation, chapters 2 and 3. These chapters give an outline of the prophetic history of the church from the earliest days, right after the apostles, reaching to the last days. If we follow the course of events presented in these messages to the seven churches we will see a decline in the Christian testimony, until finally a point is reached where there is no return, which leads the Lord to act on the principle of a remnant testimony.