BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing Feb 2020 English E-magazine | Page 3

Under the Dark Clouds
(The Situation of the Remnant)
S
Jason, Missionary, Blessing Youth Mission
ometimes we find that the sky is
overshadowed by dark clouds. The sun shines no
more and the day looks like night. Have you come
across such situations in your life? It must have
been so for the Israelites when their king was
captured by the Babylonian army and their temple
at Jerusalem was razed to the ground. Nothing
made sense to them. God seemed so distant. But
God left a small group of survivors in the midst of
such a national calamity. These were the remnant
of Israel.
Blessing Youth Mission has declared 2020 as
the “Year of the Remnant”. In the Biblical context,
we find that the word, 'Remnant' originally referred
to people who were left out in Israel after the
Assyrian and Babylonian captivity.
To gain a better perspective, let us retrace the
history of Israel. God called Abraham and made him
a nation. The Israelites became as numerous as the
stars in the sky and the sands on the seashore. The
nation consisted of 12 major tribes. The land was
divided under the leadership of Joshua and was
strengthened spiritually and militarily during the
reign of King David. Subsequently, the temple of the
Lord was built by Solomon with all its grandeur in
Jerusalem. But as a nation, Israel failed to
understand the very purpose for her existence. Note
the following verses:
2Ki 17:16 -20 - “And they abandoned all the
commandments of the Lord their God, and made for
themselves metal images of two calves; and they
made an Asherah and worshipped all the host of
heaven and served Baal. And they burned their sons
and their daughters as offerings and used divination
and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight
of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Therefore the
Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them
out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah
only. Judah also did not keep the commandments of
the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that
Israel had introduced. And the Lord rejected all the
descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave
them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast
February 2020 | www.bymonline.org | Page 03