The remnant of Israel is distinguished from their apostate brethren in Isa. 33:14.15. The sinners in Zion have seen the judgment of God on their enemies and are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites; they cannot hope to survive the devouring fire or endure the everlasting burnings of the righteous wrath of God. Their question, "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" is answered by Jehovah in the following verse, He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil." In the latter days the remnant appears, by closed eyes and stopped ears, separated from the mass of the nation.
Identical distinguishing marks appear in the deaf man with a speech impediment, in Mark 7:32-35, and in the blind men of Mark 8:23 and John 9th. Each, in their own way, depict the yet-future remnant of Israel. As to the deaf man, he is separated from those around him: he cannot hear the evil and the blood shedding, nor the cries of the victims; neither is he responsive, for he cannot communicate with the apostates. Further, Jesus took him aside from the multitude, put His finger into his ears, spit, and touched his tongue saying, "Be opened." The spittle was the efficacy of His own person, but in Jewish eyes, it was cause for ostracizing the man for seven days. (Num. 12:14).
In Mark 8:23 the blind man. by his blindness, is separated from the mass of the people, and cannot see the evil done in the land. He is led out of the town by the Lord and upon receiving his sight, is told not to return to the town. (Zech. 14:5.) In this case also, the Lord spit on his eyes and thereby accomplished a further separation of seven days, denoting spiritual completeness.
A third instance, in John 9:6, depicts the remnant as the work of God and for the glory of God. Jesus spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, anointed the eyes of the blind man, and said unto him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing." From birth he had been separated from the nation by blindness, and in this example of the remnant, the truth goes further: he is excommunicated from the nation and cast out of the synagogue, but found by Jesus.
The deaf and blind remnant had not sin in respect of that to which their condition separated them (John 9:41 a). Their first voice was the voice of Jesus; their first sight was of the man Christ Jesus; then they saw all men clearly.
Psa. 15 gives the character of the remnant, and Psa. 42 the utterance of the remnant cast out of Jerusalem and taunted by their apostate brethren with, "Where is thy God?" The Lord went through it all before them, as a reading of the Psalms will show.
W. Bothwell