The Few that Escape

Nehemiah 1:2-3 KJV

That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

Though it had been nearly 100 years since Zerubbabel had led a group of Jews back to their Promised Land, there were still Jews dwelling in the land of the Persians. Nehemiah's own circumstances as the king's cupbearer did in no way diminish his earnest concern for events in that land of his heritage, though he had only heard of it. In his conversation with Hanani and these other men of Judah, Nehemiah employs three terms to speak of those Jews now in that Promised Land.

Captivity

The original state of each of these Jews had been as captives; slaves to a foreign land. Some of them had risen to positions of rank. Others had earned the favor of the court. But regardless of their relative blessings, they all thought of themselves, these many generations after Nebuchadnezzar took them, as captives. The Jewish culture was strong enough to maintain that longing for their own home even hundreds of years after any of them had been home.

Escaped

This could not refer to those who had escaped being taken by Nebuchadnezzar, as that was more that one fifty years previous. Those Jews who were allowed to return home in one of those waves previous to Nehemiah's own return were said to have escaped. They did not sneak away from Persian captivity. But so precious was their circumstance to a man like Nehemiah, who was still in Persia, that those who had gone home were looked upon as having escaped.

Though the Promised Land is not a pure illustration of heaven, it seems appropriate for us to think of those who have gone before us into glory as having escaped. No matter how well we might have it in this life (and some Christians have it quite well) every Christian must look at life on planet earth as preventing us from being "home."

Remnant

Though thousands of Jews returned to their Promised Land these thousands only represented a remnant of the total.

So it is with heavenly citizens; multitudes of people have been saved. But these multitudes only represent a tiny portion of the earth's population. It behooves us to view ourselves as a handful among the world's swelling masses, not so as to think of ourselves as small and helpless, but to remind ourselves of those masses whose escape from this world will be no release. How can we blithely go on toward home when so many will never meet us there?