Question: Who is the “remnant” who shall be in the midst of the Gentiles “as a lion” (3 Nephi 21:12)? This is a question I’ve struggled with because on one hand, Isaiah 10, where the word first appears, seems to denote those Israelites among the Assyrians who are not destroyed (Isaiah 10:19-21) when the Lord smites them (Isaiah 10:34; 37:36). However, the Book of Mormon seems to define the “remnant” as the Lamanites (3 Nephi 21:2, 4). Is it both of these groups? Is it the Assyrians specifically (who likewise go by the pseudonym “lion”)?
Answer: As in Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree and Isaiah 19:24, there exist three natural branches of the house of Israel—the Jews, Ten Tribes, and Nephites/Lamanites. All three of their end-time embodiments are identified as the “remnant of Jacob” (Isaiah 10:20–22; 11:10–12; 37:31–32). This means that until these peoples renew their covenant relationship with Jehovah God of Israel, they belong in the Jacob/Israel category of his covenant people, some of whom form a part of end-time “Assyria.”
All three become “as a lion among the beasts of the forest” (3 Nephi 20:16; 21:12; cf. Micah 5:8) when “the power of the Lamb of God . . . descend[s] upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord” at the time God’s end-time destructions are poured out on the world (1 Nephi 14:14). While they fight the battles of the Lord in overthrowing the powers of chaos, the “saints of the church of the Lamb” assist in restoring them to God’s covenant and lands of inheritance.
