Romans 11:2b-4… Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

A third proof that Paul offers as evidence that God has not abandoned Israel is through the concept of the remnant. Although this idea was later developed by the prophet Isaiah, a situation involving the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19:10, 100 years prior to Isaiah, is used by Paul to show that God does not renege on any of His promises to Israel because He always leaves a remnant, His chosen elect - those who are the foreknown recipients of His promises.

In 1 Kings 19 Elijah, fresh off of his victory over the prophets of Baal, found himself running from the wicked Jezebel because she had threatened his life. He was convinced that he was the only faithful person left in Israel since the Jews had killed all of God’s prophets and torn down the altars of the Lord (1 Kings 19:14). God’s answer to Elijah is called a “divine response” - one word in Greek used only once in the NT as a kind of oracle or revelation. And this divine response by God was that He had reserved 7,000 people in Israel, completely unknown to Elijah, who had not bowed the knee to the pagan god Baal (19:18). This meant that God had preserved a remnant of people in order to be faithful to and fulfill His purpose of salvation for Israel.

The concept of the remnant is found throughout the prophets in the OT. For instance, when Isaiah asked to be sent to the people of Israel, God warned him that most would reject his admonition to repent and that only a small holy relic of Israelites would remain, like the stump left when a tree is chopped (Isa. 6:9-13). In fact, that Isaiah passage is quoted more in the NT than any other OT passage (cf. Matt. 13:14-15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; John 12:40; Acts 28:26). Over and over it is used to reveal the truth that God has blinded the eyes of those who are willfully ignorant of the truth, who refuse to believe what God has lovingly bestowed on them.

From 605 to 539 BC Israel was exiled to Babylon because of their repeated failure to listen to their prophets who told them to repent and turn back to God. Only a small godly remnant remained faithful during those years and in the years that followed - men like Daniel, Ezekiel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Through this godly remnant of men, and later through Esther, God preserved His people and returned them to their land in Palestine. He disciplined the unbelievers, but He kept the remnant of that nation.

Of course the remnant God maintained through the exile in Babylon grew and became a great people once again in Palestine. But when the climax of God’s plan was revealed in Jesus the Messiah, the nation as a whole not only rejected Him, they crucified Him. There was, however, a godly remnant in those days - Zacharias and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, Simeon, Anna, the faithful shepherds who worshipped the Christ-child when he was born, and there were some others who trusted in him prior to his crucifixion. After Pentecost, in Acts 2, there were 3,000 believers (2:41) which later grew to 5,000 (4:4). Later, the church grew so large that the writer of Acts was unable to count them. And it all started with a remnant preserved by God.

Food for Thought

The nation of Israel today, having been preserved after the horrific events in AD 70 when their city was sacked and their temple was burned - and after the Holocaust in WWII - has returned to the land of Israel. They are still largely an unbelieving nation that rejects Jesus as the Messiah. But there continues to be a remnant among the larger nation that God Himself has preserved. It is that remnant who will continue on until God’s promises to Israel are fulfilled.

Lance Waldie