A Remnant According to God’s Election

1I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel: 3“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.” 4But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. 7What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened. 8According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.” 9David says, “Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them. 10Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Bow down their back always.”

Let us consider how differently God and people see the world. Because God is the Almighty, who can resolve every problem, he sees all things in a hopeful light; but people deal only with the problem in front of them, so their insight and judgment cannot help being narrow. The apostle Paul offered hope: though the Jews had shown a dullness that carried them far from salvation by rejecting the truth, God had not rejected them.

In his contest with the 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah, Elijah won a great victory and showed the people with their own eyes how great God is. As if to celebrate, another miracle followed: rain fell on a land that had suffered under drought. But as the old saying goes, good fortune and ill fortune follow on each other’s heels. When Ahab’s wife Jezebel heard that Elijah had put all the prophets of Baal and Asherah to death, she flew into a rage and sought to kill him, and Elijah found himself in mortal danger. When he heard this, Elijah was so afraid that he came to Beersheba, left his servant there, and went on alone a day’s journey into the wilderness, where he sat down under a juniper tree. There he prayed that God would take his life, since he was no better than his fathers. The Elijah who had stood so boldly against the false prophets was nowhere to be seen; there was only an Elijah on the run, trying to save his own life. When he had fallen asleep, worn out, an angel came to him more than once and, concerned that the journey would be too great for him, gave him a cake baked on the coals and water to drink. When Elijah ate the bread and drank the water the angel gave him, an astonishing miracle took place: all the way to Mount Horeb, forty days and forty nights, he ate nothing and yet did not grow weary. Elijah had worked miracles no human power could ever accomplish, so he was probably proud of himself. But instead of acknowledging God and his prophet and following them, the people who had seen those miracles were threatening his life, and this was more than he could bear. So when Yahweh asked him why he was there, he answered that he had been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies, because the children of Israel had forsaken the Lord’s covenant, thrown down his altars, and killed his prophets with the sword; he alone was left, and they were seeking his life, to take it away.

Elijah is telling God that he, of all people, has worked with exceptional zeal. Yet far from praising that zeal, he complains, the Israelites have forsaken the Lord’s covenant, torn down the altars, and killed the prophets. He had expected the people who saw the miracle to call on the name of God; instead they had joined with Jezebel to kill him, and he could not make sense of it. This is the very trap into which God’s people so easily fall: pride. That Elijah triumphed over 850 and brought sweet rain upon the drought was not his own power but the grace of the God who helped him. What power did Elijah have of his own to work such wonders? But because his faith was like a child’s, blind to God’s covenant, plan, and will, he saw only his own zeal, and when that zeal went unrecognized, he lost heart.

Of course, not everyone can take up a calling as boldly as Elijah did. To call down fire from heaven before King Ahab, put to death 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah, bring rain through prayer, and then, in the strength of Yahweh, outrun Ahab’s chariot: that is astonishing power. Yet Elijah could do all this only because God had a plan and was at work to save Israel. Had he acknowledged this and exalted God’s name, his faith would have grown; but because Elijah had seen the crowds cheering the miracles he performed, he did not want to accept this hard reality.

1 Kings 19:11-12

11He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.” Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake. 12After the earthquake a fire passed; but Yahweh was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a still small voice.

God showed Elijah these wonders after Elijah had said that he had worked zealously for Yahweh, but that the children of Israel had torn down the Lord’s covenant and altars and killed his prophets with the sword, that he alone was left, and that now they wanted his life as well. That Elijah went on insisting on his own zeal even after seeing God’s power tells us he had not changed his mind. Jezebel, too, sought to kill him even after witnessing the miracle he worked, so Elijah and Jezebel were acting no differently at all. God knew that Israel had forsaken his covenant, torn down his altars, and killed his prophets with the sword, yet he did not speak a word of wrath to Elijah, promising to judge them in his place. Instead, he made Elijah watch a strong wind tear the mountains and break the rocks in pieces, then an earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire. Why did God not bring judgment on them as Elijah wished, but show him only the wind, the earthquake, and the fire, in which God was not? And at the last, in a still small voice, what did he say to Elijah? As this event shows, God and Elijah saw from different vantage points, and God wanted his people to judge from a plane higher than the world’s. God would have wanted to show Elijah how he works, on a level above human feeling. In other words, he is training the mind reborn through the word to master the emotions.

For Elijah, who bore responsibility for Israel’s salvation, how he viewed God and salvation must have been crucial. God does not make his will known through signs, wonders, and miracles; he works through a still small voice, that is, through his word. A prophet who does not fully grasp that quiet word is no different from Pharaoh, who saw ten plagues and still did not understand, or from Israel, who saw miracles and still grumbled against God. If we do not labor for the salvation of humanity, we, like Elijah, may grow resentful toward a God who does not work our way. His claim that everyone else had betrayed God while he alone had stayed faithful was feeble indeed for a prophet who had called down fire and rain from heaven. Because the approval of people mattered more to him than that still small word, he lacked even the discernment to see how God was viewing what was happening. Without the wisdom to ask what the will of the God who had empowered him might be, all Elijah could do was fear and complain. He complains that God is not judging the wicked. It seems God judged that the first thing needed was to change the way Elijah thought.

To show Elijah that the miracles he had done were not his own, God showed him the strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire, in which God was not; but Elijah, who saw only what happened on the surface, did not listen for God’s still small voice. To Elijah, who said that all who had remained true were dead, that he alone was left, and that God might as well kill him, Yahweh spoke these words. In 1 Kings 19:17-18 God said that whoever escaped the sword of Hazael, whom Elijah would anoint, Jehu would kill, and whoever escaped the sword of Jehu, whom Elijah would anoint, Elisha would kill; yet God would reserve seven thousand in Israel, people like Elijah, all of whose knees had not bowed to Baal and whose mouths had not kissed him. I have wondered what was in the heart of Elijah, who carried so weighty a work, when he said that the people of faith were all dead and asked God to take his life too. He must have thought he could presume to tell almighty God that he had done enough. Had Elijah prayed that, though he was under attack from Jezebel, he could bear it if God helped him, he might have recovered his faith. Instead, he hid his weakness and claimed, in effect, that everyone else had gone but he had survived because he had worked so hard. To Elijah, looking only at himself, God said that although he thought he alone was left, God would reserve seven thousand who had not bowed to Baal but had held fast to their faith, even in a time so perilous that Jehu would kill those who escaped Hazael’s sword and Elisha those who escaped Jehu’s.

How ashamed Elijah must have been when he heard this! He had believed that he alone had risked his life to labor for God, yet God told him that seven thousand had risked their lives to fulfill their calling. Realizing that everything had been grace, Elijah came to understand that in every age God raises up people of faith so that their line is never broken. Because we cannot see so far or think so deeply, we go on fearing the world and cannot shake off our worries, even while we work by the grace of God. Once Elijah knew that people of faith always carry their generation, even in the midst of suffering, he would no longer have been able to complain.

The Jews looked at God in just the way Elijah did. Since they could not see salvation within God’s sovereign plan, the Jews, with their strong sense of being the chosen people, could not help growing proud. That anyone, Gentile or Jew, is saved by faith is wholly the grace of God; but if we grow proud as though we alone were saved, God will put us to shame.

Romans 11:1

1I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Though it may look as if Israel was cast off for its disobedience, the apostle Paul says that God never rejects his own people. He points to his own salvation to show that the Jews have not been rejected. Paul said that he was an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, born of pure Jewish stock, and that he had therefore kept the law. Because he believed that keeping the law was salvation, he had persecuted the saints. But since God had called him, a Jew, and called twelve Jewish disciples, and sent them to preach the gospel to every nation, Paul said, God had not rejected his people. As Elijah’s story shows, Israel abandoned God, yet God carried on his work of salvation through a remnant. Even in Elijah’s day, when many worshiped idols, God’s people remained; this tells us that God chooses his people and carries the gospel forward through that remnant.

Romans 11:7

7What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.

The Jews thought true faith meant keeping the law by their deeds. Because they believed this was the duty of God’s people, they were ready to die to keep the law. But God did not accept their religion, which sought to have its faith approved by the works of the law. While people were straining at the works of the law, God was teaching his word to the remnant. Those who lived for their own righteousness, with no regard for the word, were hardened. To be hardened means to become so dull that one shows no response at all to God’s word and call. The Bible calls the hearts of such people stubborn. If we do not listen for God’s still small voice, a heart that has not heard the word can only grow stubborn. Because such people show no response even when the word reaches their ears, they are not born again, as though they could neither hear nor see.

Of those who heard the gospel yet were not changed, Paul said that they lacked a heart that understands, eyes that see, and ears that hear, because Yahweh had not given them. A person who hears the truth without being changed, who does not treasure the word, has not failed to hear it; rather, like Israel, they have taken God’s will and love lightly. That was Paul’s point. When we take grace for granted, we can become proud, as Elijah did. One of the chief reasons believers stumble is that they stop giving thanks for the good things they have received, as though they had achieved them themselves, and they grow greedy. If we do not believe that God’s word is the food that keeps our souls alive, we cannot withstand Satan’s attacks, and in the end we will fall. Only when the word stands firm at the center of our lives can we turn back whenever a stubborn heart rises in us, and discern light from darkness with a good conscience.

Romans 11:9-10

9David says, “Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them. 10Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Bow down their back always.”

Psalms 69:21-24

21They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. 22Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap. 23Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent. 24Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.

Paul quotes Psalm 69, a prayer of David, to explain why the Jews left God and what curse falls on those who leave him. Psalm 69 is the prayer David poured out from a heavy heart when, hunted by King Saul, he faced terrors more than he could bear. Pursued by the king, David had come to the point where no one could help him, and he sensed that death was near. As you may have noticed when reading Psalm 69 for yourselves, it astonishingly records, in every detail, the suffering Jesus endured when he bore the cross.

Just as the Gospel tells us that they put a sponge full of vinegar on hyssop and held it to Jesus’ mouth, and that Jesus received the vinegar, David suffered so deeply that he could describe in detail the pain Jesus would endure. Perhaps David was only recording his own anguish, yet through the psalm we can now know in detail how great Jesus’ suffering was.

Psalms 69:4

4Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.

Because King Saul hated and attacked David without a cause, David had no place to rest, and with so many against him, he had to keep fleeing. In the same way Jesus, who had no sin, suffered terribly at the hands of Satan and foolish people. Since the wages of sin is death, he bore the cross to rescue those held captive by death, and by saying that he was thirsty, he caused the Scripture to be fulfilled. David’s thirst lets us glimpse how agonizing it was for Jesus on the cross, unable to drink even a mouthful of water.

Hebrews 12:2

2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

David endured every kind of humiliation without turning from God. As a result he became king of Israel, a great king who served God together with his people. For the sake of sinners Jesus did not shrink from the mockery of the wicked. His perseverance and love accomplished the salvation of sinners and caused all the Scriptures to be fulfilled. In quoting David’s prayer, the apostle Paul is showing how foolish and senseless the Jews were. This is because they had received special grace from God and cast it aside all too easily. When David asks that their table become a snare, a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution, the wish is that their choice, to forsake Christ for their fleshly concerns, their table, would become a trap and a snare of their own making, bringing destruction upon them as a curse. For God’s people, who ought to live with God’s word first, to chase after the world and leave God is itself the snare and trap of death. In truth, Paul has no need even to curse the world, since people who live according to their nature are already caught in the snare and trap of death.

We must understand that the blessings Christians receive differ from the blessings of the world. Work hard in this life and you can succeed in your field; but a believer must use that success to live a life that reveals Christ. Then their success will not become a trap or a snare. Human nature, though, once it succeeds in the world, gives God no time so that it can keep receiving the same well-laid table; it draws ever closer to the world, and so it drifts from God and becomes hardened. In the eyes of the world, Elijah was certainly someone who performed great miracles. Yet though he thought he had decided and done the work himself, God’s work was done not by Elijah but by God. That is what God wanted him to understand. Had Elijah known this, he would have given heartfelt thanks to the God who chose and called someone as weak as he was, made him know the word, and caused him to give himself to God’s service, and he would have repented of not being more faithful. He would have confessed that he, too, had been hardened, with a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, yet by God’s grace had been able to work miracles. Then, when Elijah met hard times, God would have made him receive help from the remnant who stood firm in faith, and would not have left him to bear it alone. God would also have caused him to see the dedication and faithfulness of the remnant serving God in every place, and strengthened him by it. If we cannot see our own lack, we end up praying, like Elijah, that God would take our life.

How are you living now? From what vantage point are you looking at the problems you face? Through the gospel, are you sharing the food of the spirit so that the poor and the weak may enter the Kingdom of God? The apostle Paul said that if you want to know the love of God, who does not reject his people, look at how he, once the chief of sinners, was saved. I hope that you, too, will boast that your salvation is grace, and confess that, unworthy as you are, you are one of the remnant according to God’s election. May you indeed be among the remnant God has chosen. However much you give yourselves, even to death, you can never enter the Kingdom of God apart from his grace; know this, and I pray you will remain humble. Just as God does not reject his people, he will never let go of you who call on his name. When you become a remnant in whom grace remains grace, God will bless the gospel you preach so that it reaches the ends of the earth.