THE REMNANT
THE REMNANT
ROMANS 9:25-29
Paul quotes from the Old Testament to pursue his argument.
The continuation in these verses of the previous study shows how completely the theme of Israel’s rejection, and Israel’s disobedience, dominated Paul’s mind. Interwoven with that appears the thought that it was the wideness, not the narrowness, of God’s mercy which was prominent in his mind, for was not the fulfillment of two prophecies of Hosea visible before their eyes? The despised, and too often hated, Gentiles were the recipients of God’s favor (Hosea 2:23; 1:10; 1 Peter 2:10).
He pursues the same line of thought into the prophecy of Isaiah. The prophet foresaw dire days of trouble falling upon his land, and such decimation of his people that only “a remnant” would survive to carry on the national task and the divine tradition. He touched in this statement a principle of divine action, which we have already noticed, almost a principle of history—that it is “the Few” who bring salvation (Isaiah chapters 7–8; 10:21f.).
Historically, that catastrophe and its associated triumph came to pass. Israel was ravaged. A remnant only were able to rebuild the land and rescue and preserve the national heritage. And so, Paul saw, it was happening again. A remnant only had open eyes. Only a few recognized God’s coming in Christ. Notice the subtlety of Paul’s argument, and compare it with the controversial tactics of Christ himself in his confrontation with scribes and Pharisees. Such was the reverence paid to the text of Scripture that an oracle quoted from a prophetic authority was considered sufficient answer.
In neither Christ’s case, nor Paul’s, of course, was this form of repudiation without relevance. In the prophets, notably in Isaiah, the global nature of the Messiah’s role, and the Gentile part in a world theocracy, were clearly foreseen. We have already noted the hint of a spiritual offspring for Abraham in the imagery of the stars. Note, too, the role of the New Testament in enlarging the earlier application of an Old Testament passage. In both the Hosea quotations the immediate application of the words is to the restoration of the ten tribes to their covenanted blessing. Paul sees, and extracts, a wider significance of the principle involved, the inclusion of all the rebels of humanity in the same circle of his goodness. The word is living, and in its interpretation meaning is not confined to one significance, one area of truth and challenge.