The Remnant Again
THE REMNANT AGAIN
ROMANS 11:1-4
Has God finished with the Jews, then?
Chapter 9 stressed that God is sovereign. Chapter 10 underlined the fact that Israel had sinned. Both themes were pursued with Paul’s habitual single-mindedness. In the present chapter he gathers up various matters bypassed in the major drive of his argument. The first is the question: “Is Israel as a whole rejected?”
Paul first stresses the fact that he, who claims Christ’s salvation, he who is the author of the indictment, is himself an Israelite, and has not repudiated his nationhood. He begins with a form of Greek question which suggests a negative answer, and immediately answers it vigorously. “I say then, God has not rejected his people, has he? Do not let that thought cross your mind.”
Paul then proceeds to his characteristic Old Testament illustration. Read again the story of Elijah in 1 Kings chapters 18–19: The worship of the Phoenician sun god had flooded the land. Promoted by Jezebel with drive and persecution it seemed supreme. Jezebel was the seal of a trade alliance, and there is no doubt that Ahab’s Israel derived immense wealth from business conducted with the busy pagans on the coast. The oil and wheat of Israel, says Ezekiel, went down to Tyre. The wealth of the world flowed back. Ahab was rich. But prosperity is not always good for a nation. With Tyrian goods came Tyrian gods. With Jezebel came Baal. It is possible, therefore, that the choice on Mount Carmel involved more than theology. When the people chose Jehovah they possibly precipitated an economic depression. A break with Jezebel was a break with Tyre.
Swept to decision by Elijah, the people nevertheless chose Jehovah, and streamed home with never a thought of the man who had led them back to God. It broke Elijah. How real, he must have asked, was such a reversal of loyalty? They had rejected Baal. Were they “truly God’s”? After his months of tension, disappointed beyond endurance, and under dire threat, he fled in brokenhearted despair. It was then (1 Kings 19:18) that the idea of the remnant was born. Prophecy laid hold of it (Amos 9:8-10; Micah 2:12; 5:3; Zephaniah 3:12f.; Jeremiah 23:3). Paul saw it operating again.