Romans 11:3-5, "God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, "LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"? But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace."
God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew … at this present time there is a remnant: Paul knows that as a whole Israel had rejected their Messiah. Yet a substantial remnant embraces the gospel of Jesus Christ, and God has often worked in Israel through a faithful remnant (as He did in the time of Elijah).
"It is just possible that Paul, likewise persecuted by his own countrymen, felt a special kinship with Elijah." (Harrison)
Lord, they have killed Your prophets: Elijah thought that God had cast off the nation and he was the only one left serving the Lord. But God showed him that there was in fact a substantial remnant - though it was only a remnant, it was actually there.
At this present time there is a remnant: We often think that God needs a lot of people to do a great work, but He often works through a small group, or through a group that starts out small. Though not many Jews in Paul's day embraced Jesus as Messiah, a remnant did and God will use that small group in a big way.
"It was not the number as much as the permanence of God's plan for Israel that mattered in the time of Elijah … He put his trust in God's grace, not in numbers" (Morris)
Dear Holy God, thank you for always preserving a remnant of your people always to represent your gospel!!!
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