Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
November 4, 2018
Humble, Texas
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1769 Translation:
2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to [the image of] Baal.
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then [is it] no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if [it be] of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded
8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
1901 ASV Translation:
2 God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. Or know ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah? how he pleadeth with God against Israel:
3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
7 What then? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened:
8 according as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day.
9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, And a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, And bow thou down their back always.
- I. Ignorance of Elijah's Conversation With God.
- A. The "large" issue: whether, or not, whom/what God "foreknows" will end up being manifestly TRUTH when all is said and done.
- 1. It is impossible to correlate the "God has rejected His people" with "foreknowledge". They cancel each other: if God has rejected His people in spite of a multitude of prophecies and promises made in words easy to understand, then the only explanation for such a thing is a flaw in God's "foreknowledge"; alternatively if God "foreknows", it is impossible to posit such a massive shift as God finally coming to the "end of His rope" and throwing in the towel (which is what "casting off His people whom He foreknew" actually means).
- 2. Though there is a difference between "foreknowledge" and "omniscience", there is an integrated reality between the two which makes any contradiction of either impossible.
- B. The "Elijah Conversation".
- 1. Fundamentally; recorded in "The Scripture".
- a. Being "written" in holy writ is a kind of "bottom line" for those inclined to believe God.
- b. Once "written", there is nothing that can "unwrite" it or keep it from happening [Note how God insists Habakkuk "write it" in Habakkuk 2:2-3 so that the reality of "what is decreed will occur" is established].
- 2. Elijah has a very serious complaint against Israel.
- a. The word for "complaint" (seriously mistranslated as "maketh intercession" because of the weight "intercession" has in terms of seeking a "good") is used only five times in the New Testament.
- 1) In Acts 25:24 the word is used by Festus to describe the attempts by the Jews to get Paul executed by Roman authority. This is pretty "heavy duty" accusation.
- 2) In both Romans 8:27 and 8:34 Paul uses this term to describe the enormous benefit to believers of having both the Holy Spirit and the Son of God "making intercession" to God for the saints. In these two texts, "accusation" is far from the concept Paul is attempting to establish.
- 3) In Hebrews 7:25 the word is again used as a significant benefit in that Jesus, the Great High Priest, "ever lives to make intercession" for those who come to God by Him.
- 4) Thus, though in three of the five uses, the idea is "great" benefit; in our current text, the idea is "a complaint against" with serious implications of disaster.
- b. The nature of the complaint: Israel has killed God's prophets, toppled His altars, and is seeking to completely eradicate God's voice by killing the only prophet left.
- 1) The context of this complaint is the aftermath of the Mount Carmel contest.
- 2) The strong implication is that Elijah didn't think that those who witnessed the contest would seriously adhere to their claim to believe that Yahweh is God. But, to be fair, it is seldom the people who have the power to do much of anything. It was the king and his "queen" who threatened Elijah's life; not the people on the mountain.
- 3) The details of the complaint.
- a) They have killed Your prophets (spokesmen).
- b) They have "digged" Your altars (the only other use of this verb in the New Testament reveals that the meaning is "they have reduced Your altars to rubble": Acts 15:16).
- c) They are trying to kill me as the sole survivor of "the faithful".
- 3. God's response: you are not alone; I have preserved 7,000 men whose preservation is characterized by the fact that they have not bowed to Baal.
- a. God's "point": even if I allow great wickedness to make an appearance of great progress, my Plan is on target and moving forward (Behold, I have told you ahead of time: Matthew 24:25).
- b. God's plans, though often in the shadow of "majority appearances", are inexorable and impossible to defeat; they are also "unsearchable" and "past finding out" (Romans 11:33).
- c. That he attributes this to "the election of grace" is highly instructive because the defining characteristic is "not bowing to Baal or kissing him" (1 Kings 19:18). Clearly Paul sees "election" with its roots in "grace" as actually causing "loyalty" to Yahweh just as he told Titus (Titus 2:11-14).