Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
November 4, 2018
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: Paul's "proof" that God has not cast away His people.
Introduction: In our last study we saw that God's "shift" in message and focus of audience does not mean that He has decided to have nothing more to do with an "Israel" that has proven to be entrenched in disbelief and an argumentative spirit. Rather, it simply means that He has a "Larger Plan" that includes more than what His earlier promises actually revealed.
That is not to say that there were not certain indicators, within the Scriptures that were given during His "focus of attention" upon Israel, that He had a larger plan in mind. Paul's presentation of the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 31:29-32:21 and the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 65:1-2 are a part of those "certain indicators". Who knew, though, that they were so significant that they were to be taken to indicate the events of the last 2,000 years?
But, having pointed out that God had actually declared that His Larger Plan included doing some remarkable things in order to salvage "Israel" from its deep bondage to the depravity of sin, Paul immediately forced a primary error into the spotlight. That error involved the false conclusion that such a major shift in message and audience signaled a permanent turn by God away from "Israel" because of that persistent depravity. That spotlight consisted of the actual question: does all of this mean that God has pushed aside all the plans that had been revealed regarding His commitments of blessing upon "Israel"?
And Paul's answer was an emphatic, "Not at all".
In our last study we saw that Paul argued, on the basis of his own identity as both the physical "seed" of Abraham and an heir of the "faith" of Abraham (Romans 4:12), that God could not possibly have "thrust away the people that He has "known" from the beginning. In a relational universe that is rooted in immutable integrity, it only takes one person to "believe" God for Him to bring what He has promised to pass. In our study this evening we are going to see that 7,000 "believed" even during the darker days of Israel's apostasy. This more than necessitated God's active pursuit of the promises made to Abraham, Moses, David, and Jeremiah/Ezekiel.
- I. Paul's Appeal to 1 Kings 19:14-18.
- A. This appeal is rooted in that view that what is "written" in the Scriptures is "settled".
- 1. Habakkuk 2:2-3 is a firm illustration of this reality.
- 2. Revelation 10:4 is a strong indicator that this reality is determinative.
- B. This appeal indicates that even when an extremely loyal "believer" gets it wrong and seeks a false result from God, His "integrity" will continue to dominate.
- 1. Elijah had just come off of the Mount Carmel event that had resulted in Elijah's slaughter of the 450 prophets of Baal with the aid of "the people" who acknowledged that "Yahweh is The God" after fire came down from heaven to consume Elijah's sacrifice.
- 2. His flight from the queen's (Jezebel) threat so exhausted him that he fell into a deep despair.
- 3. His "conversation" with God, Who questioned his presence at Horeb, consisted of a despairing declaration that "I have been very jealous of Yahweh God of Hosts", but "Israel" has so totally forsaken Yahweh that "I only am left and they seek my life to take it away" (a complaint repeated from 1 Kings 19:10).
- a. They have killed your prophets.
- b. They have reduced your altars to rubble.
- c. They are seeking to kill the "sole survivor" of "the faithful".
- d. Additionally, though not directly stated by Elijah, "what just happened at Carmel will not change them".
- C. The divine response.
- 1. Another of those "whiplash" contradictions...BUT... .
- 2. "I have 'reserved' to myself 7,000 male adults who have not bowed a knee to Baal".
- a. This is the original sound of which Isaiah 1:9 is an echo.
- b. It was this "echo" to which Paul appealed in Romans 9:29, a text that foreshadows the argument of our present text.
- II. Paul's Conclusion.
- A. The current "shift" does not negate God's commitment to accomplish His originally declared purpose regarding Israel.
- 1. It is interesting that even those who see no future for Israel in God's plans recognize that there exist extensive promises to Israel that have to be addressed.
- 2. The "way they are to be addressed" is the issue and those who reject a future for Israel all "address" them by, effectively, nullifying them through a spurious hermeneutic wherein obvious promises of eternal endurance are "spiritualized" out of existence.
- a. God's promises to David in 2 Samuel 7 include "I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more..." (verse 10) and "...thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever" (verse 16).
- b. God's promise to Jeremiah, recorded in Jeremiah 31, is that Israel and Judah will be brought to universal loyalty to Yahweh (verse 34) forever and that they will be a nation as long as there exists sun, moon, and stars (verse 36) and that only if heaven can be measured will He "cast off" Israel (verse 37).
- B. But, it must be realized that this commitment is rooted in God's "Grace", not in sustained loyalty by those known as "His people".
- 1. Not to be dismissed is this fact: "Grace" prevented idolatry; it did not "overlook" it.
- 2. Paul's perception of "Grace" never included the notion that it was simply "impotent forgiveness".